Prayer and Revelation - Online Christian Library

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etween God, "the one who searches hearts," and "the mind of theSpirit." God, who sees into the inner being of people, where theindwelling Spirit's ministry of intercession takes place, "knows,""acknowledges," and responds to those "intentions" of the Spiritthat are expressed in his prayers on our behalf. 34I have heard several preachers maintain that our passage does not teach that the Spiritprays for us, but that the Spirit helps us to pray. They say that the Spirit will not dosomething for you that you are supposed to do yourself, although he will help you do it.However, it begs the question to say that this passage does not teach that the Spirit praysfor us because it cannot be true that the Spirit prays for us. Rather, since this passageteaches that the Spirit prays for us, it means that it is true that the Spirit prays for us.Hebrews 7:25 indicates that Jesus Christ "always lives to intercede" for believers. Thushe has a ministry of intercession through which he prays for believers, and this ministryoccurs independently of the believers themselves. In addition, it occurs in heaven, so thatit is indeed "imperceptible to us." What our passage teaches is that the Holy Spirit alsohas a ministry of intercession. These preachers miss the point of the passage, whose veryintent is to tell us that the Spirit has a ministry of intercession through which he prays forbelievers, and that this is an act that occurs independently of the believers themselves, sothat it is also "imperceptible to us."These same preachers that I have heard would teach that Christ is interceding for us, andthey find no conflict between this ministry of intercession and our own responsibility topray. If we can acknowledge that Christ prays for us, then it is irrational to insist that theSpirit cannot also pray for us, especially when our passage explicitly states this. Christprays, the Spirit prays, and we pray – there is no conflict between these three.Jesus refers to the Spirit as "another Counselor" (John 14:16, or "Advocate"). That theSpirit should have a ministry of intercession for the benefit of Christians fits very wellwith his ministry of being the second Advocate, paralleling the ministry of Christ as thefirst Advocate. Christ now serves as our Advocate in heaven, and the Spirit now serves asthe indwelling Advocate on earth. Both of them pray for us.Just as the fact that Jesus Christ has a ministry of intercession on our behalf does notprevent or discourage us from praying, the fact that the Spirit also has a ministry ofintercession on our behalf should not prevent or discourage us from praying. It may verywell be true that the Spirit helps us pray, but the passage under discussion is saying thathe himself prays for us to God, and since his prayers are always in accordance with thewill of God, they are always effective, and this is something that we will examine later inthis chapter.Another contrary interpretation of our passage is that the "groans that words cannotexpress" refer to speaking in tongues. Since we do not always know for what to pray, theSpirit grants us words to speak in a language that we do not understand so as to bypass34 Moo, p. 526-527.24
the limitations of our minds. However, if our interpretation of this passage is correct, wehave already eliminated the possibility that Paul is referring to tongues. Our interpretationsays that it is the Spirit who prays in inaudible "groans" in a manner that is apart fromand imperceptible to believers, but this description excludes tongues altogether. This isnot to say that the Bible does not endorse speaking in tongues; whether it does or not, thispassage does not seem to have tongues in mind.This brings me to a point related to speaking in tongues, although it is not directlyrelevant to our passage. Regardless of whether we think speaking in tongues is for today,and regardless of what we think it does, many people who speak in tongues use it in away as to avoid having to struggle through the difficulties of praying in English (or theirknown languages). That is, whenever they find it hard to express themselves in English,or whenever they find it hard to extend the length of their prayers, they will simply beginspeaking in tongues, and thus avoid having to exert further effort in prayer. As a result,some important aspects their spiritual growth are halted.This is one criticism that Neil Babcox offers against speaking in tongues. Although hethinks that speaking in tongues is not for today, even if he is wrong about this, what hesays below is still applicable:At no time are we more aware of our weakness and inadequacythan when we kneel to pray….In the face of such spiritualhelplessness, tongues can become a crutch. For example, when Ifound myself mute and dumb in His presence, I could far tooquickly remedy the situation by praying in tongues. Again, when Iwas oppressed with a sense of guilt and felt alienated from God, itwas far more easy to pray in tongues than to search my heart forthe cause of the guilt. But what was all of this if it was not anevasion? Whereas previously I could avoid the difficulties inherentin prayer by resorting to tongues, now I found myself praying,"Lord, teach me to pray." 35There are various reasons why you may have trouble praying in English, but almost all ofthem relate to deficiencies in the mind. Maybe your thoughts are unclear; maybe you areeasily distracted; maybe you lack the ability to put your thoughts into words; or maybeyour ignorance of scriptural teaching prevents you from properly relating to God.Whatever the reason may be, rather than giving up or resorting to tongues, you muststruggle to attain fluency in pray. And since most of the problems are in the mind, this isthe area that you must work on. Peter Kreeft writes, "The first cause of a specificallyhuman act is always internal, not external. By 'a specifically human act' I mean one likeasking a question, creating a work of art, making a moral choice, affirming anotherperson, or appreciating the beauty of nature – or praying….That is why thought is wherethe action starts….Thought is the first battlefield." 3635 Neil Babock, My Search for Charismatic Reality; The Wakeman Trust, 1985; p. 65-66.36 Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners; Ignatius Press, 2000; p. 38-41.25
Page 1 and 2: PRAYER & REVELATIONVincent CheungCo
Page 3 and 4: PREFACEIn his book, With Christ in
Page 5 and 6: PRAYER AND THE TRIUNE GODThe doctri
Page 7 and 8: interpretation of Christianity, the
Page 9 and 10: of metaphysics (or reality), which
Page 11 and 12: nevertheless sound reluctant to blu
Page 13 and 14: 2. PRAYING TO THE FATHERThis, then,
Page 15 and 16: The above leads us to reject the no
Page 17 and 18: I urge you to read the sermon, "Sin
Page 19 and 20: 3. PRAYING BY THE SPIRITFor through
Page 21 and 22: First, we need to clarify what "gro
Page 23: The passage indeed implies that bel
Page 27 and 28: It is significant that when believe
Page 29 and 30: PRAYER AND THE DIVINE NATUREIn the
Page 31 and 32: 4. PRAYER AND SOVEREIGNTYI form the
Page 33 and 34: figures of speech; technically spea
Page 35 and 36: 5. PRAYER AND OMNISCIENCEAnd when y
Page 37 and 38: does not provide justification for
Page 39 and 40: that the man may receive the money
Page 41 and 42: Whatever we do, the principle remai
Page 43 and 44: this period of redemptive history i
Page 45 and 46: itself - that is, the physical obje
Page 47 and 48: 7. PRAYER AND MOTIVATIONAnd when yo
Page 49 and 50: sin that lingers. You must struggle
Page 51 and 52: 8. PRAYER AND OBEDIENCEIf anyone tu
Page 53 and 54: commands and remain in his love." I
Page 55 and 56: 9. PRAYER AND PERSISTENCEThen Jesus
Page 57 and 58: necessarily apply to our relationsh
Page 59 and 60: Then Jesus told his disciples a par
Page 61 and 62: to it intelligible information, 66
Page 63 and 64: PRAYER AND THE INNER LIFEThe inner
Page 65 and 66: 10. PRAYER AND EXPERIENCEOne day Je
Page 67 and 68: cannot tell me if you can catch all
Page 69 and 70: Would you condemn me to justify you
Page 71 and 72: elieve! Trust God! This is what God
Page 73 and 74: Our culture favors the free express
Page 75 and 76:
we cannot overemphasize the importa
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