Unlocked
Pt. 2 - A Prayer Partner
I. Introduction
If you have ever been in a blazing hot parking lot with an undone clothes hanger clutched in your hands as you try to pull up the lock on a car door that is locked with your keys laying on the seat of the car, then you will whole heartedly agree with declaration that I am about to make! One of, if not the greatest inventions in the history of mankind is the car door that will not lock when the keys are still in the car! The keys can be under the seat. The keys can be in your purse. The keys can be lost in the chasm, black hole gap between the seat and the console and still try with all of your might and you can't get the doors to lock. Those of you who have this feature must not take it for granted! You are living in paradise. This must be the Garden of Eden. And yet, how many of us take the unlocked doors provided by the gift of the Holy Spirit for granted? Jesus was the key. He swung the door open wide to the power of the Holy Spirit. He made it so that we have constant and complete access and yet so many of us stand outside peering in as if we have no right or need to enter. We keep trying to obtain entrance that has already been obtained. Remember an unlocked door is just as strong and restrictive as a locked door if you don’t know that the door is unlocked.
So, last week I told you we have been given power. Power for what?
I believe that Jesus, by giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us the power to pray!
He literally gave us the premier prayer partner.
The problem is that if I stopped just a moment and asked a simple question, I would guess that probably 99.9% of the people in the room would refuse to raise their hand. Let's see.
How many of you here today would say, "I am one hundred percent completely satisfied with my prayer life? It's everything that I want it to be."
As I figured. Most of us feel weak when it comes top praying! We know prayer is important. The disciples certainly knew this was a key lesson to learn. They never asked Jesus to teach them to preach but they did think it was necessary to have Him teach them how to pray. So, we know we need to pray but we feel week and inadequate. That is why it is essential to know that the door is unlocked.
I want us to fix this today. Let's talk about how the Holy Spirit empowers us to pray!
Text: Romans 8:26-27, 1 Corinthians 14:2 (NLT)
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 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.
For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious.
We are weak in our prayers when we pray without a prayer partner!
Notice that Paul says that the Holy Spirit literally helps us in our weakness. We don't know what to pray. Anyone ever wondered what you should pray? Don't know the words. Don't know what to ask. Not sure if is your will or God's will? Paul declares that the Holy Spirit, as our prayer partner, helps us overcome this weakness by praying for us.
Our prayer partner prays for us.
One of the lies the enemy tells us is that no one cares. We hear about people praying for other people and we are like I wished someone would pray for me like that. Listen you are being prayed for constantly. The Spirit prays for us! Think about that. The Holy Spirit is constantly saying your name to God. He is constantly bringing your need up to God. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
Another great comfort I find in this is that this means I don’t have to pray alone! He is helping me pray. He is agreeing with me. I am agreeing with Him. Everywhere I go I have a prayer meeting going on when I pray.
So why are you praying alone? Too many of us are working so hard at something that we aren't intended to do alone. Invite the Holy Spirit to pray for you!
Our prayer partner prays through us.
When we pray in the tongues or even through groanings, given by the Holy Spirit, we are literally praying in a language that cannot be understood by men or devils. Paul states, "you will be talking only to God." Think about that . . . the Holy Spirit unlocks the ability to pray so that only God can decipher and understand. Why settle for prayers that can picked off? Why settle for prayers that can be interrupted, intercepted or that are ineffective. The power to communicate directly to God has been unlocked for us. We have a direct pipeline to God. We have the red phone to get help.
Windtalkers - In WW2 Navajo soldiers help US forces defeat the Japanese intelligence. After their messages had been intercepted and the code broken leading to setbacks the Navajo soldiers begin using their native, unwritten language to communicate and the Japanese could not break the code. That is how the Holy Spirit works through us! When you pray in the Spirit you will be talking only to God in mysteries that only He can understand. You defeat the enemy because he cannot understand you. He can't intercept the message!
Our prayer partner prays perfect.
The Holy Spirit is an incredible prayer partner because He prays the will of God. I wished I could say I always pray the will of God, but the truth is my own desires, emotions and preferences get in the way sometimes. I pray wrong. I pray selfish. I pray biased. However, our prayer partner, the Holy Spirit, prays God's will. He goes beyond my will. He pushes past my desires. My wants. My preferred outcome and my assumptions. This is a powerful concept because if The Holy Spirit is asking for God's will, then it means the prayer will always be answered because He is asking for what God already wants and wills to do! He not only pleads God's cause with us, but he pleads our cause with God. "The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Some of us struggle in prayer because we keep trying to get our will to be done. The Holy Spirit prays "Father, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!" How do you think Stephen was able to pray for the people who were stoning him to death? His prayer partner jumps in and prays perfectly even in the face of pain and death.
I miss it when I pray. The Holy Spirit is batting a 1000. He prays perfectly every time!
