Praying In The Holy Spirit

Praying In The Holy Spirit

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 4, 1866,

BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Praying in the Holy Spirit." Jude 1:20.

THESE words occur in a passage where the Apostle is indicating the
contrast between the ungodly and the godly. The ungodly are mocking,
speaking great swelling words and walking after their ungodly lusts,
while the righteous are building themselves up in their most holy
faith, and keeping themselves in the love of God. The ungodly are
showing the venom of their hearts by mourning and complaining, while
the righteous are manifesting the new principle within them by "praying
in the Holy Spirit." The ungodly man bears wormwood in his mouth, while
the Christian's lips drop with the virgin honey of devotion. As the
spider is said to find poison in the very flowers from which the bees
suck honey, so do the wicked abuse to sin the same mercies which the
godly use to the glory of God.

As far as light is removed from darkness, and life from death, so far
does a Believer differ from the ungodly. Let us keep this contrast very
vivid. While the wicked grow yet more wicked, let us become more holy,
more prayerful, and more devout, saying with good old Joshua, "Let
others do as they will, but as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord." Observe that the text comes in a certain order in the context.
The righteous are described, first of all, as building themselves up in
their most holy faith. Faith is the first Divine Grace, the root of
piety, the foundation of holiness, the dawn of godliness–to this must
the first care be given.

But we must not tarry at the first principles. Onward is our course!
What, then, follows at the heels of faith? What is faith's first-born
child? When the vine of faith becomes vigorous and produces fruit unto
holiness, which is the first ripe cluster? Is it not prayer–"praying
in the Holy Spirit"? That man has no faith who has no prayer, and the
man who abounds in faith will soon abound in supplication. Faith the
mother, and prayer the child, are seldom apart from one another. Faith
carries Prayer in her arms, and Prayer draws life from the breast of
Faith. Edification in faith leads to fervency in supplication. Elijah
first manifests his faith before the priests of Baal, and then retires
to wrestle with God upon Carmel.

Study our text carefully and see what follows after "praying in the
Holy Spirit." "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Next to prayer
comes an abiding sense of the love of God to us and the flowing up of
our love towards God. Prayer builds an altar and lays the sacrifice and
the wood in order, and then Love, like the priest, brings holy fire
from Heaven and sets the offering in a blaze! Faith is, as we have
said, the root of Grace. Prayer is the lily's stalk, and love is the
spotless flower. Faith sees the Savior, prayer follows Him into the
house, but love breaks the alabaster box of precious ointment and pours
it on His head.

There is, however, a step beyond even the hallowed enjoyments of love!
There remains a topstone to complete the edifice–it is believing
expectantly–"looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life." Far-seeing Hope climbs the staircase which Faith has
built, and bowing upon the knees of Prayer looks through the window
which Love has opened, and sees the Lord Jesus Christ coming in His
glory and endowing all His people with the eternal life which is to be
their portion. See, then, the value of prayer as indicating the
possession of faith, and as foreshadowing and supporting the strength
and growth of love.

Coming directly to the text, we remark that the Apostle speaks of
prayer, but he mentions only one kind of praying. Viewed from a certain
point, prayers are of many sorts. I suppose that no two genuine prayers
from different men could be precisely alike. Master artists do not
often multiply the same painting–they prefer to give expression to
fresh ideas as often as they grasp the pencil. And so the Master
Artist, the Holy Spirit, who is the Author of prayer, does not often
produce two prayers that shall be precisely the same upon the tablets
of His people's hearts.

Prayers may be divided into several different orders. There is
deprecatory prayer in which we deprecate the wrath of God, and entreat
Him to turn away His fierce anger, to withdraw His rod, to sheath His
sword. Deprecatory prayers are to be offered in all times when calamity
is to be feared, and when sin has provoked the Lord to jealousy. Then
there are supplicatory prayers in which we supplicate blessings and
implore mercies from the liberal hand of God, and entreat our heavenly
Father to supply our needs out of His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
There are prayers which are personal in which the supplicant pleads
mainly concerning himself. And there are pleadings which are
intercessory, in which, like Abraham, the petitioner intercedes for
Sodom, or entreats that Ishmael might live before God.

These prayers for others are to be multiplied as much as prayers for
ourselves, lest we make the Mercy Seat to become a place for the
exhibition of spiritual selfishness. The prayer may be public or
private, vocal or mental, protracted or ejaculatory. Prayer may be
salted with confession, or perfumed with thanksgiving. It may be sung
to music, or wept out with groans. As many as are the flowers of
summer, so many are the varieties of prayer! But while prayers are of
these various orders, there is one respect in which they are all one if
they are acceptable with God–they must be, every one of them, "in the
Holy Spirit."

That prayer which is not in the Holy Spirit is in the flesh. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and we are told that they which are in
the flesh cannot please God. All that comes of our corrupt nature is
defiled and marred, and cannot be acceptable with the most holy God. If
the heavens are not pure in His sight, how shall those prayers which
are born of the earth be acceptable with Him? The seed of acceptable
devotion must come from Heaven's storehouse. Only the prayer which
comes from God can go to God! The dove will only bear a letter to the
cote from which it came, and so will prayer go back to Heaven if it
came from Heaven. We must shoot the Lord's arrows back to Him.

That desire which He writes upon our heart will move His heart and
bring down a blessing, but the desires of the flesh have no power with
Him. Desirous to press this great Truth of God upon the minds of my
Brothers and Sisters this morning, I shall use the few words of the
text in five ways.

I. First we shall use the text as A CRUCIBLE to try our prayers in. I
beseech you, examine yourselves with rigorous care! Use the text as a
refining pot, a furnace, a touchstone or a crucible by which to discern
whether your prayers have been true or not! This is the test–have they
been in very deed–"praying in the Holy Spirit"? Brothers and Sisters,
we need not judge those who pray unintelligible prayers, prayers in a
foreign tongue, prayers which they do not understand. We know without a
moment's discussion of the question that the prayer which is not
understood cannot be a prayer in the Spirit, for even the man's own
spirit does not enter into it–how then can the Spirit of God be there?

The mysterious words or Latin jargon of the priests cannot come up
before God with acceptance! Let us, therefore, keep our judgment for
ourselves. There may be those present who have been in the habit of
using from their infancy a form of prayer. You perhaps would not dare
to go out to your day's business without having repeated that form at
the bedside. You would be afraid to fall asleep at night without going
through the words which you have set yourselves to repeat. My dear
Friends, may I put the question to you–will you try to answer it
honestly? Have you prayed in the Holy Spirit? Has the Holy Spirit had
anything to do with that form? Has He really made you to feel it in
your heart? Is it not possible that you have mocked God with a solemn
sound upon a thoughtless tongue? Is it not probable that from the
random manner in which one comes to repeat a well-known form that there
may be no heart whatever in it–and not an atom of sincerity?

Does not God abhor the sacrifice where the heart is not found? It would
be a melancholy thing if we had increased our sins by our prayers! It
would be a very unhappy fact if it should turn out that when we have
bowed the knee in what we thought to be the service of God, we were
actually insulting the God of Heaven by uttering words which could not
but be disgusting to Him because our hearts did not go with our lips!
Let us rest assured that if for seventy years we have punctually
performed our devotions by the use of the book, or of the form which we
have learned, we may, the whole seventy years, never once have prayed
at all! And the whole of that period we may have been living in God's
esteem an ungodly, prayerless life because we have never worshipped
God, who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth, and have never prayed in
the Holy Spirit! Judge yourselves, Brothers and Sisters, that you be
not judged!

But are there not others of us who never did use a written prayer? Who
from our earliest childhood have eschewed and even abhorred forms of
prayer, who nevertheless have good reason to try our prayer just as
much as others? We have given forth extemporaneous utterances, and
those extemporaneous utterances necessarily required some little
exercise of the mind, some little attention–but still we may have been
heartless in them. I suppose we are well aware that we can get into
such a habit of extemporaneous prayer that it is really very little or
no better than if we repeated what we had learned. There may be such a
fluency acquired by practice that one's speech may ripple on for five
or ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, and yet the heart may be
wandering in vanity or stagnant in indifference! The body may be on its
knees, but the soul on its wings far away from the Mercy Seat.

Let us examine how far our public prayers have been in the Holy Spirit.
The preacher standing here begs God to search him in that matter. If he
has merely discharged the business of public prayer because it is his
official duty to conduct the devotions of the congregation, he has much
to account for before God–to lead the devotions of this vast throng
without seeking the aid of the Holy Spirit is no light sin! And what
shall be said of the prayers at Prayer Meetings? Are not many of them
mere words? It were better if our friends would not speak at all rather
than speak in the flesh!

I am sure that the only prayer in which the devout hearer can unite,
and which is acceptable with God, is that which really is a heart
prayer–a soul prayer, in fact–a prayer which the Holy Spirit moves us
to pray. All else is beating the air and occupying time in vain. My
Brethren, I thank God that there are so many of you in connection with
this Church who are gifted in prayer, and I wish that every member of
every Christian Church could pray in public. You should all try to do
so, and none of you should give it up unless it becomes an absolute
impossibility. But oh, my Brethren who pray in public, may it not be
sometimes with you as with others of us–the exercise of gift and not
the outflow of Divine Grace? And if so, ask the Lord to forgive you of
such praying and enable you to wait upon Him in the power of the Holy
Spirit.

We may not forget to scrutinize our more private prayers, our
supplications at the family altar, and above all, our prayers in that
little room which we have dedicated to communion with God. O Brothers
and Sisters, we might well be sick of our prayers if we did but see
what poor things they are! There are times when it is a sweet and
blessed thing to lay hold of the horns of the altar and to feel that
the blood which sprinkles the altar has sprinkled you–that you have
spoken to God and prevailed! Oh it is a blessed thing to grasp the
Angel of the Covenant, and to wrestle with Him even hour after hour,
saying, "I will not let You go except You bless me"! But I fear these
are not constant things. We may say of them that they are angels'
visits, few and far between.

Come, my Brethren, put your prayers into this crucible of "praying in
the Holy Spirit." You will cast in much metal, but there will come out
little of fine gold. Come and lay your prayers upon this threshing
floor, and thresh them with this text, "praying in the Holy Spirit."
And oh, how much of straw and of chaff will there be, and how little of
the well-winnowed grain! Come and look through this window at the
fields of our devotions, overgrown with nettles, and briars, and
thistles–a wilderness of merely outward performances! And how small
that little spot, enclosed by Grace, which God the Holy Spirit Himself
has cleared, and dug, and planted–from which the fruit of prayer has
been brought forth unto perfection!

May our heavenly Father teach us to be humble in His Presence as we
reflect how little even of our best things will stand the test of His
searching eyes, and may those of us who are His saints come to Him
afresh, and ask Him to fill us with His Spirit, and to accept us in His
Son!

II. We shall next use the text as A CORDIAL. It is a very delightful
reflection to the Christian mind that God observes His people and does
not sit as an indifferent spectator of their conflicts and
difficulties. For instance, He closely observes us in our prayers. He
knows that prayer, while it should be the easiest thing in the world,
is not so. He knows that we erring ones find it not always easy to
approach Him in the true spirit of supplication and He observes this
with condescending compassion. That is a precious verse for those
hearts which are very weak and broken, "He knows our frame: He
remembers that we are dust." And that other, "Like as a father pities
his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him."

He takes notice of our frailties and of our failures in the work of
supplication. He sees His child fall as it tries to walk and marks the
tears with which it bemoans its weakness. "The eyes of the Lord are
upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry." A sweeter
thought remains in the text, namely, that having considered these
failures of ours, which are many of them sinful, our Lord is not angry
with us on account of them. And instead of being turned to wrath, He is
moved to pity for us and love towards us. Instead of saying, "If you
cannot pray, you shall not have. If you have not

Grace enough even to ask aright, I will shut the gates of mercy against
you." No, He devises means by which to bring the lame and the banished
into His Presence! He teaches the ignorant how to pray and strengthens
the weak with His own strength!

Herein He also does wonders, for the means whereby He helps our
infirmity are exceedingly to be marveled at. That help is not to be
found in a book or in the dictation of certain words in certain
consecrated places, but in the condescending assistance of God Himself,
for who is He that is spoken of in the text but God? The Holy Spirit,
the third Person of the adorable Trinity, helps our infirmities, making
intercession for us with groans that cannot be uttered! It is a mark of
wondrous condescension that God should not only answer our prayers when
they are made, but should make our prayers for us! That the King should
say to the petitioner, "Bring your case before me and I will grant your
desire," is kindness. But for him to say, "I will be your secretary. I
will write out your petition for you. I will put it into proper words
and use fitting phrases so that your petition shall be framed
acceptably"–this is goodness at its utmost stretch!

And this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does for us poor, ignorant,
wavering, weak sons of men. I am to understand from the expression,
"praying in the Holy Spirit," that the Holy Spirit is actually willing
to help me to pray–that He will tell me how to pray! And that when I
get to a point where I am at a pause and cannot express my desires, He
will appear in my extremity and make intercession in me with groans
which cannot be uttered. Jesus in His agony was strengthened by an
angel–you are to be succored by God Himself! Aaron and Hur held up the
hands of Moses, but the Holy Spirit Himself helps your infirmities!

My beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the thought needs no
garnishing of oratorical expressions! Take it as a wedge of gold of
Ophir and value it. It is priceless, beyond all price. God Himself, the
Holy Spirit, condescends to assist you when you are on your knees, and
if you cannot put two words together in common speech to men, yet He
will help you to speak with God! Ah, and if at the Mercy Seat you fail
in words, you shall not fail in reality, for your heart shall conquer.
God needs not words. He never reads our petitions according to the
outward utterance, but according to the inward groaning. He notices the
longing, the desiring, the sighing, the crying.

Remember that the outward of prayer is but the shell–the inward of
prayer is its true kernel and essence. If prayer is wafted to Heaven in
the song of the multitude, with the swell of glorious music, it is not
one whit more acceptable to God than when it is wailed forth in the
bitter cry of anguish from a desolate spirit. That cry so discordant to
human ears is music to the ears of God–

"To Him there's music in a sigh, And beauty in a tear." Notice this,
then, and be comforted.
III. The text may further serve as A CHART to direct us in the way of
prayer. Here I shall need to speak at greater length. Praying how? By
the book? Without a book? In public? In private? By the way? In the
house? On your knees? Standing? Sitting? Kneeling? Nothing is said
about these! Posture, place, and time are all left open. There is no
rubric except one–"in the Holy Spirit."

That is indispensable. That granted, nothing else matters one whit. If
it is praying in the Holy Spirit, all else may be as you will. What
does praying in the Holy Spirit mean? The word may be translated, "by
the Holy Spirit," or, "through the Holy Spirit," as well as, "in the
Holy Spirit." And the phrase means, first, praying in the Holy Spirit's
power. The carnal mind knows nothing about this. I might as well
express myself in high Dutch as in English upon this point to an
unregenerate man. But regenerate men who are born of the Spirit and
live in the Spirit world are cognizant of communications between their
spirits and the Holy Spirit who is now resident in the midst of the
Church of God.

We know that the Divine Spirit, without the use of sounds, speaks in
our hearts. We know that without an utterance which the ears can hear
He can make our soul know His Presence and understand His meaning. He
casts the spiritual shadow of His influence over us, coloring our
thoughts and feelings according to His own design and will. It is a
great spiritual fact which the Christian knows for certain that the
Holy Spirit, the Divine Spirit, has frequent dealings with spiritual
minds and imparts to them His power. Our new-born spirit has a certain
degree of power in it, but the power is never fully manifested or drawn
out except when the Spirit of God quickens our spirit and excites it to
activity.

Our spirit prays, but it is because it is overshadowed and filled with
the power of the Holy Spirit. I cannot just now explain myself, but I
mean this, that if I, as a man, could go to the Throne of Grace and
only pray as my fleshy nature would pray, that prayer would be
unacceptable. But when I go to the Mercy Seat and my new nature prays
as the Holy Spirit enables me to pray, then my prayer will succeed with
God. If I do before God at the throne what flesh and blood can do and
no more, I have done nothing–for that which is of the flesh still
mounts no higher than flesh.

But if, in coming before the Throne of the heavenly Grace, God's
eternal Spirit speaks to my soul and lifts it out of the dead level of
fallen humanity. And if He brings it up to be filled with Divine
force–if that Spirit is in me a well of water springing up unto
everlasting life, if I receive that Divine light and power of the Holy
Spirit–and if in His power I fervently draw near to God, my prayer
must be prevalent with God! This power may be possessed by every
Christian. May God grant it to all of His people now, that they may all
pray in the Spirit!

That, I think, is one meaning of the text–praying in the power of the
Spirit. No doubt the principal sense of the text is praying in the
Spirit as to matter. We do not know always what to pray for, and,
Brothers and Sisters, if we were to refrain from prayer for a few
minutes till we did know, it would be a good and wise rule. The habit
into which we have fallen, in extemporaneous praying, of always praying
directly what we are asking–without an instant's pause in which to
think of what we are going to ask–is very prejudicial to the spirit of
prayer. I would like, when I am alone, to take a few minutes to
consider what I am going to ask of God, for otherwise it seems to me to
be like seeking an interview with one of the officers of State to ask
for something which might occur to us at the moment.

How would you like to have an audience with Lord Derby, and then
consider all of a sudden what it was you had come for? Surely common
sense would say, Tarry awhile till you have your case mapped out in
your own mind, and then when you clearly know yourself what it is you
want, you will be able to ask for what you need. Should we not wait
upon God in prayer, asking Him to reveal to us what those matters are
concerning which we should plead with Him? Beware of hit-or-miss
prayers! Never make hap-hazard work of supplication. Come to the Throne
of Grace intelligently understanding what it is that you require.

It is well with us in prayer when the Holy Spirit guides the mind. Are
not all spiritual men conscious of this, that they feel themselves shut
up as to certain matters, and only free in another direction? Then let
them obey the Holy Spirit and pray as He directs, for He knows what
should be our petition. Well, then what? My dear Brothers and Sisters,
pray for that which God the Spirit moves you to pray for, and be very
sensitive of the Holy Spirit's influence. I like a metaphor used by
Thomas Shillitoe in his Life, when he says he wished his own mind to be
like a cork upon the water, conscious of every motion of the Spirit of
God. It were well to be so sensitive of the Spirit of God that His
faintest breath should cause a ripple upon the sea of our soul and make
it move as the Spirit would have it.

We have reached a high state of sanctification when God the Spirit and
our own inward spirit are perfectly in accord. May we be led into that
unspeakably blessed state! We do not pray aright if we think what it is
we want and we wish for, and then ask for it in selfish willfulness. We
pray aright when we consent to that which is the mind of the Spirit,
and speak as He moves us to speak. We shall be surely enriched with
good things when we wait for the very matter of our supplications to
have it all from Him. Lord, teach us to pray! Put the thoughts into our
minds, the desires into our hearts, and the very words into our lips,
if it is Your will, so that all our prayers may be praying in the
Spirit and not in the flesh.

The main part of praying in the Spirit must lie not merely in the
Spirit's power, or in the Spirit's teaching us the matter, but in the
Spirit's assisting us in the manner. Observe, Brothers and Sisters, the
many ways there are of praying which are obnoxious to God–observe them
and avoid them! There is but one manner of praying which the Lord
accepts. You know what it is. I will briefly describe its attributes.
He that comes to God must remember that He is "a Spirit, and that they
who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeks such to worship Him." The very first essential of prayer is to
pray in truth, and we do not pray in truth unless the Spirit of God
leads our vain minds into the sincerity and reality of devotion.

To pray in truth is this–it is not to use the empty expression of
prayer, but to mean what we say. It is for the heart to agonize with
God and heave with strong desires. And where will you obtain such a
manner of prayer except in the spiritual man, when moved by the Holy
Spirit? The carnal man, if he is foolish enough, can intone a prayer.
The carnal man can "read the office," and "do duty" as well as anybody
else who can read a book, but he is not praying! No prayer can come
from him. Only the spiritual man can sigh and long, and cry in his
inmost heart, and in the chamber of his soul before God–but he will
not do it except as the Spirit of Truth leads him in sincerity into the
secret of heart prayer.

Praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in fervency. Cold prayers, my
Brothers and Sisters, ask the Lord not to hear them! Those who do not
plead with fervency, plead not at all. As well speak of lukewarm fire
as of lukewarm prayer! It is essential that it be red hot. Real prayer
is burnt as with hot iron into a man's soul, and then comes forth from
the man's soul like coals of juniper which have a most vehement heat.
Such prayers none but the Holy Spirit can give. I have heard from this
spot prayers which I never can forget, nor will you ever forget them
either.

Last January and February there were times when certain of our Brethren
were helped to pray with such power that we were bowed down in
humiliation, and afterwards borne up as on the wings of eagles in the
power of supplication! There is a way of praying with power in which a
man seems to get hold of the posts of Heaven's gate, as Samson grasped
the pillars of the temple, and appears as though he would pull all down
upon himself sooner than miss the blessing. It is a brave thing for the
heart to vow, "I will not let You go except You bless me." That is
praying in the Holy Spirit. May we be tutored in the art of offering
effectual fervent prayer!

Next to that, it is essential in prayer that we should pray
perseveringly. Any man can run fast at a spurt, but to keep it up mile
after mile–there is the battle! And so, certain hot spirits can pray
very fervently every now and then, but to continue in prayer–who shall
do this except the Spirit of God sustains him? Mortal spirits flag and
tire. The course of mere fleshly devotion is as the course of a snail
which melts as it crawls. Carnal minds go onward and their devotion
grows small by degrees and miserably less, as they cry out, "What a
weariness it is!" But when the Holy Spirit fills a man and leads him
into prayer, he gathers force as he proceeds–and grows more fervent
even when God delays to answer! The longer the gate is closed the more
vehemently does he use the knocker till he thunders in his prayer! And
the longer the Angel lingers, the more resolved is he that if he grasps
Him with a death grip he will never let Him go without the blessing.

Beautiful in God's sight is tearful and yet unconquerable importunity.
Jesus delights to be laid hold of by one who says, "I cannot take No
for an answer, this blessing I must have, for You have promised it and
You have taught me to ask for it, and I will not believe that You can
belie yourself." Surely we must have the Holy Spirit to help us thus to
pray. Praying in the Spirit we shall be sure to pray in a holy frame of
mind. Brothers and Sisters, do you ever get distracted in your minds?
"Ah," you say, "I wonder when I am not." I will venture to say that you
have come into this house burdened, and yet on the road you were
saying, "This is a blessed Sunday, I feel I have God's Presence."

Then some silly gossip met you on the steps and told you an idle tale
which distracted you. You may even get quietly seated here, and then
the recollection of a child at home, or the remembrance of what
somebody said about six weeks ago will perplex your mind so that you
cannot pray. But when the Holy Spirit comes, He takes a scourge of
small cords and drives these buyers and sellers out of the temple and
leaves it clear for God. And then you can come with a holy, devout
frame of mind, fixed and settled in your great object of approach to
God. This is to approach Him in the Spirit. Oh for more of this
blessed, undisturbed devotion!

I could not, however, finish the description of praying in the Spirit
if I did not say that it means praying humbly, for the Holy Spirit
never puffs us up with pride. He is the Spirit that convicts of sin and
so bows us down in contrition and brokenness of spirit. We must pray
before God like the humble publican, or we shall never go forth
justified as he was. We shall never sing Gloria in Excelsis except we
pray to God De Profundis–out of the depths must we cry, or we shall
never see the glory in the highest! True prayer must be loving prayer
if it is praying in the Holy Spirit. Prayer should be perfumed with
love, saturated with love–love to our fellow saints, and love to
Christ. Moreover, it must be a prayer full of faith. The effectual
fervent prayer of a man prevails only as he believes in God, and the
Holy Spirit is the Author of faith in us, and nurtures and strengthens
it so that we pray believing God's promises.

Oh that this blessed combination of excellent Graces, priceless and
sweet as the spices of the merchant, might be fragrant within us
because the Holy Spirit's power is shed abroad in our hearts! Time
fails me, therefore I must dispense with a full description of what
praying in the Holy Spirit is, but I hope you will possess it and so
understand it.

IV. Fourthly, I shall use the text as A CHERUB to proclaim our success
in prayer. Praying in the Spirit–blessed words! Then with such prayer
it is an absolute certainty that I must succeed with God in prayer. If
my prayer were my own prayer, I might not be so sure of it. But if the
prayer which I utter is God's own prayer written on my soul, God is
always One with Himself–and what He writes on the heart is only
written there because it is written in His purposes.

It is said by an old Divine that prayer is the shadow of Omnipotence.
Our will, when God the Holy Spirit influences it, is the indicator of
God's will. When God's people pray, it is because the blessing is
coming and their prayers are the shadow of the coming blessing! Rest
assured of this, Brothers and Sisters, God never did belie Himself! He
never contradicted in one place what He said in another. You and I may
contradict ourselves, not only through untruthfulness, but even through
infirmity.

We may not be able to stand up to our word, and we may forget what we
said–and so in another place may say something that contradicts
it–but God is neither infirm as to memory, nor yet changeable as to
will. What He promised yesterday He fulfils today. What He said in one
place, He declares in another. Then if God said in my heart, "Pray for
So-and-So," it is because He has said it in the book of His decrees.
The Spirit of God's writing in the heart always tallies with the
writing of destiny in the book of God's eternal purpose. Rest assured
that you cannot but succeed when you have laid your soul like a sheet
of paper before the Lord and asked Him to write upon it! Then it is no
more your own prayer, merely, but the Spirit making intercession in you
according to the will of God.

At such time you need not say, "I hope God will answer the prayer." He
will do it–He is pledged to do it. It is a kind of infidelity to say,
"I do not know whether the Lord is true to His promise or not, but I
hope He is." He is true! Let God be true and every man a liar. Oh, if
more of you tried Him as some of us have been compelled to do, you
would have to hold up your hands in astonishment, and say, "Truly,
whatever else is not a fact, it is a fact that God, who sits in the
highest heavens, listens to the cries of His people, and gives them
according to the desire of their hearts." If the Spirit teaches you to
pray, it is as certain as two times two make four that God will give
you what you are seeking for.

V. Then I will use the text in conclusion as A CHARIOT in which to
convey our own souls onward in the delightful exercise of prayer. The
exercise allotted to us today and tomorrow is that of praying in the
Spirit. Brothers and Sisters, it is delightful to some of us to believe
that the Spirit of God is the Author of the great wave of prayer now
breaking over the Churches to which we belong. It was not of our
devising or planning, but it was the motion of God's Holy Spirit upon a
few Brethren who desired to spend a day in solemn prayer and found such
blessing in it that they could not but tell others of it!

That, then, others spontaneously moved, and without a word of
opposition or difference of opinion all said, "Amen. Let us also meet
together for prayer." The spirit of brotherly kindness, unanimity, and
love was given to our denomination, and then a spirit of earnest desire
to bring down a blessing from God. We have known the time when it was
not so. We have known the time when a day of fasting and prayer, if not
despised, at any rate would not have been appreciated as it will be
now. We are of one heart in this matter and I know from communications
with many Christian men that many of God's people already feel as if
they were peculiarly in prayer–as if it were no effort now to pray,
but as if it were their very breath now to breathe out longing desires
for the revival of saints and the ingathering of sinners.

Brothers and Sisters of this Church, you have had God's Presence. For
many years you have been favored with much of "praying in the Holy
Spirit," and seen with your own eyes the great things God has done in
answer to supplication. Will one of you draw back now? Will there be
one man today or tomorrow who will not be earnest in prayer? Will one
man, or even one child in union with this Church, be lukewarm in
prayer? I would say, Sin not against the Lord by abstaining from going
up to the Mercy Seat with your Brothers and Sisters. Offend not the
Lord so that He deprive you of the blessing because you deprive
yourself of joining in the exercise.

My dear Friends, it was when they were all met together with one accord
in one place that suddenly they heard the sound as of a rushing, mighty
wind. We cannot be all in one place, but, at any rate, let us be all
with one accord. What? Do you say you have nothing to pray for? What?
No children unconverted, no friends unsaved, no neighbors who are still
in darkness? What? Live in London and not pray for sinners? Where do
you live? Is it in some vast wilderness, amidst "some boundless
contiguity of shade," where rumor of sin and of ignorance has never
reached your ear? No, you are living in the midst of millions of
ungodly millions! Millions that despise the God who made them! Millions
that despise the Gospel of Christ!

Millions, not thousands! Hear that word and see if you can tell its
meaning! Millions who are living without God and without hope, and are
going down to Hell! We have, throughout the realm, too, dangerous
mischiefs spreading. Need I continually remind you of them? Infidelity
wearing the miter, and Popery usurping the place of Protestantism! You
are assailed by the wolf and the lion, the serpent and the bear! All
forms of mischief are coming forth to attack the

Church. Not pray? If you pray not, shall I say, May you smart for your
negligence? No I dare not in the slightest shade speak as though I
imprecated a woe upon you, but the woe will come upon you, depend upon
it! If I say it not, yet will God say it at this present hour. "Curse
you Meroz, said the Lord, because they came not up to the help of the
Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

We are not asking you to contribute of your wealth in this case. If we
did, the Lord Jesus has a right to it, and you should freely give it.
Neither are we asking you all this day to preach. If we did, some of
you might be excused for lack of ability. But we claim your prayers,
and must not be denied! Not able to pray? Then are you graceless,
Christless, hopeless, lost, and I will not ask you to join with us! But
I ask you first to go to God for yourselves. And if you are a Christian
you can pray. Poverty does not make you poor in prayer. Lack of
education need not hinder you upon your knees. Lack of position and
rank in society will be no encumbrance to you when you deal with God
who hears the poor man when he cries and answers him with a largess of
Divine Grace!

Brothers and Sisters, if you love Christ, if you ever felt His love
shed abroad in your heart. If you have been washed in His blood. If you
have been saved from wrath through Him. If you are new creatures in
Him. If you hope to see His face with acceptance at the last, I might
put it to you as a demand! But I press it upon you as a brotherly
entreaty–join with us in praying in the Holy Spirit! Shall one start
back? Take heed, then, if you refuse to unite with your Brethren in
prayer, lest when you choose to cry you should find yourself straitened
and shut up in prison! Beware, lest by refusing to pray now, that the
Spirit of God has come, you afterwards feel yourself deprived of the
comfortable Presence of the Holy Spirit and find the sweetness of
devotion to have departed from you.

The Lord send a blessing. He must send it–our hearts will break if He
does not! We feel that it is coming. We have grasped the promise. We
have pleaded with Jehovah! We have pleaded the blood of Jesus! We are
pleading it now! We mean to continue in such pleading till the blessing
comes, and we may rely upon it that the heavenly shower will soon
descend! He has not said to the seed of Jacob, "Seek you My face in
vain." Brothers and Sisters, be hopeful, and let us unanimously join in
praying in the Holy Spirit!

May the Lord bless you, dear Friends, in this respect for Jesus' sake.