Section Two: Prayer as Intercession

Lesson Eight: Spirit-Directed Prayers

Praying with our human spirit and praying in the Holy Spirit involve several things (Eph. 6:18).

Praying with the Holy Spirit

Praying in the Holy Spirit first implies that we are praying in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Praying with the Holy Spirit is to pray as He influences, prompts or stirs our hearts to pray. It is allowing the Holy Spirit to set our prayer agendas.

The Holy Spirit knows the heart of the Father. He knows what the Father wants to do on this earth. To pray with the Spirit is to allow Him to guide us to pray in line with God’s will. (Read 1 Corinthians 2:12.)

When I (Alice) was a teenager, I made every effort to read my daily Bible readings faithfully and to pray through the prayer calendar my church provided for me. However, there were times as I began to pray that I would be sidetracked into praying for nations, people or situations that weren’t on the list I had been given.

I felt like such a failure. Why couldn’t I focus? I would quickly capture my thoughts and retrain my mind to pray about the things I had been assigned.

Today I know what was happening. The Holy Spirit had found a teenage girl with a heart that desired to draw near to God. He knew I was committed to prayer. Furthermore, He knew what prayer issues God wanted me to address. He was the One who was leading me away from my list. He was the One who was guiding me to the issues that were on His heart.

Praying in the Spirit is to experience the intercession of the Spirit.

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. —Ephesians 6:18″

What about the things on the list?

Those too were the Holy Spirit’s issues. I am convinced that He was prompting others to pray the things He was leading me to abandon at the time. The Lord is the great Conductor of God’s symphony of prayer. We must each play our part according to the movement of His divine baton.

Question: Describe a time when God directed you away from your prayer list and placed an urgency in your spirit to pray for something else. For what did He urge you to pray?

Did you discover later that He had directed you to pray in that way because of a specific need? Describe the need.

(No need to send us your answers. They are for your own study.)

More next week about the role of the Holy Spirit in our praying.

Blessings, Eddie and Alice “America’s prayer coaches”