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The What and How of Prayer
January 27, 2008
* *
*Jude 1, 20, 21, 24-25*
/Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.
Amen./
The focus last week and this week is on the phrase in Jude, verse 20, "Praying in the Holy Spirit."
Last week we answered the why question: Why pray in the Holy Spirit?
We got the answer from verses 20 – 21.
Let’s look at them now: /But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life./
"Keep yourselves in the love of God." "Praying in the Holy Spirit, keeps you in the love of God."
Last week we called prayer a "means of grace."
Why?
Because keeping ourselves in the love of God is not something we can do on our own for God is the decisive keeper of our souls.
He is the means of grace.
God is the means of grace by which we persevere in our faith so we do not perish.
We saw that in verses 1 and 24. of Jude.
Verse 1: /"To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ."/
We are kept by someone else, not by ourselves.
We are kept for and by Jesus.
Jesus is /Him who is able to keep you from stumbling (verse 24)"/  /the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord."(verse
25)/ So God the Father is our ultimate keeper through Jesus Christ.
Prayer is a crucial way of keeping ourselves in the love of God.
How then do we keep ourselves, if God is the keeper?
Answer: we ask God to keep us.
That is, we pray.
We are dependent keepers.
And we show our dependence mainly by praying for him to be our decisive keeper.
We saw an example this kind of praying in Luke 21:36.
Jesus says, /"But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."/ Do you want to be kept from the destructive effects of the last days?
Yes?
Well, Jesus says, /"Pray that you may be able . . to stand.
/
And we pray like Jesus: O Father, don't let my faith fail; keep me.
Prayer is the means of grace that God uses to keep us secure and persevering.
Now today the question is not, Why? But, What?
And How? /What/ is "praying in the Holy Spirit"?
And, /How/ do we pray in the Spirit?
The best brief statement I have found of /what/ it means to pray in the Holy Spirit goes like this: "pray that the Holy Spirit is the /moving/ and /guiding/ power."
The key words are "moving" and "guiding."
In other words, when you pray in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is "moving" you to pray.
He is the one who motivates and enables and energizes your prayer.
And when you pray in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is "guiding" how you pray and what you pray for.
We pray by his power and according to his direction.
Let's see where this interpretation of praying in the Holy Spirit comes from in the Bible.
The first thing to notice is the very close parallel passage in Ephesians 6:18, where Paul says, /"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit."/
/All/ prayer should be /"in the Spirit."/
Praying in the Holy Spirit is not one form among several.
It is the way all prayer is to be offered.
The second thing to see is the parallel in Romans 8:26 where Paul says, /"The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."/
Here it is plain that one thing the Holy Spirit does for us is help our weakness when we need to pray but can't the way we should.
So it is natural to take /"praying in the Holy Spirit"/ to mean praying with the help of the Holy Spirit – with the strength and enablement of the Spirit to make up for our weakness.
A third parallel would be Romans 8:15-16 where Paul says, /"You have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba!
Father!' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God."/
The point here is that the Spirit of God helps us have assurance that we are children of God by causing us to cry out from the heart (to pray!), "Abba, Father."
The Spirit moves our prayers.
He motivates, enables and energizes our prayers.
That's a key part of what "praying in the Holy Spirit" means.
Our prayers are not only "moved" by the Spirit, but also "guided" by the Spirit.
This is no surprise, because if the Holy Spirit is prompting and enabling and energizing our prayers, it would natural to think that he does so in a way that accords with his nature and his Word.
We would not want to say, The Spirit moves our prayers, but they are not according to God's will.
If the Spirit is moving us to pray, then he would move us according to his will and according to God’s Word.
Power!
Guidance!
James 4:3 says, "/When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."/
That would not be praying "in the Holy Spirit."
That would be praying "in the flesh" or in your own sinful nature.
So now the question is the practical one: /How/ do we pray in the Holy Spirit?
First, it is God telling me to pray!
And yet telling me that it is a work of the Holy Spirit when I do it.
It is just like other things in the Christian life.
Scripture often tells us to do things by the Spirit.
As Galatians 5:16 says, "/Walk by the Spirit."/
and Romans 8:13 tells us, /"Put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit."/
and 1 Corinthians 12:3 tells us we can only , /"Say Jesus is Lord by the Spirit."
/Philippians 3:3 implores us to, /"Worship by the Spirit."/
In all these things we are supposed to do something.
But we are to do them in a way that it is the Spirit who is doing them through us.
Walk, put to death, say Jesus is Lord, worship, pray!
Do it by the Spirit!
This is the way human life is, since God is sovereign and we are responsible.
We act.
We are responsible to act.
But God is the decisive precipitator of that action.
Our action is dependent.
So when we are told to "walk" (Galatians 5:16), or fight sin (Romans 8:16), or confess the Lordship of Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:3), or worship (Philippians 3:3), or pray (Jude 1:20), we are told to do it "in the Holy Spirit."
/You/ do it so that it is the Holy Spirit who is doing it in you and through you.
So /how/ do I pray so that it is really the Holy Spirit prompting and guiding the prayer?
I think there are two basic answers.
The first is by faith.
We pray "in the Holy Spirit" when we take our stand on the cross of Christ (which purchased all divine help) and trust God for his help by the Spirit.
In other words, when you admit that without the help of the Spirit you cannot pray as you ought, and then you consciously depend on the Spirit to help you pray, then you are praying "in the Holy Spirit."
That’s faith, /trusting/ God to give you the Holy Spirit to help you pray.
Philippians 3:3 says, /"We worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh."
/Here, worshipping "in the Spirit of God" is explained by "putting no confidence in the flesh."
We put confidence in the Spirit, that is, in God's blood-bought mercy to help us worship as we ought by his Spirit.
So I take it that the way to "pray in the Holy Spirit" is the same as the way to worship, by putting our confidence "in the Spirit of God." Look away from your own resources.
Trust in the mercy of God to help you pray by his Spirit.
That is what we should do this year in all our praying.
Trust God for the help we need to pray.
When we are too weak or too confused or too depressed or too angry or too dull to pray, at that moment do not assume that you can't pray.
Instead, consciously look away from yourself to Christ and to the mercy of God in Christ, and trust him to help you – even if it is only to produce groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26).
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