Praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Eph 6:18

Words are simply not enough! We cannot impress God with fancy workds. We cannot reach the heart of God with prayer without the Spirit’s help.

First of all we are to pray in the Spirit (Eph 3:18), then we are to pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:14) and thirdly, if we want God to hear our prayers we are to be righteous and without sin in God’s sight (James 5:16b, Psalm 66:18). Has the Spirit of God tugged at your heart and challenged about being willing to walk in the Spirit and touch the heart of God.
Have you ever experienced times when the Lord has placed a particular person/s or situations on your heart? Often at such times, we claim to feel a burden to pray for that person. At such times, although we may not know what to pray and how to pray, if we truly bow before the mercy of God and ask Him to lead and guide us in praying for the one for whom we bear the burden, the Holy Spirit comes swiftly to our aid, interceding in and through us with the same anguish we feel and presents our prayers to the Father according to His will.(Rom 8:26-27).

Many a believer testifies to being caught off guard by an overwhelming sense of urgency to pray for someone in prison or someone who may be vulnerable. Many a night sisters in the Lydia Refuge would be awoken to pray for a sister who had been sold to wealthy by seemingly nice employers some months prior. They would awaken and pray and respond to the burning in their hearts. They would wonder 'They seemed nice enough people, she will not want, so why do we sense that she is in danger?'
Years later, the lost sister was returned to the refuge, no home, no family and no job. She had been beaten mercilessly by the seemingly nice folk and had found comfort and strength surround her night after night as her friends prayed for her. Such anguish is not to be ignored or considered a coincidence!

Be conscious of this anguish as God is at work. Do not fear it and do not be paralyzed by it. Seek not to boast of it. Give the glory to God. For it is God breaking into a situation, in a way more powerful than our human faculties are able to articulate and so we become channels of prayer and intervension in mysteriously incredible ways to transform situations, briging delight and dispel despair.

Paul tells that we are not to be anxious about anything but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving and the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. The Holy Spirit gives us that peace that we have asked according to God’s will, in obedience not to be anxious and offer Him thanks in anticipation of His answer to prayer.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of any sin in our lives that will prevent our prayers reaching the heart of God, leading us to confess that sin and receive cleansing in the blood of Jesus. 1 John 1:9. The prayers of a righteous man are effective and avail much. (James 5:14)

Let us continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving (Col 4:2)

Prayer

O Sovereign and Almighty Lord, bless all thy people, and all thy flock. Give thy peace, thy help, thy love unto us thy servants, the sheep of thy fold, that we may be united in the bond of peace and love, one body and one spirit, in one hope of our calling, in thy divine and boundless love. (Liturgy of St Mark, 2nd century)

By Corinne Nathaniel | June 2nd, 2017