IPHC World Missions Ministries

HOW TO PRAY IN THE SPIRIT

By Marty Delmon

Praying in the Spirit is one of the foundations of the Christian life, but I’m not talking about praying in tongues. I’m talking about all prayer.

Ephesians 6:18 “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

Notice the word ‘all’. It means every time we pray our prayer must be in the Spirit. Anything else is praying in the flesh. The word prayer is used 25 times in the Gospels in connection with how the Lord lived His life. Jesus prayed often! When Jesus said ‘Follow Me’ He meant ‘mimic Me’. His is a life of prayer even now.

Hebrews 7:25 “He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Romans 8:34 “…It is Christ…who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

If Jesus is praying right now, then it is impossible for us to have fellowship with Him without us praying. We cannot follow Jesus unless we, personally, pray in the Spirit. So if all prayer is to be ‘in the Spirit’, how do we do that?

Acts 12:5 “…constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.”

This Scripture gives us the key to this life of praying in the Spirit. Look at the words ‘to God’. The prayer that has power is ‘to God’. You might say, well that’s too simple. Yes, it is simple, but we’ve been blinded by it because ‘to God’ means ‘face to face’. We must be there with God when we pray. We must be in His Presence. This is the powerful key to praying “in the Spirit”. We must see Him to be able to talk to Him. In face to face conversation, there is communion.

The first key to praying ‘in the Spirit’ is to wait on the Lord. We have been taught to start praying and somewhere along the line the Holy Spirit will join us. However, when we just launch into prayer, all we are doing is speaking empty words. The truth is – we don’t say one word until the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts. We need to learn to come into the Presence of the Lord and say nothing.

We’re uncomfortable with silence. We want to talk right away and get everybody to say ‘amen’ and then we feel we’ve done our job. But we accomplish nothing. Prayer is not just pouring out our hearts. We can do that with a psychologist or even with a dog. That brings relief, but no answer. We want answers when we pray. We want something to change. Therefore, we have to wait on the Lord.

#1 Say Nothing. Wait on the Lord.

Wait until the Holy Spirit moves and that’s when we know to begin. We know when He manifests. He doesn’t sneak up on us. It’s quite evident when He shows up. We are to wait until He expresses Himself, even if the waiting drives us mad. How long do we wait? As long as it takes. If we pray before He shows up, we’re wasting our breath and our time.

That’s the problem with most prayers. People are not willing to wait for the Lord. To help ourselves wait we can read the Bible, play a worship tape, or just sit there. There comes a moment when the heart begins to soften, when the Spirit of God begins to blow, an amazing blanket of love falls, tears spring forth. Then, and only then, can we present our petition.

1 Thess 5:17 “…pray without ceasing”.

That doesn’t mean 24/7. That means praying with such high intention that our prayer is presented until it is answered. Like a hungry baby reaching out for food, he or she cannot be distracted, this is how we must be with our petitions. We reach out to Him until we have our answer.

#2 Pray High Intention Prayers.

Hebrews 5:7 “Who in the days of His flesh when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear.”

Praying in the Spirit is done with selective words. The prayer is intense with feeling, but we are not blabbing away. We are in agony and ecstasy at the same time. We cannot make this happen in the flesh. In the natural we can compare this to being very stressed so we jump in the car, go to the beach, or go to the mountains, and we walk, or wade, or hike, or just lay in the sun, and the stress goes away. When we pray in the Spirit it is like that. The peace is glorious. The light warms us. The joy makes us laugh from the inside out. Everything negative disappears. All we want is to be with the Lord. Then all of a sudden we know what to say. It isn’t at all what we thought we would say. Our words come out precisely chosen and effective!

#3 Speak Only The Words The Holy Spirit Speaks.

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

When we are reaching out to God with intensity the Holy Spirit is praying. I believe that working up our own prayers is repulsive to God because He gave us the Holy Spirit so that He can pray.

We have a mentality of ‘going after God’ but that is in our own flesh. ‘Going after God’ can be anything from people who beat themselves with whips to people who think making a lot of noise and running around impresses God. It doesn’t. The only all night prayer meetings that impress God are the ones that happen because we are in fellowship with Him, time goes by and its morning before we know it.

It is so much easier to be in the flesh than to be in the Spirit. We are accustomed to the flesh; we live there. When we come into God’s presence, He wants us to let Him do the work. We’re not comfortable with that. In the flesh it is always you and me who do the work. But in prayer He wants to be the one to carry our prayer life. The secret to the power of God is surrender. Let Him lead our prayers.

Psalm 145:18, 19 “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.”

The flesh doesn’t know the truth. It only knows what it sees and what it can figure out and the flesh never has all the facts nor does it see everything. Does God answer our prayers? No. Not one. He only answers the prayers He prays through us. What we pray is in the flesh. Only what He prays is in the Spirit. We have to get to the place where our prayer life dies and His prayer life lives. He is the Intercessor.

Praying in the Spirit means He prays, not us. All we can do is offer ourselves as a vehicle for the Intercessor. Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit are called Intercessors in the Bible. How do we become available for the Intercessor? Stop praying and let God do the praying. It’s not us talking to God, its God talking to God through us. Our job is to surrender and let Him use our bodies through which to pray. God is not looking for prayer warriors; He’s looking for prayer partners.

Romans 8:27 “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

1 John 5:14 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us.”

We don’t know how to pray because we don’t know God’s will; only Jesus and the Holy Spirit know His will. All we are is a mouthpiece. Our job is to give Him our vessel. How can we give Him our vessel if we are blabbing away before we allow the Holy Spirit to rise up big within us?

We’re not prayer warriors, nor are we intercessors, we are vehicles for The Prayer Warrior; we are vehicles for The Intercessor. We must pray in the Spirit if we want the will of God to be manifested in our lives and on this earth.




		HOW TO PRAY IN THE SPIRIT By Marty Delmon Praying in the Spirit is one of the foundations of the Christian life, but I’m not talking about praying in tongues. I’m talking about all prayer. Ephesians 6:18 “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” Notice the word ‘all’. It means every time we pray our prayer must be in the Spirit. Anything else is praying in the flesh. The word prayer is used 25 times in the Gospels in connection with how the Lord lived His life. Jesus prayed often! When Jesus said ‘Follow Me’ He meant ‘mimic Me’. His is a life of prayer even now. Hebrews 7:25 “He always lives to make intercession for them.” Romans 8:34 “…It is Christ…who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” If Jesus is praying right now, then it is impossible for us to have fellowship with Him without us praying. We cannot follow Jesus unless we, personally, pray in the Spirit. So if all prayer is to be ‘in the Spirit’, how do we do that? Acts 12:5 “…constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.” This Scripture gives us the key to this life of praying in the Spirit. Look at the words ‘to God’. The prayer that has power is ‘to God’. You might say, well that’s too simple. Yes, it is simple, but we’ve been blinded by it because ‘to God’ means ‘face to face’. We must be there with God when we pray. We must be in His Presence. This is the powerful key to praying “in the Spirit”. We must see Him to be able to talk to Him. In face to face conversation, there is communion. The first key to praying ‘in the Spirit’ is to wait on the Lord. We have been taught to start praying and somewhere along the line the Holy Spirit will join us. However, when we just launch into prayer, all we are doing is speaking empty words. The truth is – we don’t say one word until the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts. We need to learn to come into the Presence of the Lord and say nothing. We’re uncomfortable with silence. We want to talk right away and get everybody to say ‘amen’ and then we feel we’ve done our job. But we accomplish nothing. Prayer is not just pouring out our hearts. We can do that with a psychologist or even with a dog. That brings relief, but no answer. We want answers when we pray. We want something to change. Therefore, we have to wait on the Lord. #1 Say Nothing. Wait on the Lord. Wait until the Holy Spirit moves and that’s when we know to begin. We know when He manifests. He doesn’t sneak up on us. It’s quite evident when He shows up. We are to wait until He expresses Himself, even if the waiting drives us mad. How long do we wait? As long as it takes. If we pray before He shows up, we’re wasting our breath and our time. That’s the problem with most prayers. People are not willing to wait for the Lord. To help ourselves wait we can read the Bible, play a worship tape, or just sit there. There comes a moment when the heart begins to soften, when the Spirit of God begins to blow, an amazing blanket of love falls, tears spring forth. Then, and only then, can we present our petition. 1 Thess 5:17 “…pray without ceasing”. That doesn’t mean 24/7. That means praying with such high intention that our prayer is presented until it is answered. Like a hungry baby reaching out for food, he or she cannot be distracted, this is how we must be with our petitions. We reach out to Him until we have our answer. #2 Pray High Intention Prayers. Hebrews 5:7 “Who in the days of His flesh when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear.” Praying in the Spirit is done with selective words. The prayer is intense with feeling, but we are not blabbing away. We are in agony and ecstasy at the same time. We cannot make this happen in the flesh. In the natural we can compare this to being very stressed so we jump in the car, go to the beach, or go to the mountains, and we walk, or wade, or hike, or just lay in the sun, and the stress goes away. When we pray in the Spirit it is like that. The peace is glorious. The light warms us. The joy makes us laugh from the inside out. Everything negative disappears. All we want is to be with the Lord. Then all of a sudden we know what to say. It isn’t at all what we thought we would say. Our words come out precisely chosen and effective! #3 Speak Only The Words The Holy Spirit Speaks. Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” When we are reaching out to God with intensity the Holy Spirit is praying. I believe that working up our own prayers is repulsive to God because He gave us the Holy Spirit so that He can pray. We have a mentality of ‘going after God’ but that is in our own flesh. ‘Going after God’ can be anything from people who beat themselves with whips to people who think making a lot of noise and running around impresses God. It doesn’t. The only all night prayer meetings that impress God are the ones that happen because we are in fellowship with Him, time goes by and its morning before we know it. It is so much easier to be in the flesh than to be in the Spirit. We are accustomed to the flesh; we live there. When we come into God’s presence, He wants us to let Him do the work. We’re not comfortable with that. In the flesh it is always you and me who do the work. But in prayer He wants to be the one to carry our prayer life. The secret to the power of God is surrender. Let Him lead our prayers. Psalm 145:18, 19 “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” The flesh doesn’t know the truth. It only knows what it sees and what it can figure out and the flesh never has all the facts nor does it see everything. Does God answer our prayers? No. Not one. He only answers the prayers He prays through us. What we pray is in the flesh. Only what He prays is in the Spirit. We have to get to the place where our prayer life dies and His prayer life lives. He is the Intercessor. Praying in the Spirit means He prays, not us. All we can do is offer ourselves as a vehicle for the Intercessor. Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit are called Intercessors in the Bible. How do we become available for the Intercessor? Stop praying and let God do the praying. It’s not us talking to God, its God talking to God through us. Our job is to surrender and let Him use our bodies through which to pray. God is not looking for prayer warriors; He’s looking for prayer partners. Romans 8:27 “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” 1 John 5:14 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us.” We don’t know how to pray because we don’t know God’s will; only Jesus and the Holy Spirit know His will. All we are is a mouthpiece. Our job is to give Him our vessel. How can we give Him our vessel if we are blabbing away before we allow the Holy Spirit to rise up big within us? We’re not prayer warriors, nor are we intercessors, we are vehicles for The Prayer Warrior; we are vehicles for The Intercessor. We must pray in the Spirit if we want the will of God to be manifested in our lives and on this earth.



		Last update on 4/7/2008 ©IPHC Ministries. All rights reserved