He helps, enables, and coordinates all. He is the Lord of prevailing prayer.
We listen to His voice, respond to His touch of power, and offer ourselves in total surrender to His active lordship so that He may indwell us, infill us, and pray through us.
The Spirits lordship is, in effect, the lordship of Christ, who has sent the Spirit to be our other Helper-Counselor (John 14:16).He receives from Christ and reveals and imparts to us (16:14).
Through prayer the Spirit places all the powers of the heavenly world at our disposal.
Archbishop Trench once wrote,
"We must pray in the Spirit...if we would pray at all.
Lay this, I beseech you , to heart. Do not address
yourselves to prayer as to a work to be accomplished
in your own natural strength. It is a work of God, of
God the Holy Ghost, a work of his in you and by you,
and in which you must be fellow-workers with Him—
but His work notwithstanding." (E. M. Bounds, The Reality of Prayer, [New York: Revell, 1924], 133).
Andrew Murray adds,
"It is only as we give ourselves to the Spirit living and
praying in us, that the glory of the prayer-hearing God
and the ever-bless and most effective mediation of
the Son can be known by us in their power."
(Murray, Ministry of Intercession, p. 120).
Spurgeon preached that it is not true prayer to God except as the Spirit is in total lordship of the praying. The Holy Spirit himself "must be present all through it, to help infirmity, and give life and power." (Spurgeon, Twelve Sermons on Prayer, 57).
Real prevailing prayer is born of the Spirit, in the Spirit is prevailed in, and by the Spirit is made effective. To pray most truly is to pray in the Spirit. He is the Spirit of grace and supplication (Zech. 12:10).
This phrase, says Andrew Murray, means "grace for supplication" (Hebrews: grace and seeking for grace). He is the Spirit of sonship that enables you to say,
"Abba, Father," thus making your prayer acceptable to God (Rom. 8:15).
The Holy Spirit breathes the spirit of prayer within you; power in prayer comes from His empowering within. He will not continue to empower for prayer unless you use that power in prayer.
Prayer weakness usually results from spiritual weakness, and itself contributes to spiritual weakness.
Andrew Murry called prayer "the index of the measure of the Spirit's work in us." Only those who are Spirit-filled can repeatedly prevail mightily in prayer.
When the Holy Spirit works in you only feebly, then your prayer life will be weak and powerless. The more mightily the Spirit works within you, the more mighty will be the results of your praying.
The main reason for prayerlessness is that the Spirit indwells you only minimally, almost nominally, and not in His fullness.
Says Bounds, "Would you pray with mighty results? Seek the mighty workings of the Holy Spirit in your own spirit." (Bounds, Reality of Prayer, 129).
The New Testament standard for the Christian is to be filled with the Spirit. But remember, He is the Spirit of power.
Leonard Ravenhill questions whether any claimed experience of the fullness of the Spirit that does not result in "extended periods of prayer" can be regarded as biblical. (Ravenhill, Revival Praying, 175).
Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana
#65 The Dynamic of the Spirit Part 1
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 109-111) Zondervan
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Let's pray-
Father, as we've now heard, we come to You in complete humbleness of mind and heart for Your Spirit's help in our praying efforts.
Our desire is to learn to be submissive to the Holy Spirit's leading and enablement in our attempts to pray for Your will to be done in all our requests and worshipping.
May the Lord Jesus be glorified in our praying from now on. I ask this in His name. Amen.
Today's Bible verses-
(Jer. 10:23 KJV) "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."
(Is. 55:8 KJV) "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD."
(Rom. 8:26 AMP.) "So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance."
Today's quotes-
Dave Egner- "As you interact with God through His Word and prayer, you will begin to discover what God is doing in your own heart." (ODB May 2016)
Dr. Charles F. Stanley- "We are to work as though God is our boss. That means doing tasks with joy, a servant attitude, respect for others, diligence, and obedience. Imagine what the workplace could be if all believers approached their jobs this way." (Taken from p. 28 of the INTOUCH daily readings for devoted living, Nov. 2015)
Upcoming posts-
#66 Living on this Side of Pentecost
27th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
Be Swift My Soul to Listen
29th- Saturday's post by Lee Forbes
11/1st- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
3rd- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
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Granny's Guide to Marriage in Verse
excellent
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