20: Common Ways the Holy Spirit Manifests Himself in All Believers – Prayer Help

Holy Spirit Prayer
/ By Randall Johnson

Have you ever been hurting so bad that you just couldn’t pray, or couldn’t figure out what to ask for other than relief? And maybe you felt alone in your suffering. But Paul tells us that couldn’t be further from the truth.

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 through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:2 6,27)

The Holy Spirit is helping us, as the Helper should do, making unutterable prayers on our behalf to the Father and in exact accord with the Father’s will.

The Holy Spirit is intimately involved in our praying. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:18 that through Jesus we both, Jews and Gentiles, have access to the Father by the one Spirit. Jesus has provided the means for our access, his sacrificial death, and the Holy Spirit, though he does not explain how, enables us to make that connection to God, what Paul calls the Spirit calling out, “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6).

This is why Jude tells us, “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,” and Paul says, “pray in the Spirit on all occasions,” or as the NIV Study Bible paraphrases it, “According to the Spirit’s promptings and with the power of the Spirit.”

We would not be amiss if, when we begin to pray, we ask the Spirit to help us pray as we ought.

About the Author Randall Johnson

A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.

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