OUR HELPER IN PRAYER
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 21, 2018 under 2018 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday message; October 21, 2018 from Romans 8:26-27
Theme: The Holy Spirit is our indwelling Helper who helps us in our prayers.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
And it’s not just that we are able to unburden our hearts to our Father. Prayer is much more than that. Prayer actually changes things. As Pastor James has put it to us, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). The reason that prayer accomplishes so much is not because of the act of prayer itself. Our prayers alone do not have any power to change things. Rather, it’s because the almighty God actually condescends to move His sovereign hand in this world in response to those prayers. The all-powerful, all-sovereign God of the universe graciously allows Himself to be moved to action by our faith in Him as expressed in our prayers. That truly makes prayer the greatest resource ever given by God to human beings. We genuinely do superhuman work—by the grace of God—when we pray!
But just think of what help we need in doing this great work! It’s the greatest and most powerful resource we could ever have—and yet, just think of how frail we are in our use of it; and of how ignorant we are of the things for which we need to pray; and of how little we truly understand the awesome potential of this great resource called prayer! It’s as if the greatest power on earth has been entrusted to complete rookies!
That’s why I am grateful for this morning’s Bible passage. It’s found in Romans 8. And it tells us that God has not entrusted this great resource to us without also having given us a Helper in our use of it.
In Chapter 8 of Romans; the apostle Paul had been writing about the ministry of the Holy Spirit on our behalf. He explained much in that chapter about the ways that the Spirit of God helps us as sons and daughters of the heavenly Father—redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And in verses 26-27, Paul wrote;
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).
We would certainly be in a terrible condition in this fallen world if we didn’t have the awesome resource of prayer. But we would be very ineffective in our use of this great resource if we didn’t also have someone to help us use it rightly and to the glory of God! It’s only the ‘effective’ and ‘fervent’ prayer, after all—prayed in righteousness—that we’re told will avail much. And so, how grateful we should be to the Holy Spirit that He graciously serves as our indwelling Helper in prayer! How grateful we should be that the Father has sent Him to be our much-needed, indwelling aid—and that He hears the Spirit’s utterances on our behalf!
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Now, I love to read in the Bible about the Holy Spirit; don’t you? The subject of the Holy Spirit—His Person and His ministry—is something deeply wonderful to think about. His work and ministry was also a subject for which the Lord Jesus had much to say.
Just before He went to the cross for us, the Lord Jesus met with His disciples and had a final supper with them. We’re told about that supper-time conversation in John 13-17. And throughout that supper, our Lord told His apostles a great deal about the Holy Spirit.
In John 14:15-18; He told them,
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:15-18).
“Another Helper …” That’s what the Lord Jesus called the Holy Spirit—or “another Counselor”, as it’s translated in the New International Version. And when our Lord used the word “another”, He didn’t use the word in the original language that meant ‘another of a different kind’; but rather, He used the word that meant ‘another of the exact same kind’ as Himself.
The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is fully God—every bit as worthy of our worship as God the Father and God the Son are. It is the Holy Spirit’s unique role to indwell those that the Father has chosen for Himself and that the Lord Jesus has died on the cross to redeem. And as Jesus has said, everything that He—the Lord Jesus Himself—was toward His followers while He walked on this earth with them is what the Holy Spirit would be to those in whom He dwells! Just as Jesus guided the disciples, and taught them, and helped them, so the indwelling Holy Spirit also guides and teaches and helps us while the Lord Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus told the disciples;
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:11-15).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; we may not always be aware of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence. He doesn’t shine the spotlight on Himself. His ministry of indwelling us is often very quiet. But the fact is that, if we have personally trusted Jesus as our Savior and have been redeemed by His blood, then we can take it by faith: We have the Holy Spirit permanently dwelling in us. You, dear brother or sister, are—right now, by faith in Jesus—the dwelling place of God; and all of the resources of His divine presence are now yours.
The indwelling Holy Spirit helps us in so many ways. And among the ways that He helps us, as this morning’s passage shows us, is that He helps us is in our prayers.
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Let’s look a little closer at Romans 8:26-27; and at what the apostle Paul had to tell us about the Holy Spirit’s help in prayer.
Right away, you’ll notice that Paul used the word “likewise”. He wrote, “Likewise the Spirit also helps …” If ever there was a Bible passage that needed to be appreciated in its context, it is this one! To what does the word “likewise” refer?
In verses 18-25, the apostle Paul wrote about our future glory in Christ. He wrote about how—in our poor, frail condition right now—we long after and yearn for that future glory. In fact, all of creation itself ‘groans’ after it. Paul wrote;
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance (Romans 8:18-25).
The indwelling Holy Spirit continually testifies to us that we are the children of God. He testifies to us that we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and are destined to be raised from the dead and share in His eternal glory with Him. We have, as it were, the ‘firstfruits’ of the Spirit—the promise from Him of glories yet to come. But we seem so far from it all right now. We are weak and frail, and our bodies get sick, and grow old, and die. People that we love have needs and suffer. We struggle with temptations, and we sometimes fail. We live our lives on this earth in the hope of a future glory that is secured for us in Christ, but we yearn after it and groan for it.
But just as the indwelling Holy Spirit testifies of this hope to us, “likewise” He helps us. He sets that hope for future glory in Christ solidly in us, and keeps us looking ahead to it and living for it. He helps us to know, as Paul put it in verses 28-30,
that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (vv. 28-30).
You know, dear brothers and sisters; we’re really living life on earth today between two great promises. On the one hand, we have been given the promise that we are children of God—heirs of the heavenly Father and joint heirs with Christ. We don’t have to work to ‘become’ God’s adopted children. Rather, we already are His fully adopted children—right now—by faith in Jesus. And on the other hand, we have been given the promise that all the things that are happening to us during our time on earth—all the trials and struggles and difficulties that make us yearn and groan for our full glorification—are designed by God to ‘work together’ for the good of those He loves; and are for the teaching and training and perfection of those He has predestined to glory.
And right now, during our time between these two great promises, we have been entrusted with the great resource of prayer. But how do we use that great resource rightly and effectively? Well; “likewise” as He has secured us in these promises, the same indwelling Holy Spirit also “helps” us in our prayers.
First, in verse 26, notice that …
1. HE HELPS US BECAUSE OF OUR WEAKNESS.
Paul writes, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses” (v. 26a). Even though we have been entrusted with the greatest resource in all of creation—that is, the ability to move the hand of the almighty God through our requests and petitions—we are very weak in our use of it. We don’t always pray as we should.
I think here of the parable that Jesus told in Luke 18 of the Pharisee and the tax collector who both went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee was—outwardly—a very righteous and religious man. But the tax collector was considered a great sinner and a traitor to his people. Jesus told us that the Pharisee “stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess’” He thought that his prayer was very acceptable to God, but it was actually very arrogant and self-righteous and prideful. But the tax collector “standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” His prayer was very broken-hearted and humble.
And did you notice how Jesus said that the Pharisee prayed “thus with himself”? His prayer didn’t get very far; did it? But our Lord said that the other man—the humble tax collector who was so ashamed that he could scarcely bring himself to look upward to heaven in his prayer—was the one who went home righteous. And just think, dear brothers and sisters, how often it is that in our weakness we pray more like the Pharisee than the tax collector!
Or think of the apostle Paul. He wrote that he had a great burden of some kind — a ‘thorn in the flesh’, he called it. He never said what that thing was. But he tells us in 2 Corinthians 12;
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9a).
Paul prayed very hard. And I believe he was a truly righteous man when he did so. But in his weakness, he prayed for the wrong thing. The Holy Spirit helped him in his prayers, and so he prayed in a different way:
Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (vv. 9b-10).
Now; Paul tells us in our passage this morning that the Holy Spirit “helps in our weakness”. And the word that Paul used for ‘help’ is one that—in the original language—means to ‘take something up with’ someone, or to ‘take hold of something with’ them. What a wonderful picture that is! It’s as if the task of prayer—the use of this great resource God has given us—is too great for us, in our weakness, to bear on our own. But the Holy Spirit takes hold of that task with us and helps us in it. He truly ‘helps in our weakness’ when we pray. I have had many times when I have been praying about something; and then, along the way, felt as if I had been praying in the wrong way—or for the wrong thing. “Father, forgive me”; I’ll say. “I just realized that I have been praying incorrectly. I remember now what Your word says about that thing, and I now change my prayer, and pray in accordance with Your revealed will.” I feel sure that this was the Holy Spirit helping me in my weakness.
But please notice that the help of the Holy Spirit—His work of ‘taking hold of with us’—assumes that we are indeed praying! We can’t expect the Holy Spirit to do all the prayer-work for us. But we can be confident that the Holy Spirit will indeed help us, in our weakness, whenever we faithfully do our part.
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So; the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. But what exactly does this ‘help’ look like? Paul goes on to tell us that …
2. HE INTERCEDES FOR US IN OUR IGNORANCE.
In verse 26, Paul went on to write, “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Dear brothers and sisters; when we take up this great resource of prayer, we do so with an awful lot of ignorance. We don’t know even a fraction of the truth behind the situations for which we pray. We may see the needs around us, but we don’t always know how to pray for those needs in an acceptable way. We don’t really see the actual needs of the people for whom we pray—as the Lord Himself sees those needs. We don’t know how those needs can best be met. We don’t know what it may be that God is seeking to do for them in and through those needs. We don’t know what the eventual outcome is that our sovereign God has intended in those needs. And what’s more, we don’t know our own selves and our own needs as we should. We can’t always see how our motives may be wrong in our prayers. There’s so very much that we don’t know when we pray, and we don’t know how inaccurate we are in what we think we know, and we don’t even know how much it is that we don’t know! Imagine how ignorant we are when we bring our requests before the almighty God who knows all things! We wouldn’t even know the right way to phrase our requests before Him—even if we knew what to ask!
Think for a moment of what we’re told in 1 John 5:14-15. We have a great promise in those verses concerning prayer. We’re told;
Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15).
What a glorious promise! But left to myself, how could I really know what God’s will is in order to ask according to His will to answer? Our need in our prayers is very great because of the greatness of our ignorance. And if we don’t realize that this is the case, then it just goes to show how terribly ignorant we really are!
But praise God!—the indwelling Holy Spirit is our constant and unfailing Helper. He intercedes for us in our ignorance. To ‘intercede’ for us means that He steps in and pleads our case for us—just like an attorney would do in a court of law. It’s as if we were trying to ask something ignorantly before God; but the Holy Spirit steps in for us before the throne of God and says to God the Father—on our behalf—what we are really trying to say; and to asks—on our behalf—what we really need.
And look at how He does this. We’re told that He intercedes for us “with groanings which cannot be uttered”. I think here of the time when someone will come to church with a small child. I’ll lean down and try to talk to their little son or daughter, and the child will say something back to me that makes no sense at all. They may even try to say their name, but I’m just not getting it. I try to be polite and smile; but then, I look up to mom or dad, and they tell me exactly what the child is trying to say to me. I think that that’s a good picture of what the Holy Spirit does for us. He is able to express for us our concerns to the Father in ways that we ourselves cannot express in words. He intercedes for us, with the utmost accuracy, in whatever it is that we try to express in our ignorance. He even does so through deep expressions of the heart to the Father for which mere human language is insufficient to form into words.
What prayers it must be that He prays on our behalf! Aren’t you glad He does so? Perhaps in heavenly glory, we’ll be allowed to hear the ways that He interceded for us in our ignorance—and we will be forever thankful Him that He helped us so much.
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And that leads us to one more point Paul made about the Holy Spirit’s help, and that is that …
3. HE ENSURES THAT OUR PRAYERS ARE EFFECTIVE.
In verse 27, Paul wrote, “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Do you remember how Pastor James wrote that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much? Well; here’s why that is so. It’s the Holy Spirit who makes those prayers effective.
Now; the One who “searches the hearts” is the Father. As He says of Himself in Jeremiah 17:10,
“I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).
And not only are our hearts thoroughly searched by God the Father through the ministry of the Spirit, but the same Father who knows our hearts also knows the mind of the Spirit. As the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11,
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).
We could not possibly have a more effective Intercessor than our indwelling Helper; who—knowing fully what is in our hearts—is also fully known by the Father. What’s more, He knows fully what the will of the Father is because He knows the mind of the Father. Thus, He is our completely efficient Helper because “He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” When the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, His prayers are prayed on our behalf perfectly, and in a way that is always in the Father’s will, and that truly meets the need.
His prayers for us on our behalf are always offered in perfection—and are always answered perfectly!
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Now, dear brothers and sisters; let’s never allow ourselves to think, “Well, then; if the Holy Spirit interceded for me so perfectly, why should I even bother to pray?” A thousand times no! Our response ought to be the exact opposite! We should now be even more motivated to pray; knowing that, whenever we pray in Jesus’ name, we never pray alone! We have a divine, indwelling Helper who aids us in our weakness, who intercedes for us in our ignorance, who speaks on our behalf with groanings too deep for human words, who always prays in perfect accord with the Father’s will, and who guarantees that our prayers are effective.
We truly have been given the greatest resource that human beings can ever have—the greatest power on earth. Let’s not neglect this gift. Let’s eagerly and faithfully use it; knowing that it is the Holy Spirit Himself who is our indwelling Helper in all our prayers.
EA
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