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{Sermons on John 1:47
The Doctrine Confirmed
Duties and Comforts of Godliness Are Not Fantasy
Worship in the Spirit
Worship through the Spirit}
Worshiping God in the Spirit also denotes worshiping God through His Spirit, that is, in the Holy Spirit, through the help and assistance of the Spirit of God. This help includes195 earnestness in prayer: “Praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20); “The Spirit helps our weaknesses” (Romans 8:26). The Spirit of God gives us a threefold help in prayer.
The Holy Spirit Guides the Topics of Prayer
{Sermons on John 1:47
The Doctrine Confirmed
Duties and Comforts of Godliness Are Not Fantasy
Worship in the Spirit
Worship through the Spirit
The Holy Spirit Guides the Topics of Prayer}
The Holy Spirit inspires our requests and suggests matters of prayer to us, who, as the apostle tells us, “do not know what we should pray for as we ought” (Romans 8:26). Carnal people’s lusts often interfere with their prayers; it is then no wonder that they ask amiss. When they should be seeking the death of their lusts, they ask for sustenance for their lusts. Not knowing what we ought to ask, we often ask for what we do not really know. We sometimes ask for a stone, a snake, or a scorpion when we think we ask for bread (Matthew 7:9–10; Luke 11:11–12). If God were to always give His people that for which they pray, their prayers would undo them. When we are poor, we ask for riches, and it may be that if God were to give them, our riches might undo us. Sometimes we ask ease, a good reputation, or liberty. And if we had what we ask, it might be our ruin. The Spirit of God knows what is fit for us, and accordingly guides our prayers. He helps us to understand our sins, and thus teaches us what confession to make. Carnal people will confess sins, but any sins rather than their own. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand what we lack, and so teaches us what to ask. He helps to understand our mercies, and thus teaches us what to give thanks for. Carnal people often come before the Lord with mock praises and give thanks for their election, justification, sanctification, and hope of glory. But it may be that the power of sin and the wrath of God remain upon them, and they remain without Christ, without valid hope, and without God in the world. The Spirit of God, if they had Him, would make their devotions more reasonable and regular.
The Holy Spirit Energizes Prayer
{Sermons on John 1:47
The Doctrine Confirmed
Duties and Comforts of Godliness Are Not Fantasy
Worship in the Spirit
Worship through the Spirit
The Holy Spirit Energizes Prayer}
The Holy Spirit excites, enlivens, and enlarges believer’s hearts196 in prayer. The Spirit of God comes in and influences the heart and draws out the soul. This is the meaning of the following words: “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26 ESV). That is, He sets up a groaning and sighing for the Lord. Groaning indicates strength and ardency of desire. Through the fervency of it, this desire puts the soul to pain and a holy impatience until it is heard. Groaning is used in this sense in verse 23: “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23 NASB). This desire creates groanings that cannot be uttered. It sometimes makes the hearts of Christians too big for their mouths and their desires larger than their expressions. As much warmth, life, and strength of affection appears on the outside, there is more within. Oh, how flat and dead are our hearts sometimes. How often are we narrow in our prayers! We stand as people struck speechless when we come before the Lord. Or, if there are words in our mouths, there is scarcely any word in our hearts. Sometimes we cannot speak, and if we can speak, we cannot groan. The Spirit either puts words in our mouths or supplies the lack of words by kindling and enlarging our inward desires, helping us to groan out a prayer when we cannot speak it out. Silent groans will reach the ears of the Lord when the loudest cries may not be heard.
The Holy Spirit Emboldens Prayer to the Father
{Sermons on John 1:47
The Doctrine Confirmed
Duties and Comforts of Godliness Are Not Fantasy
Worship in the Spirit
Worship through the Spirit
The Holy Spirit Emboldens Prayer to the Father}
The Holy Spirit encourages and emboldens the heart in prayer. He enables the heart to call God “Father,” to pray to Him, to cry to Him, and to be confident of the Father’s attention and acceptance. It is upon this ground: “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). By this means the Spirit furnishes us with a mighty argument to plead with God. Father, hear me. Father, forgive me. Father, pity me. Father, help me. Am I not your child, your son or daughter? To whom may a child be bold to go? To whom may a child have hope to run, if not to his father? Father, hear me. The fathers of our flesh are full of tenderness and compassion and full of pity for their children. They know how to give good things to their children when they ask for them. When they ask for bread, will they deny them? When they ask for clothing or anything they lack, will they deny them? And is not the Father of Spirits more full of mercy, tenderness, and compassion and more full of bounty than our earthly fathers? Father, hear me. This is praying in the Spirit. And if this is a fantasy to you, I must tell you, sinners, that it is a kind of fantasy that mature Christians who have most experienced it would not lose in exchange for all your earthly goods. But will you stand behind your assertion? Is this fanatical praying indeed? If so, then bring your censorship list and expunge these passages out of the Scriptures. Or else, if you let them stand and look over them again, you will next say that the Bible is as fanatical as Precisians.
But, assuming you understand what you are doing, let me add one word to convince you from your own judgment that praying in the Spirit is no fantasy. Let me put this one question to you: dare any of you all, when you go to God in prayer, deliberately refuse to beg the assistance of His Spirit? Whether you use a form or pray without a form197 matters little. The assistance of the Spirit is needed by those who use a form just as much as those who pray without one. I do not think that when you go to pray, you deliberately dare to refuse to beg the assistance of the Spirit. Dare you say, “Lord, I do not need or desire any such assistance. I will not ask you to give me the Spirit to help my infirmities.” If you beg the assistance of the Spirit, you hope to have it. And if you have it, there does exist that praying in the Spirit that you talk down as a fantasy. Judge now whether you do not condemn the things that you yourselves allow, because in your judgment and practice you justify the reality of that same duty that your mouths decree as fanatical. Will you also be His disciples? Will you also be fanatics?
195Alleine here concentrates on how the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer. But the Holy Spirit also helps and assists us in all worship. He moves us to genuine worship from the heart (which Alleine has just commended), opens the Holy Scriptures to us, and so on.
196In the KJV, there are two references to enlarged hearts: Psalm 119:32 (also NKJV, ESV, NASB) and Isaiah 60:5. In 2 Corinthians 6:11, 13, the ESV has “widen your hearts.” It is difficult to assign a precise meaning to this phrase, given the fewness of references. However, as the Scriptures use “heart” (and sometimes “bowels”) to refer to the emotions and deepest parts of a person, the phrase most likely refers to the idea of making (more) room in one’s understanding, thoughts, affections, or concern for something or someone.
197form: a reference to previously composed and written prayers. Such prayers may have been published as standard prayers in a prayer book for use by a particular denomination or composed by the writer of a devotional work. Or, a pastor may compose and write down a prayer that he intends to pray in public worship. Believers may even do the same thing for their own private use. The practice is not at all unscriptural: “Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Say to Him, ‘Take away all iniquity; receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips’” (Hosea 14:2 NJKV). “Take words with you” implies bringing to the Lord a prayer carefully composed in advance. Such prayers can be misused and are often routinely misused. But done well, carefully composed and guided by Scripture, and used right, they can guide the heart into humble, God-honoring prayer.
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