The Holy Spirit's Intercession - Charles Spurgeon / Christian Audio Sermons

Holy Spirit's intercession by charles haddon spurgeon this sermon was originally preached on April 11 the Year 1880 our text today comes from the book of Romans chapter 8 verses 26 and 27 in the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness we do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings at words cannot express and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will the Apostle Paul was writing to a tried and

afflicted people and one of his purposes was to remind them of the rivers of comfort which were flowing nearby he first of all stirred up their pure mind by causing them to remember their sonship for he says those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God they were therefore encouraged to take part with Christ the elder brother with whom they had become joint heirs and they were exhorted to suffer with him that they might afterwards be glorified with him all that they endured came from the father's hand and this should comfort

them a thousand sources of joy are opened in that one blessing of adoption blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have been born into the family of grace when Paul had alluded to that consoling subject he turned to the next round of comfort namely that we are to be sustained under the present trial by hope there is an amazing glory in reserved for us and though as yet we cannot enter upon it but in harmony with the whole create must continue to groan and travail yet the hope itself

should minister strength to us and enable us patiently to bear our light and momentary troubles this also is a truth full of sacred refreshment hope sees a crown and reserved mansions and readiness and Jesus himself preparing a place for us and by the rapturous sight she sustains the soul under the sorrows of the hour hope is the grand anchor by whose means we write out the present storm the Apostle then turns to a third source of comfort namely the abiding of the Holy Spirit in and with the Lord's people he uses a phrase in the

same way to suggest that in the same manner as Hope sustains the soul so does the Holy Spirit strengthen us under trial hope operated spiritually upon our spiritual senses and so does the Holy Spirit in some mysterious way divinely operate upon the newborn senses of a believer so that he is sustained in his weakness in his life shall we see light I pray therefore that we may be helped of the spirit why we consider his mysterious operations that we may not fall into error or miss precious truth through blindness of heart the text today speaks

of our weaknesses or as many translators put it in the singular our weakness this refers to our affliction and the weakness which trouble discovers in us the Holy Spirit helps us to bear the weakness of our body and of our mind he helps us to bear our cross whether it is physical pain or mental depression or spiritual conflict or slander or poverty or execution he helps us in our weakness and with the helper so divinely strong we need not fear for the result God's grace will be sufficient for us his strength will be made perfect

in a weakness I think they're friends you will all admit that if a man can pray is trouble as at once lightened when we feel that we have power with God and can obtain anything we ask for it is hands then our difficulty cease to oppress us we take our burden to our Heavenly Father and speak like a child with our childlike confidence and we come away quite content to bear whatever is holy will may lay upon us prayer is a great outlet for grief and stops the swelling flood which might have been too strong

for us we bathed our wound in the lotion of Prayer the pain is lessened the fever is removed we may be brought into such anxiety of mind and perplexity of heart that we do not know how to pray we see the mercy seat and we perceive that God will hear us we have no doubt about that for we know that we are his own favorite children and yet we hardly know what to ask for we fall into such heaviness of spirit and confusion of thought that the one remedy of Prayer which we have always found

to never fail appears to be taken from us here then in the nick of time and ever-present help in time of trouble comes in the Holy Spirit he draws near to teach us how to pray and in this way he helps our weakness relieves our suffering and enables us to bear the heavy burden without painting under the load at this time our subject for consideration shall be first the health which the Holy Spirit give secondly the prayers which he inspires and thirdly the success which such prayers are certain to obtain first let us consider the

help which the Holy Spirit gives the help which the Holy Spirit gives the help which the Holy Spirit provides us meets the weakness which we deplore as I've already said if in time of trouble a man can pray his burden loses its weight if the believer can take anything and everything to God then he learns to glory in his weakness and to rejoice in tribulation but sometimes we are in such confusion of mind that we do not know what we should pray for in a sense through our ignorance we never know what we should pray

for until we are taught by the Spirit of God but there are times when this obscurity of the soul is indeed dense and we do not even know what would help us out of our trouble if we could obtain it we see the disease but we do not know what kind of medicine to take we look over many things which we might ask for from the Lord and we feel that each of them would be helpful but that none of them would precisely meet our particular case for spiritual blessings which we know to be according

to the divine will we could ask for with confidence but perhaps these would not meet our particular circumstances there are other things for which we are allowed to ask for but we scarcely know whether if we had them they would really serve our needs and we also feel as shyness about praying for them in praying for worldly things we plead with precise prayers always referring our petition for the ultimate will of the Lord Moses prayed that he might enter Canaan but God denied him and the man that was healed asked our Lord that he might

be with him but the answer was received go home to your friends we always pray about such matters with this caveat yet Lord not as I will but as you will at times this very spirit of resignation appears to increase our spiritual difficulty but we do not wish to ask for anything that would be contrary to the mind of God and yet we must ask for something we know that we must pray but what shall be the particulars subject of prayer we cannot determine for a while even when ignorant and perplexity are removed we still

do not know what we ought to pray for even when we know what to pray for we yet fail to pray in the right manner we ask but we are afraid that we shall not have because we do not exercise the thought or the faith which we judge to be essential to prayer we cannot at times command the sincerity which is the life of supplication a sluggishness comes over us our heart is chilled our hand is numbed and we cannot wrestle with the angel we know what objects to pray for but we don't know how

we don't know how we ought to pray it is the manner of the prayer which perplexes us even when the matter is decided upon how can I pray my mind wanders i chat or like a longneck cream our roar like a beast in pain i moan in the brokenness of my heart but all my father i do not know what my inmost spirit needs or if i know it i do not know how to frame my petition rightly before you I do not know how to open my lips and your majestic presence I am so

troubled that I cannot speak my spiritual distress robs me of the power to pour out my heart before my god now Belov it is in such a dilemma as this that the Holy Spirit pays us with his divine help and therefore he is an ever-present help when we are in trouble coming to our aid in our bewilderment the Holy Spirit instructs us the Holy Spirit instructs us this is one of his frequent operations upon the mind of the believer he will teach you all things he instructs us as to our need and as to the

promises of God which refer to that need he shows us where our deficiencies are what our sins are and what our needs are he sheds a light upon our condition and makes us deeply feel our helplessness sinfulness and dire poverty and then he cast the same light upon the promises of the word and brings to the heart that very text which was intended to meet the occasion the precise promise which was made with the foresight of our present distress in that light he makes the promise shine and all his truthfulness certainty sweetness and suitability so

that we poor trembling sons of men dare take that word into our mouths which first came out of God's mouth and then we come before God using that very promise as an argument and plead it before the throne of heavenly grace our prevalence in prayer lies in the plea Lord do as you have said we must greatly value the Holy Spirit because when we are in the dark he gives us light and when our perplexed spirit is so confused and puzzled that it cannot see its own need and cannot discover the appropriate promise in the

scriptures the Spirit of God comes in and teaches us all things and reminds us of everything whatsoever our Lord has told us he guides us in prayer and thus he helps us in our weakness but the Blessed Spirit does more than this he will often direct the mind to the special subject of prayer he will often direct the mind to the special subject of prayer he dwells within us as a counselor and points out to us what it is we should seek at the hands of God we do not know why it is so but

we sometimes find our minds carried along by a strong current into a particular line of prayer for some definite object it is not merely that our judgment leads us in that direction though usually the Spirit of God acts upon us by enlightening our judgment but we often feel an unaccountable and irresistible desire rising again and again within our heart and this presses on us so much that we not only expressed the desire before God at our ordinary times of Prayer but we feel it crying in our hearts all day long almost to the point where

it replaces all other thoughts at such times we should thank God for direction and giving us such a clear Road the Holy Spirit is granting us in word direction so we can have confidence in the success of our pleadings such guidance will the Holy Spirit give to each of you if you will ask him to illuminate you he will guide you both negatively and positively negatively he will forbid you to pray for such and such a thing even as the Apostle Paul had tried to go into both inia but the Spirit would not allow him

and on the other hand he will cause you to hear a cry within your soul which shall guide your petitions even as he made Paul hear the cry from Macedonia saying come over of us the spirit wisely teaches has no other teacher can those who obey his promptings shall not walk in darkness he leads the spiritual eye to take good and steady aim at the very center of the target and thus we hit the mark in all of our pleadings nor is this all for the Spirit of God is not sent merely to guide and

help our devotion but he himself intercedes for us according to the will of God he himself intercedes for us according to the will of God by this expression it does not mean that the Holy Spirit himself ever groans or personally praise but rather that he excites intense desire and creates unutterable groaning in us and these are ascribed to him even as Solomon built the temple because he's super intended and ordained everything and yet I doubt that he ever fashioned a timber or prepared a stone likewise the holy spirit prays and pleads within us by leading

us to pray and clean this he does by arousing our desires the holy spirit has a wonderful power over renewed hearts as much power as the minstrel has over the strings of the instrument on which he lays his hand the influences of the Holy Spirit at times passed through the soul like winds through and helo and heart creating and inspiring sweet notes of gratitude and tones of desire to which we would have been strangers if it had not been for his divine visitation he can arouse us from our laziness he can warm us out of

our lukewarmness he can evil us when we are on our knees to rise above the ordinary routine of Prayer can do that victorious insistence against which nothing can stand he can plant certain desires so urgently in our hearts that we can never rest until they are fulfilled he can make the zeal for God's house to eat us up and the passion for God's glory to be like a fire within our bones and this is one part of that process by which in inspiring our prayers he helps our weakness he is a true advocate and a

most effective comforter blessed be his name the Holy Spirit also divinely operates in the strengthening of the faith of believers in the strengthening of the faith of believers our faith was first created by him and afterwards he is the one who sustained and increased it and all brothers and sisters have you not often felt your faith rise in proportion to your trials have you not like Noah's Ark ascended towards heaven as the flood deepened around you you have felt as sure about the promise as you felt about the trial the affliction was as it were

in your very bones but the promise was also in your very heart you could not doubt the affliction for you smarted under it but you could also not doubt the divine help for your confidence was firm and unmoved the greatest faith is only what God has a right to expect from us yet we can never exhibit it except as the Holy Spirit strengthens our confidence and opens up before us the covenant with all of its seals and securities he is the one that leads our soul to cry is not my house right with God has

he not made with me and everlasting covenant arranged and secured in every part blessed be the divine spirit in that sense faith is essential to prevailing prayer he helps us in supplication by increasing our faith without faith prayer is ineffective because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind that person should not think he will receive anything from the Lord we are happiest when the Holy Spirit removes our doubting and enables us like Abraham to believe without staggering knowing full well that he who has promised is also

able to perform by three examples I will endeavor to describe the work of the Spirit of God in this matter though they all fall short and indeed all that I can say must fall infinitely short of the glory of his work we cannot even attempt to explain the actual mode of his working upon the mind it remains a mystery and it would be an unholy intrusion to attempt to remove the veil there is no difficulty and our believing that as one human mind operates upon another mind so does the Holy Spirit influence our spirits we

are forced to use words if we would influence our fellow men but the Spirit of God can operate on the human mind more directly and communicate with it in silence into that matter however we will not die lest we intrude where our knowledge would be drowned by our presumption my illustrations do not touch the mystery but set forth the grace the Holy Spirit acts to his people somewhat as a prompter to a reciter he acts somewhat like a prompter to a reciter a man has to deliver a speech which he has learned but his memory

is treacherous and therefore somewhere out of sight is a prompter so that when the speaker is at a loss and might use a wrong word a whisper is heard which suggests the right word when the speaker has almost lost the thread of his discourse he turns his ear and the prompter gives him the key word or the key phrase in aids his memory if I may be allowed to make an allegory I would say that this represents in part the work of the Holy Spirit of God within us suggesting to us the right desire and

reminding us of everything Christ has said has said to us in his word in prayer we often come to an obstacle but he insights suggest and inspires and so we go onward in prayer we might grow weary but the comforter encourages and refreshes us with cheering thoughts when indeed we are in our confusion almost driven to give up prayer the whisper of his love drops a live coal off the altar into our soul and our hearts glow with a greater passion than before regard the Holy Spirit as your pump tree and let your ear be

open to his voice but he is much more than this let me attempt a second allegory the Holy Spirit is an advocate to one in peril at law the Holy Spirit is an advocate to one in peril at law suppose that a poor man had a great lawsuit against him affecting his whole estate and he was personally forced to go to court and plead his own case and speak up for his rights if he were an uneducated man he would be in a great dilemma an adversary in the court might plead against him and overthrow

him for he could not answer him the poor man knows very little about law and is quite unable to meet his cunning opponent suppose one comes along who was perfect in the knowledge of the law and should eagerly take up his calls and come and live with him and use all of his knowledge so as to prepare his case for him roll up his petition for him and fill his mouth with arguments wouldn't that be a great belief the counselor would suggest the line of pleading arrange the arguments and put them into the proper legal

language when the poor man was baffled by a question asked in court he would simply run home and asked his advisor and he would tell him exactly how to meet the objector suppose to that when he had to plead with the judge himself this advocate at home should teach him how to behave and what to ask and encourage him to hope that he would prevail wouldn't this be a great benefit who would the Pleader be in such a case the poor client would plead but still when he won the suit he would trace it all

to the advocate who lived at home and gave him the counsel indeed it would be the Advocate pleading for him even while he pleaded himself this is an instructive picture of a great fact within this narrow house of my body this residence of clay if I am a true believer there dwells the holy spirit and when I desire to pray I may ask him how I ought to pray and what to ask and he will help me he will write the prayers which I ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart and I shall

see them there and so shall I be taught how to plead it will be the spirit himself pleading in me and by me and through me before the throne of grace what a happy man in his lawsuit would such a poor man be and how happy are you and I that we have the Holy Spirit to be our counselor yet one more illustration is that of a father aiding his son of father aiding his son suppose it was a time of war centuries ago old english warfare was then conducted by bowmen to a great extent

here is a youth there to be initiated in the art of archery and therefore he carries a bow it is a strong bow and therefore very hard to draw indeed it requires more strength than the young boy can summon to bend it see how his father teaches him put your right hand here my boy and place your left hand so now pool and as the youth pools his father's hands are on his hands and the bow is drawn the lad draws the bow yes but it is quite as much as father - we cannot draw

the bow of Prayer alone sometimes the bow of Steel is not broken by our hands but we cannot even bend it then then the Holy Spirit puts his mighty hand over ours and covers our weakness so that we draw and then what splendid drawing of the bow it is the bow bends so easily we wonder how it could be away flies the arrow and it pierces the very center of the target for he who gives has won the day but it was his secret strength that made us strong and to him be the glory for

it but us have I tried to set forth the reassuring fact that the Spirit helps the people of God our second subject is the prayer which the Holy Spirit inspire or that part of the prayer which is especially and particularly the work of the Spirit of God our text says the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that words cannot express it is not the spirit that groans but we that groan but as I've shown you the spirit excited the emotion which causes us to groan it is clear that the prayers which are incited in

us by the Spirit of God are those which arise from our inmost soul are those which arise from our inmost soul a man's heart is moved when he groans a groan is a matter about which there is no hypocrisy a groan does not come from the lips but from the heart a groan then is a part of prayer which we owe to the Holy Spirit and the same is true of all prayer which Wells up from the deep thousands of our inner life the Prophet cried all my anguish my anguish I rise in pain all

the agony of my heart my heart pounds within me I cannot keep silent this deep groundswell of desire this tidal motion of the life floods is caused by the holy spirit his work is never superficial but always deep and inward such prayers will arise within us when the mind is far too troubled to let us speak when the mind is far too troubled to let us speak we do not know what we ought to pray for and then it is that we groan or other some other inarticulate sound Hezekiah said I moan like a dove

in mourning the psalmist said I am feeble and utterly crushed I groan in anguish part but he added all my longings fly open before you Oh Lord my sign is not hidden from you the groans of the prisoner are surely heard by the ears of the Lord there is real prayer and these groans that words cannot express it is the power of the Holy Spirit in us which creates all real prayer even that which takes the form of a groan because the mind is incapable by reason of its confusion and grief of clothing it's emotion

in words I pray that you never think lightly of the supplications of your anguish rather judge that such prayers are like job as of whom it is written that he was more honourable than his brothers because his mother bore him with sorrow that which is brought up from the depth of the soul when it is third with a terrible storm is more precious than pearls for it is the intercession of the Holy Spirit these prayers are sometimes groans that words cannot express because they concern such great things that they cannot be spoken because they concern

such great things that they cannot be spoken I want my lord I want I want I cannot tell you what I want but I seem to want all things if it were some little thing my limited ability could comprehend and describe it but I need all covenant blessings you know what I need before I ask you and though I cannot go into each item of my need I know it is very great beyond what I can estimate I groan for I can do no more prayers which are the offspring of great desires sublime aspirations are

surely the work of the Holy Spirit and their power within a man is frequently so great that he cannot find expression for them words fail and even the groans which try to symbolize them cannot be expressed but it may be beloved that we groan because we are conscious of the littleness of our desire and the narrowness of our faith because we are conscious of the littleness of our desire and the narrowness of our pain the trial may seem too lonely to pray about I have known what it is to feel as if I could not

pray about a certain matter and yet I have been obliged to groan about it a thorn in the flesh may be as painful a thing as a sword in the bones and yet we may go and ask the Lord three times about it and getting no answer we may feel that we do not know what we ought to pray for and yet it makes us groan yes and with that natural groan there may go up an inexpressible groaning of the holy spirit beloved what a different view of prayer God has from that which men think

to be the correct one you may have seen very beautiful prayers and prints and you may have heard very charming compositions from the pulpit but I trust you have not fallen in love with them judge these things rightly I pray you never think much of fine prayers for before the most holy God it does not become a sinful petitioner to play the orator we heard of a certain clergyman who was said to have spoken the finest prayer ever offered to a Boston audience if that is true then the Boston audience received the prayer can their

attended we want the mind of the Spirit in prayer and not the mind of the flesh the tail feathers of pride should be pulled out of all of our prayers for they need only the wing feathers of faith the peacock feathers a poetical expression are out of place before the throne of God listen to me no matter how remarkably beautiful his language was in his prayer no matter how intellectually satisfied his prayer was God looks at the heart to God fine language is the same as a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal but a groan

has music in it we do not like groans our ears are much too delicate to tolerate such dreary sounds but not so the great father of spirits my brother cries out amen and you say I cannot bear such noise no but if it comes from the man's heart God can bear it when you go into your bedroom this evening to pray and you find that you cannot pray but at the moan out lord I am too full of anguish and to perplexed to pray please hear my groans though you say nothing else you will really

be praying when like David we can say I open my mouth and pant then we are in the proper state of mind all fine language and prayer and especially all chanting and performing the prayers must be abhorrent to God it is a little short of profanity to offer solemn supplication to God in the form of chanting the groaning of a true heart is infinitely more acceptable for it is the work of the Spirit of God we may say that the prayers which the Holy Spirit works enough our prayers of knowledge notice our difficulty is that

we do not know what we should pray for but the Holy Spirit does know and therefore he helps us by enabling us to pray intelligently knowing what we are asking for for this knowledge is needful for our prayers to be valid the tax speaks of the mind of the spirit what a mind that must be the mind of that spirit who arranged all the order which now pervades the earth there once was chaos and confusion but the Holy Spirit hovered over it all and his mind is the originator of that beautiful arrangement which we so

admire in the visible creation what a mind his must be the Holy Spirit's mind is seen in our inner sessions when under his sacred influence we order our case before the Lord and plead with Holy wisdom for things fitting and necessary what wise and admirable desires must those be which the spirit of wisdom Himself works in us moreover my friends the Holy Spirit's intercession creates prayers offered in a proper manner creates prayers offered in a proper manner I showed you that the difficulty is that we do not know what we ought to pray for and

the spirit meets that difficulty by making intercession for us in a right manner the Holy Spirit works in us humility seriousness intensity persistence faith and resignation and everything else that is acceptable to God in our supplications we do not know how to mingle these sacred spices in the incense of prayer we have left through ourselves that our very best get too much of one ingredient or another and spoil the sacred compound but the Holy Spirit's intercessions having them such a blessed blending of all that is good that they come up as a sweet perfume before

the Lord Spirit taught prayers or offered as they ought to be they are his own intercession in some respects for we read that the Holy Spirit not only helps us that himself intercedes it is twice declared in our text that he makes intercession for us and the meaning of this I tried to show when I described a father has put in his hand upon his child's hands this is something more than helping us to pray something more than encouraging us or directing us but I'd venture no further except to say that he put such force

of his own mind into our poor weak thoughts and desires and hopes that he himself makes intercession for us working in us to will and to pray according to his good pleasure I want you to notice however that these intercessions of the spirit are only in the Saints he intercedes for us and he intercedes for the Saints these intercessions of the spirit are only in the Saints does he do anything for unsaved sinners yes he quickens sinners into spiritual life and he strives with them to overcome their sinfulness and turn them into the right way

but in the Saints he works with us and enables us to pray after his mind and according to the will of God his intercession is not in or for the unregenerate o unbelievers you must first be made Saints or you cannot feel the spirits intercession within you why would unbelievers need to go to Christ for the blessing of the Holy Spirit which is distinct to the children of God and can only be ours by faith in Christ Jesus to all who received him to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become

children of God and to the children of God alone comes the spirit of adoption and all his helping grace unless we are the children of God the Holy Spirit's indwelling shall not be ours we are shut out from the intercession of the Holy Spirit yes and from the intercession of Jesus too for he has said I do not pray for the world but for those which the father has given me thus I have tried to show you the kind of prayer which the Spirit inspires our third and last point is to assure success of all

such prayers for sure success of all such prayers all the prayers which the Spirit of God inspires in us must succeed because first there is a meaning in them which God reads and approves there is a meaning in them which God reads and approves when the Spirit of God writes a prayer upon a man's heart the man himself may be in such a state such a state of mind that he does not altogether know what it is his interpretation of it is a groan and that is old perhaps he does not even get so far

as that in expressing the mind of his spirit but he feels groanings which he cannot express he cannot find a means of expressing his inward grief yet our Heavenly Father who looks immediately upon the heart reads what the Spirit of God has composed there and does not need even our groans to explain the meaning he reads the heart itself he knows as the text he knows the mind of the Spirit the Spirit is one with the father and the father knows what the Spirit means the desires which the Spirit prompts may be to spiritual for

such babes and grace to describe or to express and yet the spirit writes the desire on the renewed mind and the father sees it now that which God reads in the heart and approves of for the word knows in this case includes approval as well as the mere act of omniscience what God sees and approves of in the heart must succeed didn't Jesus say your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things before you ask them didn't he tell us this as an encouragement to believe that we shall receive all the blessings we need

so it is with those prayers which are all broken up wet with tears and sighs and inarticulate expressions and he beans of the chest and sobbings of the heart and anguish and bitterness of spirit our gracious Lord reads them has a man reads a book and they are written in a way which he fully understands to give a simple illustration if I were to come into your house I might find there a little child that cannot yet speak clearly it cries for something and it makes very odd and objectionable noises combined with signs and movements

which are almost meaningless to strangers but his mother understands him and attends to his little pleadings a mother can translate baby-talk she comprehends incomprehensible noises likewise our Father in heaven knows all about our poor Baby Talk for our prayer is not much better he knows and comprehends the crimes and meanings and signs and chatterings of his bewildered children yes a tender mother knows her child's needs before the child knows what at once perhaps the little one stutters stammers he cannot get his words out but the mother sees what he would say and takes the meaning

even so we know that our Great Father knows the thoughts we need to speak before we even open our lips my brethren rejoice in this that because the prayers of the spirit are known and understood by God therefore they will be sure to be heard and answered the next argument for making us sure that our prayers will be heard as this that they are the mind of the spirit that they are the mind of the spirit the ever blessed God is one and there could be no division between the Father the Son and the Holy

Spirit these divine persons always work together and there is a common desire for the glory of each blessed person of the divine unity and therefore it cannot be conceived without profanity that anything could be the mind of the Holy Spirit and not be the mind of the father and the mind of the son the mind of God is one in harmonious if therefore the Holy Spirit dwells in you and he moves you to any desire that his mind is in your prayer and it is not possible that the Eternal Father should reject your petitions that

prayer which came from heaven will certainly go back to heaven if the Holy Spirit prompts it the father must and will accept it for it is not possible that he would ever ignore the ever blessed and adorable spirit but one more word and that completes the argument namely that the work of the spirit in the heart is not only the mind of the Spirit which God knows but it is also according to the will or mind of God for he never makes intercession in us other than what is consistent with the Divine Will he never

makes intercession in us other than what is consistent with the Divine Will now the Divine Will or mind may be viewed two ways first there is the will declared in the proclamations of holiness by the Ten Commandments the Spirit of God never prompts us to ask for anything that is unholy or inconsistent with the precepts of the Lord then secondly there is the secret mind of God the will of his eternal predestination and decree of which we know nothing but we do know this that the Spirit of God never prompts us to ask anything which

is contrary to the eternal purpose of God reflect on this for a moment the Holy Spirit knows all the purposes of God and when they are about to be fulfilled he moves the children of God to pray about them and so their prayers keep touch entirely with the divine decrees old would you not pray confidently if you knew that your prayer corresponds with a sealed book of destiny we may safely ask the Lord to do what he is ordained to do a carnal man draws the inference that if God has ordained an event we need

not pray about it but faith obediently draws the inference that the God who's secretly ordained to give the blessing has openly commanded that we should pray for it and therefore they obediently praise coming events cast their shadows before them and when God is about to bless his people his coming favor cast a shadow of prayer over the church when he is about to favor an individual he cast the shadow of hopeful expectation over his soul our prayers let men laugh at them as they will and say there is no power in them our prayers are

the indicators of the movements of the wheels of Providence believing supplications or forecasts of the future he you praise him phases like the profitable sees that which is to be his holy expectant see like a telescope brings distant objects nearer to him he is bold to declare that he has the petition which he has asked of God and he therefore begins to rejoice and to praise God even before the blessing has actually arrived so it is prayer prompted by the Holy Spirit is the footstep of the divine decree I conclude by saying see my dear

listeners the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit for if the Saints do not know what they ought to pray for if consecrated men and women with Christ suffering in them still feel their need of instruction of the Holy Spirit how much more to you who are not Saints they have never given yourselves up to God require divine teaching all that you would know and feel your dependence upon the Holy Spirit that he may prompt though once crucified but now ascended Redeemer that this gifts of the Spirit this promise of the Father is shed abroad upon

men may he who comes from Jesus leads you to Jesus and then you the people of God let this last thought remain with you what condescension is this that the divine person should live in you forever and that he should be with you to help you with your prayers listen to me for a moment if I read in the scriptures that in the most heroic acts of faith God the Holy Spirit helps his people I can understand it if I read that in the sweetest music of their songs when they worship best and sing their

lofty restrains before the Most High God the spirit helps them I can understand it and even if I hear that in their wrestling prayers and prevalent intercession God the Holy Spirit helps them I can understand it but I bow with reverent amazement my heart sinking into the dust with adoration when I reflect that God the Holy Spirit helps us when we cannot speak but only groan yes and when we cannot even express our groanings he then not only helps us but he claims as his own particular creation they're very groanings that cannot be expressed this

is indeed condescension in lowering himself to help us in the grief that cannot even vent itself in groaning he proved himself to be the true comforter Oh God my God you have not forsaken me you are not far from me nor from the voice of my groaning you did for a while leave the firstborn when he was made a curse for us so that he cried in agony why have you forsaken me but you will not leave one of the many brethren for whom he died the spirit will be with them when they cannot so

much has grown he will make intercession for them with groanings that cannot be expressed God bless you my beloved brethren and may you feel the Spirit of the Lord thus working in you and with you amen and amen