PRAYER IN THE SPIRIT
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20)
Nothing we do in the life of faith is to emanate from us. If it does, it is fake. Jesus said we can do nothing without him (John 15:5). The power is to be from God, not from us (2 Cor. 4:7). The matter of winning souls to the Lord, or sharing our material goods with others, or living each day in view of the Lord’s return— all these are things we are exhorted to do consistently, but which, if they are to continue the way he wants them to, have to be done in the power of God. Even the matter of prayer by which we ask for his help must flow forth from him.
Prayer in the Spirit is first and foremost about relationship. “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15). “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father!” (Gal 4:6). If anyone does not have Christ’s Spirit, he does not belong to Christ (Rom. 8:9).
I can call God my Father because the Holy Spirit dwells within me, making me a “habitation of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:20). God lives in Me, I live in him, and I know this because he has given me his Spirit (1 Jn. 4:13). This is what encourages me to pray to him intimately. I am on intimate terms with the Father because he has already sent his Spirit to indwell me.
Prayer in the Spirit is the Spirit doing for me what I cannot do for myself. “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” (Rom. 8:26-27). Paul tells us plainly that we don’t know how to pray. Effective prayer is not natural—it is supernatural. Above what is natural.
I pray in the power of the Holy Spirit so that my prayer itself will have power. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). Powerful prayer begins and ends with the Holy Spirit.
Dewayne Dunaway
