Believer’s New Prayer Helper
His Identity and Indispensability
His Intensity
NCBC, 5/23/04, Romans 8:26-27
Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray--to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight--all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ’concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.
Robert E. Lee.
When we pray, remember:
1. The love of God that wants the best for us.
2. The wisdom of God that knows what is best for us.
3. The power of God that can accomplish it.
William Barclay, Prodigals and Those Who Love.
His Identity and Indispensability
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered [Rom. 8:26].
It is the fervent prayer of saints, God’s word and the Holy Spirit that delivers and saves a man.
As the you and I face the certain trials of this life we has the greatest resource imaginable: prayer.
Do you see this as the great resource it truly is?
We are given the right to approach God whenever needed, and to ask God for the strength to walk through and to conquer the suffering. That is what prayer is all about.
Significant things can be said about prayer.
Believers do not know what we should pray for as we should. You see Paul includes himself in this, which is to say no believer knows how to pray because we do not know the perfect will of God for us. By our very nature we are weak, lacking the power...
• for prolonged concentration.
• to avoid distractions.
• to stop all wandering thoughts.
• to prevent emotional changes.
• to govern varying affections.
• to know what lies in the future, even one hour from now.
• to know what is really best for us and our growth in any given situation.
The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities as we pray. Christian you are expected to pray. This passage assumes that we are praying.
The Spirit is not going to force us to pray. It is our responsibility to pray: to take the time to get alone and pray. When we do this the Spirit begins to act both upon and for us.
Are you praying in the manner you should?
The Spirit “helpeth our infirmities.” Whatever our particular weakness is, it is that weakness which HE helps.
HE helps us control concentration, distractions, wandering thoughts, emotional changes, and affections. How? As we struggle to pray by controlling our flesh and its weakness, the Holy Spirit takes our mind and emotions and...
• quiets and silences them in the things of the world.
• stirs and excites them in the things of God.
• draws and pulls them.
• directs and guides them.
HE leads us to pray as we should, controlling and subjecting the flesh and concentrating upon the prayer.
The Holy Spirit makes “intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Sometimes the struggles and sufferings of life become so heavy we just cannot bear them. At other times, matters of such importance grip our hearts to such an extent that words are impossible. Emotions become too much for words. We become lost in the presence of God. Every genuine believer knows what it is to be speechless before God and left groaning in the Spirit. Every believer has experienced...
God’s unspeakable gift.
“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).
joy unspeakable.
“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).
words which are unspeakable.
“How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:4).
The Holy Spirit takes these great moments of prayer and helps us in our “groanings” before the Lord. We are not able to utter words; therefore, the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. alaletos, al-al’-ay-tos; from Greek (as a negative particle) a derivative of Greek (laleo); unspeakable :- unutterable, which cannot be uttered.
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephes. 6:18).
Remember our great need is to come before God—and to come often—in intense prayer.
“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually” (1 Chron. 16:11).
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
Feel free to go to God in prayer not knowing actually what to pray for.
Just go to Him and say, "Father." If you don’t know what to ask for, it is at times like this the Spirit "helpeth our infirmities." Praise be to God…
His Intensity
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God [Rom. 8:27].
Does God care about what we really need?
Absolutely…
God searches the heart of us all. There is no exception. He knows exactly what is within our hearts. He can read and understand what our groanings and needs are. Not a need will be missed. Remember the difficulty we have between “needs and wants”.
“And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever” (1 Chron. 28:9).
“Shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21).
“I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).
God and the Holy Spirit are part of the great Three-in-one. The Holy Spirit prays for us according to the will of God; therefore, God knows exactly what the Spirit is requesting for us. There is perfect agreement between the Holy Spirit and God the Father when we submit our wills willingly to HIM.
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (John 16:13).
God will answer our prayer and meet our need. He will deliver and save us, causing the very best thing to happen.
“Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (John 15:16).
“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father” (John 16:23-24).
“At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God” (John 16:26-27).
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Let’s approach God this week and from this point forward in an attitude of submission and say, "Lord, I don’t know what to ask for. I don’t know what to say. But I’m coming to YOU as YOUR child. And I want YOUR good and perfect will done in my life."
Then the Sprit of God then will make intercession for us according to the will of God.
“Oh how wonderful, oh how marvelous is my Savior’s love for me”.
Are you tapping into the identity, indispensability, and intensity that you have in prayer through your association with Jesus Christ?
Of course to tap into this blessing you have to be in right standing with God and you have to be one with God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do you have things today that are keeping you from effective and fervent prayer?
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and become one with God?
If the Spirit is moving you to reconciliation in one of these areas, I ask that you please come forward and get right with God today?
Oh what a blessing we who are the Children of God enjoy. Let us remain steadfast in prayer on behalf of the people who are still separated from God, that they too might come to know what is that “good and perfect” will of God, and received the free gift of Salvation and eternal life in the presence of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.
If you have any prayer needs or concerns we ask you to let us know, we would love to pray for you and your needs.
Bruce Landry
Pastor, NCBC
Ranger1401@hotmail.com
