3. The Spirit of Prayer
Rev Donald Macdonald
True prayer is the gift of God. It is the Spirit of God who begins true prayer in any soul. True prayer is the evidence of spiritual life. The Word encourages men to pray – to call upon God. This is not the tendency of the natural man, because of the state of his heart; he does not like to retain God in his knowledge; yet in times of grave danger or special difficulty he may pray earnestly. The Lord in His sovereignty may answer his prayer, although there may not be any spiritual delight in the action; his petitions are not offered in faith; he does not have the spirit of true prayer.
Are such prayers to be discouraged? The answer is, No. While the Spirit of God is the author of true prayer in the soul, no one can pray without the Word. Paul says, “I will pray with the Spirit, I will pray with the understanding also” (1 Cor 14:15). The understanding is of the utmost importance, not just in the reading of the Word, but also under the faithful preaching of the Word, which leads to the conversion of sinners. The breath of prayer in the soul is one of the gracious activities in the soul connected with the understanding. “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom 10:14).
1. Many men give prayer as a mark of grace at Question meetings. But this should be qualified; devout Romanists pray as well as devout Presbyterians, and Muslims and Hindus – everyone in every religion – calls upon his god as a matter of devotion and ritual. Saul of Tarsus would have offered many prayers as a devout Pharisee, before it was said of him: “Behold he prayeth”, when he began to fear God (Acts 9:11). The Athenians worshipped the unknown god in ignorance; they had many deities.
2. “Behold he prayeth.” When a man begins to seek the Lord, he may do so under a law work, through slavish fear, afraid of being lost and having to endure the punishment of his sins. However, the true spirit of prayer begins in the new birth, at the commencement of faith; the man begins to worship truly and to call on the name of the Lord. There may be much that is superficial in the beginnings, but if the law of the mind is towards Christ, it is genuine; it is a coming to God in the way He has appointed.
In the new birth, man is passive; he is made alive. This transformation is wrought by the Holy Ghost. When God created man at the beginning he possessed faculties of memory, judgement, conscience, heart and will; this is what constitutes him a responsible being. In that original creation he possessed a holy principle. As B M Palmer says, “This principle sin has destroyed. The soul remains in its structure what it was before the fall. The same faculties remain to the sinner which are necessary to him as man. He could not be divested of one of these without being divested of responsibility.” In the Fall the disposition of man “has been changed. The principle of holiness has been supplanted by that of sin, which henceforth, as a regulative principle, moves the man in a direction forbidden by God’s law. In the new birth the Holy Ghost restores this lost principle of holiness, which is from the beginning the principle of spiritual life in man.”2
As has been often stated at fellowship meetings, the new-born infant cannot express itself in words to the parent; yet when it cries it has three things which the parent understands: Wash me; feed me; clothe me. This is also the language of the new-born soul: new-born babes desiring the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2).
3. The Spirit of Adoption. The Holy Spirit is the bond of union between the Saviour in heaven and the believer on earth. This relationship is essential for the Spirit of true prayer – to pray in the Holy Ghost. “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20). Again: “As many as received [Christ], to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:12,13). Also: “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. . . . For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:11-17).
This is the Spirit of God’s own Son, The Holy Spirit presides over that new life which He has implanted; the Spirit not only gives life but urgency, fervency and power to prevail with God at a throne of grace.
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jas 5:16). What renders prayer effectual? Palmer answers, “Not its length, nor its vehemence, nor its eloquence, nor its passion; but simply the living sympathy which is established between the soul pleading in the closet and the Saviour interceding in the heavens. This is secured through the intervention of the Divine Spirit. He takes the desires which are in the heart of Jesus Christ, and works them into our hearts so they become our desires.”3
This in part blends in with what Paul says to the Romans: “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (8:26:27). The One intercedes for us; the Other intercedes within us.