Spirit-directed Prayer

Spirit-Directed Prayer

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. John 16:13

IN HIS LAST LENGTHY CONVERSATION with his disciples, Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit, prayer, truth, love, and abiding in him. He was not speaking of these as individual topics but as part of a package, woven together in a comprehensive relationship that affects every area of our lives. So when Jesus said the Spirit of truth was coming to guide them into all truth, he was not only assuring future believers about the authenticity of Scripture and our ability to discern God’s will. He was also referring to a powerful influence in our prayers of faith. The Holy Spirit is within us, guiding our requests, telling us what is being discussed and prayed in heavenly intercession (Romans 8:27, 34), and cuing us in to future directions. He is the inspiration for the things we pray.

If you’ve ever wondered what to pray for, that’s great news. There will be times when the Holy Spirit turns our unspeakable desires, impulses, and groans into coherent petitions (Romans 8:26), but he will also fill our minds and hearts with vision, direction, and convictions about God’s purposes. He will write his plans on the screen of our imagination—we know how to use our imagination in distorted ways, but it also has some very godly purposes—and move us to pray them into existence. As the Spirit of Jesus himself, he is the author and finisher, the champion and perfecter, of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), initiating what we believe at every level of our journey. We are not solitary petitioners. We are surrounded and filled with divine impulses and inspiration.

Learn to envision your prayers as a partnership with the Holy Spirit. You are not coming up with your own ideas and trying to twist the arm of your Father. If the Spirit is at work within you, shaping your desires and requests (Philippians 2:13), you are joining a holy conversation already in progress. Pray from that awareness and trust the Spirit’s direction. You are being guided into a life of praying and receiving his will.

Prayer is none other but the revelation of the will or mind of God.