Tonight we’re talking about the power of helpless praying and what happens when we understand what God can do through our prayers.
The Secret of Your Power Is Your Weakness
What is the secret of power to you? If you’re Popeye, I guess the secret of power is a can of spinach. If you’re Superman, the secret of power is kryptonite. If you’re a Christian, the secret of your power is weakness.
The Word of God says, "In the same way [that is, by faith], the Spirit helps us in our weakness."
It is not in our supposed strength that the Spirit helps us.
It is not in our egotism.
It is not in our pride.
It is when we recognize our lack of power that we plug into His power.
When we understand how much we need Him, then that’s how much we have Him.
But God works in our weakness.
Just a casual reading of God’s Word would indicate that. God likes to hit big licks with little sticks. God likes to honor Himself with things that look weak and helpless.
The Bible tells us Moses was the meekest man who ever lived. Here was a man who was humble, who understood what the Word meant when it says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." The implication is that He’ll lift you up much higher than you could ever make yourself go. Yet Moses’ meekness was not the kind of meekness that says, "Well, I can’t do anything, so I won’t do anything. I’ll leave it to the people who can do things." His was a meekness that says, "I am not able to do the great and mighty thing that God would want me to, but He can. So I place my confidence not in myself, but in Him." The proper definition of humility is God-confidence as opposed to self-confidence.
For forty years, Moses was in the very best of positions in the worldly view. He was royalty in the mightiest of all the nations of his day. He was trained and schooled as well as anyone ever was in his day. He had all the tools.
At the age of forty, he sought to do a good thing. He was going to make his mark, and he failed miserably. In fact, he had to run for his life because of his failure. For the next forty years, he became the kind of man who could pull aside and see God burning in a bush. He became sensitive to the leading of God.
He became the kind of man that when God said, "I have for you the grandest assignment I’ll ever give anyone outside of my Son Jesus." Moses would say,
"Who am I that I should do this?" God said, "You’re someone who is going to have Me with you."
And that became enough for Moses to do the greatest thing that had ever been done in his world at that time. When Joshua succeeded Moses, God said to him in Joshua 1:6, "Be strong and courageous." In verse 7, He said, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous...for the Lord your God will with you wherever you go." Joshua is not strong and of good courage. He was weak.
Yet, God used him in a fantastic way.
When God said to Gideon, "I want you to lead and become a military messiah,"
he said, "How can I save my people? I’m a member of the least important tribe in this land. My family is the least important family in that tribe.
I am the least important person in my family."
When God has someone in that position, He has someone He can use, and Gideon was used with a little army of three hundred people to defeat and rout the well-trained, powerful opposition with thousands of soldiers.
When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse’s house, he said, "I’m going to anoint one of your boys as the next king. There’s going to be an ordination service." Well, David wasn’t even invited to the meeting. In his own family, he wasn’t seen as someone who would be a king. He was young and short.
God likes to hit big licks with little sticks.
God likes to his straight licks with crooked sticks.
God shows His power in our weakness.
And when we say, "Lord, I’m weak," then we’re strong, because in our weakness, we plug into the very strength of God.
In John 15:5 Jesus said, "Without Me, you can do nothing." When we learn that, then we become powerful people indeed. The Spirit helps us in our weakness.
The Spirit Helps You In Your Weakness
How does He helps us? He leads us to pray.
What is prayer? Isn’t prayer really admitting to God that we’re weak? Isn’t prayer really saying to God, "We recognize our weakness?"
When do you pray? Many people pray after they’ve done everything they could do.
They say, "Lord, I tried to work it out. I tried to get this. I tried to go there. It just didn’t work, and Lord, I’m coming to You now. I don’t have any place else to go."
Or we can start there and know that it is true. Prayer is simply saying to God, "I recognize my weakness. I recognize that if anything significant is to happen, it will happen, because I’ve counted on You. You made it to happen."
So the Word here says, "...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for..." The Spirit leads us to pray.
Make Prayer Your Lifestyle
Do we have to be convinced as Christians how important prayer is? Do you understand that prayer is the air upon which your soul exists, and without it, your soul will shrivel and die? Prayer is how we live as Christians. Prayer is the lifestyle of a Christian. Jesus showed us that. The Bible says, "Pray in everything. Pray all the time." You ought to have a lifestyle of praying. Whatever you’re doing, wherever your going, you need to see yourself in constant conversation with the Lord.
Jesus was that way. Before He made even one public appearance, He set aside forty days and night for praying and fasting. Then He came and presented Himself to the thing that God had given Him to do. His lifestyle was praying.
We read over and over again in the accounts of His life that He prayed all night or He arose a great while before day to pray. Before every big decision in His ministry, He prayed. Before He chose the apostles, He prayed all night. Before He went to the cross to die for you and me, the crucial battle was fought in the Garden of Gethsemane in prayer with His Father. Jesus lived in prayer.
He told the Church, "Don’t do anything until you’ve prayed it through and I’ve come upon you with My Spirit."
In the book of Matthew, He had given that Great Commission: "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
Here, they had their marching orders and had seen the risen Christ. I’m sure they were fired up, and they probably said, "Let’s get together. Let’s organize and make a committee. Let’s pool our resources and see what we can do. Let’s plot our strategy."
But no! Jesus said, "Don’t do anything until you have prayed and My Spirit has totally inundated you." When that happened, the power came, and in their weakness, they changed the world and changed it right side up.
You know, I’m convinced that we sin as Christians if we seek to do anything for God without bathing it in prayer. I’m convinced that a committee makes a great and grave error if they just simply come together and express their own opinions without seeking the will and way of God. I’m convinced that our opinions can be a sin if we don’t bathe those things in prayer. God is saying, "You are weak, and you need Me." This is our lifestyle and the way we are to live. One day, we’ll learn what a powerful thing prayer is. We will learn how much history has been changed by praying people.
D. L. Moody was an uneducated and unordained leader from the bad side of Chicago. He made such an impression on his city and then across his nation that the word went out across the world what God was doing through D. L. Moody, a former shoe salesman. There was a time when he went to England and was a catalyst in bringing revival to the British Isles as well as to America.
But on his first trip to England, a man just made a casual invitation to Moody to "come and take the pulpit." That’s the English way of saying, "Come and preach in our church."
So he preached on a Sunday morning, and it was a cold, dull, and frigid service. There was no evidence of the Spirit of God. But that night when he came back, things were exciting. You could feel the presence of almighty God there. When he gave the invitation, he gave it by having people stand to accept Christ, and almost the entire congregation stood. He said, "You don’t understand. Let’s meet in the inquiry room. Please understand, don’t anyone come unless you plan to commit your life and soul into the hands of Jesus Christ."
The inquiry room was packed out. People were standing outside and couldn’t get in. He stayed for ten nights, and night after night, this same thing happened.
The church about four hundred adults come to know Christ as Lord and Savior and become church members of that church.
D. L. Moody, who always said, "Every great movement of God begins with someone on their knees," said, "Prayer is happening here." They began to investigate, and they found there were two elderly sisters in that church. One of them was bedridden. These two sisters decided they would pray for revival in their church, and they had heard of Mr. Moody in America. They prayed that God would send him to their little church in England. This was a bold prayer, and God answered those prayers. When the sister who could go to church came home that Sunday morning, the bedridden sister said, "Who was the preacher this morning?"
She answered, "Mr. Moody of America. God has answered our prayers." And that revival came because those ladies believed they were helpless other than just to say, "Lord, we can count on You. We can pray in our helplessness." Out of that came great revival.
In D. L. Moody’s son’s biography about him, he says this was the revival that prompted Moody to get Ira Sankey and come back to lead the revivals that literally had lasting impact on England, Ireland, and Scotland for many, many years. This is the power of prayer.
One of the most unusual things in the history of World War II was Adolph Hitler signing the Munich Pact on September 30, 1938. Here was a man who was geared up for war and evidently aiming his guns toward England. England was weak and unable to defend herself at that time, and Hitler was ready to go. Yet, when they had the pact in Munich which would avert war for several months anyway, Hitler signed that pact. It was against everything he was doing. It was against everything he was advised to do.
Hitler always talked about the voice inside of him. He said, "The voice inside me told me this was the time to attack England when they were weak and helpless.
But something else overcame me, and I signed that pact." And he was restless and angry with himself for the rest of his life, because he had signed the Munich Pact.
But over in South Wales, hundreds of people were gathered from 7:00 until midnight to pray for peace. They were praying the war would be averted. Even the night before the Munich meeting took place, they thanked God that it was going to happen. And Adolph Hitler said, "That’s the first time I did not listen to my voice." Many people believed that voice was the voice of Satan himself. That war was changed drastically by that decision.
There’s no telling what has happened because of prayer. And when the Holy Spirit leads us to see how weak we are and we come to God in prayer, then we’re plugging into the greatest power we could possibly have in our lives.
Now the Word says the Holy Spirit prays for us. He helps us by praying for us: "....but the Spirit himself intercedes for us...."
Jesus Christ And The Holy Spirit Pray For You
Do you know how much you’re prayed for? I hope this excites you. We know that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father in heaven, praying for us. Jesus is in heaven, praying for you right now. Then the Word says here that the Holy Spirit is in us, praying for us here. Christ is in heaven praying for us.
The Holy Spirit is in our hearts praying for us. You’re being prayed for.
Have you ever noticed the difference in the prayers of Christ for us in heaven and the Holy Spirit here on earth?
We find Christ praying for us like He does in John 17. He prays that we will be with Him in heaven where He is. He prays that we will be one and have great fellowship together. We find Him praying for our salvation and always affirming the fact that salvation in three tenses is already ours ... we have been saved, we are being saved, we will be saved. That’s God’s promise to us, and this is the thing Christ is praying for all the time.
But the Holy Spirit’s prayers seem to pray for our daily needs and direction. I don’t want this to turn into some kind of sexist discussion, but it’s like the difference between the prayers of a father and a mother. The Holy Spirit prays like a wonderful Christian mother would pray, looking into the heart of a dearly beloved child and praying, "God help her because she was hurt today by this boy who wouldn’t return her love" or "Lord, help him, because he was crushed today by not making the team." The Holy Spirit seems to pray those kinds of prayers for His people.
Jesus is praying like a father prays. He’s thinking about supporting His family, taking care of His family. And it says in Romans that the Spirit intercedes for us like when a child is sick and can’t pray or doesn’t think about praying, but the mother prays. In verse 26, it says the Holy Spirit prays with groans. That simply means with intensity. These are serious prayers on your behalf. The Holy Spirit is not casual in loving you and in working in you. He’s wanting the very, very best for you.
The Holy Spirit Prays Through You
Then the Holy Spirit not only prays for us but teaches us to pray. He helps us when we pray. He not only prays for us but through us. In verse 27, it says, "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." This is a wonderful thing. It’s saying here that you can’t pray badly. The Spirit knows us so well, and the Spirit translates our prayers into prayers that God likes.
When we can’t pray like we ought to pray, the Spirit makes those prayers what they ought to be. You can’t pray badly. You can’t make a mistake in prayer.
I read that someone said one time, "I have a friend who is very, very sick.
I’m afraid to pray for his healing, because I’m afraid he may stay sick and suffer for a long time if I make a mistake in praying for his healing." Look, you can’t make a mistake in prayer. God doesn’t say, "Oops!" He’s not going to make that mistake.
These prayers of yours are going to be right before Him. The Holy Spirit is going to make sure they are right. Even when they may not be what you prayed, they’ll be what you should have prayed. He reads your heart. He knows your heart. He knows how to translate our prayers into what we would really want if we knew His will.
In Mark 2, Jesus had just started doing some miracles and the word had gotten out. Now He was coming back to Capernaum to the house where they had stayed when there. The people were flocking around to hear Him. They were bringing people to be healed. Four friends had a friend who was paralyzed. They must have loved him very much, for they picked him up on that cot and brought him.
They couldn’t get into the house, because people were crowded there. They climbed up on the roof and tore a hole in it. Then they let the friend down in front of Jesus.
Jesus was delighted. I’m not sure how the homeowner felt. He was probably out in the kitchen on the phone finding out if a "piece of the rock" would cover a hole in the roof. But Jesus was thrilled by this kind of spirit and faith. So what was their prayer? Evidently, their prayer was: "Lord, heal our friend. Make him well." What did Jesus say to him? He looked at him. He admired his faith. Then He said, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
In 2 Corinthians 12, the apostle admitted that he had a problem with conceit. He said, "I get proud of how much spirituality I have. When God reveals things to me, I’m prone to be proud of that. So God sent me this thorn in the flesh,
and I prayed about that thorn. I asked Him to remove that thorn."
Galatians 4:12 ff indicates that probably that was an eye disease. He quite likely had some disease that affected his eyes and even made them look badly.
They were probably infected, swollen and red. The indication of that is he said, "You felt sorry for me that you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me if you could." So maybe that was his thorn in the flesh. He signed one letter by saying, "Look how big my hand is in writing, because I can’t see to write small."
And I’m sure Paul was praying, "Lord, if You’ll take this thorn away from me, I can be more effective. I won’t offend people when I stand before them, and I’ll be able to read and get around better. If You’ll heal me like this, I’ll be more powerful."
Mr. Augustine, who became one of the great theologians and greatest preaching leaders of his day, was a very wild young man. He had a mother who prayed deeply for him all the time. One day, Augustine announced that he was moving to Rome. His mother was devastated. She prayed, "Oh, God, don’t let him move to Rome. That’s a wicked city. He’ll never be able to handle those temptations, and he’ll be destroyed in Rome. God, don’t let my boy move to Rome." Augustine moved to Rome, heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and was saved. What happened with those prayers?
Jesus knew that those men loved their friend and wanted the best of everything for him. And even though they didn’t know it, they were praying for his salvation by loving him so much and wanting the best for him. The Holy Spirit translated that. And by the way, He did heal him just to say to us, folks, the big thing is to win people to Christ. "That’s what the Church and My people are about."
And the thorn in the flesh, the apostle prayed, "Lord, I can be more effective if You’ll take this thing away from me." But he said, "Later, I learned that I am more effective, because I have it. It reminds me how weak I am and have to depend on the power of God. The power of God works in me because of this and not against me."
Augustine’s mother was praying for her son not to go to Rome.
She wanted him to be saved. But God arranged for him to be in Rome, and He answered her prayers, for her son was saved and became one of the greatest leaders of the Christian movement in all of history.
God knows how to make our prayers right. The Holy Spirit works within us to make our praying right.
Conclusion? Pray! Pray! Pray!
So what is the conclusion to these verses? Pray. In our prayers, we admit our helplessness. In our helplessness is our power. So pray, pray, pray.
Know that you’re being prayed for. Jesus Christ is in heaven praying for you right now. The Holy Spirit is in your heart praying for you right now.
And don’t worry about praying the wrong thing. Learn all you can about prayer.
Pray all you can. But don’t worry. God’s Spirit is going to take what you pray and make it sound good to Him.
I heard about a little girl. One night her mother said, "Did you say your prayers?" She said, "Yes, I did, but I didn’t say those same old things to God we always say every night. I told Him the story of the three bears. I thought He’d want to hear something different tonight."
Well, listen, the Holy Spirit hears what comes from our hearts. He hears what our lives and hearts are praying, and He makes them right, good, and acceptable to God.
And understand one final thought: You cannot know that God answers helpless prayers until you are in a helpless and hopeless situation. Only then will you come to know God as the God who answers helpless prayers.
