Spiritual Prayer

We all know we need to pray more. The problem is not our failure to know but our failure to do. In order to understand the nature of prayer, I want to look at two verses in Romans.  “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26-27.  I am planning a series of blogs on the subject of prayer, for for this one, I want to look at the spiritual nature of prayer and why that is a weakness for us.

Paul tells us here that prayer is a spiritual discipline and not a physical action.  I use to look at prayer as a physical action.  It was something I ought to do and do more often.  I would make a commitment to pray 15 minutes every day, and after one minute on the first day I was ready to quit.  All my physical determination did not change my spiritual prayer life.

Now don’t be too discouraged if you have failed in your physical attempts to climb the spiritual mountain of prayer.  I think it is the mark of a growing disciple to want to pray more.  Jesus told his own disciples when they failed to stay awake and pray for Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.  The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41.  Jesus knew His disciples spiritually wanted to pray, but the physical or the fleshly part of them was the weakness.  The same may be true for you, your spirit wants to pray but the flesh is weak.

Paul points out that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  The Holy Spirit builds in us a desire to want to pray and to want to pray as a spiritual discipline and not a physical action.  What is the difference between praying as a spiritual discipline and a physical action?  Your requests, manner, and method of praying will be different if you pray spiritually. 

First, the types of requests you make when you pray becomes different when you pray spiritually.  Many of us pray crisis prayers.  These are the ones that call for God to intervene in a physical situation.  Look at a church prayer request list and you will see a huge number of requests for physical healing, a change in a job, marriage, or child, and for issues involving everything from fires to famines.  Every request seems to be tied to the physical world you and I live in.  Now, I am not saying that we should not pray about those things. We should pray for physical needs, and God answers those prayer.  However, I am saying, that for most us, our prayer list stops there.  It never goes beyond the physical.

How often do calling prayers show up on your prayer list.  Prayers where you ask God to change your spirit to become more like the person He is calling you to be.  How often do Kingdom prayers show up on your prayer list.  Jesus taught us to pray, “thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10).  How often do you pray for the will of God and the kingdom of God to become real on earth?  Physical praying stops at crisis, spiritual praying moves from crisis to calling to kingdom.

Second, the manner of your prayer life becomes different when you pray spiritually.  If all your requests are physical in nature, then your prayer life is driven by your physical situation.  We don’t pray more often than we do because, quite frankly, we physically don’t feel like it.  Think about the times where it was easy for you to pray.  I would guess they involved a physical weakness either in your ability to change you, to change others, or to change your situation.  When we feel like we are physically in control we rarely see the need for spiritual intervention.  However, when we have exhausted all our physical avenues, suddenly spiritual intervention become our desired, and only, viable option.

When we recognize our spiritual emptiness, then our prayers can be driven more by the Spirit than the physical.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 5:3.  How do you know when your manner of prayer is different?  When prayer doesn’t become you presenting a laundry list of needs to Jesus and then running off to do something else physical.  When you can sit in His presence, be quiet and listen, not push your agenda but discover God’s agenda, the manner of your prayer life has changed and you are engaging God.

Finally, the method of your praying will change.  Prayer is communication with God and God is Spirit (John 4:24).  Only spiritual prayers connects and communicate deeply with spiritual God.  The good news is that we can connect with God, as a child connects with a “daddy”. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our heats, crying ‘Abba! Father!’” Galatians 4:6.  “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by who we cry ‘Abba! Father!’”  Romans 8:15.  When a child comes to their father with an issue, they trust that “daddy” can handle it.  They leave it with daddy.  Whether it is a bag to open, a project to complete, wisdom to be dispensed, or a relationship to be guided, a child trusts a perfect Father to do what they cannot.  When you are engaging in spiritual prayer, you won’t give your problem to God, and then take it back when you think you can handle it.  You will trust God completely to handle the issue completely.  You don’t take it back, till the Father puts it back in your hands.

To grow in our spiritual prayer life means we build a desire to pray more about spiritual things, to a God who is Spirit, and discover a Kingdom not of this world, but spiritual in nature. When prayers move from the realm of what we see, control, and touch, then prayer moves from a physical action to a spiritual encounter.