Two of the most deeply significant passages in the Bible on the subject of
the Holy Spirit and on the subject of prayer are found in Jude 20 and Eph.
vi. 18. In Jude 20 we read, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on
your most holy faith, _praying in the Holy Ghost_,” and in Eph. vi. 18,
“_Praying_ always with all prayer and supplication _in the Spirit_, and
watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”
These passages teach us distinctly that _the Holy Spirit guides the
believer in prayer_. The disciples did not know how to pray as they ought
so they came to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke xi. 1). We
to-day do not know how to pray as we ought—we do not know what to pray
for, nor how to ask for it—but there is One who is always at hand to help
(John xiv. 16, 17) and He knows what we should pray for. He helps our
infirmity in this matter of prayer as in other matters (Rom. viii. 26, R.
V.). He teaches us to pray. True prayer is prayer in the Spirit (_i. e._,
the prayer that the Holy Spirit inspires and directs). The prayer in which
the Holy Spirit leads us is the prayer “according to the will of God”
(Rom. viii. 27). When we ask anything according to God’s will, we know
that He hears us and we know that He has granted the things that we ask (1
John v. 14, 15). We may know it is ours at the moment when we pray just as
surely as we know it afterwards when we have it in our actual possession.
But how can we know the will of God when we pray? In two ways: First of
all, by what is written in His Word; all the promises in the Bible are
sure and if God promises anything in the Bible, we may be sure it is His
will to give us that thing; but there are many things that we need which
are not specifically promised in the Word and still even in that case it
is our privilege to know the will of God, for it is the work of the Holy
Spirit to teach us God’s will and lead us out in prayer along the line of
God’s will. Some object to the Christian doctrine of prayer; for they say
that it teaches that we can go to God in our ignorance and change His will
and subject His infinite wisdom to our erring foolishness. But that is not
the Christian doctrine of prayer at all; the Christian doctrine of prayer
is that it is the believer’s privilege to be taught by the Spirit of God
Himself to know what the will of God is and not to ask for the things that
our foolishness would prompt us to ask for but to ask for things that the
never-erring Spirit of God prompts us to ask for. True prayer is prayer
“in the Spirit,” that is, the prayer which the Spirit inspires and
directs. When we come into God’s presence, we should recognize our
infirmity, our ignorance of what is best for us, our ignorance of what we
should pray for, our ignorance of how we should pray for it and in the
consciousness of our utter inability to pray aright look up to the Holy
Spirit to teach us to pray, and cast ourselves utterly upon Him to direct
our prayers and to lead out our desires and guide our utterance of them.
There is no place where we need to recognize our ignorance more than we do
in prayer. Rushing heedlessly into God’s presence and asking the first
thing that comes into our minds, or that some other thoughtless one asks
us to pray for, is not praying “in the Holy Spirit” and is not true
prayer. We must wait for the Holy Spirit and surrender ourselves to the
Holy Spirit. The prayer that God, the Holy Spirit, inspires is the prayer
that God, the Father, answers.
The longings which the Holy Spirit begets in our hearts are often too deep
for utterance, too deep apparently for clear and definite comprehension on
the part of the believer himself in whom the Spirit is working—“The Spirit
Himself maketh intercession for us _with groanings which cannot be
uttered_” (Rom. viii. 26, R. V.). God Himself “must search the heart” to
know what is “the mind of the Spirit” in these unuttered and unutterable
longings. But God does know what is the mind of the Spirit; He does know
what these Spirit-given longings which we cannot put into words mean, even
if we do not, and these longings are “according to the will of God,” and
God grants them. It is in this way that it comes to pass that God is able
to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to
the power that worketh in us (Eph. iii. 20). There are other times when
the Spirit’s leadings are so clear that we pray with the Spirit and with
the understanding also (1 Cor. xiv. 15). We distinctly understand what it
is that the Holy Spirit leads us to pray for.
II. _The Holy Spirit inspires the believer and guides him in thanksgiving_
as well as in prayer. We read in Eph. v. 18-20, R. V., “And be not drunken
with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
with your heart to the Lord; _giving thanks always_ for all things in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” Not only does the
Holy Spirit teach us to pray, He also teaches us to render thanks. One of
the most prominent characteristics of the Spirit-filled life is
thanksgiving. On the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were filled with
the Holy Spirit, and spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance, we hear them
telling the wonderful works of God (Acts ii. 4, 11), and to-day when any
believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, he always becomes filled with
thanksgiving and praise. True thanksgiving is “_to_ God, even the Father,”
_through_, or “in the name of” our Lord Jesus Christ, _in_ the Holy
Spirit.
III. _The Holy Spirit inspires worship_ on the part of the believer. We
read in Phil. iii. 3, R. V., “For we are the circumcision, who _worship by
the Spirit of God_, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in
the flesh.” Prayer is not worship; thanksgiving is not worship. Worship is
a definite act of the creature in relation to God. Worship is bowing
before God in adoring acknowledgment and contemplation of Himself and the
perfection of His being. Some one has said, “In our prayers, we are taken
up with our needs; in our thanksgiving we are taken up with our blessings;
in our worship, we are taken up with Himself.” There is no true and
acceptable worship except that which the Holy Spirit prompts and directs.
“God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him _in Spirit_
and truth; for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers” (John iv.
24, 23). The flesh seeks to intrude into every sphere of life. The flesh
has its worship as well as its lusts. The worship which the flesh prompts
is an abomination unto God. In this we see the folly of any attempt at a
congress of religions where the representatives of radically different
religions attempt to worship together.
Not all earnest and honest worship is worship in the Spirit. A man may be
very honest and very earnest in his worship and still not have submitted
himself to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the matter and so his
worship is in the flesh. Oftentimes even when there is great loyalty to
the letter of the Word, worship may not be “in the Spirit,” _i. e._,
inspired and directed by Him. To worship aright, as Paul puts it, we must
have “no confidence in the flesh,” that is, we must recognize the utter
inability of the flesh (our natural self as contrasted to the Divine
Spirit that dwells in and should mould everything in the believer) to
worship acceptably. And we must also realize the danger that there is that
the flesh intrude itself into our worship. In utter self-distrust and
self-abnegation we must cast ourselves upon the Holy Spirit to lead us
aright in our worship. Just as we must renounce any merit in ourselves and
cast ourselves upon Christ and His work for us upon the cross for
justification, just so we must renounce any supposed capacity for good in
ourselves and cast ourselves utterly upon the Holy Spirit and His work in
us, in holy living, knowing, praying, thanking and _worshipping_ and all
else that we are to do.