“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
Romans 8:26,27

PAUL continues in these two verses with another aspect and blessing of the experience of our salvation, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Throughout this chapter Paul has been speaking about the wonder and blessing of our eternal salvation in and through Christ, and particularly in the ministry of the Spirit in the life of the believer in Jesus. Through faith we have been raised to new life in Christ, and because of this new life created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness, the Holy Spirit lives within us, and is God’s advocate with us, leading us, guiding us, helping us, blessing us, strengthening us, and so on.

One of the places we need help so much is in the realm of prayer. We have this wonderful blessing and privilege of access into God’s holy presence through the blood of Jesus. We know from the teaching of this chapter that we are children of God and we experience the reality of our adoption into God’s family because the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. We have a spirit of prayer within us and we cry to God, but we find that the privilege and exercise of prayer is one of the hardest privileges to use and engage in. Paul speaks of this need and speaks of how the Holy Spirit is with us in our prayers to help us, and to intercede for us. There is nothing so comforting and uplifting as what is revealed here concerning the Spirit’s ministry in prayer. He intercedes for us.

OUR WEAKNESS.

Our problem is our weakness. There is no shame in confessing our weakness in the realm of prayer. Indeed unless we are ready to face our weakness, we shall never progress in prayer and never be a prayer warrior.

Our weakness is in the fact that although we have been raised to new life in Christ, we still live in this earthly body, and still have to express our new life through this body in which still resides our corrupt nature. We have to live with this fact until at physical death we are released from this fallen flesh and are given a new resurrection body which will be totally free from corruption, just as we are now in our new self in Christ. Together with this fact of the corruption of our sinful nature, we are still earth-bound in this life, and so we only see spiritual things through a frosted glass, and we still know the limitations of human wisdom and understanding. As we grow in grace, and as our new self is nurtured by the means of grace and the Spirit’s work within us, and we mature in our new self, we will see more perfectly into the spiritual realm, yet we still know weakness. Specially is the weakness revealed in the realm of knowing the will of God.

When we engage in prayer we usually know what we want or would like, but we do not know what God wants. God’s will is perfect. He is working his purposes out in the world, and in our lives and in the life of his church, the people of faith, but it is not so easy for us to know what it is. Paul showed this dilemma in his life. On one occasion he was seeking to discern where he should journey next in his witness for the Lord. He felt that the next place would be the province of Asia, but the Spirit said no. Then he tried to go into Bithynia, but again he was stopped. He was perplexed. He did not know what to pray for. However he no doubt prayed all the time, and in the end the Spirit directed him to Macedonia. Then there was the the more personal problem which Paul called his thorn in the flesh. He prayed for it to be removed, and he prayed several times, but this was not the will of the Lord. He had to learn from this thorn that God’s power was expressed more perfectly through him when he was weak. He did not know what was right to pray for.

Anyone who seriously engages in prayer finds that it is really hard. It is not hard to speak. But when we seek to pray and speak to the Lord, we find how strongly the flesh is against us, and how strongly Satan works through the flesh to keep us from prayer. Then we find words can’t express the need we feel in our hearts, and so we struggle in praying. Then we pray for people and our words seem to be dry and ineffectual. Again we see the spiritual need all around us and we just do not know how to engage in prayer concerning this. We do not know what to ask God for, or how to speak to the Lord about the need we feel deep in our hearts. The problem does not end here because we have perhaps ideas concerning witness and ministry, yet when we come to pray about them everything seems to be dry and unprofitable. Then in prayer we stumble because we just do not know what God’s will is, and so all we have in our hearts is a hunger to know his will, but no ability to express this need in prayer. The problems we face in prayer our almost numberless, and the problem is made worse by our own spiritual lethargy so often. Paul sums up our problem in prayer here by saying we do not know what we ought to pray for, and this is because the will of the Lord is not easy to discern.

THE SPIRIT HELPS US.

The great message which we are given here by the apostle is that the Spirit, who dwells within us, is our help in prayer. This does not mean we do not have to pray or engage in prayer. We still have to pray and struggle in prayer. Our action is necessary, and unless we engage in prayer we will have no help. What Paul is teaching us here is that the Spirit is by our side when we pray.

Sometimes in prayer as we struggle to engage in prayer, when we feel our heart is cold, and words dry up on our lips, and what words we do utter seem to be so useless and unworthy, we feel alone and Satan comes to us in this dilemma and suggests that we should just give up because our praying is so useless and unworthy. When we feel like this we need to remember that when we get on our knees to pray, or when we engage in prayer at different times throughout the day, the Spirit is always by our side to help us. To remember this is to be strengthened immediately.

When we come to prayer recollection is so important. The Lord’s Prayer commences with such recollection. It is expressed in the opening address, “Our Father, which art in heaven”. If we recollect that God is our Father, and he is our heavenly Father and so perfect and almighty. And if we remember what it means for God to be our Father, that he delights in us as his children and is always ready to listen to us, and that he always has our best welfare at heart; then we have really achieved half of our praying. The reason is that we are assured that our prayers are worthwhile and that our heavenly Father will never withhold from us anything that is for our good. The Spirit is in this recollection, for as we have already learnt in verse 16, as we recollect the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God. But the Spirit’s ministry does not end here as Paul reveals to us in our verses we are considering. He is by our side praying with us and so helping us.

THE SPIRIT’S INTERCESSION.

How is this help expressed and engaged in. Paul goes on to speak of this. He tells us that the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words can not express. There we are, seeking to pray. We utter words, and they seem to be so inadequate. In this sense of inadequacy we find we have not words, but just a deep hunger within. Then we feel our weakness because we just do not know what we should be bringing to God in prayer. The Spirit by our sides intercedes for us.

What does this mean? I think it means something like this. The Spirit by our side hears our words. He also looks deep into our hearts and sees the spiritual hunger there. He understands that we are not expressing our prayers in the right way, and we are not asking for the right things, though our hearts hunger for God’s help and blessing. So the Spirit takes all this weak effort in prayer, and he interprets it, and then expresses it to God in right and acceptable terms. A faint illustration of this is when we may ask someone to take a message to someone very important, and we express the message in an inappropriate way. Our messenger knows that if he just repeats our words verbatim it will cause offence or be counter productive. So as our messenger he gets the underlying message or request, and then rephrases it so that the words our acceptable and well put. The Spirit’s intercession is something like this.

But the Spirit’s intercession goes further. He intercedes for us with groans that words can not express. The idea of groaning here is not groaning in pain, or because of inability, but rather this groaning is deep feeling within the Spirit which can’t be expressed in human words, so has to be expressed in spiritual words which have no counter part in human language. Together with this, this groaning expresses deep feeling which adds power and urgency to the request. The Spirit expresses our prayers in spiritual and heavenly language which the Father understands, and is worthy of God.

THE RESULT OF THIS INTERCESSION.

The effectiveness of this intercession is expressed by Paul in his further explanation in verse 27. As we pray God is looking into our hearts. He is searching our heart. He sees beyond the sin and imperfections of our yearning and seeking. He sees to the core of our hearts to dig out the true yearning from our new born self. At the same time God knows the mind of the Spirit, and reads his interpretation, as it were, of our hearts longing, but he sees something that has changed.

In the intercession which the Spirit engages in, the Spirit does some reforming and cleaning up of our praying. The Spirit does some correcting and re-writing. The Spirit knows the mind and will of God. The Spirit is one with the Father and the Son in the eternal plan of salvation that is in the mind and heart of God. So as the Spirit takes our prayers, he interprets them so that they conform to the will of God. The Spirit revises our prayers so that they conform to the will of God.

Part of this reforming is something of a re-write, but most of it is in his work of reforming our understanding and approach to God so that our words and the desires of our hearts conform to the will of God. Further the Spirit in his interceding for us makes us submissive to the will of God, and desirous to know and do the will of God. This changes our praying.

It is an eternal truth that God answers all our prayers, but his answers are always in accordance with his perfect will. So by the Spirit’s ministry of changing our thinking to conform to the will of God, and turning our feeling to desire the will of God, and making our own will to submit to the will of God, the Spirit is changing us so that when God searches our hearts, he finds there what he approves, and so is one with the praying of prayers which the Spirit utters.

CONCLUSION.

Let us take this blessed ministry of the Spirit deep into our hearts. Then we shall be strengthened in prayer and be encouraged in prayer. As we take this ministry of the Spirit deep into our hearts we will find that we will not so easily give up praying, because we realise that, though we feel our prayers are worthless, by this ministry of the Spirit this is not so. Satan will then not be able to cause us to despair.

Further, as we remember the Spirit helping us and being by our side in prayer, this will change the way we come to pray and seek to pray. Knowing the Spirit there with us, we will seek to be worthy of his presence, and please him with our response to praying, and by this will find help.