LIKEWISE THE SPIRIT ALSO HELPS IN OUR WEAKNESSES.
FOR WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD PRAY FOR AS WE OUT,
BUT THE SPIRIT HIMSELF MAKES INTERCESSION FOR US
WITH GROANINGS WHICH CANNOT BE UTTERED.
NOW HE WHO SEARCHES THE HEARTS KNOWS WHAT THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT IS,
BECAUSE HE MAKES INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS
ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD. ROMANS 8.26-7
219 we are ignorant of both the will of God as revealed in the Bible
and His unrevealed will as we can learn it from His providence.
mankind is also vastly ignorant of the promises and prophesies in the Bible.
we are even more in the dark about those points God gives us through the leadings of His Spirit.
i have named these 4 reasons to ground our faith in prayer:
providences
promises,
prophecies and
the Holy Spirit
i once knew an individual who was in great spiritual darkness. he went off by himself to pray, resolving that he would not stop until he found the Lord.
he knelt down and tried to pray.
his mind was dark and he could not pray.
he got up from his knees and stood awhile,
but he could not give up because he promised he would not let the sun go down before
he gave himself to God.
he knelt again.
but his heart was dark and as hard as before. he was nearly in despair and said in agony,
'i have grieved the Spirit of God away and there is no hope for me.
i am shut out from the presence of God'.
220 but his resolution was not to give up.
again he knelt down.
he had said only a few words when this passage came to mind, as fresh as if he had just read it:
'you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart'. (jer. 29.13)
he saw that though this promise was in the old testament and addressed to the jews,
it was as applicable to him as to them.
his hard heart broke when the Lord Himself hammered it with this Scripture.
this young man prayed and then got up to leave,
FILLED WITH THE JOY OF JESUS.
(foot: in this passage, Finney uses the pauline expression, 'I knew a man (II Cor. 12.2 kjv) and tells the story of his own conversion. it was adams, new york, where he was studying law. in his study of the Bible, he had come under deepening conviction, realizing that 'salvation, instead of being a thing to be brought about by my own works, was a thing to be found entirely in the Lord Jesus, who presented Himself as my God and my Savior'. as he walked along the street, an inward voice seemed to demand, 'will you accept it now, today? his reply was 'yes, i will accept it today or i will die trying'.
instead of going on to his studies, he made his way into the woods near the village, creeping between some fallen trees, to pray. there, as he said afterward, 'God gave me many other promises in addition to the text quoted from jeremiah, especially some very precious promises regarding our Lord Jesus Christ. i seized them'. his disquieted mind became 'wonderfully calm and peaceful'. he thought, ass he walked back toward adams, 'my mind was so perfectly quiet that it seemed as if all nature listened'. he had gone to the woods immediately after an early breakfast and by this time it was dinnertime. yet it appeared to him that he had been absent only a little while.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER
i have been known to keep a list of people for whom i have been especially concerned.
i have done this regarding a multitude of people who were immediately converted.
221 i have prayed for the people on this list, literally in agony for them.
i have sometimes called on another christian thelp me pray for a person.
i have fixed my mind on an individual with such a hardened, abandoned character
that i could not be reached in any ordinary way.
in one town where there was a revival, there was an individual who violently opposed christianity. he ran a tavern and delighted in swearing whenever there were christians within hearing distance. he was so bad that one man said he would have to either sell his place of give it away because he could not stand to live near a man who swore like that.
when i passed through the town and heard of the case, i was very distressed for the individual. i put the curser on my prayer list. the case weighed on my mind when i was asleep and awake. i continued thinking about the ungodly man and praying for him for days. and not long after, the tavern keeper came to a meeting and confessed his sins. pouring out his soul, he seemed to be one of the most repentant men ever seen. his testimony seemed to cover the whole ground of his treatment of God, christians, the revival and every good thing.
the new convert's bar immediately became the place where they held prayer meetings. my prayer list was an example of how the Spirit of God leads individual christians to pray for things that they would not pray for without being led by the Spirit. they pray for things 'according to the will of God'.
THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT
a lot of harm has been done by saying that this leading is a NEW REVELATION. calling this leading a revelation has caused many people to
222 be apprehensive. the strength of the term has frightened them so that they will not even stop to see what revelation means or if the Bible even teaches the principle.
the plain truth of the matter is that THE SPIRIT LEADS A MAN TO PRAY. if God leads a man to pray for an individual, the inference from the Bible is that God plans to save that individual. if we find, by comparing our state of mind with the Bible, that we are led by the Spirit to pray for an individual, we have solid evidence to believe that God is prepared to bless him.
devoted, praying christians often see things so clearly, and look so far ahead, that they confuse others. they sometimes almost seem to prophesy. undoubtedly many people think they are being led by the Spirit when in fact they are leaning on their own understanding.
but there is no doubt that a christian may be enabled to clearly discern the signs of the times, so as to understand, by providence, what to expect, and to pray for it in faith. believers are often led to expect a revival and to pray for it in faith, when nobody else can see the least sign of it.
UNDERSTANDING GOD'S DIRECTION
there was a woman living in a New Jersey town where there had just been a revival. she was positive there was going to be another. she wanted to arrange 'conference meetings', but the minister and elders saw nothing to encourage a revival, so they did nothing. she saw they were blind, so she got a carpenter to make seats for her house where she would have the meetings. there was certainly going to be a revival!
she scarcely opened her doors for meetings, when the Spirit of God came down with great power and these sleepy christians found themselves surrounded, all at once, with convicted sinners. they could only say, 'surely the Lord is in this place and (we) did not know it (genesis 28.16).
people like this woman understand the direction of God's will because the Spirit of God leads them to the understanding, not
223 because they are so wise. the Lord's wisdom shows them how events are all leading to a particular result.
the Bible says, 'The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered'. the meaning of this, as i understand it, is that THE SPIRIT EXCITES DESIRES too great to be uttered except by groans - making the soul too full to utter its feelings by words. the person can only groan them out to God, who understands the language of the heart.
HOW IS A SINNER TO GET CONVICTION? BY THINKING OF HIS SINS.
THAT IS THE WAY FOR A CHRISTIAN TO GAIN A DEEP AWARENESS -
BY THINKING ABOUT THE SUBJECT.
GOD IS NOT GOING TO POUR THESE THINGS ON YOU
WITHOUT ANY EFFORT OF YOUR OWN.
YOU MUST CHERISH THE SLIGHTEST IMPRESSIONS.
TAKE THE BIBLE AND GO OVER THE PASSAGES
THAT SHOW THE CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS OF THE WORLD.
(note: for instance, ephesians 4.17-9: this i say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk,
in the vanity of their mind
having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them,
because of the blindness of their heart:
who being past feeling
have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,
who work all uncleanness with greediness. )
look at the world, your children and your neighbors
and see their condition while they remain in sin.
then, persevere in prayer and effort UNTIL you obtain the blessing of the Spirit of God.
i have spent much time on this subject because i want it to be plain to you that you will be careful not to grieve the Spirit. i want you to have high ideas of the HOLY SPIRIT and to recognize that
NOTHING WILL BE DONE WITHOUT HIS INFLUENCES.
no praying or preaching will make any difference without Him.
if Jesus Christ were to come down here and preach to sinners,
not one would be converted without the Spirit.
BE CAREFUL..NOT TO GRIEVE HIM BY SLIGHTING/NEGLECTING HIS HEAVENLY INFLUENCES WHEN HE INVITES YOU TO PRAY.
PRAYER FORMS
we see from this subject the absurdity of using set prayers or prayer books.
the very idea of using a form reject the leading of the Spirit.
nothing is more calculated to destroy the spirit of prayer
and entirely darken and confuse the mind to what constitutes prayer, than prayer forms.
rote prayers are not only absurd in themselves,
224 but they are the very device of the devil to destroy the spirit and break the power of prayer.
prayer does not consist of mere words. it does not matter what the words are if the heart is not led by the Spirit of God. if the desire is not kindled, the thoughts directed and the whole current of feeling produced and led by the Spirit of God, it is not prayer. set forms keep an individual from praying as he could.
EXPERIENCING THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER
'The Spirit Himself makes intercession'.
for whom does He pray? for the saints!
if you are a believer, you know by experience what it is to be exercised like this.
or, if you do not, it is because you have grieved the Spirit of God so that He will not lead you.
you probably have not yet experienced His filling.
you live in such a manner that THIS HOLY COMFORTER WILL NOT make His presence known with you or
GIVE YOU THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER
IF THIS IS SO YOU MUST REPENT.
DO NOT DECIDE WHETHER YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN OR NOT
BUT REPENT AS IF YOU NEVER REPENTED
DO NOT TAKE IT FOR GRANTED THAT YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN
but GO LIKED A HUMBLE SINNER AND P-O-U-R O-U-T YOUR HEART TO THE LORD
you can never have the spirit of prayer in any other way.
nothing will produce more excitement and opposition than the spirit of prayer.
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