When the Holy Spirit Prompts Your Prayer
When I was falling in love with wonder-full Anne during my senior year of college, we were in a small group on campus that was studying the scripture about the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. It was new to me to think that the Holy Spirit might be communicating with me throughout the day, but I was excited to grow in hearing God’s voice. While at her childhood home during Christmas break, Anne was awakened in the middle of night with a strange urge to pray for an elderly neighbor. She was responsive to the prompting, sat up and interceded until she felt at peace. The next day, she learned that the neighbor had died in the night peacefully at a ripe old age.
I think I quipped, “If you wake up one night with an urge to pray for me, don’t—I want to live!” But I was enthralled. Because God has ordained it that He moves through the prayers of His people, I imagine the Lord wanted someone to pray for the comfort and peace of the old saint who God was ready to bring home to heaven. She might have prayed angels into the man’s room.
I wanted that sort of prayer life—a God-directed, Spirit-led sort of intercession fueled by God Himself.
Imagine how thrilling and powerful your prayer life could be if you knew God was directing your intercession!
Some time ago, I wrote a little piece about Five Ways to Pray in the Spirit which, for some reason, spread quickly and widely, reaching over 60,000 people so far. Because it seems an important subject for many, I’m fleshing it out in greater detail over a series of blogs.
In Ephesians 6, Paul exhorts us to “pray in the Spirit at all times”. Some of my dear Pentecostal friends assert that “praying in the Spirit” is synonymous with praying in tongues, but, as much as I love and appreciate the gift of tongues, not all Christians have the gift.
The Lord wouldn’t give us a mandate that is impossible to practice! So, Paul must have in mind additional ways of “praying in the Spirit.”
In our last post, we explored the most powerful form of praying in the Spirit—praying God’s Word. Because all scripture is God-breathed, when we pray God’s promises back to God, we are praying Spirit-infused words. Praying scripture is “praying in the Spirit.”
Today, I want to explore a second way to “pray in the Spirit.” Let’s call it “Spirit-led prayer.” I’m talking about the kind of prayer that doesn’t originate in our minds but in the mind of the Lord. We can become attuned to what God wants us to pray as we become more sensitive to His voice and inner promptings.
Every Christian Can Hear God’s Voice
“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. …The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:2–5, ESV)
Recognizing the voice of God isn’t a privilege reserved for elite, prophetically gifted Christians—it’s a promise for every believer! God’s sheep can recognize the shepherd’s voice.
It’s a good thing that sheep can recognize their shepherd’s voice because sheep are notoriously vulnerable otherwise. Left to their own instincts, sheep will follow one another until they make dangerous ruts. They’ll paw up the ground instead of finding new, green pastures. As David reflected in his most famous psalm, the Lord is a shepherd who leads us “beside still waters” and toward “paths of righteousness.” Years ago, I visited our worship leader’s farm where his son, one of our students, looked after the sheep. I asked the twelve-year-old shepherd if the sheep knew his voice and, if so, could I film him calling the sheep. You can check out the video for fun. WATCH THE VIDEO
I tried calling the sheep, but they didn’t budge. Then it was the shepherd’s turn. At first the sheep wouldn’t come when the student (fittingly named David!) called. Young David was surprised but then suggested that maybe the sheep were frightened by me and the camera crew. We backed away from David and let him call again. It was beautiful to watch the sheep bound over to him. God’s sheep can all know and respond to His voice.
The Helper Loves to Help
Jesus said it was better if He left the earth because the Spirit would come (John 16:7). Jesus called the Holy Spirit the “paraclete.” It means “one who comes alongside”. Sometimes the word is translated, “Helper.”
The Holy Spirit is Christ’s own Spirit mystically indwelling every believer in a personal way. And He, the Holy Spirit, loves to help us.
He delights in helping us by encouraging us, strengthening us, comforting us and giving us gifts for ministry and fruit to mold our character.
Every Christian has the Holy Spirit! Paul says it plainly: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:9–10, ESV)
Because we have the very Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts, we can be sure that we are never alone in sorting out the way forward. Paul teaches that Spirit-led living is a sure and certain mark of being a Christian: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14, ESV)
If we are indwelt by the divine Helper, it is no surprise that He loves to help us pray. In our own, limited, finite minds, we can’t know how to pray, but God knows and wants to help: “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us ….” (Romans 8:26, ESV)
As soon as anyone becomes a believer, whether as a young child in a Christian home or as an encrusted old rebel, the Holy Spirit has a first mission in our hearts: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God….” (Romans 8:16, ESV)
The first help the Helper offers is to assure you that you are God’s child for good! He wants you to know that you are God’s heir. That all has changed. You are a co-heir with Christ.
So, what’s the first prayer the Spirit prompts you to pray?
It’s not a personal request. It’s not intercession for a friend.
Your first Spirit-led prayer is a salutation—an exclamation:
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”” (Romans 8:15, ESV)
“Father!”
“Daddy!”
It is the Spirit’s first prayer in us—a call to the Father with joy and love.
I like my grandfather name: Dabba. I invented it and hoped that Mia would take to it. It’s short for Grand-Abba.
In American culture, toddlers say Da Da. But in middle eastern cultures, they are more likely to say Ab Ba. Abba is as sweet and personal and affectionate as Da Da.
All prayer in the Spirit is thus relational, grounded in a Father-child love attachment.
The love the Spirit has for the Son and that the Son has for the Father (the mystery of the triune God’s perfect love) flows in the heart of a believer. The Holy Spirit abides in you to lead you in prayer the way a child speaks to an all loving, generous, kind father.
Praying God’s Will and Mind
When we simply ask God for blessings, we don’t know how He might bless or the way in which it would be best for Him to bless. So, we might think, we should just say, “Lord, do your will.” But God has been clear in His Word – He wants us to ask! “Ask and you will receive!” (Matthew 7:7).
But when we ask from a fleshly motivation, are prayers are empty and potentially wrong-minded. James puts it starkly: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:3, ESV)
The indwelling Holy Spirit always wants to commune with our spirits for the purpose of leading us toward God’s desires, toward God’s own beautiful will. How do we keep from “asking wrongly,” motivated by ungodly “passions”? We learn to trust in the Spirit’s promptings because He always moves us away from self-absorption and toward God-fascination.
As we learned in our last post, praying God’s Word is powerful because we can be sure that His Spirit-soaked Word is His will. Likewise, though our flesh is likely to pray empty, selfish prayers, the Spirit is eager to align us with the Father’s heart. Though our minds are limited and, in our natural capacity, are unable to know God’s will, the Spirit is delighted to direct us toward God’s will. The Holy Spirit would never guide us to pray with wrong motives!
To be a Christian is to no longer be limited in prayer to the mere intellect. To be a Christian is to have received the wondrous mind of God within us, directing us. We certainly aren’t God, but we have His Spirit in us—His mind communing with us. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16, ESV)
1) If you’re longing for a more Spirit-directed prayer life, start by asking God for His help. Every time you pray, ask Him for His help. Lord, I’d like to pray not according to my own limited urges but according to your gracious, powerful desire for my good and the good of others.
2) Assure, as we explored in the last post, that your prayers are soaked in God’s Word and as you allow the Spirit to direct you, check your prayer with the scriptures. The Holy Spirit will never lead you to pray in a way that is contrary to God’s Word. Lord, grant that all my prayers will flow with and according to Your Word.
3) Make it your prayer practice to wait on the Lord—to listen. Make room for the promptings of the Lord. Lord, I’ve come before you not for a monologue, but a dialogue—I’d like you to speak to me and I’d like to listen. I’m turning my heart away from the white noise around me and tuning it to You.
4) Agree with God’s Word that you are His sheep and that you can recognize His voice. Of course, we are limited, and feel ignorant (that’s the nature of sheep!) but God wants us to trust His direction. Agree with Paul (and God!), say it to yourself and God: Lord, thank you that you have given me the mind of Christ.
5) Start paying attention to holy promptings throughout your day. They might be little, inward sensations of compassion toward someone or deep stirrings of empathy and mercy that can only be expressed in tears before the Lord on the behalf of another. Lord, lead me throughout the day—prompt my prayers with your own mercy.
6) Because praying scripture is such a powerful mode of praying in the Spirit, ask God for scriptures to pray for yourself or others. Lord, show me in Your Word, the promises that apply here so I can pray them rightly.
7) Finally, let the Spirit’s faith and boldness, light up your own faith and boldness. You’re invited to come to the throne of grace boldly because Jesus has finished the work and you’ve been made right in the eyes of God. The Spirit knows this and celebrates this great Gospel reality. Let the Spirit show you who you are in Christ and let Him bring you to the throne of grace! Lord, keep me full of assurance that I’m your child, imputed with the righteousness of Christ, a co-heir with Jesus so that I can pray with boldness and faith.
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