Romans 8:26-27 “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 groaning’s which cannot be uttered. (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.”
As we have already seen, the gift of tongues is unique to this dispensation, for the Lord in His infinite wisdom has given to His church a divine language which enables them to communicate with Him supernaturally, as no other saints before the church age could. The more we learn about this gift, the more we see that it is of immense value to the saint in enabling them to walk in the fullness of the Christian life that God always intended. In fact no saint can reach their full potential in Christ unless they pray regularly in the spirit. So why do we say that? The primary reason is because by praying with their spirit the believer is able to pray God’s perfect will for any given situation. In the passage of scripture quoted above, the apostle Paul refers to the Holy Spirit Himself making intercession for us according to the will of God. Although in this passage Paul is not specifically referring to speaking with other tongues, for the groaning that he speaks about is that intense that it cannot be uttered or spoken out, which means that all believers, even those not filled with the Holy Spirit, can learn to yield to the Holy Spirit in their prayer life so that they too can pray with groaning. The point that I want to make from this passage however, is that the principle remains the same when we pray in tongues, because it is the Holy Spirit residing in us that guides our spirits to pray God’s perfect will in every situation.
Luke 22:31-32 “And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. (32) But I have prayed for you; that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
The Holy Spirit specifically teaches us that we do not know what to pray for as we should (Romans 8:26). And so clearly because of our very limited understanding in this life, unless we pray in the spirit we will never pray as effectively as we should. Scripture is very clear about the fact that the spirit realm governs the natural realm; and so unless our prayers address issues in the spirit realm, we will always be at a disadvantage in the effectiveness of our prayers. The above quoted passage of scripture highlights this particular truth to us, for in this passage the Lord Jesus gives us a brief glimpse into His prayer life. This passage reveals to us what an effective prayer life actually looks like, for in this passage we see that because of His close relationship with the Holy Spirit, the moment that Satan had approached God to ask for permission to sift Peter as wheat, Jesus knew about it. And because Jesus was fully reliant on the leading of the Holy Spirit, He knew exactly what to pray for in order to deal with Satan’s agenda against Peter. Although this is just one example, the fact is that Jesus was always fully aware of what was happening in the realm of the spirit and He always prayed effectively to deal with every situation before it even occurred. For various reasons however, we do not walk in the same degree of fellowship with the Holy Spirit that Jesus did, and so if Peter were one of our close friends or relatives, we would not have known what Satan was about to do in Peter’s life until it actually happened, and by that time our prayers may have been too late to remedy the situation. Not only that, but when we did see what Peter started to go through we would have prayed for him according to our limited understanding, and not according to God’s perfect will for Peter’s situation, which more than likely would have had a negative impact on the effectives of our prayers. Clearly we can see from this example that if we were to try negotiating our Christian walk with our prayers of understanding only, we would always be operating at a huge disadvantage. And so that is why God in His infinite mercy, has bypassed our shortcomings in this life by giving us a language whereby our spirits can pray for situations, even as the Lord Jesus did with His understanding.
1 Corinthians 14:2-18 “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. … (14) For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. (15) What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. … (18) I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all.”
Paul the apostle clearly understood the shortcomings of praying with our understanding, which is why he emphasized praying with the spirit. I want you to notice in the above quoted passage of scripture that Paul, in listing the two types of prayer, placed praying with his spirit before praying with his understanding. In this same passage Paul made the comment that in church, he would rather speak five words with his understanding than ten thousand words with his spirit. Paul’s reason for making that statement was simply because his words of understanding would benefit the hearers whereas his words spoken in the spirit, would not (1 Corinthians 14:19). In making that statement however, Paul implied that outside of church, i.e. in his prayer closet that he would rather speak ten thousand words with his spirit than five words with his understanding, because he understood that praying with his spirit was far more effective than praying with his understanding. And so that is why he could confidently make the statement that he was thankful that he prayed with tongues more than any other believer living at that time. The reason that Paul could say that was not because he was more anointed to speak in other tongues than everyone else, but simply because he chose to pray with tongues more than anyone else. Our prayers of understanding are extremely limited, for even those who have a sound knowledge of God’s word cannot know God’s perfect will for every situation that they bring before the Father in prayer.
Michael E.B. Maher
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