THIS Prayer Draws the Holy Spirit Closer
If ever you are to truly pray in the Spirit, you must discover this same oneness with the Holy Spirit. All true prayer proceeds from the depths of oneness with God.
Oneness, as I am describing it here, is that flow of the Spirit that is so natural that you don’t even know you’re flowing. Its obedience inspired from such depth that you’re not even aware that you’re obeying. In moments like those, there is no gap of time between when the Spirit speaks and you respond. It just is.
Move your hand. Shift your eyes. Tilt your head. It’s so very natural. There is no thought given, no mechanics to be forced.
It’s just like that. When you realize oneness with the Spirit, it’s as though you are a member of a great body, and the Spirit is the mind that controls even the most subtle of movements. Your movement becomes His movement. Your intent dissolves in God’s will. Your presence and His presence become indistinguishable from one another. Indeed, you are joined with the Lord. And in that union, you find the beginning of true prayer.
You don’t pray to connect with God; you pray from connection with God.
Desires of the Spirit
From your connection with God comes the desire to pray. In fact, both the desire to pray and the power to pray come from the Holy Spirit within you. All spiritual desires come from the Holy Spirit. Your desire to be like the Lord, your desire to grow in patience, your desire to overcome sin, your desire to know the Word and to pray, your desire to be united with Christ—all of your godly desires come from the Holy Spirit within you.
The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions (Galatians 5:17).
The Holy Spirit has desires and intentions. To pray in the Spirit is to agree, in attitude and action, with the Holy Spirit’s desires. To pray in the Spirit is to declare what the Holy Spirit is declaring while sincerely wanting what the Holy Spirit wants. True prayer, in its purest form, is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s desire in us. The Holy Spirit desires His desires through us, in us, and for us. He desires on our behalf. This is not the forcing of His will upon us, for we must still choose to act upon His desiring through us.
This is why I love the prayers in the book of Psalms.
Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness (Psalm 119:36, KJV).
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you (Psalm 51:12).
Bend me to your will, Lord. Incline my heart to your testimonies. Make me willing to obey you. That’s praying in the Spirit. That’s praying the Holy Spirit’s deepest desire. When you pray in the Holy Spirit, agreeing with His prayers for you, transformation takes place. When you pray, you become an agent of the Holy Spirit’s will.
Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” (Matthew 9:35-38).
Jesus instructed the disciples to pray for God to send workers into the ministry. Jesus told them to pray for more workers precisely because it was God’s will to send more workers. Jesus stressed that the harvest of souls was ready. The need was urgent. Pressing His disciples to pray, Jesus set them up to become the answer. At the beginning of the very next chapter of Matthew, the Bible says this:
Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” (Matthew 10:1, 5-8)
Notice the sequence. The disciples prayed for God to send workers, and then they became the workers God sent. The prayers they prayed caused them to become the answer they requested.
Prayer is not all about receiving; it’s more about becoming. The prayer of the disciples didn’t change the situation, it changed them.
Caught up in the overlap of Heaven and earth, you will find yourself being transformed by your contact with the heavenly dimension. It will change the substance of who you are—nature and character. For every moment you are praying, you are changing, whether you see the immediate evidence of that or not. That’s the power of praying in the Holy Spirit.
