And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
— Exodus 4:11-12
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
— Jeremiah 31:9
In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
— Jeremiah 50:4
Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?
— Job 27:10
That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.
— 1 Kings 8:52
Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
— Acts 12:5
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
— Luke 18:7
Pray without ceasing.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:17
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
— Acts 2:4
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,
— Ephesians 6:18-19
I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
— 1 Corinthians 1:4-5
Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
— Colossians 4:3
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
— Romans 8:26-27
The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Matter of Prayer, by John Owen. The following contains an excerpt from Chapter Five of Book Eight his work, “A Discourse on the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer, With a Brief Inquiry Into the Nature and Use of Mental Prayer and Forms.” London, 1682
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
— Zechariah 12:10
…according to their measure, they are continually furnished with the content of prayer, without which men would never pray, and by which, in some sense, they pray always; for —
Firstly, he alone, and it he alone, who is able to give us such an understanding of our own needs so that we may be able to make our thoughts about them known to God in prayer and supplication. And what is said concerning our needs is so vital with respect to the whole matter of prayer, in which we give glory to God, either in our requests or in our prayers.
And this I show using some examples, to which others may be reduced.
(1)The principal content of our prayers concerns faith and unbelief. So the apostles prayed in a particular manner — “Lord, increase our faith” (Lk. 17:5); and so the poor man prayed in his distress, “Lord, help thou mine unbelief.” (Mk. 9:24) I cannot think that they ever pray properly when they never pray for the pardon of unbelief, for its removal, and for the increase of faith. If unbelief is the greatest of sins, and if faith is the greatest of the gifts of God, we are not Christians if these things are not the main part in the content of our prayers. To this end, we must be convinced of the nature and guilt of unbelief, as also of the nature and use of faith; nor, without that conviction, can we either know our own greatest needs, or what to pray for as we ought. And that this is the special work of the Holy Spirit our Saviour expressly declared in Jn. 16:8-9 — “He will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me.” I do, and must, deny that anyone is, or can be, convinced of the nature and guilt of that unbelief, either in the whole, or in the remnants of it, which the gospel condemns, and which is the great condemning sin under the gospel, without a special work of the Holy Spirit in his mind and soul; for unbelief, as it respects Jesus Christ — not believing in him, or, not believing in him as we ought — is a sin against the gospel, and it is by the gospel alone that we may be convinced of it, and that it is due to the ministry of the Spirit.
Therefore, neither the light of a natural conscience nor the law, will convince anyone of the guilt of unbelief with respect to Jesus Christ, nor instruct them in the nature of faith in him. No innate notions of our minds, no doctrines of the law, will reach it. And to think we teach men to pray, or help them out in praying, without a sense of unbelief, or the remnants of it, is to say to the naked and the hungry, “Be ye warmed and filled” (Jas. 2:16), and not give them those things that are needful to the body. This, therefore, belongs to the work of the Spirit as a Spirit of supplication. And let men tear and tire themselves night and day with a multitude of prayers, if a work of the Spirit of God in teaching the nature and guilt of unbelief, and the nature, power, and use of faith in Christ Jesus, does not go with it, all is lost and will perish. And yet it is marvelous to consider how little mention of these things occurs in most of those books which have been published to be used as forms of prayer. They are generally omitted in such endeavours, as if they were things in which Christians are very little concerned. The gospel, positively and frequently, determines the present acceptance of men with God or their disobedience, with their future salvation and condemnation, according to their faith or unbelief; for their obedience or disobedience are infallible consequences of it. Now, if things that are of the greatest importance to us, and on which all other things on which our spiritual estate is concerned, depend, and are not part of the subject-matter of our daily prayer, I don’t know what deserves to be!
2. The content of our prayers respects the depravation of our nature, and our want on that account. The darkness and ignorance that is in our understandings; our unacquaintedness with heavenly things, and therefore alienation from the life of God; the secret workings of the lusts of the mind under the shade and covering of this darkness; the stubbornness, obstinacy, and perversity of our wills by nature, with their reluctance to accept, and their dislike of, things spiritual, with innumerable latent guiles then arising — all keeping the soul from due conformity to the holiness of God — are things which believers have a special regard for in their confessions and supplications. They know this to be their duty, and find, by experience, that the greatest concern between God and their souls, as to sin and holiness, lies in these things; and they are never more jealous over themselves than when they find their hearts least affected by them. And to give over dealing with God about them — for mercy in their pardon, for grace in their removal, and the daily renovation of the image of God in them — is to renounce all religion, and all desire of living for God.
Therefore, without a knowledge, a sense, a due understanding of these things, no one can pray as he ought, because he is unacquainted with the content of prayer, and does not know what to pray for. But this knowledge we cannot attain by ourselves. Nature is so corrupt as not to understand its own depravation. Hence, some absolutely deny this corruption, so taking away all necessity of labouring after its cure, and the renovation of the image of God in them; and, by this, they overthrow the prayers of all believers, of which the ancient church continually accused the Pelagians. Without a sense of these things, I must profess I don’t understand how anyone can pray. And this knowledge, as I said, we cannot find by ourselves. Nature is blind, and cannot see them; it is proud, and will not own them; stupid, and is senseless of them. It is the work of the Spirit of God alone to give us a due conviction of, and a spiritual insight into, and a sense of concern over, these things.
This I have elsewhere fully proved, so that I will not insist on it here.
It is not easy to conjecture how men pray, or what they pray about, who know not the plague of their own hearts; yea, this ignorance, want of light into, or conviction of, the depravation of their nature, and the remainders thereof even in those that are renewed, with the fruits, consequents, and effects thereof, are the principal cause of men’s barrenness in this duty, so that they can seldom go beyond what is prescribed unto them. And they can thence also satisfy themselves with a set or frame of well- composed words; wherein they might easily discern that their own condition and concern are not at all expressed if they were acquainted with them. I do not fix measures unto other men, nor give bounds unto their understandings; only I shall take leave to profess, for my own part, that I cannot conceive or apprehend how any man doth or can know what to pray for as he ought, in the whole compass and course of that duty, who hath no spiritual illumination, enabling him to discern in some measure the corruption of his nature and the internal evils of his heart. If men judge the faculties of their souls are un-depraved, their minds free from vanity, their hearts from guile and deceit, their wills from perverseness and carnality, I don’t wonder on what grounds they despise the prayers of others, but strain to find real humility and fervency in their own.
To this, I add the irregularity and disorder of our feelings. These, I confess, are discernible in the light of nature, and the rectifying of them, or an attempt made as the principal end of the old philosophy. But the chief regard that, on this principle, it had for them, is as they disquieted the mind, or broke out in outward expressions, by which men are defiled, dishonored, or distressed. So far natural light will go; and there, in the working of their consciences, as far as I know, men may set out to pray about them: but the chief depravation of their feelings lies in their hostility to things spiritual and heavenly.
They are, indeed, sometimes ready within themselves to like things spiritual, with false ideas about them, and divine worship with superstitious ornaments and falsely attractive dresses; in which regard they are the spring and life of all that devotion which is in the church of Rome: but take heavenly and spiritual things by themselves, with regard to their proper ends, and there is in all our feelings, so corrupted, a dislike of them, and a hostility to them, which works out in various actions, and influences our souls to follow vanities and disorders in all holy duties. And no one knows what it is to pray who is not exercised in supplications for mortifying, changing, and renewing of these feelings as spiritually irregular; and yet it is the Spirit of God alone who uncovers these things to us, and gives us a sense of our concern in them. I say, the spiritual irregularity of our affections, and their hostility to spiritual things, is discernible in no light but that of supernatural illumination; for if without that, spiritual things themselves cannot be discerned, as the apostle assures us they cannot (1 Cor. 2:14), it is impossible that the disorder of our feelings in regard to them should be so. If we don’t know the object in the true nature of it, we cannot know the actions of our minds towards it.
Therefore, although there is always in our nature an innate, universal hostility towards spiritual things, seeing by nature we are wholly alienated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18), yet can it not be discerned by us in any light but that which uncovers these spiritual things themselves to us. Nor can anyone be made sensible of the evil and guilt of that disorder who has not a love also implanted in his heart for those things which it finds hindered by such a nature. Therefore, the mortification of these feelings, and their renovation with respect to things spiritual and heavenly, being no small part of the content of the prayers of believers, and being an essential part of their duty, they have no other way of being acquainted with them, or a sense of them, but as they receive them by light and conviction from the Spirit of God; and those who are destitute in this must need remain strangers to the life and power of the duty of prayer itself.
As it is with regard to sin, so it is with regard to God and Christ, and the covenant, grace, holiness, and privileges. We have no spiritual conceptions about them, no right understanding of them, no insight into them, but what is given us by the Spirit of God; and without an acquaintance with these things, what are our prayers worth, or what do they mean? Men without them may go on to the world’s end without giving anything of glory to God, or obtaining any advantage for their own souls.
And this I place as the first part of the work of the Spirit of supplication in believers, enabling them to pray according to the mind of God, which, of themselves they know nothing about, as we find in the passage quoted from the apostle. When this is done, when a right apprehension of sin and grace, and of our concern in them, is fixed in our minds, then we have to some extent the content of prayer always in readiness; which words and expressions easily flow, though the aid of the Holy Spirit is necessary for this also, as we shall find out later.
And hence it is that the duty performed with respect to this part of the aid and assistance of the Spirit of God is lately by some (as I said) mocked and reproached. Formerly, their objections lay all of them against some expressions or weakness of those, as they saw it, in prayer, which they did not like; but now scorn is poured out upon the content of prayer itself, especially the humble and deep confessions of sin, which, on the discoveries mentioned before, are included in the supplications of ministers and others. The things themselves are conceived as absurd, foolish, and irrational, as all spiritual things are to some sorts of people. Neither do I see how this disagreement is capable of any reconciliation; for those who have no light to discern those aspects of sin and grace, which I have already mentioned, cannot but think it rude to have them continually made the contents of men’s prayers. And those, on the other hand, who have received a light into them, and an acquaintance with them by the Spirit of God, are troubled at nothing more than that they cannot sufficiently abase themselves under a sense of them, nor in any words to fully express that impression on their minds which is produced in them by the Holy Spirit, nor clothe their desires after grace and mercy with words sufficiently significant and emphatic.
And, therefore, this difference is irreconcilable by any but the Spirit of God himself. While it remains, those who have regard only to what is discernible in the light of nature, or in a natural conscience, in their prayers, will keep themselves to using general expressions and outward things, in words prepared for that purpose by themselves or others, whatever we do or say to the contrary; for men will not be led beyond their own light, neither is it fit that they should. And those who receive the supplies of the Spirit in this matter will, in their prayers, be mainly conversant with the spiritual, internal concerns of their souls in sin and grace; so let others despise them and reproach them while they please. And it is in vain to contend about these things too much, things which are regulated not by arguments but by principles. Men will obstinately adhere to the capacity of their light. Nothing can put an end to this difference but another plentiful outpouring of the Spirit from above; which, according to the promise, we are waiting for.
Secondly, we do not know what to pray for as we ought; but the Holy Spirit acquaints us with the grace and mercy which have been made in the promises of God for our relief. That this knowledge is necessary, to enable us to direct our prayers to God in the right way, I declared before, and I suppose it will not be denied; for, what do we pray for? What do we take as a prospect and design in our supplications? What is it we desire to be made partakers of? Praying only by saying or repeating so many words of set prayers, whose sense and meaning those who make use of them perhaps do not understand, as in the Papacy, or so rest in the saying or repetition of them without a special desire to obtain something or things which we make known in our supplications, is unworthy of the disciples of Christ, indeed of rational creatures. “Deal thus with thy governor, will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?” (Mal. 1:8) Neither ruler, nor friend, nor neighbour, would accept it from our hands if we were constantly making solemn addresses to them without any special design. We must “pray with our understanding”, that is, understand what we are praying for.
And these things are none other but what God has promised; which, if we are not regulated by in our supplications, we “ask amiss.” It is, therefore, indispensably necessary in prayer that we should know what God has promised, or that we should have an understanding of the grace and mercy of the promises. God knows our needs, what is good for us, what is useful to us, what is necessary to bring us into an enjoyment of himself, infinitely better than we do ourselves. Yes, we know nothing of these things but what he is pleased to teach us. These are the things he has “prepared” for us, as the apostle says in 1 Cor. 2:9; and what he has so prepared, he declares in the promises of the covenant, for they are the declaration of the grace and good pleasure he has purposed in himself. And, hence, believers may learn what is good for them, and what is lacking in them of the promises, more clearly and certainly than by any other means whatever. From them, therefore, we learn what to pray for as we ought. And this is another reason why men are so barren in their supplications; they do not know what to pray for, but are forced to take themselves a confused repetition of the same requests — namely, their ignorance of the promises of God, and the grace exhibited in them.
Our inquiry, therefore, is this: By what way or means do we come to an acquaintance with these promises, which all believers have in some measure, some more full and distinct than others, but all in a useful sufficiency? And this, we say, is by the Spirit of God, without whose aid and assistance we can neither understand them nor what is contained in them.
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