Ron Dunn Podcast - Praying In The Spirit (Holy Spirit In Ephesians)

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Ron Dunn continues his series from Ephesians on praying in the spirit.

In Ephesians chapter 6, we are going to be finishing tonight our series on the Holy Spirit in Ephesians. I don't really know how long we have been in this, but we have been in it for a while. So we come tonight to the last study of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And in Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6, and I want us to begin reading with verse 10, and we're going to read through verse 20. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning with the 10th verse,

and reading through verse 20. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God

that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation,

and the sword of the Spirit, which take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Now, verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, praying in the Spirit. And as we have studied the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the

believer in the book of Ephesians, it's very significant to me that the last one that Paul mentions, the one that climaxes all that Paul has had to say to these Ephesians about the ministry of the Spirit in their lives, is this one, praying in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit. Now that phrase occurs three times in the New Testament. In Romans chapter 8, verses 26 and 27. He says,

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God and here again is this idea of prayer in the spirit

the spirit helps us in this infirmity for he himself is making intercession for us one translation reads like this for in those inarticulate groanings we recognize none other than the voice of the Holy Spirit. And as these groanings rise within our beings, words and prayers and burdens that we cannot articulate, but we recognize in those groanings that cannot be expressed in our own language, just inexpressible, because we know not what to pray for as we're all, he says, we recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. He actually, Paul is saying, does the praying within us. Now, the other occurrence of this phrase is found in the little book of Jude, the 20th verse. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith,

praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And so these three instances in the New Testament concerning prayer in the Holy Spirit. In Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10, the prophet looking forward to the New Testament day said that God would pour out upon his people the spirit of supplication. And one of the primary ministries of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is in the realm of prayer. Have you ever wondered what it is that makes prayer, prayer? It's really interesting to talk to people, ask them what it is that really makes prayer real.

What do you think it is? When do your words become more than words and become real prayer? What is it that makes it prayer? Is it doing it on your knees? Or is it doing it in the church? Is it doing it with your eyes closed? Is it doing it with your hands folded? Or is it doing it with earnestness and passion and burden and crying?

None of those things really make prayer real. What really makes prayer real is praying in the Holy Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit. And the words that we utter calling them prayer only become genuine prayer when it is prayer in the Spirit. Now, what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? Now, this expression that Paul uses in Ephesians chapter 6 has the idea of prayer in the realm of the Spirit,

prayer in the sphere of the Spirit. And the picture is that here is the believer, and he is surrounded by the Holy Spirit. He is immersed in the Holy Spirit. The environment of his prayer is the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit does not have to do with just one area of his prayer life or to have to do with just one phase of that prayer, but rather the entire prayer and the entire prayer life of the believer is in the Spirit. Now, I think that we can say that praying in the Spirit basically involves

three things. Number one, I think that praying in the Spirit is prayer that is prompted by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the very desire to pray comes from the Holy Spirit. You remember in the Old Testament when Moses was walking in the desert, he saw a burning bush, and this burning bush caught his attention. And out of that burning bush came the voice of God. And so the Bible says Moses turned aside, left what he was doing to see this sight, to examine this bush. Now, it seems to me that you and I have a burning bush within us, and that's the Holy Spirit. And there are times when that Holy Spirit will draw our attention away from what we're doing

and will create within us a desire to pray. I wonder if you've ever experienced this, and I believe you have if you're saved at all. You'll have to have experienced this, it seems to me. There have been times, maybe you were washing dishes or changing diapers or driving down the highway or going to school, but suddenly there came within you a desire to pray, a desire to pray. Maybe not to pray for anything specifically, but just a desire to somehow get into God's presence. I never will forget several years ago, I was in my office, and I don't know, there was just something, you know, have you ever been sitting around at night, and you feel like

you want something to eat, but you don't know what it is, and you'll go into the icebox, and you'll eat something there, but that doesn't satisfy you, and then you'll go in the cabinet, and you'll eat something else, and about 2,000 calories later, you still aren't satisfied. There's just something in your diet. Somehow there is a deficiency there, and you're craving something. Well, I got the feeling this way, and so naturally I thought, well, something I need to do. I need to go visit. And so I got my cards and went out to the car and opened the car door,

and I said, no, this isn't what I need to do. And I shut the door, and I went back in the office, and I got my Bible and got my books. I said, well, I need to study. And I said, no, that's not it. I was feeling as though I needed to pray, but I didn't have anything to pray about. I couldn't think of a thing. I'd already prayed that day. I'd already asked the Lord how I knew to ask him for. But somehow I was just driven and drawn to get on my knees. And so after a while, sometimes it takes a little bit longer than usual to get through. And I said, well, I believe the Lord is calling me to prayer. And maybe when I answer that call, he'll tell me what he wants me to pray about. And so I just got on my knees. And you know what I discovered? I discovered that God didn't want me to pray about anything.

He just wanted a fellowship with me. He just wanted me to be in his presence. And one of the sweetest times of fellowship with the Lord and prayer I've ever had, just being in his presence, just knowing that it was there. And the Holy Spirit had been calling me to pray. That burning bush had been calling me to turn aside. Now, I'll tell you something. When you feel this desire, this prompting, this urge, this calling to pray, maybe not for anything

specifically or maybe for somebody, answer that. Do it because that's the Holy Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit. And when you don't do it, you are blunting the edge of your spiritual sensitivity. And you know the thing that I pray you are blunting the edge of your spiritual sensitivity. And you know, the thing that I pray for more than ever is that God will make me sensitive to the Holy Spirit, sensitive to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, so that I can recognize immediately this is the Spirit of God calling me to pray. And I always get excited now when that happens, because I know that the Holy Spirit always leads us to pray according to the will of God. And that means that every petition he originates will be answered when you pray it in the Spirit and faith. And so when the Holy Spirit puts upon you that desire,

and you don't have to worry about whether or not that's the Holy Spirit or the devil, I don't think the devil will ever lead you to pray or create within you a desire to pray. I don't think your flesh, your old carnal nature, will ever create in you the desire to pray. That's the Holy Spirit, your burning bush, drawing you aside to pray. But not only does the Holy Spirit give us the desire to pray, praying in the Holy Spirit is also praying in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, praying in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Now, all of us will recognize and admit tonight that we can't witness in our own strength and that we can't preach in our own strength and that we can't live for Jesus in our own strength.

We need the enabling of the Holy Spirit and we live in dependence upon Him and we teach in dependence upon Him and we preach in dependence upon upon him and the same is true in prayer and praying in the holy spirit is going to god in prayer absolutely dependent upon the holy spirit realizing that if that prayer is ever going to be uh answered and if god is ever going to receive that prayer the holy spirit is the one who bears that prayer to the throne of grace and this is what paul means in in Ephesians chapter 3 or chapter 2

where he says we have access by the Spirit unto the Father and we pray independence upon the Holy Spirit. But there's something else praying in the Holy Spirit means. It also means that the Holy Spirit directs us in our praying. I believe that he literally gives us the content of our praying and places upon our hearts a petition that we are to ask for. I think this is what Romans chapter 8 and verses 26 and 27 are saying. He says, we know not how to pray as we ought. We don't know what to pray for as we ought. I think there are times when you're asked to pray for somebody.

And it seems to me that one of the greatest mistakes you and I make when we're asked to pray for somebody is just to rush into the presence of God, get on our knees, and start saying the first words that come to our mind. You go back to Moses' experience with the burning bush, and God said, you take your shoes off your feet. This is holy ground. In other words, God was saying, don't you rush heedlessly into my presence. Don't you just rush heedlessly into my presence. You come into my presence conscious of what you're doing, thoughtfully preparing your heart. And I don't think we ought to go to God and just say

the first words that come to our mind just because somebody has asked us to. I think we need to wait upon God. Allow the Holy Spirit to direct us in our praying, to direct us in our praying. And you know, one of the most beautiful experiences you'll ever have in prayer is as you are praying down one line, all of a sudden you will be led to turn off that road and get on an entirely different road and somehow to pray for somebody that you haven't thought of for years. I don't know how many times this has happened in my own experience where suddenly as I've been in prayer, or maybe not praying, sitting at the desk, driving down the street, a name falls into my mind that I haven't thought of for years, and there is suddenly placed upon me a desire to pray for that person.

And later on, I've heard that that person at that time was going through a real need. The same thing has happened to me on the other side of it. People have come to me and said, were you having a problem last Tuesday? Of course, they could have said Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

and that would have been right. But they said, were you having some difficulty last Tuesday? And I say, yes, I was. They said, the strangest thing happened. They said, all day Tuesday, I just felt constrained to pray for you. I've had more than one person in this church come to me and say, was there anything special going on last Saturday, last Wednesday, last Monday, or at this time, or this time?

And always, yes. going on last Saturday, last Wednesday, last Monday, or at this time or this time, and always yes. And they said, you know, all day long, God just had me praying for you. Just all day long, just praying for you. Now, how did they know? We've had people walk down this aisle to be saved, and as I would stand at the back, shaking the hands of the people, they'd say, you know, I saw that person for the first time, but I knew his name. And for the past two weeks, God has just led me to pray for that person. I didn't even know him. I just knew his name. And now I know why God suddenly just led me to pray for them intensely, because God was getting ready to save them, and my intercession was used of God. Isn't that a coincidence? Isn't that strange? The Holy Spirit leading us, directing us in our prayer,

actually giving to us the petition, actually directing us in our prayer as we come in dependence upon him, answering the desire of the Holy Spirit, come in dependence and waiting upon him, allowing him to direct our thoughts and direct our hearts. And as those petitions are dropped into our consciousness, we lift them up to God. And times there'll be when a name will be given to you, but you don't have any idea what you're supposed to pray for. Just the name.

Just the name. You don't know how to pray for that person, but you just lift the name. And that's when the Holy Spirit within you begins to intercede in your place. And he, God, who searches the hearts of the believer, knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, and he reads what the Holy Spirit is interceding, and it goes to the throne of God, and you're simply the instrument, the channel through which

the Holy Spirit is bringing that petition to the throne of God, as we just pray in absolute dependence upon him. Now, that's all introduction to the study. I want us to look, and we'll have to look briefly, at these three instances where the Bible speaks of our prayer in the Holy Ghost. And each one relates to a different need in the life of a believer. Each one relates to a different need in the life of the believer. Let's look, first of all, in Romans chapter 8. And here, praying in the Holy Spirit

delivers us from our weaknesses. Praying in the Holy Spirit delivers from spiritual weakness. If you'll take the time to read the context of these verses, you'll find that Paul is talking about two things in the life of the believer. He's talking about outward suffering and inward groaning. And in the midst of this outward suffering and inward groaning, there is weakness. Look at the 26th verse.

Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Outside suffering, because of our identification with Jesus. He suffered, we suffer with Him. No reigning with Him unless there's suffering with Him. But while we're suffering on the outside, there is an inner groaning, an inner groaning, longing for the day when God will deliver us from the outside suffering and so at this time more than any you and I need deliverance from spiritual weakness and so he

says the Holy Spirit help of our infirmities now you'll notice in the King James the word infirmities is in the plural but the Greek word is singular the Holy Spirit help of our infirmity he help of our weakness. Did you know the believer doesn't have many weaknesses? He only has one, but it's a doozy. It's a biggie. Not many infirmities, only one. Do you know what that infirmity is? Our total inability to do anything for ourselves in the spiritual realm. That's our weakness. That's our infirmity. And that's a big one. It takes them all in. We just have one weakness, our total inability to do anything for ourselves in the spiritual realm.

Now he says the Holy Spirit helps us in that infirmity and how does he help us he helps us in prayer now the word help is a tremendous word and and we've discussed this before it means literally to take hold on the other side to take hold on the other side. And the picture behind this word is of a man walking down a path, walking down a road, and he comes to a huge obstacle, perhaps a tree that has fallen across the path, blocking his way, unable to go where God wants him to go, unable to make any progress in the will of God, because there is a barrier, there is a hindrance. Now, he tries as best he can to remove that barrier, but he can't do it. He is weak. He is infirm. He is totally unable to do anything for himself in the spiritual realm. Now, the word helpeth means to come and take hold on the other

side. What happens is, in that moment when you and I are faced with this gigantic weakness where we are actually paralyzed in our Christian progress, the Holy Spirit comes and delivers us from this weakness by taking hold on the other side. Now, one of the significant things here is the idea of cooperation. Co see the Christian life even life in the spirit is not a passive life it's not my just sitting over here and saying holy spirit there's a tree falling across the path you move it I'm just going to sit here and bide my time and I really think that's the way some of us are trying to live the Christian life, but that's not it at all. The word means he takes hold of the other side, and he helps us in our infirmity. Cooperation. I make myself available,

and I allow the Holy Spirit to use my human personality, and he gets hold of the other side, and as I cooperate by my availability, he moves aside the barrier so I'm able to make progress in my Christian life. Praying in the Holy Spirit, that's how it happens. When there's a barrier, when there's an obstacle, when you are paralyzed in your Christian life and can make no progress, you need to learn to pray in the Holy Spirit. All right, the second thing. Praying in the Holy Spirit not only is a deliverance from our weakness, it is also a defense in our warfare. This is what he's talking about

in Ephesians chapter 6, and we do not have the time to investigate that passage fully, but what he's speaking of, as you've seen in that passage, is our spiritual warfare. Five times in verse 12, he uses a little preposition against, which means face to face. The word wrestle means a hand to hand combat. And the believer is in a spiritual warfare. He is face to face with his enemy and it's a hand to hand combat. He's not firing a missile from long distance, but rather he is in hand-to-hand combat. The same word is used in Romans chapter 15 and verse 30 where Paul says to the Romans, wrestle with me in our prayers.

Wrestle with me. Prayer is a wrestling match. Prayer is conflict. Now, he says that in this spiritual warfare, you and I are to put on armor and we're to take up the sword, which is the word of God. But now look in verse 18. The first word is praying always with all prayer.

Now the word praying is a participle, which means that everything Paul has said before is related to this matter of praying. Let me read it like this to help you to understand what he's trying to say. Wherefore, praying take up the whole armor of God. Having praying have your lawns girt about. Praying put on the breastplate of righteousness. Praying have your feet shod with the preparation. Praying take the shield of faith. Praying put on the helmet of salvation. Praying pick up the sword of the Spirit. In other words, the word praying modifies everything that Paul has said. As he takes up piece after piece of that armor,

he's to do it praying in the Spirit. And I want to tell you something. You can put on all the armor you want to, and you can even pick up the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, and you can memorize verse after verse, but if you do not know what it means to pray in the Spirit,

and you're not always praying in the Spirit, all of that's going to be useless to you. But you turn it around. The armor and the Word is only good in your defense in your spiritual warfare when it's soaked in prayer. But I'll tell you something else. You can only really pray in the Spirit when you have the armor on and when you've got the Word of God. Both of them are dependent upon each other. And so as I put on this armor, and we've discussed that armor before and don't have time now to go over every piece of that armor,

but as we put on that armor and as we take up the Word of God and we pray in the Spirit, we're wrestling against the principalities and the powers and the spiritual powers in high places, and we stand against them, and that's how we're defended against the enemy, and that's how we come out victorious in warfare.

And you'll find this more and more as the devil and all of his hosts hassle you and attack you and try to defeat you in your Christian life, there is no way possible you're going to be able to defend against the warfare unless you are praying always. Let me just mention one thing about this praying. He says praying always with all kinds of prayer, with all kinds of prayer. Remember Jesus said men ought to always to pray and not to faint. Pray without ceasing, Paul says. Pray with all kinds of prayer. That means planned prayer and spontaneous prayer. That means prayer on your knees, and that means prayer driving down the highway. That means prayer

where you say the words and prayer where all you do is lift up your heart to God. That means prayer that is spoken and prayer that is sung. Say, by the way, I got a letter today. You remember a couple of Wednesday nights ago I told you about the young lady, the young wife that was under the oppression of the devil in so many areas of her life and had a negative outlook upon life? You remember me telling about her and how she had made the statement that she was negative and could never be happy and could never rejoice because her father was this way and she was born this way and there wasn't anything she could do about it. You remember I told her several things that she needed to do when she went home. Remember one of those things I told her? Well, she needed to learn to sing, sing at church, but sing while she prayed, turn her prayers into songs remember Ephesians 5 19 making melody

in your heart to the Lord got a letter from her today she said you'll never believe what God has done for me in my life I wish I'd brought that over it's about four pages it's a regular epistle I wish I could read it to you but said, I did everything you told me to do. She rebuked the devil and shot down every hole she thought he might be hiding in. She said, I memorized scripture. She said, I would write them down on pieces of paper. I stuck them on the kitchen, in the bedroom, everywhere. I put them on the sun visor of the car. And she said, I just memorized scripture. But she said, I did something else she told me to do. She said, I started singing. She said, I just go around the house singing. And when I pray, I just sing. And I taught her, taught them this chorus at the retreat. You know, I will praise him. Glory to the Father,

glory to the Son. And she said, she said, I've never been able to smile. And she said, I just can't help but smiling. And she said, people that know me have just remarked and wanted to know what in the world is going on. She said, you'd never believe the joy, the peace. And she said people that know me have just remarked and wanted to know what in the world is going on she said you'd never believe the joy the peace and she said now things are going bad they're in terrific financial uh problems and she said our two children have been seriously ill and as a matter of fact as she was writing this letter her daughter had such a sore throat that the throat was actually hemorrhaging and they were having to take it to the doctor but she said in the midst of all of this said, God has given me such a joy and such a peace.

And she said, she said, you'd never believe it, said, can you picture this? Sitting in pouring down rain in an old broken down pickup, the battery dead, miles from home. There I was singing glory to the, singing glory to the Father. Glory to the Son. Glory to the Holy Spirit. Glory to the three in one. Isn't that something?

Praying in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer. With all kinds of prayer. Singing prayer. Speaking prayer. Prayer that doesn't even say anything, just lifting the heart towards God, praying always with all kinds of prayer in the Spirit, in the Spirit. Now the last thing is this, over in Jude 20, prayer in the Spirit is a deterrent to spiritual wandering. Very interesting little statement in this 20th verse of Jude. He says,

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Now look at the next verse. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Now, verse 21 is a command. The command is this, keep yourselves in the love of God. How do you do that? He has just told you, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. How do you keep yourself in the love of God? Praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. How do you keep yourself in the love

of God? Praying in the Holy Ghost. Well, now, what does it mean to keep yourself in the love of God? You mean I can get to the place where God no longer loves me? No, that's not what he means. Jesus said in John chapter 15 to his disciples, continue ye in my love. Now, he didn't mean that there would ever come a day when Jesus no longer loved them, but he said, continue ye in my love. Now, he didn't mean that there would ever come a day when Jesus no longer loved them, but he said, continue ye in my love. Keep yourselves in, that same little preposition again, in the realm, in the sphere of my love. Let's illustrate it like this.

You love your child, but you want him to keep himself in your love. He can disobey, and he gets outside the sphere of your love. You still love him, but you cannot bless him, and you cannot shower your affection upon him, and you're not able to give him all that your love wants to give him. Jesus says, continue in my love.

Live such a way that my love can be expressed to you. Stay where God can bless you. Stay in the circle of God's will and of God's love. Always live such a life that God can constantly be doing what he wants to do, blessing you, showing you his love. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Don't wander out of a circle of God's love. Stay in a position where all the blessings of God can be constantly poured out upon you. How do you do that? Praying in the Holy Ghost. Praying in the Holy Ghost.

As He gives you desire, you pray. Independence upon Him. Allow Him to direct your prayer. Praying in the Holy Spirit will keep you in the love of God, keep you from wandering outside the circle of God's blessings. Praying always, with all prayer in the Holy Spirit. Lord, teach us to pray. The Holy Spirit is here within us to do all for us that Jesus would do were he physically present.

The disciples came to Jesus one day and said, Lord, teach us to pray. He has given to us his Holy Spirit, and it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray, to aid us in our prayer, and to give us the prayer itself, praise in the Holy Spirit. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages,

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