Our Prayer Partner: Pastor Rajiv's Mid-Week Message

Today we going to continue our series of messages on prayer based on O.S. Hawkins’ book the prayer code.

How many of you have heard of the term “prayer partnership?”

Prayer partnership is when two people tie up and make a pact to pray together at the same pre-decided time even though they may be located at different places.

Now we may not be practicing prayer partnership in our own lives even though it is a practice that brings considerable blessing but all of us each one of us who are believers in the lord Jesus Christ has a prayer partner.

Surprised? Yes, the holy spirit is our personal prayer partner.

He is with us all the time, he searches our hearts & helps in our weaknesses and, above all intercedes for us according to god’s will.

The Holy Spirit lives in the life of every believer who has called on the name of our lord Jesus Christ.

Hawkins explains that our bodies are the holy spirit’s Holy place and because he is in us, he does on our bodies what our lord Jesus Christ does for us before God the father & makes intercession for us.

The holy spirit is our personal prayer partner.

We can learn more about the holy spirit by asking 4 very pertinent questions.

Firstly a ‘what question’ - what does the holy spirt actually do? " likewise, the spirit also helps in our weaknesses".

The holy spirit helps us to pray. In other words, He lends a hand.

How? By coming alongside, and taking part in our prayers and making our prayers more effective.

Paul reminds us that “for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought”,

Why? Because we are weak, and we do need help especially when it comes to praying. A help which is not available to us through self-help books. It is only available to us from our prayer partner - The Holy spirit.

So that is what the holy spirit does: it helps in our prayer life.

Then we ask a ‘where question’. Where does the holy spirit help us? It helps in our weaknesses.

Hawkins reminds us that many of us are not very healthy when it comes to an effective prayer life.

Jesus saw this in his disciples who could not watch and pray with him for even an hour in the garden of Gethsemane which was the time of his greatest need.

This is why he sent us the holy spirit whom he called the helper so that he could help us where we are weak, and the truth is that we are pretty weak in our prayer life.

Here Hawkins cautions us about the fact that just because we have a helper does not mean that we allow the helper to help us.

There are many who resist the Holy Spirit, some grieve the Holy Spirit and some quench the Holy Spirit.

You may ask How? By never acknowledging the need for his help and continue to live in unconfessed sin.

Why does the holy spirit help us in our weaknesses? “for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought”.

This word ‘ought’ is a very crucial word in the New Testament and appears over one hundred times.

The Greek word that translates to the word ‘ought’ in a majority of these 100 times means ‘must’.

So it is most important that it is not just that we ought to pray but we must pray.

Hawkins explains the reasons why we do not always know how we ought to pray.

He gives the example of Paul praying three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed.

The reason that we do not know how to pray as we should is that we cannot see into the future.

We need help, we are weak, we are always confusing our wants with our needs and we do not know what is best for us.

That is why the holy spirit helps us in our weaknesses because we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

And finally a ‘how question’ - how does the holy spirit helps us pray? “But the spirit himself makes intercession”. He pleads on our behalf before God the father.

Hawkins gives the example of the good Samaritan who came upon a badly wounded man on the road. He got involved and interceded on the man’s behalf, took him to an inn, paid his bill and met his needs.

This is how the Holy Spirit works in our prayer lives. We are weak like the wounded man in the story of the good Samaritan. In our weakness we do not know how to pray or what to pray for, but the holy spirit comes alongside us and pleads on our behalf.

A crucial key to understanding how the Spirit helps us is that he knows the mind of God and always prays according to the will of God.

Romans 8: 27 "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".

The spirit leads us to the will of God for our lives.

Yes, we can find God’s will through scripture where we know many things for certain because they are plainly stated in god’s word. But there are matters of which we may not be very certain, so this is where the spirit comes in and helps us because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Hawkins points out one very crucial point: He points out that are many who have god’s word but are unaware of the spirit. Others have the spirit but are without god’s word.

We need the Holy Spirit so that we can find God’s will and we need to yield to the Holy Spirit because he intercedes for us according to the will of God.

So, what is the takeaway from this message today?

We are not alone we have an effective prayer partner in the Holy Spirit who knows god’s will for us and helps us pray in God’s will so that God’s will may be fulfilled in us and for us.

Amen!