"0 LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me. " Psalm 139:1 LOOKING INSIDE US Read It: Romans 8:27 he Holy Spirit not only groans for and with us in prayer, but He also intercedes for us. To intercede means to approach someone and make an appeal on behalf of someone else. That's what the Holy Spirit does for us when we pray. He approaches God the Father with our requests and needs when those requests and needs are in line with God's will. Don't miss that last line in verse 27. The Holy Spirit's ministry in prayer is not to get God to come around to our way of thinking and convince Him to answer all of our requests. The Spirit's job is to get our prayers lined up with the will of God. That's why the Spirit searches our hearts in prayer. You can't always know what someone is really thinking or really wants just by listening to what he says. But if you could see inside his heart, you would know exactly how to interpret his words. That's what the Spirit does when He searches our hearts and interprets our requests to the Father. But if the Holy Spirit is only going to intercede for us when our prayers are according to God's will, we had better learn what God's will is. And where do we learn God's will? In His Word, of course. So before we can pray in the will of God, two things must happen. First, we must have intake from His Word. If your prayers are not based on God's Word, then you are praying out of His will. God's mind is revealed in the Bible, so when you read your Bible, you learn how to pray as you should. A second thing I believe we must do if our prayers are going to hit the mark of God's will is meditation-the discipline of thinking through and musing over God's Word. It's the idea of a cook simmering the stew to bring out all the flavor. We must meditate on Scripture and allow it to become part of us. Only then will we see things happen in our prayer lives, because the Spirit's intercession is tied to God's will, which is tied to His Word. Think About It Since we sometimes pray outside of God's will, part of the Spirit's job in prayer is to change our minds, not convince God to give us what we want.
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