Over the past six weeks, Theology 101 has focused on the ministry of the Holy Spirit by calling attention to such topics as His work of convicting sinners and birthing them into God’s family, as well as teaching and gifting, guiding and enabling, filling and controlling, sealing and sanctifying, and assuring and sealing.
As we continue the journey of thinking about the Holy Spirit’s ministry on behalf of believers, we now focus on the incomparable promise of Romans 8:26–27: “The Spirit also helps us 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. 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.”
In the model prayer, Jesus taught His followers to pray, “Thy will be done on earth” (Matt. 6:10). However, we mortals do not always know what the will of the Father is. At this point in our human ignorance the Holy Spirit intercedes.
‘At the throne of God’
On the heavenward end of prayer, the Spirit supplicates the Father on our behalf. We receive and rely on this ministry of the Spirit by faith since we are not party to communication that takes place at the throne of God. By faith, we confess the promise that the Spirit is faithfully interceding or supplicating on our behalf according to God’s will.
This truth is for us a secure platform on which to stand (or kneel) when we pray. Given that this level of praying is beyond our own understanding, we invoke faith to help us rely on the Spirit’s work at the throne of God.
On our side of prayer, the Spirit helps us know what to pray for, and for whom, when we are not sure; when we do not see clearly, we take hope in the truth that the Spirit makes up for our lack by guiding us in choosing the focal points for our prayer. The Spirit ministers to our weaknesses and strengthens our infirmities.
How blessed it is to be able to confess with the Apostle Paul, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” by experiencing God’s promise, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9–10).
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