The unrealized logic of Prayer - Chambers, Oswald

Chapter XII

Romans 8:26–28

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Ephesians 6:18 praying in the holy ghost. Jude 20

Ephesians 6:18 and jude 20 are not quite identical with romans 8:26.In the former it is man praying in the atmosphere produced by the holy spirit indwelling and surrounding him; in the latter the holy spirit himself is praying in man. The similarity is obvious, but the point of difference is often missed in thinking about prayer. We realise that we are energised by the holy spirit for prayer, we know what it is to pray in the atmosphere and the presence of the holy spirit; but we do not so often realise that the holy spirit himself prays in us with prayers that we cannot utter.

The unrealised philosophy of prayer (romans 8:26)

The great thought which we do not realise sufficiently is the interchanging action of the divine spirit and the human spirit. This interchanging action of the divine and human at every stage of our religious life is vividly expressed here. The best example of the divine spirit working in a human spirit is seen in our lord jesus christ in the days of his flesh. According to some expositors, we are so infirm that the spirit of god brushes aside all our infirmities and prays irrespectively of us, but we find that our lord recognised the difference between his own spirit and the spirit of god, and that his mind was always in subordination to the mind of god. I can of mine own self do nothing.

(a) the uncovered truth of our infirmities

likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities . . .

To ask how we are to get our prayers answered is a different point of view from the new testament. According to the new testament, prayer is gods answer to our poverty, not a power we exercise to obtain an answer. We have the idea that prayer is only an exercise of our spiritual life. Pray without ceasing. We read that the disciples said to our lord, lord, teach us to pray. The disciples were good men and well-versed in jewish praying, yet when they came in contact with jesus christ, instead of realising they could pray well, they came to the conclusion they did not know how to pray at all, and our lord instructed them in the initial stages of prayer. Most of us can probably remember a time when we were religious, before we were born again of the spirit of god, when we could pray fairly well; but after we were born again we became conscious of what Paul mentions here, our utter infirmityi do not know how to pray. We become conscious not only of the power god has given us by his spirit, but of our own utter infirmity. We hinder our life of devotion when we lose the distinction in thinking between these two. Reliance on the holy spirit for prayer is what paul is bringing out in this verse. It is an unrealised point, we state it glibly enough, but paul touches the thing we need to remember, he uncovers the truth of our infirmity. The whole source of our strength is receiving, recognising and relying on the holy spirit.

(b) the unsyllabled torment of our inability

for we know not what we should pray for as we ought . . .

The only platform from which the holiest saint on earth is ever heard is the platform mentioned in Hebrews 10:19, viz. , we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. There is no other way. When we come into the presence of god, the human side of our praying makes us realise what Paul is trying to teach, that if we are ever going to approach god and pray acceptably, it must be by the piece of god in us which he has given us. Some of the qualities of god must be merged into us before our prayers can be fit for his acceptance. We are all familiar with luke 11:13, but we do not always remember that our lord spoke the words in connection with receiving the holy spirit for prayer. Paul in romans 8:26 beats out into gold leaf the nugget that our lord gives in luke 11:13. When i realise that i cannot approach god, that i cannot see as god sees, that i am choked up with things my eyes see and my flesh wants, and the empty

Spaces round my heart want, then jesus says, if you, being evil, you know that is your infirmity if you ask god for the holy spirit, he will give him to you. That is, god will be merged into me, and i can begin to think about real prayer, relying on what god has planted in me for prayer. Otherwise we could never get near him, the crush of our infirmities would paralyse the words on our lips. We can only pray acceptably in the spirit, that is, by the holy spirit in us, all the rest is being cumbered about. The disposition of sin is removed in sanctification, there is no doubt about that; but Paul insists that the body is not changed, the body we had and which was ruled by the wrong disposition of sin still remains (see romans 6:1219). We have to use that body now and make it a slave to the new disposition, and we have to realise the need to do it more in prayer than in anything else.

(c) the unutterable tenderness of the intercession

. . . But the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The spirit of a man, whether it be energised by the spirit of god or not, is bound to try and express itself in the body, which becomes its soul manifest; if it refuses to express itself in a rational way, it will express itself in an irrational, stupid way. When the spirit of god comes in and energises the spirit of a man, what happens is that he is taken up into the great mystery of the holy ghost interceding in him along a particular line. If the holy spirit is allowed to dwell in the human spirit he has energised, he will express the unutterable. Think what that means. It means being quickened by the incoming of the holy spirit who comes in to dwell supremely, and the amazing revelation is that he intercedes in us, for us, with a tenderness exactly in accordance with the mind of god. Have we ever allowed our minds to dwell on this element of prayer? The sinner out of heart with self is nearest god in prayer. It is a mistake to inter- pret prayer on the natural instead of on the spiritual line, to say that because prayer brings us peace and joy and makes us feel better, therefore it is a divine thing. This is the mere accident or effect of prayer, there is no real god-given revelation in it. This is the god-given revelation: that when we are born again of the spirit of god and indwelt by the holy spirit, he intercedes for us with a tenderness and an under- standing akin to the lord Jesus christ and akin to god, that is, he expresses the unutterable for us.

The unrivalled power of prayer (romans 8:27)

(a) the unimagined interest of god and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit . . .

The holy spirit when he comes in to the hidden sphere of our life applies the atonement to us in the unconscious realm as well as in the realm of which we are conscious, that is, he works out in us the under- standing of sin that god has; and it is only when we get a grasp of the unrivalled power of the spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 john 1:7, the blood of jesus christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. This does not refer to conscious sin only, but to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the holy ghost in us realises, and god searches our hearts to find out what the intercession of his spirit is.

There are tremendous thoughts expressed in gods book, and unless we have learned to rely on the holy spirit we shall say, oh, i shall never understand that, but the holy spirit in us understands it, and as we recognise and rely on him, he will work it out, whether we consciously understand or not. The point for us to remember is that we must get to the right basis of thinking spiritually as well as of living. Never close down on your personal experience, never rivet your attention on the fact that you have had the experience of salvation or sanctification, or the baptism of the holy ghost; these experiences are simply door- ways into a life. We have to make our minds realise this great revealed thought underneath, that the holy spirit is working out in us the mind of god even as he worked out the mind of god in Christ jesus.

(b) the undiscovered intercession before god

because he maketh intercession for the saints . . .

Who does? The holy spirit in us, and god searches our hearts, not to know what our conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the holy spirit is in and behind all our conscious praying. In the vision of ezekiel wings are used as the symbol of aspiration in praying, and the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of god almighty when he speaketh (ezekiel 10:5 rv). The voice of praying in the saints is exactly identical with the voice of almighty god, and slowly and surely god discerns in the life of the individual saint what he discerned always in his son, who said, i came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. As we rely on the holy spirit we learn to brood along the line of his expression of the unutterable in us.

(c) the unsurpassed identification with god

. . . According to the will of god. Look back over your own history with god in prayer, and you will find that the glib days of prayer are done. When we draw on the human side of our experience only, our prayers become amazingly flippant and Familiar, and we ourselves become amazingly hard and metallic; but if along with the human element we rely on the holy spirit, we shall find that our prayers become more and more inarticulate; and when they are inarticulate, reverence grows deeper and deeper, and undue familiarity has the effect of a sudden blow on the face. There is something hopelessly incongruous in a flippant statement before god. We can always measure our growth in grace by what Paul is stating here. Am i growing slowly to lisp the very prayers of god? Is god gratified (if i may use the phrase) in seeing that his spirit is having his way at last in a life, and turning that life into what will glorify his son?

The unrecognised providence of prayer (romans 8:28)

At the first glance this verse seems to have nothing to do with the previous verses, but it has an amazingly close connection with them.

(a) the undefiled shrine of consciousness

and we know that to them that love god . . . (rv)

Do you remember how Paul never wearied of saying, dont you know that your body is the temple of the holy ghost? Recall what jesus christ said about the historic temple which is the symbol of the body; he ruthlessly turned out those that sold and bought in the temple, and said, it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. Let us apply that to ourselves. We have to remember that our conscious life, though only a tiny bit of our personality, is to be regarded by us as a shrine of the holy ghost. The holy ghost will look after the unconscious part we do not know, we must see we guard the conscious part, for which we are responsible, as a shrine of the holy ghost. If we recognise this as we should, we shall be careful to keep our body undefiled for him.

(b) the undetected sacredness of circumstances

all things work together for good . . .

The circumstances of a saints life are ordained by god, and not by happy-go-lucky chance. There is no such thing as chance in the life of a saint, and we shall find that god by his providence brings our bodies into circumstances that we cannot under- stand a bit, but the spirit of god understands; he is bringing us into places and among people and under conditions in order that the intercession of the holy spirit in us may take a particular line. Do not, therefore, suddenly put your hand in front of the circumstances and say, no, i am going to be my own amateur providence, i am going to watch this and guard that. Trust in the lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. The point to remember is that all our circumstances are in the hand of god. The spirit imparts a solemnity to our circumstances and makes us understand something of the travail of jesus christ. It is not that we enter into the agony of intercession, it is that we utilise the common-sense circumstances into which god has put us, and the common-sense people he has put us among by his providence, to present their cases before him and give the holy spirit a chance to intercede for them. We bring the particular people and circumstances before gods throne, and the holy spirit in us has a chance to intercede for them. That is how god is going to sweep the whole world by his saints. Are we making the holy spirits work difficult by being indefinite, or by trying to do his work for him? We must do the human side of the intercession, and the human side is the circumstances we are in, the people we are in contact with. We have to use our common sense in keeping our conscious life and our circumstances as a shrine of the holy ghost, and as we bring the different ones before god, the holy spirit presents them before the throne all the time. The holy spirit does the interceding, but we must do our part; we must do the human side while he does the divine. So never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in.

(c) the undeviating security of his calling . . .

Even to them that are called according to his purpose. (rv)

To talk about our intercession for another soul being the means of doing what the bible says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, sounds utterly ridiculous until we get the basal think- ing revealed through the atonement and the indwell- ing holy ghost, then it is an amazing revelation of the marvellous love and condescension of god that in christ jesus and by the reception of the holy spirit, he can take us, sin-broken, sin-diseased, wrong creatures, and re-make us entirely until we are really the ones in whom the holy spirit intercedes as we do our part. Are we making it easy for the holy spirit to work out gods will in us, or are we continually putting him on one side by the empty requests of our natural hearts, christians though we be? Are we learning to bring ourselves into such obedience that our every thought and imagination is brought into captivity to the lord jesus christ, and is the holy spirit having an easy way through us more and more? Remember, your inter- cessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never he yours, but the holy ghost makes intercession in our particular editions, without which intercession someone will be impoverished. Let us remember the depth and height and solemnity of our calling as saints.