Praying With Power Series

Praying with Power

“The Role of the Holy Spirit in Prayer”

Part 3 of Rules of Prayer

Romans 8:26-27

One night a wife found her husband standing over their infant’s crib. As she watched him looking down at their very first baby, she saw on his face a mixture of emotions: …disbelief, doubt, delight, amazement, enchantment, skepticism.

Touched by this unusual display and the deep emotions it aroused, with eyes glistening she slipped her arm around her husband. "A penny for your thoughts," she said.

"It’s amazing!" he replied. "I just can’t see how anybody can make a crib like that for only $46.50."

Here lay one of the greatest miracles in God’s creation… and all this father saw was a crib. He didn’t see what lay within.

But he wasn’t unique. Many times people look upon God’s handiwork and only see the outside manifestations… never the miracle that lays within. It works that way with many things, whether it be the miracle of the birth of a new baby or the miracle of the birth of a new Christian. There are many who see only the outside framework and miss the miracle that lays within. God’s Holy Spirit takes us residence in our lives when we are born again. But we often are unaware of how the Holy Spirit practically works in our lives.

“26 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. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” NIV

“26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.” NLT

I We don’t know How to Pray?

1. He didn’t mean we have learned memorized prayers

2. He didn’t mean we don’t have the Lord’s Prayer to guide us

3. He didn’t mean we don’t have the Psalms as examples of Prayer

4. All those are good, but they aren’t enough

5. Prayer is communion with the creator of the universe. What can we say to him?

6. We can know a lot of biblical principles of prayer, but which to use when and how, and for who, and when, we are at a loss.

7. Like Moses we often just prayer what worked the last time, but it may not work this time.

8. Jesus didn’t always use the same method to heal or deliver people, why? How did he know?

The Holy Spirit.

We can’t depend on past experiences in prayer, biblical knowledge in prayer alone, what we have been taught about prayer, what we have read about prayer. So praying with power will require something we don’t humanly have. The Holy Spirit.

II The Holy Spirit is the Key to Prayer

A. When do we need prayer the most? In our distress . V26 He helps us. He helps us pray.

B. He helps us know what to pray for.

Divine healing - or -Home going? I have looked at the advanced age of some and figured they were going home to be with the Lord, but God healed. I had an elderly man with a stroke nearly buried in my mind on the way to the hospital in my first church. God changed my praying in the car, and he had no lasting affects of the stroke and lived 10 or 15 more years.

Divorce recovered or Move on-

Break up of bad relationship or salvation of bad person-

I once prayed for the breakup of a relationship, because the man wasn’t a christian and was bad for my friend. Instead God saved him, and they married and stayed together until he passed away. So what did I know?

That God would spare them jail time, or teach them through it.

That God would free Christian from jail, or give strength to give their life (Acts 12)

Cindy Jacobs p24 Possessing the Gates of the Enemy

C. He helps us to know how to pray.

Pray in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer Eph 6:

-Praise

-Request -Petition -supplication

-Command

-Binding and Loosing

-Thanksgiving

-Worship

-Intercession

-Prayer of Agreement

-Prayer of Repentance

-Prayer of confession

-Do we ask God to heal or command the illness go away. Jesus rebuked the fever

-Do we ask God to bind the demon or do we do it for him in his name.