Over the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about prayer. We have talked about what prayer is (a conversation with a God who loves us), and one powerful thing prayer can accomplish in our lives (bring God’s peace). But experiencing these things doesn’t seem to be something we can do on our own. We need help. Thankfully God provides that help for us. As we wrap up our series, Talking to God, today, we are talking about this help and how we can receive it.

Spiritual GPS

Alright, I’m going to split the room into two groups for a minute this morning: those folks 40 and up, and those folks 40 and under. Now, for the first group, do you remember navigating new places before GPS? I remember needing to drive around the city of Phoenix for a couple of days many years ago. Before my trip down there, I got on Google Maps and printed out individual maps of all the places I needed to go—several of them actually. I’m not any good with written or spoken directions. You can tell me how to get somewhere and it will zoom in one ear and out the other. I have to actually see it so I can form a mental map. Then I’m good to go. I suspect that most folks of a certain age have distinct memories of pulling out a map of a new city or maybe even a whole atlas for a long car trip, and navigating your way to your destination. 

For folks under 40, maps were this form of ancient technology that was like GPS except it wasn’t on a screen, and you had to buy a new map for each new city you visited. Or, if you wanted to get as close to modern GPS as possible, you bought an atlas book which had a whole bunch of maps all bound together in one convenient collection. 

I was driving somewhere this past week in a city I don’t know very well. Now, I had been there before, so some of the route and landmarks in the city were starting to look familiar, but still, I really didn’t know how to get anywhere. And let me just tell you: I hate being lost. It’s actually a pretty passionate hatred. I get flustered and disoriented and pretty cranky. It’s not pretty when I’m lost. Thankfully, I was driving Lisa’s vehicle which interfaces with my phone and displays a map right on the screen showing me where I am at all times. Even though the area around me wasn’t terribly familiar, I wasn’t ever even the slightest bit uncomfortable. All I had to do was look at my map, and I knew not only right where I was, but right where I was going. And when I wanted to go somewhere else, I just punched that destination into the map and off I went. It was great. 

For the last three weeks now, we have been talking about prayer and praying. The whole reason for this is that as Jesus assumed when He was talking about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, everybody prays. Even people who don’t believe in God pray. Whether we pray just isn’t an issue for most people. The challenges we face are knowing exactly what prayer is, why it matters, and how we can get help with it. 

To this end, we started out our series, Talking to God, two weeks ago, by getting our minds wrapped around just exactly what prayer is in the first place. Prayer is a conversation with a God who loves you. Knowing that will shape our praying more than just about anything else. Knowing that you are praying to a good and loving God who is highly motivated to listen and respond all in pursuit of a relationship with you will result in praying differently than thinking He is some distant deity who doesn’t really care all that much about you. 

As far as why prayer matters, there are all sorts of good things it can accomplish in our lives beyond simply getting positive answers to our requests. Last week, we talked about one of these things that is potentially quite powerful. Prayer can bring relief from anxiety. In a world that often lives in the grip of near crippling anxiety, this is indeed a pretty potent benefit. With something Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippian church guiding our way, we discovered the fact that prayer with a grateful heart brings God’s peace. If you want to experience peace where anxiety has been holding sway, prayer is the path that can help get you there. 

As good as all this sounds, though, another one of the problems with prayer is that when we start walking down that path, we are entering into necessarily unfamiliar territory. We are entering the realm of the spiritual and, honestly, we don’t really know what to do with that. We are physical creatures who live in a physical world. When it comes to spiritual stuff, we struggle mightily to wrap our minds around it. You can’t see it or touch it. There’s nothing to physically hear. And adequately describing something that seems like it can change from one experience to another is no easy task. When it comes to spiritual matters, we are driving in unfamiliar territory. We need help. We need some kind of a GPS that can guide us smoothly to where we are trying to go. Fortunately, we have something very much like that, and with some more help from the apostle Paul, we’re going to explore the help God provides when we start down the path of prayer. 

If you have a copy of the Scriptures handy, find your way with me to Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. It sits right after Acts, Luke’s story of the rise and growth of the church. Paul had never visited the church in Rome when he wrote to them. As a result, rather than covering a bunch of issues that were personal to the church like he did with the Corinthian church or the church in Philippi that we talked about last week, Paul stayed pretty general. Because he hadn’t planted the church himself and couldn’t be sure of what they had heard about the Gospel, he offered the believers there the most comprehensive description of the Gospel that’s ever been written, along with a thoughtful reflection on several of its most important practical implications. 

Paul’s exposition of the Gospel runs from the beginning through the middle of the letter. He starts by condemning everyone for their sinfulness, then he talks about how God deals with sin in Christ when we are willing to place our faith in Him. He finally wrestles with the ongoing impact of sin in the lives of people who are trying to walk the path of righteousness. All of this comes to a dramatic climax in Romans 8 with his thunderous and glorious declaration that “there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” 

Romans 8 is Paul’s grand concluding reflection on the glories of the Gospel he has been laying out over the previous seven chapters. It ends with his incredible affirmation of the absolute reliability of the love of God in Christ Jesus. It’s honestly one of the most significant chapters in the entire New Testament in terms of shaping how we think about the Gospel. If you haven’t read it lately, you should go back and see it with fresh eyes. You’ll be glad that you did. But as I read back through the chapter over the last couple of weeks while preparing for this morning, something struck me that I don’t think I’ve noticed before. The glories of the Gospel Paul lays out are not about us. They’re all about God and what He does for us, and more specifically how He does them for us. The glories of the Gospel are ministered to us by the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity we know about and talk about least. This is because, as we have already said, spiritual topics like this are hard. We just don’t know what to do with the Holy Spirit. We’ll have to save a full exploration of Him for another time, but for now, it’s worth your knowing that He is personal just like the Father and the Son. He is a “He,” not an “it.” He is the fullness of God just like the Father and the Son are. He’s not God-lite. He’s fully God. The Holy Spirit is the person of God who carries out His will. God the Father decrees it. God the Son enables it. God the Spirit does it. He was sent to be with us in Jesus’ physical absence so that we would never be alone in our efforts to advance His kingdom. 

Jesus Himself talked up the Holy Spirit and His ministry with the disciples in the conversation He had with them between the Last Supper and Gethsemane which John records for us in His Gospel. He said “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.” He told them “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” He said that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” 

So, the Holy Spirit has this incredible ministry. He is the person of God who is helping us day-to-day live out the Christian life. Here in Romans 8, Paul lists out several more things the Spirit does for us in the context of applying the glories of the Gospel to our lives. The Spirit sets us free from sin and death. Verse 2: “…the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” He shows us how to live in such a way that leads to life. Verse 5: “For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.” 

The Holy Spirit gives us the assurance that we are actually following Jesus. Verse 9: “You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.” He makes us alive in Christ both now and in the future. Verses 10-11: “Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.” 

The Holy Spirit helps us to not sin, and makes us the adopted children of God.. Verses 13-15: “…because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons [and daughters]. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’” 

One more, and then we’ll land with both feet on our destination for this morning. The Holy Spirit gives us a down payment on life in God’s eternal kingdom, the very life that creation itself groans and longs for when our own redemption comes nigh. Verse 23: “Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” 

Is this not amazing? I know we’re talking a lot about the Holy Spirit instead of prayer, and we’ll get to prayer in just a second. I just felt like it was important to set the prayer part of our conversation in the context of everything else the Holy Spirit does for us. When you experience the presence of God in Christ, that’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When you come to understand the Scriptures more fully or more personally, that’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When you feel that confirmation in your heart of hearts that you belong to God, giving you the strength and encouragement to keep pursuing His kingdom in spite of the challenges facing you, that’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In addition, then, to all the rest of the incredible things Paul details out for us, the Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. 

Listen to this from v. 26: “In the same way…” And if I have accomplished anything in training you in how to read the Bible, that phrase should immediately prompt a question in your mind: In the same way as what? In the same way that the Holy Spirit helps us have a taste of God’s kingdom to give us the hope to keep going through this world when we are discouraged and struggling on our journeys. Just like that. “In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should.” 

Have you ever been there? You sit down to pray, and you don’t even know what to say. You go to pray for another person only to realize that you know so precious little about their situation that you don’t know how exactly to pray for them. Or perhaps you go to pray about something going on in your own life, but you are so emotionally wrought over the whole thing that the words just won’t come. Maybe you have prayed for something and kept praying for it, but nothing seemed to be happening. It’s almost like you are praying the wrong thing, and like a good teacher sometimes sits in silence to let his students work their minds around the answer on their own, God is silently, patiently letting you realize on your own how you need to direct your prayers to make them more effective. Sometimes we just don’t know what to pray. Our spirits are willing, but our minds and hearts are weak. 

“In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.” Other translations phrase that last part as “inexpressible groanings,” or “groanings too deep for words,” or, more interpretively, “He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.” The idea here is that when we don’t have the words, but our hearts are nonetheless filled with spiritual and righteous desire for God’s intervention in something, the Holy Spirit takes all of this emotion we can’t put into words, and does the work for us. 

As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit doesn’t even need words. He knows the very mind of God because He is God. Look at one more verse here: “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Not only does the Holy Spirit help us in our praying, when we are utilizing His help, we can be sure our prayers will always be in line with the will of God. And do you know what happens when our prayers are in line with the will of God? We get what we are asking for. God is always happy to do things for us when we ask when we ask for things that are already His will in the first place. 

I hope the big idea here is becoming clearer and clearer. It’s really very simple: the Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. When we go to pray, we are not alone. Ever. If you have professed faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in you by virtue of that profession of faith. Once there, He does all kinds of incredible things in our lives including helping us in our praying. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. 

That’s all well and good, but don’t miss one of the more subtle details here. The Holy Spirit can only minister to us in all these ways when we have Him with us and in us in the first place. Unless we have the Spirit of Christ in us, we can’t count on His help. This is an extras-for-insiders deal. 

This means two things in particular. First, if you are a follower of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit in and with you, helping you all the time in your praying. You don’t have to approach prayer like you are on your own. You are not standing at the brink all by yourself, courageously defending one thing or another with your prayers. You are standing with the great Commander of all the hosts of Heaven itself. If you will let Him, He will guide you in the directions your mind and heart need to go as you move forward in your praying. God is with you. God hears you. God helps you. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. 

The other side of this, though, is that if you aren’t following Jesus, this much isn’t for you just yet. The good news, though, is that you can fix that. You—even in this very moment—can place your faith in Him as Lord. This is the most reasonable decision you could make. Jesus predicted and pulled off His own death and resurrection. That alone should give anyone sufficient reason to follow Him. When you do this, Jesus promised that you will have the Holy Spirit—the very person of God—take up residence in your life to guide and direct you into all truth and the life of the kingdom. Without this connection, though, you can’t count on the Holy Spirit’s help when you pray.

Now, this doesn’t mean that God won’t hear your prayers. I know some folks have occasionally suggested that God only listens to the prayers of believers, but I don’t see anything in the Scriptures to support that. The only times God says He won’t listen to someone’s prayers is in the context of telling people who were already following Him to shape up. God doesn’t say a word anywhere about not listening to people who aren’t yet following Him. He wants to draw them to His kingdom. Ignoring them doesn’t seem like it would be a very good way to accomplish that. But as much as He wants to draw them in, the kind of active help the Spirit provides when He is already in us just isn’t there yet. 

But it can be. It just takes a simple decision on your part. On any of our parts. When you start following Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit in you, helping you pray. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. 

The Holy Spirit’s help with our praying actually provides context and a pathway to more clearly understand what Paul says next. The very next thing Paul writes in Romans 8 is far more well-known than vv. 26-27. He declares that “we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” That verse is a gateway to bumper sticker theology if there ever was one. It has been used and abused so often that it’s mostly just considered a cliche thrown in the face of people who are going through hard times as a way to encourage them without actually having to get our hands dirty helping them. 

What this understanding of the Holy Spirit’s help in our praying does, though, is to give us greater confidence that He really can work everything out for our good in the end. If the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and is actively interceding for us as we pray, translating our meager efforts into the kind of strong, robust cries for God’s action that we need them to be and which are fully in line with His will, then that same Spirit can lead us toward the good ends God has planned for us however the path to those ends happens to wind. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. And because of that help, we can have confidence that things are going to turn out in ways that bring glory to God. When we tie our lives to His glory, that means everything will be good for us in the end as well. 

Now, this has been a lot today. Let’s take a minute here at the end and break things down into digestible bites. When you pray, if you are a follower of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit helping you as you go. You are not alone. You don’t have to pray like you are alone. You can pray with confidence and boldness. Even when you don’t know the words, you can still put yourself before God and cry out to Him, and you can be sure He will hear you because of that same help from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. 

Friends, this is news worth sharing. Jesus called all of His followers to be actively bearing testimony to the resurrection and sharing the Gospel of God’s kingdom with everyone they meet. Given the state of our culture, the fact that when someone starts following Jesus, they will have the help of God’s own Spirit in them to guide them in their praying so that they can build a better, stronger relationship with Him and experience His incredible peace among many other things, is definitely a point in the Gospel’s favor. You can share that. You should share that. That’s really good news. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. 

What this means even more directly for each one of us, though, is that we need to be praying. We need to be praying about everything. We need to be pursuing a relationship with God at every moment and in every circumstance of our lives. There is not a bad time to invite His involvement in our situations. The more we pray, the greater our trust in God will become. The greater our trust in God grows, the more easily we will be able to keep His commands. The more we keep His commands, walking consistently in His ways, the more we will experience the goodness of His character. That will bring peace, joy, and hope to our lives in ways that are not accessible by other means. And we have help in all this as we go because we’ve got the very Spirit of God dwelling in us. He is our spiritual GPS, making sure we are never lost along the way. We only have to trust Him and follow His lead. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. 

So, what are you praying about right now? What would you be praying about more frequently and more fervently if you knew God was helping and hearing you? Friends: He is. The Holy Spirit helps us in our praying. Let’s get praying.