Praying the Word: How Christ Becomes Your Prayer

Okay, we had some passages -Romans 8:26, Galatians 4:6, Jude 20, and Ephesians 6:18.

Romans 8:26 – Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…

Alright, who makes groanings that cannot be uttered? I now want you to listen to that. The Spirit groans. Did you get that? The Spirit groans.

Galatians 4:6 – Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” Alright, in Galatians 4:6, someone cries Abba Father, and in Romans 8:15, someone cries Abba Father. Who is it that calls “Abba Father” in Romans? The believer does.  Who calls “Abba Father” in Galatians? The Spirit of God. Now, let me read it.  Galatians 4:6 – And because you’re sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying “Abba Father.” In Romans 8: 15 – Whereby we cry, “Abba Father.” In Galatians, the Spirit cries, “Abba Father.” In Romans, we call “Abba Father.” Now then, there is someone inside us who cries, “Abba, Father.” But we also cry “Abba Father.”

Jude 20 – But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit…Here, we are told that we can do what? We can pray in the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6:18 – With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all perseverance and every request for all the saints… Alright, we pray where? In the Spirit.

Alright, I’m going to read now. The passage is out of Zachariah.

Zachariah 12:9-10 – It shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication. And they shall look upon these, and they have perished. So that they will look at Me whom they pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. Now the Lord says, “In that day…and this is speaking of the day of the Lord Jesus…I will pour out the Spirit of grace and the Spirit of prayer.” We live in a day in which there is a Spirit of grace, and there is a Spirit of prayer.

I want to go back to Ephesians 6:18 and look at it with you. Ephesians 6:17-18. Here is the word and the prayer. Ephesians 6:17 – And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer in “spirit.” Brethren, will you mark out the word “the”? It is not in the Greek, and take the word “Spirit” and make it a small “s”. Praying always with all prayer in spirit.

Now then, let’s all turn to James 5:17. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed. Can someone with something besides the King James read that? Alright, thank you very much. That is the correct translation of that – and he prayed with prayer that it should not rain…

Now then, brothers, tonight I am going to ask you to forget everything you ever knew about prayer and chuck it. Prayer has been the deadest, biggest burden that Christians can have. We’re together, Hallelujah! I didn’t know what was going to come out there. Oh, it’s been such a burden, hasn’t it? And we’ve been told over and over and over and over to pray. Now, brethren, listen, just forget everything you’ve ever done. I can just about assure you that it’s been wrong. I will say to you: do not stop praying. If you have the choice of not praying and praying the way you are praying now, pray the way you’re praying now, because every once in a while, you’ll accidentally hit the switch and turn on the light. Alright, good. So, every once in a while is better than never.