Prayer Through The Spirit

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Eph 6:18-20

2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Col 4:2-6


This week we have been looking at prayer as our communication with God: the dance which involves both leading and following, the flowing together in constant movement while only focussing on the wonder of the partner in our arms - prayer as conversation, as listening, as imagining. Later we will look further to some of the purposes to which God puts prayer and we will begin to experience intercessory prayer and touch on the role of the prophetic in prayer. But before moving on I would like to remind ourselves that our prayer is really three dimensional. We pray to the Father, with the Son and through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Our dance partner is three in one.

For our prayers to be effective we must pray “in the Spirit.” It is the Holy Spirit who shows us how to pray. It is the Holy Spirit who gives utterance to our hopes and directs our thoughts to God’s purposes. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to find the time and to stay focussed in prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers our prayers and makes them more than the discouraged whimpers that they sometimes appear to us. It is the indwelling Spirit of God who helps us to see the work of God around us that is often the fruit of our efforts. The way in which we do this is merely to ask the Holy Spirit to direct us as we begin to pray and then to look for small signs that He might be nudging us as we proceed.

The theologian, Tom Smail, in his book The Giving Gift shows how St Paul encourages his readers to see prayer: “He neither offers us new techniques by which to discover God’s will nor exhorts us to new faith to let it be effected. Instead of being told to do something, we are directed to a source of help in prayer that comes to us from outside ourselves and our human resources, namely the Holy Spirit. We are invited to see prayer not primarily as a duty required of us, but much more as a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit: God on our side of the relationship. That does not mean that there is no need for planned and disciplined activity by us in prayer and worship, but it makes that discipline a hopeful and expectant exercise, because at its basis is not our own effortfulness but our reliance on the divine help of the Spirit.”

I am constantly being reminded by what you tell me God is doing in your lives that God is, by His Spirit, dancing with us – answering prayer, sometimes before it is even recognized or uttered. That He is in our daily pains and frustrations, in our brokenness, in our joy and thankfulness and in every other aspect of our lives. This morning Henry Selby and I led the monthly Family Communion at Cross Schools and afterwards I engaged in five conversations – each one of which presented evidence of the working of God’s Spirit in someone’s life or circumstance. Sometimes this “Prayer through the Spirit” is initiated by His Spirit and we become both petitioner (participant) and recipient.

I believe that the wonder of the simple service this morning was a direct result of the willingness of God’s people to ask Him to work in their lives and to put themselves at His disposal to accomplish His will. A simple thing and yet one of the most important gestures we can ever do for each other. I have no doubt that the effect of these simple Spirit led, action prayers are far greater than we will ever realize. No wonder St Paul asks for the prayers of his readers. Let us take time for the rest of this week to do the same for ourselves and others whom we know.

Mike Clarkson