The Holy Spirit: Our Helper in Prayer

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Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, August 20th. Today’s episode continues the series on the power of the Holy Spirit with a focus on one of His most vital roles, helping us in prayer.

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One of the most powerful privileges you and I have is the privilege of prayer. That is that we have the privilege of personally talking to the only true living God. And the wonder of it all is this, that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are all involved every single time we pray. And I’m persuaded that if most of us understood what really takes place, when we pray, we would pray more, more often, and see more results. Well, I’m trusting today that this message is going to encourage you in your praying if you understand a little better exactly what happens every single time you and I come to God in prayer. The title of this message is The Holy Spirit, a Helper in Prayer. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Romans chapter 8. And in this familiar passage, Paul gives us an explanation of what really takes place when you and I pray. Beginning in verse 26, and we’ll read the 26th and the 27th verses. He says, And in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. But we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Now, there are three primary truths that I want us to understand from this passage that I think will be an encouragement to us. And the first one is this, and that is we need the Holy Spirit’s help in our prayer. We need the Holy Spirit to be a helper in our prayer. And one of the primary reasons is because we struggle in prayer. That is, there are times when you and I pray when we don’t know what to ask God for. We don’t know how to ask Him. There are times when we don’t know how to express exactly what we feel. We don’t know what the will of the Lord is. There are times when you and I pray, we come to a situation, and there’s no way for us to know all the circumstances, to know what God is up to in that given situation. So we do struggle in our prayer at times. The Bible says… that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help us because He knew we would struggle in our praying. And so this is what Paul is referring to here in Romans when he says, and in the same way referring to what he’s been talking about before, other groanings of creation and man. He says in the same way, the Spirit helps our weaknesses for we do not know how to pray, he says, as we should. So he’s including himself here. He says, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Now, he sent the Holy Spirit to be a helper. Now, you and I know the Holy Spirit has many ministries in our life. That He comes to be our teacher. He comes to be our guide. He comes to reveal, to interpret the Word of God for us. He comes to gift us for the work of ministry, to empower us in whatever God has called us to do. But one of His primary responsibilities is a helper in prayer. Now, I want you to turn back to John chapter 14 for a moment. And you recall that Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples. And in this particular series of chapters here, you’ll notice how often Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as our helper. He says in chapter 14, verse 16, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, that is one just like me, that he may be with you forever. And then if you’ll notice in the 26th verse, the same chapter, He says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. And then if you’ll notice in the 15th chapter and the 26th verse, he says, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me. Chapter 16 and verse 7. Jesus wanted those apostles to understand that though he had just said to them, I’m going away. And though he had just said to them, I will not leave you comfortless, these were his ways of assuring them that God loved them enough that he would not leave them after he had gone. He says, I will come to you. And he would come to him in the presence of the helper, that is the Holy Spirit. We see him in a very practical way as a helper. So the Holy Spirit is not this thing, this force up yonder in heaven somewhere, but Jesus identified him as a personal helper. Now remember, That personal helper lives within the life of every single believer. We are believers because we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior. The Holy Spirit has come to indwell us. And so every single believer has the Holy Spirit living inside him or her. Now he is a very practical helper when he says he is a helper. There are two words here for helper. One of them is the word parakletos, which he uses in each of these chapters in John 14, 15, 16. And that simply means, when he talks about a helper there, one who is someone to give assistance to someone else. But in the Romans chapter, Romans chapter 8, when he says that the Holy Spirit helps our weaknesses, that word is only used one other time in the New Testament. And I want you to turn back, if you will, to Luke chapter 10. And it’s used here in a very familiar passage. And again, it speaks of exactly what you and I know helping to mean. And that is indeed a very practical approach, sharing the load with someone else. someone getting up under the load with us, someone sharing the task with us, someone helping us, we say, in a given situation. You recall this is the story of Jesus dropping by to see Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And what happens is that when Jesus comes by, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus and she wants to hear what He has to say. Martha is in the kitchen rattling her clay pots and pans. The Bible says that, verse 40, Martha was distracted with all her preparations. Isn’t that usually our problem in prayer? We get distracted by so many things that crowd in upon us, so many things that call upon us, so many things that are required of us. It says, Do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Can’t you imagine? She’s in the kitchen, big old tears streaming down her cheek, having a big pity party. Here’s her sister sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing all these tremendous truths. She’s in here trying to prepare lunch or dinner. And finally, she just couldn’t handle it anymore. So she goes to Jesus and she says, don’t you care that I’m in here working, slaving over this stove and Mary’s sitting down here doing nothing? The Lord said to Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things. And I love the King James. It says, You know what that means? It means running around in circles. Martha, you’re just running around in circles. You’re coming with so many things, distracted. And he says to her, Mary has taken the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Now, the reason I give you that passage is because when she says in verse 40, tell then her to help me. We’re talking about practical help. That is, I want her in the kitchen with me, cutting up the string beans or shucking the corn or whatever she was doing. I want her in the kitchen helping me. Well, what the Bible tells us about the Holy Spirit is He is a personal helper and He came to help us in our praying. He’s a personal helper. And this should say something to you and to me about our praying, if you’ll notice what he says in verse 26. And in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself, that is, he doesn’t send some angel to help us. The Holy Spirit himself, living within you and me, is indeed a personal helper. Now, That means that he is personally involved in whatever God has us doing. The Holy Spirit who’s living within us is personally involved in every single thing that we’re doing. He is a personal helper. He says he helps us himself. Now, what does that say to us? It says something else. It says that God’s value on prayer is much greater than ours. That God sees prayer as such a vital part of our life. That God wants it to be such a momentary part of our life. moment by moment, day by day, that He gave us the very best that He could give us in order to assist us in His praying. What did He do? He didn’t send an angel. He came in the person of the Godhead, of the Holy Spirit, to live within us, what? To express His tremendous love and caring for us. to express his viewpoint of how important our prayer life is. And so he says, I’m sending him. And when he comes, what will he do? He will intercede before the Father in your behalf when you pray. What a wonderful expression and reassurance of God’s love for us and of the importance God places on your personal prayer life. It is not to be neglected. If there’s going to be any power in our life whatsoever, there must be prayer. If there’s going to be any wisdom, there must be prayer. If we’re going to walk obediently before God, there must be prayer. If we’re going to live a yielded life, there must be prayer. If God is going to accomplish in your life and mine what he has chosen to do, we must be men and women of prayer, God has decreed it to be so, and he has done everything in his sovereign power other than to cross our will in order to enable us to be praying men and women. You have never come to God at a single time in your life since you’ve been saved to cry out to him and God ever say to you in any fashion. The Spirit’s never witnessed your spirit to say, I’m sorry, the line’s busy. God has never said that to you. That’s one of the gifts of being a Christian. You and I have instantaneous access to the throne of God through the Holy Spirit. He sent him as a helper to help us, to aid us, to assist us in our praying, and that’s what he’s referring to here. Now, Not far off somewhere, but living on the inside of us, how long? Forever. Intimately involved in every single thing that concerns us is the Holy Spirit assisting us, enabling us in our prayer. Not only that, but He certainly is an able helper in our prayer. That is, He’s adequate for every single thing. Now, how do we know that? First of all, He’s part of the Godhead. And what does that say to me? Well, thank God I don’t have to worry about whether he understands or knows what I’m thinking or not. He’s omniscient. He knows everything. There’s not a single thing God the Spirit does not know about us absolutely perfectly. He knows past, present, and future. And so the one whom the Father has sent to assist us in our praying has absolute, complete, and perfect knowledge of every single incident and situation, circumstance, need, and desire in life, no exception. Not a one. And better than that, he’s omnipotent. He who knows all the needs has the power to provide them. He who knows when we need guidance and direction and wisdom and what to do next, He’s the one who provides it. Living on the inside of you and me is the person of the Holy Spirit whom God says He sent in order to aid us in our praying, which means there’ll be no miscommunicating anything. He knows it perfectly, and he has the power to deal with it. Now, the big question is, how does he help us in prayer? And there are many ways he helps us in prayer, and I want us to look at that for a moment. First of all, he understands our weakness. Isn’t that not what he says? In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should. In the King James Version, I believe it says, we do not know what to pray for. Well, in the Greek, that little word, ti, has an article before it which means this. We don’t know the what to pray for. We don’t know the what to pray for. Now, what is Paul saying? Paul isn’t saying that we don’t know what to pray for lots of times. Generally, for example, there’s some things we can always be safe in praying for people. Turn to Colossians chapter 1. And if you’ll notice in this prayer, when Paul writes to the Colossian church in this first chapter, beginning in verse 9, because this is a prayer that you and I could pray for anyone and always be right. It would always be the will of God. These are not the kind of prayers that causes problems. But look at this. Verse 9, for this reason also since the day we heard of it, we’ve not ceased to pray for you and to ask. Now ask what? Now wouldn’t you want somebody to pray this for you? And secondly, ask yourself the question, isn’t this the will of God for everyone? What? First of all, that we be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that we may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, and that we would be fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, that we might be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father. Now, we know that’s the will of God. We don’t ever have to come to the Lord and say, Lord, I hope this is your will. Listen, sometimes we have to come to God and say, Lord, I don’t know what to ask for in this given situation. I don’t know what to say. Now, we don’t have to feel guilty because we don’t know what to say. That’s what he’s referring to here. The Holy Spirit, listen, he says the Holy Spirit understands… He understands exactly what our needs are and so therefore He always understands exactly, specifically how we are to pray. So first of all I’m saying the way He helps us is He has full understanding. Secondly, He knows our needs and desires. He understands that we don’t know, but He knows our needs and desires. Go back, if you will, to Matthew chapter 6. Again, a familiar passage. And here is the passage that Jesus was talking about. What causes us anxieties in life? What causes us anxiety? Well, to those people, food, clothing, and shelter, that is the daily needs of carrying out our life. And so He says in verse 31, don’t be anxious about these things. And then… If you’ll notice in verse 32, for all these things, the Gentiles, that is the pagans, the unbelievers eagerly seek after. They spend their whole life and spend all of their time and energy and effort after these things. But he says, your heavenly father knows that you need all these things. He knows all the needs. Remember in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, he says that before our heavenly father, all things are laid bare. You can’t even think of a need that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit don’t already know about. Our needs are fully known by the Holy Spirit. He understands our frustrations, our anxieties that we don’t know how to ask for them. He understands fully all of our needs. And He knows the will of God. He knows the will of the Father because it is His will. Look, if you will, in 1 Corinthians and hold this chapter. We’re coming back to it again in a moment. 1 Corinthians 2, listen to what he says. Paul has been talking about how the Lord has revealed certain things to him. And notice, if you will, in verse 11 of the second chapter. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God. That is, the Holy Spirit who is living within us knows perfectly the mind of the Father. He knows perfectly the mind of the Father, so He knows the Father’s will. So the one who is assisting us is not assisting us in ignorance. He’s not going to make any mistakes, not going to pass on any miscommunication, but the Scripture says He knows us perfectly. He knows exactly what we need, and He knows exactly what to ask. Not only that. The Holy Spirit will reveal to us the Father’s will. One of the reasons we don’t know how to ask is we don’t know the Father’s will. It is the work of the Spirit who lives within us to show us the Father’s will. Now back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 again. Notice what he says now. Back in verse 10 he says, For to us God revealed them, these things that he needed to know, through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. Verse 12 says, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us of God. Now I want you to listen carefully. My friend, the will of God is the plan of God and the purpose of God. for your life and my life. It is the intention of God for us. It is the intention of God for us in this decision, that decision, the other. It is the purpose and plan of God for our life next week, next month, next year, our vocation, our marriage, our family, our children, all these things. That is, the Father has a will for all of that. Now, the will of God isn’t some mystery which God withholds from us. That is, God isn’t saying, I know what I want you to do, just try to find out. And so often, young people say, well, you know, God’s not showing me His will. And so we get confused and frustrated. Listen, the will of God is the purpose of God in your life and my life at that very moment for the very thing we are asking Him about. He will show us. And you see, we say the Holy Spirit is our assistant in prayer. He came to help us in prayer. He knows that we have frustrations and we don’t know what to ask for. But the Holy Spirit knows us perfectly. He understands us. He knows the will of the Father, and He’s willing to reveal it. It was the Holy Spirit that revealed to the Apostle Paul the truths that he knew. And the same Holy Spirit that revealed those great divine truths to the Apostle Paul will reveal the mind of God to you and me about those things we’re concerned about. He wants us to know. And if we don’t know, it is not God’s fault. Why did he send the Holy Spirit? He sent him as a helper.

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Thank you for listening to The Holy Spirit, Our Helper in Prayer. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.