When you talk about the Holy Spirit with people and all of the amazing things that He does every single day, you rarely hear people mention the Holy Spirit and His role in prayer. If you do and you are from Charismatic-Pentecostal circles, you may hear a little bit about the gift of tongues, but there is so much more that the beautiful person of the Holy Spirit does in us as it pertains to prayer. In order for us to understand His role in prayer, we have to determine what prayer is and what prayer is not. I grew up hearing that prayer is a humble request made known to God. I don’t completely disagree with that, but it is only a partial truth. What is the core of prayer? What is prayer itself? Let’s have a look at what the Bible has to say about prayer and the Holy Spirit. Remember, He is the Spirit of prayer.
Zechariah 12:10 says He is the “Spirit of grace and prayer” or “grace and supplication” (Zech. 12:10 NLT, NI V). Another way to read that is He is the Spirit who empowers the Spirit of prayer, or He is the Spirit of empowering prayer. In Psalm 109:4, God gives us an amazing picture of what is available in the Holy Spirit. Listen to the words of David: “Though I love them, they stand accusing me like satan for what I’ve never done. I will pray until I become prayer itself.” Can you sense the Lord changing your view of prayer? By the end of this chapter, I believe you will discover the beautiful truth of our absolute dependence on and need for the Holy Spirit and a life of prayer. Or as David puts it, we discover that prayer is not only something; at the core it is Someone. He says, “I have become prayer” (see Ps. 109:4). What does he mean by that? Let’s continue.
Bishop Kallistos Ware of the Greek Orthodox Church has some amazing insight into this realm of the Holy Spirit. I honor him and his writings, as they have been a great blessing to me. I hope they will also bless you. He says, “‘When you pray,’ it has been wisely said by an Orthodox writer in Finland, ‘you yourself must be silent.… You yourself must be silent; let the prayer speak.’”1 He goes on to say that the one who learns to be still in the presence of the Lord begins to “[listen] to the voice of prayer in his own heart, and he understands that this voice is not his own but that of Another speaking within him.”2
Do you remember the words of Jesus? In Luke 11:1, the disciples come to the Lord after they see the Lord praying, and they say, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples” (NIV). This is a loaded passage. First of all, the disciples were inspired to pray because they saw Jesus praying. If you want to inspire others to pray, more than you telling them to pray, they really need to see you praying. A life of prayer in our own lives will inspire a life of prayer in the lives of others. Looking back on my life, those who have impacted me the most are those who have lived a life of prayer. Their experience of God was visible to me as I interacted with them, and it was clear that whatever was happening in their prayer room was changing their lives and making Jesus more real to them than anything else. This is exactly what happened with the disciples. They saw Jesus praying and saw the life He lived, and they understand that whatever was happening when He was alone with the Father was the source of His life. And so, they came to Him after He prayed, wanting to learn how to pray.
Notice they said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). They did not say, “Lord, teach us to heal. Teach us to cast out devils. Show us how to do that walking on water thing. Oh, by the way, Jesus, I don’t have any wine. Is there a five-step process to turning water into wine? That would be awesome.” I mean, could you imagine Peter saying, “How many steps are in the process of spitting on someone’s tongue who can’t speak? I need to make a PowerPoint presentation on spitting in people’s mouths, Jesus. Can You help me with that?” They knew that it was not about how-to methods but about the Holy Spirit resting on Jesus and remaining. And after Jesus told them in John 5 that He did nothing that He did not see the Father do, and said nothing that He did not hear the Father say (see John 5:19), they began to understand that there was a deep, unbreakable eternal connection between Him and His Father. They wanted the same. They knew that was the epicenter of all they saw with their eyes. And so, they said, “Teach us to pray as John taught his disciples to pray” (see Luke 11:1). Discipleship 101 was in the lives of Jesus and John.
Again, as we read earlier, prayer is not so much something we do; rather, it is the activity and the person of the Spirit of prayer. What is more important in the area of discipleship than teaching people to connect the real them with the real God? I would venture to say that we waste our time teaching theology and life application and fail to teach people that they can experience the Living God twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Jesus’ response is beautiful and very telling. Notice there is no hesitation. Also, it’s important to see that Jesus answers directly. That tells me that this is a question He wanted to answer. It was a question that He was waiting on them to ask because it was important to Him. There were other moments when He answered back, when He answered their questions with a question. It seemed like He often would speak in riddles and parables when the disciples came with a genuine question. Not this time. This time He was clear and direct. I believe this was something He longed for them to understand. Jesus answered by saying, “When you pray, say…” (Luke 11:2). Notice there’s a comma between “pray” and “say.” My friend, if you’re going to spend any extended time alone with the Lord, you will discover that there is a huge difference between praying and saying, and this Scripture here shows that beautifully. It is very important that before we begin to say and request things in prayer, we allow prayer to begin. Once prayer begins, we can begin to “say” in faith. Benny Hinn once said, “If I have ten minutes to pray, I worship for nine.” This is a beautiful, beautiful truth. Allow the activity of the Spirit to moisten the moment with the dew of faith so that the seeds we sow in our words can take root in fertile soil. I have learned this to be true as I pray for the sick. I like to wait a moment and allow the presence of God to become more real to me than the sickness. I have found that oftentimes faith is available in a very special way in such a time. Why is this? Because faith is not something; it is Someone. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of faith (see 2 Cor. 4:13). Well, the same is true with prayer. Prayer is not something; rather, it is Someone. It’s the Holy Spirit.
I remember, as I was studying and thinking about prayer, I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Michael, what do you call somebody who gardens?” I said, “A gardener.” He said, “What do you call somebody who runs?” I said, “A runner.” He said, “What do you call somebody who walks?” I said, “A walker.” He said, “What do you call somebody who prays?” I said, “A prayer.” I was blown away by the wisdom of God. It was this revelation that began to change my life.
Before I go any further or give it all to you at once, let’s continue. Kallistos Ware goes on to say that in prayer “it is the divine partner and not the human who takes the initiative and whose action is fundamental.”3 Saint Gregory of Sinai said regarding prayer, “Prayer is God, who works all things in all men.”4 Notice his statement here: “Prayer is God working.” Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, but I understand what he’s saying. True prayer, if it is truly the Holy Spirit, is to be joined and not worked up. It is not something that I initiate but something that I join. It’s not something I do; it is something that I am swept into like a river. The Bible says that we are invited to “drink from the river of [the Lord’s] delights” (Ps. 36:8 ESV). Once you begin to understand that prayer is the activity of the Spirit and not the activity of man, it can be joined with joy and ease. Listen to Paul’s words: “It is not I but Christ in me” (see Gal. 2:20). He understood that the experience of God did not depend on him but rather on the internal presence of the Holy Spirit within him.
The words of John the Baptist do apply to the life of prayer: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). That is why I can be silent and still pray. In fact, I can be praying while I’m preaching. The greatest meetings I’ve ever had have been those meetings where two conversations are going on: one, with me and the Holy Spirit, and two, with me and the people. The experience that people have in the seats often depends on the experience I am having with the Lord. My goal is to let my words be His words and His words be my words. What I am really experiencing then is prayer. You don’t ever have to stop praying. Paul said, “Praying always…in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18 KJV). Is he speaking about the gift of tongues? Partially; there is much more to praying in the Spirit than speaking in tongues. Praying in the Spirit is to be overcome by, to be filled with, and to join the activity in the Spirit until your life becomes a prayer. Again, Paul said that you are living epistles (see 2 Cor. 3:2). What does he mean by that? He means that somebody who has been given over to God and possessed by the Holy Spirit literally becomes a living letter before men and before Heaven. In other words, if people don’t know what God is like and do not know the will of God, your life becomes a living letter that paints a beautiful picture of God before them and literally teaches them the will of God. You become a pen and a letter in the hands of the Holy Spirit Himself.
Kallistos Ware also said, “Prayer is to stop talking and to listen to the wordless voice of God within our heart; it is to cease doing things on our own, and to enter into the action of God.”5 I absolutely love that statement. There are many ways to pray, but I am dealing with the core of prayer here, the foundation—that prayer itself is the presence and activity of God in us until we are completely taken over by the activity of the Holy Spirit.
I hope you’re discovering that prayer is impossible without the Holy Spirit. More importantly, I hope you’re discovering that with the Holy Spirit, you enter the very action of God. What a privilege, what a joy, and what an opportunity.
The whole point of the Christian life is to love Jesus. It is to live on and off of the same presence that saved us. The same experience that brought us into the Kingdom is meant to be the food that keeps us alive while in the Kingdom. In other words, it was the experience of God, the coming of the Holy Spirit showing us Jesus, when we were born again that brought us salvation. Now we are to live in and from the same presence as we experience salvation. When we enter true prayer, it is a manifestation of our salvation, our union with God. After all, that’s why Jesus died. We desperately need the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray. We need His direction. We need His voice. We need His expertise. Oftentimes our eyes are closed to what He sees, and He wants to open them. Job 37:19 says, “Teach us what we shall say to Him; we cannot arrange our case because of darkness” (NASB). In other words, I have nothing to say to God right now. I need the Holy Spirit. I cannot see what He wants me to pray into. Therefore, Job says, “Teach us what we shall say to Him…” (Job 37:19 NASB).
Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (NASB). This verse teaches us many amazing things regarding the Spirit of prayer. Number one: “The Spirit…helps our weakness.” Many of us are often weak—physically, mentally, and spiritually. The Holy Spirit promises to come and help us in our weakness and make us strong. The Scripture says, “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong’” (Joel 3:10). Number two: When we don’t know how to pray, “the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26 NASB). When we don’t know how to pray, He prays for us. Again, this is much deeper than praying in tongues. This is a depth of prayer that is too deep for words. It is when our flesh cries out, as David said, “ for the living God” (Ps. 84:2). The Holy Spirit’s desire to reunite with the Father and the Son in Heaven one day is manifesting through our being. Remember, the Bible says that the Father is jealous of the Spirit within us (see James 4:5). The Holy Spirit tells us that we are welcome to be with God as our Father. Galatians 4:6 says, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” Just think, the Holy Spirit Himself cries out for the Father as He lives in you. Romans 8:15 says, “ Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (KJV). This is a beautiful truth: These two cries become one—our cry becomes His cry, and His cry becomes our cry. This is a manifestation of Paul’s words: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). In a nutshell, prayer is the experience of the activity of the Holy Spirit, and the result is this merging of cries, whereby we experience being one with the Lord.
Maybe you say, “I’m too tired to pray.” Not anymore. Now that you’ve read this chapter, you’ve found that the Spirit is the answer. He is prayer itself. Remember the words of Jesus when the disciples were sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane? He said to them, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38). Maybe the reason you’ve become so tired is that you’ve been doing too much in prayer. You’ve been activating your flesh. You’ve been pacing, walking, stomping, shouting. That can be of God at times, but many times it’s not. Sometimes the Lord just wants us to sit there, find what He’s doing in the moment, and yield our body and our will to His plan. The Spirit is always willing. So, what is the key? Join the Spirit. Madame Guyon said, “Prayer has now become easy, sweet, and delightful.”6 All who desire to pray may pray without difficulty because we can be strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Again, Madam Guyon said, “God, is only to be found in our inner selves, which is the holy of holies where God dwells.”7
My prayer for you is that this chapter will cause you to enjoy and yield to the master of prayer Himself, to prayer itself, the Holy Spirit. Instead of bringing a list of our plans to God, why don’t we just have a seat in the morning with a cup of coffee and our Bibles, maybe some worship music, and say this: “Holy Spirit, You’re the Spirit of prayer. Where do You want to go this morning? What do You want to do? I know You want to show me Jesus because You love Him more than I do. So, I’m here, Lord, to see Him. How do You want me to see Him? What side of Him do You want me to see? I trust You, Lord, with my problems. I trust You with my concerns. But right now, I come to You for You and You alone.” When you begin to wait after such a prayer and wait until God touches you, you will be amazed by the life of experience and encounter that will be yours forever as you pray. Prayer will become a continual divine face-to-face love dance with Jesus Himself. You will have revelations, and dreams, and visions, and encounters that will blow you away as you simply give yourself to prayer as David did.
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