THE GROANINGS OF THE SPIRIT
“Lord, we are often troubled by the cares of this world. Petty troubles like those of little children struggling to get their toys. But now Lord, we want to grow up. We want to drop all such trifles and be mature enough to bear kingdom burdens. We want to come into that which is in Thine heart; the burdens of the Eternal Monarch, and there take our place as priest unto our God. So help us God.”
Reading Rom.8
The passage before us shows the ascendancy of a life taken over by the Holy Spirit. Scriptures like this are better understood by experiencing the motions of the Spirit, than merely explaining. My prayer is that all that is written here may be true in our experience.
We read in v.18 “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice…” The cry of humanity is for “meaning”. The creation is made subject to futility, vanity or meaninglessness. The creation shall be delivered out of the bondage of corruption only at the manifestation of the sons of God (v.21). It is only in the revelation of the glory of God in man that the true meaning of “man” may be realized. This cry is universal; even in believers there is this yearning for full emancipation from earth-boundness. The believer however has a sure expectation. As a matter of fact, he has the Holy Spirit inside of him as a down-payment of his redemption. That is, the Holy Spirit has started a work in him which shall be fully realized at the revelation of Jesus. To this the believer groans desiring to be clothed so that this mortality (this death-bound meaninglessness) may be swallowed up by life; life in all its fullness as God has it in Himself and originally intended it to be before the fall! (See 2Cor.5:1-8)
We have considered in our previous meditation the theme: “Bringing many sons unto Glory”. We noted that it is to this end the Holy Spirit is labouring in the entire work of conversion, sanctification and redemption. Our concern for the moment is the deeper work the Spirit does relation to our engagement in prayer. This groaning for reality, for emancipation, for fullness finds highest expression in prayers. But before you come to this crescendo, it must be the undertone of your entire living. That is, yours must be a life lived in the spirit! Do not expect that you will truly know in experience what the verse “the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (v.26) when you have not known what it means to live in the Spirit as stated from v.1 to v.18 of that chapter (Rom.8). You see, prayer is not a mode you switch on and off into. It is a result of a life. You cannot pray in the Spirit when you are not living in the Spirit. We are not just talking about having the Holy Spirit, but like we read in Gal 5:25 “If we have life by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit”.
Prayer is the outpouring of the soul to God; it is not in the first place the words we speak. It is that with which the soul is taken up. That which forms the overriding desire of the soul. Therefore, if the soul is taken up with vanity, worldly pursuit and carnal considerations, it cannot pray in the will of God. No matter how well it craft words that sounds pious; when it seems earnest in prayer about kingdom matters, it is only being self-deceived. You cannot have a soul (mind and heart) which lives for its own interest all through the day, and then suddenly takes up the interest of God in the hour of prayer. This is why the issues raised in v.1 to 17 of our passage is very critical.
When you come to v.26 and 27 you see a very beautiful “mingling” of the human mind to the Spirit’s mind. Here you have a mind that have been suffused, taken up by the Holy Spirit, fully possessed such that our prayer aligns perfectly to the will of God. We are told: “the Spirit helpeth…” the picture here is that of a one coming to the aid of another, taking on a load from the other end. Then it says “
“for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought,” (AMP). As we become conscious of the futility of this present creation and realizes our utter weakness in doing anything of real value and good, we long for meaning, for reality, for emancipation, for adoption (i.e. the crowning as sons) and for the complete redemption of our bodies (See 2Cor.5:1-8). But we hardly know what these means except that deep inside of us there is a restlessness, which of course nothing of this world can fill. It is a holy dissatisfaction born in us by the Spirit as He impress in our spirit a foretaste of the world to come. Well, this gets so overwhelmingly beyond us that we really do not know what to pray for, and how we ought to pray for it, except the Spirit comes to our aid.
“He maketh intercession…” He takes on our place, bringing His mind into oneness with the heart surrendered to Him. (For indeed, the heart knowing its weakness and helplessness surrenders to the Holy Spirit; a heart which still have his plans and scheming, which still pursue this earth as if there are some values to be gained in the pursuit, cannot surrender completely to the Holy Spirit). The mind thus taken up, it could be said “He that searches the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit” (v.27). The Lord searches our heart, but what does He find there? He finds the mind of the Spirit. The Spirit has taken over our heart, our mind is inundated with His insight and revelation of his purpose; not just in the explanation of it, but in bringing in the full weight and implication of God’s will and purpose. When the reality of His purpose and plans are impressed upon us it becomes the singular burden of our heart and reason for our living.
You can study the bible and know all about God’s plans and purposes, but except your heart is impressed this way, God’s purpose cannot be the overriding drive of your life. The state of lost men, the millions unevangelized, the coldness in the church, and even the poor state of your spiritual life won’t bother you so much (except occasionally, when your emotions or reason is appealed to). But when the Spirit takes over, Oh, the revolution that will be wrought, what burden, what heart-cry with which you will pray! At such times the intellect fails to find words to express the mind, we just groan. And because prayer is beyond words, He that searches the heart understands the groaning.
It is a groaning not for the fancy of this world, but for the deepest will of God (revealed to our heart and impressed on us not merely in word) to be done. We have come to see that the emancipation of the creation lies in God’s will being done on earth, as it is in heaven. This is the experience of all those who have truly opened their heart to seek the will of God, those who have lost themselves to God’s purpose. The struggle of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to this point. Unfortunately, we are more concern with pursuing the world like the people of the world, thinking we would find meaning and fulfilment by acquiring more and more of this world. We must realize that friendship with the world is indeed enmity with God. Our first cry must be to be completely divorced from the world (See James 4:1-12). How we must purify our “double mind” which looks out for the things of this world and seek the things of God at the same time. In James 1 we are told such a man will receive nothing from God!
When our soul is truly taken up by the Spirit, He will lead us not only to pray for our real personal needs (for most times what we assume is our personal needs are not really our needs), likewise for the real needs of our nations and for men and women around us. Ours will become a praying ministry born out of the heart and not just out of a mere sense of duty or prayer fanned up by some emotional appeal or urgent sense of need perhaps in the mission’s field or the political state of the nation, or some threatening situation. We will see through all of these things to the real heart of the issue. Perhaps some of the issues we are praying that God should remove will best serve God’s purpose if it remains? Elijah had to call for famine to discipline the nation. How did he know that that is God’s will except that he stood before the Lord; he had access to the Spirit. Our praying will be truly “the earnest, fervent prayer of the righteous that makes tremendous power available” James5:16 if we maintain such assess to the Spirit.
You wonder why we are not seeing God moving? It is because we are yet to start praying aright. How can we pray truly when our heart is set upon our own praise, we are censorious, full of competition and carnality. The call of the of the Spirit is for a sincere repentance. I have been going through Isaiah Chapter 40 to 66 this period. If you are acquainted with those portions of the scriptures, you know the Lord spoke so much of the restoration of His glory, and of the great things he would do in restoring the people. What we may call revival in our time. But God pointed out one thing as a hindrance to His move: SIN (See Isa.59:1 -8), by consequence of which there were no intercessors (see v.16). To them they have fasted and prayed (See Chapter 58) but their condition is still so pitiable as described in Chapter 59:9-15. They almost prayed themselves to despair and faithlessness; and here lies the danger of Spiritless Praying, it results in faithless and doubt! But God in mercy came and showed them their condition, and wrought repentance, see the very confession of the people who hitherto had thought they were righteous (Read Isa 59:9-15); see their brokenness. Indeed, a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. We are not yet broken; we are still full of pride! When they became broken, God Himself came down as the mighty intercessor, and His arm brought salvation to Him. When we truly repent and are broken, the spirit of intercession will take hold of us. And the effect will be revival as we see in Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine, thy light is come!”
May the Lord take hold of us until we know our true state, the futility of a life outside the Spirit, and the deep groanings of the Spirit. Amen
[Monthly Prayer Meeting, May, 2024]
