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“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Sprint because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”

In Ephesians 6: 18 we read “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and request. With this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints”.

Today I would like to reflect on prayer,  what it is and why it is possibly the most  important part of our Christian walk. I would also like to  unpack a little, what Paul might mean when he encourages us ‘to pray in the Spirit’.

Recently we started a course for mums and dads looking at the Five Love Languages for Children. On one of these occasions when we needed to show a video. We were all set to go only to find that the video would not work. Everyone had a go at trying to discover the cause of the problem but to no avail and we had to ditch the idea of using the video for that session. When my son, Julian looked into the problem he discovered that although there was a sound and vision cord going into video machine and into the TV, there was no cord to power the video and hence it would not play. The bottom line is that the video was effectively unplugged and so was useless.

Guess what, technology is useless without electrical power!

Well, what does this have to do with prayer?

The definition of prayer that sits best with me, is that prayer is being in dialogue with God.

Put differently, if you are not communicating with God then you haven’t got a prayer.

·        Prayer is being in conversation with God. 

Thinking this through, we notice that conversations of any sort imply a relationship, and so arguably, prayer is being in relationship with God.

So here we find another definition of Prayer.

·        Prayer is being in relationship with God.

If this is so then prayer will have a dynamic quality, a fluidity and flexibility  and mean that it  is ever changing just as relationships change and grow and it will have  differing emphases according to our life circumstances and where we find ourselves at any given point in time, in our relationship with God.

However, there is an even deeper understanding of prayer that Paul offers us in Romans 8 :26-27 which links in with my story of the electricity and the video player and that is that :

·        Prayer is being plugged into God, being  connected to God.

This is prayer at its most profound level.

According to this definition, true Prayer happens when the ‘electricity ‘of the Holy Spirit flows into us and through us and powers us up for life, for mission and for ministry.

We read in Romans 8:9

“if the Spirit of God lives in you, you are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit. ”

 So when we pray in the Spirit we allow the Holy Spirit to infuse our lives in such a way that we are in  communication with God, we establish a relationship with God and we are empowered and motivated by God.

Seen this way then, prayer becomes a pivotal component to our Christian walk.

Prayer is , as Corrie ten Boom once put it, the steering wheel rather than the spare tyre of our lives.

In Colossians 4: 2-6 Paul says  “Devote yourselves to prayer”.

We all know that there are different kinds of prayer, but thinking about it one soon realises that all prayer is an acknowledgement of the relationship we have with God and of the of the deep and profound way in which God is involved in our lives.

·        So all prayer is acknowledgement.

Scripture teaches us that there are different types of prayer.

In Ephesians 6 we read

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”

The 5 main types are always at our fingertips so to speak , if we use the popular analogy of the hand.

Just as each finger on your hand is different so there are different kinds of prayer. These can be divided into the following 5 categories of

Confession; Thanksgiving; Intercession; Praise; Listening and waiting.

Yet all types of prayer have one thing in common. All prayer is acknowledgement of God and the relationship we enjoy with God.

·        Prayers of Confession acknowledge who we are in relation to God.

·         Prayers of Thanksgiving acknowledge God at work in our lives.

·         Prayers of Intercession acknowledge God’s interest in all our lives

·         Prayers of praise acknowledge who God is

·        the prayer of listening and waiting on God acknowledges that God has something to say to us, will guide us and will respond to our efforts at communicating with him.  I think of the thumb on which the effectiveness of the hand depends is like the prayer of listening to and waiting on God. It is to my way of thinking, the most important prayer and yet it is the one that speaking for myself, is used least often.

If we were to extend the analogy of the hand a little we might ask ourselves what the palm might represent in terms of prayer.

Here I believe is the nub of the matter which Paul raises in Romans 8 for just as the palm holds the whole hand together, so the Holy Spirit holds our prayers together.

 “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

We do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit himself intercedes for us…” Romans 8:26.

The palm is like

the Holy Spirit praying within us,

Ushering us into the presence of God,

bringing us into dialogue with God using a language far more profound than the words you and I use to communicate with each other; transforming us into the image of God and connecting us or aligning us with the will of God

Now here’s a thought worth savouring and pondering:  if prayer plugs us into God and into the power of God, then how much more are we empowered for mission and ministry if we pray in groups.

Jesus acknowledges this when he declares:

 “Where two or three are gathered, there I am in the midst of them”.

Matthew 18:20.

I would like to show you another clip from Bruce Almighty.

I believe that we can learn much about prayer from this movie.

Show the clip.

·        The clip began with Bruce surrendering himself to God and submitting himself to the will and authority of God. This is the attitude we must adopt whenever we come to God in prayer.

Jesus displays this attitude in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prays; “Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will by yours be done.”

·        However, we see that God does not expect us to leave our brains behind when we do this.  God says to Bruce,

“you cannot surrender yourself to me in the middle of a public highway.”

We are expected to think about what we are doing.

·        When Bruce says to God: ‘what do you want from me?’

God replies, I want you to pray to me. Put simply God is saying I want you to talk to me. and by this is meant that God wants us to pray so that we can be in a meaningful relationship  with him.

Prayer is an ongoing, lifelong relational conversation or dialogue with God and hence the Bible encourages us ‘to pray without ceasing’ Ephesians 6: 18.

Prayer needs to be integrated into every part of our lives, our eating, sleeping, working, playing and all our relating too.

·        God encourages Bruce to pray for what he really, really wants not what he thinks he should want. God desires an authentic and meaningful relationship with us.

In Matthew 6: 7-8 Jesus says  “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him”

Thus we should start from what is important or urgent or pressing on our lives when we turn to God in intercessory prayer.

 In Bruce’s case it was his girlfriend Grace.  

·        God says to him do you want her? Bruce surprises us by saying No. Here we see the work of the Spirit transforming our prayers and making them more Christ like. Thus Bruce declares a higher order of want or desire, he declares that he wants Grace his girlfriend to find someone to love her as he should have loved her. A prayer which sacrifices self interest. This brings him onto the same page as God is on.

Romans 8 says: ”The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”

I would like to conclude with a Sunday Live Song which speaks of the miracle of prayer in the Spirit which

·        Brings us into the Marvellous presence of God

·        Establishes a Father child relationship with each of us

·        Transforms us into new life in Christ

·        And fills us with a joy that wells up within us no matter what circumstances life throws our way.