Why Wouldn't Everyone Want to Pray in the Spirit? [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. One of the most important things that the Holy Spirit does in enabling our prayer lives is to reveal to us who we are as God's children.

For only in as much as you know God as your Father, you approach Him with confidence. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Filled, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource today. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Abigail, she is gifted to be, is relentless. She wisely, instead of asking me for a guinea pig, she started asking for lesser things. She started asking, could we get a book on guinea pigs? And we got a book on guinea pigs, and she would like to just snuggle and read about guinea pigs. And that turned into dreaming about what color guinea pig is the cutest of guinea pigs and what length of fur and so forth. And I would turn her towards the pages of maintenance and care of guinea pigs.

She would turn back to find the cutest pictures. Then it began to become, could we just go by the pet store, not to get one, but to look at guinea pigs. And so we looked at some guinea pigs, and then it became, could we just hold a guinea pig?

Well, one night, at our prayer time, she asked one of the most intelligent questions I ever heard. She finally, after various things about how much she wanted a guinea pig, she said, Daddy, do you want me to get a guinea pig? That was brilliant, because if she could just find out whether I ultimately was in my will to get her a guinea pig, then she would know that she could then ask and would be heard. And she also knew that if I really wanted her to get a guinea pig, that I could probably override the mom factor and get the guinea pig in the house, being the dad.

And so I avoided answering that question. But a revelation came to me that day about praying the will of God. If I had said, you know, I do want you to get a guinea pig, that would have not caused her to cease asking for a guinea pig, it would have energized her asking for a guinea pig.

She would never stop asking for a guinea pig if she thought it was my will to get her a guinea pig. So why would we be confused and think, as some people do, that if God's will is going to be done, why do we even need to pray, He's just going to do His will? Discovering in the Spirit the heart of God, the will of God, does not remove us from a prayer life, it moves us into prayer life. And the Holy Spirit leads us in prayer in this way.

He is God, He knows the will of God. Let us be filled with the Spirit and not let our prayer life be fueled simply by our own fault life. Now, another way that we pray in the Spirit is that the Holy Spirit has filled the Word of God. Scripture says of itself that all Scripture is God-breathed. So in the same way that your breath fills words, so the Spirit of God fills His Word.

So every part of God's Word has been inspired by God, or means that the Spirit has infused and been breathed into God's Word. The other thing that every child figures out early on is that if you can get your parent to make you a promise, that it's much more effective to remind your parent of a promise than it is to simply ask for something. So instead of just saying, can we have ice cream today? And then I say, well, we'll see about that. The wise child, the clever child, has learned to follow up with that and say, well, do you promise that we can have some ice cream? And if I say, okay, I promise we'll have some ice cream, and then I forget about it, and everybody forgets about it, and now it's 10 o'clock at night. And the child says, can I have some ice cream now?

And we say, no, it's 10 o'clock at night. I'm going to give you a big glop of sugar and throw you into bed. And the child says, but you promised.

What is that? Even in an earthly mother, sinful as I am, it pulls something on me because I made a promise. How much more your Father in heaven, if He makes a promise, should we not appeal to Him on the basis of His promise? Because what happens when you pray the Scripture is you've moved out of the category of the soul, and you've gone into the things of the Spirit. Now, in praying God's Word back to God, it takes our own little soulish mind activity out of it. We're now in a different realm, and we're talking to God about the things that God has said, and that is altogether more powerful, fruitful, effective, and exciting.

So it's not difficult to do. You pray the Scriptures. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing. It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org.

It's a great idea to start each day with a dose of good news, and we'd like to help. If you yearn to see more of God's power in your life, you'll love Pastor Alan's Devotional Journal, Everyday Miracles. It's a one-month journey through the stories of Elijah and his successor, Elisha, that include daily devotionals from Pastor Alan, questions for reflection, space for journaling, and a daily prayer of faith. This beautiful spiral-bound book is the perfect tool to get you into the Word and to build your faith day by day. When you make a gift this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's new devotional journal, Everyday Miracles, as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Also free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing. So please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. When I talk about a soulish prayer, what I mean is not that there is a place for the lament of our souls, just like in the Psalms. It's okay that sometimes we just need to come and lament before God. He comforts us, and it can be a release. And so in our sorrows, I recommend that we be honest with God, and so that's fine. So God comforts us in that. But it's still not powerfully spiritual in the way that praying in the Spirit is. It's like the difference between when we're going through a difficult time and praying like this, God, I'm going through a difficult time, and I don't know how I'm going to make it, and I don't know where the next dollar's coming from, and I don't know how we're going to get through this, and Lord, I need this, and I need this, and I need that. And it's okay. We'll pray like that.

But it would be more powerful to just take a text. Maybe Psalm 23, which we used at the beginning of the year. We blessed our congregation with a portion of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. Just turn it into a prayer. Lord, you're my shepherd. You're a good shepherd.

The same way a shepherd watches over a flock, you're watching over me. I thank you for being my shepherd, because I need a shepherd right now. And you promise, Lord, that as a good shepherd, you'll not let your flock be in want.

You're not going to let it be that there's something that I need that you do not provide, that I don't see where the provision is. It feels like a famine right now, but you say that you lead your sheep to lie down in green pastures. Oh, God, I want to thank you in advance for the green pastures that are coming my way, that you're going to bring some rest to my weary soul, enable me to lie down and to rest in your provision. God, provide the green pastures that you have promised to me. And Lord, though I might walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you've promised you'll never leave me.

You'll never forsake me. Oh, God, let me know your presence. Walk with me closely. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. You say, Lord, even though the enemies might be in the forest around about me, that there will be there'll be a provision, a banquet spread before me. Oh, God, open up the eyes of my heart that I would see how blessed I am in Jesus Christ. I can't see the banquet very well right now. Open up my eyes and let me see it.

Lord, I know that you say I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Oh, God, let me see it. Let me appropriate.

Don't let me be blind to it. Let me eat. Let me drink.

Let me be filled. Oh, Lord, God calls it to be that the grace that you have, the new wine makes my cup to overflow. Anoint my head with oil. Let the Holy Spirit be poured out upon me. Just as you've said in your word, you promised, Lord, that goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

Oh, God, I just lay claim to every promise that you've got for me that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. See, that's praying. That's praying. And in our souls, we're not going to pray like that, but you get a hold of the scripture and just pray it back to God.

I'm really praying. And the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayer not just by perhaps giving us a gift, a spiritual gift that helps our prayer or giving us the heart and will of God or by the scripture that he has filled, but there's something else that is perhaps the most important thing that I could say or ever have said about the Holy Spirit's role in prayer. It is simply that the Holy Spirit enables our prayer life by revealing to us the fatherhood of God and our sonship unto Father God through Jesus Christ. When Jesus is teaching his disciples about prayer, when they ask him how to pray, he begins, here's what he says in Matthew 6, when you pray, Matthew 6, verse 5, do not be like the hypocrites, play actors, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Now this is a radical thing that Jesus says, because what he's essentially saying is if you want to learn about how to pray, the last place that you should look is at religious people.

That's exactly what he's saying. They sound good, their prayers sound fancy, and they like being heard, and they're going through maybe a ritual or they're maybe going through saying things that will sound good, but it is of no effect for they already receive their award. Whatever you do, you're going to learn about prayer, don't pray like them. Instead, he says at verse 6, pray to your father who is unseen. That the key of prayer is that you could care less about what somebody else is thinking, because you are connected in an intimate conversation with your father.

Pray to your father. He says, and don't babble on and on like the pagans do. He says, because verse 8, your father knows what you need. And then he says, this is how you should pray, your father in heaven. We are taught by Paul that the Holy Spirit, in making the work of Jesus effective to regenerate our lives and make us alive, begins his ministry in a spiritual way by bearing witness to our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs and co-heirs with Christ. One of the most important things that the Holy Spirit does in enabling our prayer lives is to reveal to us who we are as God's children. For only in as much as you know God as your father, rather than your judge or just your distant deity, in as much as you know him as father, you approach him with confidence. A child in a healthy family with a healthy father relates to the father in a way that no one else relates to the father.

No one else has ever pleaded with me for a guinea pig. It's difficult for many because we live in a culture where about 40% of people don't live with their dad and we don't have any perfect examples of dads even when they are there. But the revelation of the Holy Spirit is to show us what a father really is. So if you had an absent father or a hurtful father, the Holy Spirit shows you, that's not what I'm like. I want to show you what a father really is. And if you had an excellent father, the Holy Spirit shows you that's what the father's like except better. And when you get a revelation of the fatherhood of God, the deeper that revelation, the more intimate your prayer life becomes. That's it. Let us come confidently to the throne of grace in our time of need.

How are we going to do that? Except we know we are his sons and his daughters who are welcomed intimately into his presence. I was in the Detroit airport on Thursday evening waiting to be picked up. And I was sitting in the baggage claim waiting for my ride. And seated a few seats away was a little old Jewish man. He was reading the Hebrew Scriptures.

He had on traditional Orthodox black garb and a black hat and a long gray beard a little man nodding his head and reading his Scriptures seated in the baggage claim. And my heart was drawn to this little man. And I just kept an eye on him and his wife. They had their bags with them and they too were waiting to be picked up at the airport. It was throwing me back to the simpler days of this man there just with his little Hebrew Bible and all this traditional garb. The picture was somewhat distorted though when his cell phone rang. And he said, yes, we've got our bags.

We're here in the baggage claim. And not too long thereafter in came who was obviously his son who also had on Orthodox Jewish garb, black coat, black hat, a much less gray beard and obviously his son. And he began to walk to his father.

I don't know of course how long it had been since they had seen each other. And his father stood up and put his little Bible into his coat pocket and he reached up as the son was approaching. His father reached up with his hand to his hat. And I thought, now that is strange. I didn't think that he would take off his hat in public. And I thought he was going to take his hat off.

I was watching. And then as the son got another step closer, I realized he was not taking his hat off. He was lifting the hat up. And I thought, now that is not a Hebraic expression I'm familiar with. I didn't know a father would tip his hat towards his son.

And I realized he wasn't tipping his hat. Because as the son approached and the father lifted his hat, I realized why he had done so. He was shorter than his son and he was making room so that he could kiss his boy on the face.

And I have about broken tears right there. Just could care less how many people in that busy Detroit airport just kiss his son. But what moved me in this was not just the kiss. It was he was already starting to lift his hat while the boy was still walking. Because he knew, that's my boy.

We're going to kiss each other right on the face. And all these people just spoke to me and said, that is your father. Lifts up his countenance upon you when you draw to him.

I want you to see this, for this is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you go to God in prayer, he lifts up his countenance upon you to allow you to such intimate presence that could only be described in such terms as I saw in the Detroit airport. He has that affection for you. And you have that intimate access to him. It's an intimate access. It is an access that is like feeling his breath upon your own face.

There's nobody else in the airport that's going to come up and kiss this little old Jewish man. But his son comes and he lifts up face to face. If the Holy Spirit would so fill our hearts, so open the eyes of our hearts, that we could see that is the promise of the gospel for all who are in Jesus Christ. You have been made like firstborn sons to the father. Draw near to him in prayer. Alan Wright and today's teaching.

Why wouldn't everyone want to pray in the spirit? From our series filled and Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and today's final word. It's a great idea to start each day with a dose of good news and we'd like to help if you yearn to see more of God's power in your life. You'll love Pastor Alan's devotional journal every day miracles. It's a one month journey through the stories of Elijah and his successor, Elijah that include daily devotionals from Pastor Alan questions for reflection space for journaling and a daily prayer of faith. This beautiful spiral bound book is the perfect tool to get you into the word and to build your faith day by day. When you make a gift this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's new devotional journal every day miracles as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Also free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing. So please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.

Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. So Alan, we've covered a lot of ground in this teaching and in closing here with a topic on prayer and praying in the Spirit. Would the next action, the next step simply be to pray?

Absolutely. And to know as we will be having the opportunity in our next radio series to talk about this, that there's more than one way to pray in the Spirit. And that's what we're trying to show is that some people think, well, this is just referring to a particular spiritual gift, you know, praying in a prayer language or something.

But it's not just that. There are many ways in which we pray in the Spirit. This is to say that in a relational way, by the leadings and promptings of the Holy Spirit, we are caught up into the very person of who God is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And there is an interaction that takes place supernaturally in one's prayer life. When you see it this way, prayer becomes such a privilege and becomes so, so powerful. Everyone can pray by the power of the Holy Spirit. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.