When the 70 had returned from their evangelistic mission and shared with Jesus their success, “Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight’ ” (Luke 10:17–21).1 Scripture tells us here that Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit while He prayed. I believe that if there has ever been an example of anyone praying in the Spirit, that Person was Jesus. Praying in the Spirit must have been very consistent, moving, and inspiring, because one day Christ’s disciples, even though they thought they knew how to pray, cried: “ ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ ” (Luke 11:1).
Do you pray in the Spirit? What does it mean to do so?2 The example above links praying in the Spirit with rejoicing in the Spirit. However, the connection is more incidental than intentional. Four texts in the New Testament allude more specifically to praying in the Spirit, two of them directly and two of them more indirectly. We will take a brief look at each.
The context of “praying in the Spirit”
The best-known text on the subject is in Ephesians 6. There the apostle Paul brings his letter to a close by rallying the Ephesians with an exhortation similar to the one that Roman generals would give to their troops ready for battle. “Finally, my brethren,” he writes, “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (vv. 10, 11). Then Paul makes his main point: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (vv. 12, 13). In other words, Christians face a formidable enemy, and the only way to be victorious is to put on the entire armor of God for protection and follow Jesus’ lead when facing the enemy.
Paul then goes on to describe such armor: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and so on, all defensive pieces. And finally he points to the only offensive weapon, saying, “And take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (vv. 17, 18, emphasis added).
The context here is spiritual warfare, just as it is in Luke 10. The first reaction Jesus had when He heard the 70 tell their adventures in faith was: “ ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven’ ” (Luke 10:18). What had those 70 done? They had successfully cast out demons. So praying in the Spirit, at the very least, is earnest prayer in the face of spiritual warfare. It is “the believer’s cry to God on the occasion of assault.”3
But there is an often-elusive point that we must consider. The text reads that such “prayer and supplication” is subject to the Word of God. “Praying always” and “being watchful” (v. 18) are two participles that depend on the previous sentence about the sword of the Spirit being the Word of God.4 What is important to realize is that praying in the Spirit is praying in the Word. Even though that may not necessarily imply having memorized Scripture in order to “pray it,” it does call for knowing what Scripture says and praying accordingly.
A second direct text appears in the letter of Jude.
A brother of the Lord “found it necessary to write to you [believers] exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Why? “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, . . . ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 3, 4). So the issue is doctrinal faithfulness and the threat of an inconsistent Christian lifestyle. Jude is concerned that Christians may be influenced by heresy and slip back into worldliness.
The people leading such apostasy, according to Jude, are “grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts.” They are “mockers” who “are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit” (vv. 16, 18, 19). By contrast Jude urges, “You, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (vv. 20, 21, emphasis added). Jude here links praying in the Spirit with the need to be growing in one’s faith. And Paul said that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
So according to the two direct texts referencing praying in the Spirit, their context is praying in the face of Satanic opposition and praying in the Word when in danger of losing one’s faith.
What praying in the Spirit is not about
About a third of Christianity5 defines praying in the Spirit as “speaking in a tongue.” One leading theologian, commenting on the text from Romans 8:26, says that “these ‘groans’ or ‘sighs’ are not the activity of praying with the mind but with the spirit or, better, in the spirit. Indeed, this is the language of the Holy Spirit—glossolalic utterance.”6
But 1 Corinthians 14 cautions, “Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding” (1 Cor. 14:13–15). The apostle here suggests that the Corinthians are not praying understandably, and he urges them to do so. If prayer is done through “glossolalic utterance” that is not comprehensible to them or others, that is not “praying in the Spirit.”
Corinth was a highly cosmopolitan city and a key trading center between Europe and Asia. Its people followed many cult practices that included trances and ecstatic utterances. The great majority of Christian converts had come from paganism, having been surrounded by worship rituals that were “often extremely frenzied and ecstatic.”7 So the danger was for the young church in Corinth to morph into a charismatic cult, or, as N. T. Wright put it, “an up-market version of a well-known product.”8
Even though the reference to tongues in
1 Corinthians 14 is generally about foreign languages,9 at times, it seems, ecstatic speech was involved, and that was Paul’s concern, for that kind of speech was incomprehensible. Since “God is not the author of confusion” (v. 33) but a God of order (v. 40), unintelligible speech could not be the equivalent of praying in the Spirit.
The how of praying in the Spirit
The fourth text relevant to our subject is from Romans: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26, emphasis added).
The Spirit makes intercession for us. That is the same as saying that the Spirit prays for us. And why would He do that? Because “we do not know what we should pray for” or “as we ought.”10 Bible commentator Douglas Moo observes: “Our failure to know God’s will and consequent inability to petition God specifically and assuredly is met by God’s Spirit, who himself expresses to God those intercessory petitions that perfectly match the will of God.”11
Again the context here is the struggle between good and evil. In this world “we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (v. 23). Sometimes the pain or grief or our state of stunned confusion is so great that we cannot articulate in any logical or coherent way what we feel. We come to our knees and remain there in silence, or we just cry. We cannot speak. Or we may utter strands of thoughts that do not seem coherent. So much is going on in our minds. That’s when God steps in, “who knows the mind of the Spirit” (v. 27) and hears what the Spirit is saying that we cannot.
The Lord Jesus is our Intercessor in heaven. He is our High Priest ministering in the heavenly sanctuary His shed blood on our behalf (Heb. 8:1–3, 6). But on earth the Holy Spirit is our constant Companion, our Helper in contact with the Son (John 14:16, 26). As God They are in perfect sync with One Another.
Spiritual warfare
What does the Bible mean when it speaks of “praying in the Spirit”? The answer is not as readily obvious as we might wish. However, this short analysis of relevant New Testament verses points to the fact that such praying is in the context of spiritual warfare, times when we perceive the oppression of the enemy and desperately need deliverance. When we need God the most, we pray “in the Spirit,” longing for His presence, protection, and guidance. In addition, “praying in the Spirit” is praying in the Word. We remember God’s instruction, His will, as we pray. Thus, recalling His promises in His Word to grow in faith and stand securely in Him is “praying in the Spirit.”
Praying ecstatic utterances does not equal praying in the Spirit, because the understanding factor is missing from this equation. Nevertheless the Spirit Himself carries our very imperfect prayers to the throne of God, and they will be heard as if spoken in the language of heaven itself!
- Scripture is from the New King James Version.
- This article is based on the chapter “Praying in the Spirit,” in Ron E. M. Clouzet, Getting to Know the Holy Spirit (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2017), 93–102.
- Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 857.
- Hoehner, 855.
- See Walter J. Hollenweger, Pentecostalism: Origins and Development Worldwide (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997).
- See J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology: Systematic Theology From a Charismatic Perspective, Three Volumes in One (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 2:218, 219.
- William E. Richardson, Paul Among Friends and Enemies (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 1992), 79. Craig Blomberg also supported the idea of ecstatic speech as part of the Corinthian culture: “Like prophecy, speaking in tongues took various forms in the ancient Mediterranean world. Common to these forms was the sound of an unknown language, but formal linguistic structure need not have been present.” From Pentecost to Patmos (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2006), 192.
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004), 182.
- See Ekkehardt Mueller, “What Are the Tongues in 1 Corinthians?” in Interpreting Scripture: Bible Questions and Answers, ed. Gerhard Pfandl (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research Institute, 2010), 369–374.
- See Clouzet, Getting to Know, 98.
- Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 526.
