I. The prayer of faith is a work of the Holy Ghost
I. The prayer of faith is a work of the Holy Ghost
It is one of the offices of the Holy Spirit to inspire in the hearts of believers prevailing prayer. Romans 8:26: We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for [in] us with groanings which can not be uttered. It is by the agency of the Holy Spirit alone that any soul is spiritually empowered to offer effectual, fervent prayer. There is a supplication in the spirit and a praying in the Holy Ghost, as such. Both the Authorized Version and the New Revision fail to convey the true meaning of the original in James 5:16. The Authorized Version reads: The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The word fervent is superfluous, and the word effectual makes the sentence mere tautology, saying no more than that an effectual prayer is effectual.
Neither word is found in, nor suggested by, the original. The New Revision gives it thus: The supplication of arighteous man availeth much, which is weaker still, and simply translates the word deesis supplication or prayer without any rendering whatever of the attached participle in the original. The original reads: The prayer (deesis) of a righteous man, being in energized (energeo), avails much; that is, prayer inwrought and empowered by the Holy Ghost in the soul of a righteous man avails much becomes prevailing, Such prayer as one has said, is an inner prayer framed within our prayer; a divine voice within our voice of supplication; God offering to himself the petitions we desire of him. The order in which the Holy Spirit works in the soul the prayer of faith is clearly revealed. First, he illuminates it, helping its spiritual inapprehension respecting what it ought to pray for beyond the sphere of gracious blessings. The righteous man knows that he ought to pray for wisdom, strength, comfort, etc., for these and like blessings are promised to him; but whether he ought to pray for recovery from sickness, or for deliverance from temporal ills, or for some other supernatural results, he does not know. But when he should pray for these things the Holy Spirit begins to reveal them to him as allowable, and that it is the will of God to grant them, so that he is able to pray not as hitherto, If it be thy will, but in the full persuasion that it is Gods will; for the Spirit now maketh intercession for him according to the will of God.
Then, accompanying this illumination, there springs up in the soul an insatiable desire for these things which the soul would not hitherto ardently desire, lest it might not maintain its submissiveness to Gods will. But now the unequivocal assurance by the Holy Spirit that it is his will to do these things for it makes It break out in strong desire.
It groans, not in agony, not in doubt, not in uncertainty, but in heart longings.
This groaning which enters into the experience of prevailing prayer is a depth of desire which transcends utterance, and which the most impassioned vocal supplication could but faintly express. Simultaneously with the movement of the Holy Ghost, which brings this illumination and mighty desire, there comes an assurance of faith, so as that the soul knows it has the petitions it desires of him; it rests implicitly, awaiting the realization of the things prayed for. Those who have found wrought in them the prayer of faith by the Holy Ghost will easily recognize its genesis as here delineated. The heart actuated by prayer as the immediate gift of the Holy Ghost is in the most exalted and empowered state possible in the body. It burns in a threefold flame of divine illumination, holy desire, and fervent anticipation. When this spirit of prayer seizes the soul, whether in the hush of the night watches, in the solitudes of the closet, or in the public walks of life, it irresistibly carries its suit.
Such a frame of prayer is not at our command. We can not lift ourselves into it by any dint of effort or protracted reflection. It comes upon devout souls by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit, in his office of inspiring prevailing prayer, is no doubt now, as ever, in continuous operation upon the hearts of believers. There are as mighty men of prayer among Gods people today as ever heretofore, those of whom Elijah was but the prototype, yet unsuspected and unrecognized as being the Lords special agents for the operation of his gracious and providential plans. But while there are many today who are occasionally or continuously baptized with this spirit of prayer, there is a promised prayer-Pentecost to visit the Church as prophetically discerned and proclaimed by Zechariah when there was disclosed to him, under the spirit of inspiration, the divine purpose, saying:
I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication.
When that outpouring of the Holy Spirit shall come upon Zion, as come it will, ushering in the grand Pentecostal era of supplication, then shall not a few only, but the whole Church pray in the Holy Ghost.