Rev. Johnson V.
15th August 2010

There is great power in prayer, probably much more than we will ever realize. Prayer sets the spirit world in motion, because it is by prayer and faith that God’s kingdom is being established today. Every move of God in centuries past began with prayer. Prayer works His Will in our world. There are many ways that we can pray, and the Bible has many examples that we can learn from. Today, we will study how to pray by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jude 20 (NIV) says “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and pray in the Holy Spirit”. Jude encourages us to pray in the Holy Spirit, as it builds us up in the most holy faith. Romans 8:26, 27 (Amplified) says “So too the Spirit comes to our aid…. but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance…..because the Spirit intercedes and pleads in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will.” The above verses show that there is a type of prayer that is offered in partnership with the Holy Spirit. How beautiful! God knew there would be times when we would not be able to pray, so He sent us the precious Holy Spirit to help us by offering the best possible prayer, in accordance with the Heart and Will of God the Father.

There are 3 ways of praying in the Holy Spirit.

• Emotional prayer - Sometimes we can be so moved by a situation that we pray without words. In Romans 8, the Bible talks about ‘unspeakable yearnings and groaning too deep for utterance’. This is a deep spiritual prayer where our deep calls out to God’s deep (Psalm 42). We are created as emotional beings and a suppression of that area makes us less than what we were meant to be. But we must learn where and how to be emotional. We must learn to be emotional with God. If we are not emotional with God, we will be emotional in the world. If we are not happy in God’s presence, we will be happy in the presence of the devil. Jesus showed emotion. John 11:35 says simply that ‘Jesus wept’. The context was Lazarus’s funeral.  In John 11:33, Jesus was deeply moved in spirit, He was emotional. In John 11:41 Jesus says ‘I thank you that Thou hast heard me…”. But Lord Jesus had not uttered a single word in prayer in that chapter. But we know that in verse 33 and 38, He was troubled in spirit and was deeply moved. That was His emotional prayer. Emotions could lead you to depression, but they don’t have to. You can decide to turn from depression and use your emotions to take you towards the life that He has planned for you. Prayer that is prayed in this manner sets out to accomplish much for His glory. 
• Speaking words. I Samuel 1:9 onwards. Many contrasts exist between Eli and Hannah in the way they approached prayer. They both had problems with their children, Eli’s were wayward and Hannah didn’t have any. But Eli choose to put his faith in his position, while Hannah put her faith in the faithful God of her forefathers. She sought God with much tears and prayers. She came to ask God for a child, instead she ended her prayer by saying ‘I’ll give you a child’. Her prayer was granted. Sometimes when we are deeply troubled, the words we utter while praying are not our own but those of the Holy Spirit, who helps us pray in the manner that pleases God.
• Speaking in tongues. Acts 2:4 the disciples (120 of them) spoke in different tongues and told of the wonderful, works of God (v11), as the Spirit enabled them. This is the day of Pentecost. When we speak in tongues we are speaking to God (I Corinthians 14:2). According to 1 Corinthians 13:1, there are two kinds of tongues, 1) speaking in the language of men 2) speaking in the language of angels. Speaking in tongues enables us to speak about the mysteries of God.

When we faithfully pray and submit to Him, we cannot help but be excellent in all that we do. When we pray, God is faithful to answer our prayers and also give us adequate understanding about how He is responding to our prayer. A praying person will be protected from sin, because the Holy Spirit will pray for that person’s protection. There is only one way to life, and that is the way of the Holy Spirit. Every other way leads to death and destruction.