During a transformative five-year period, I immersed myself in the sermons of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a man whose teachings deeply influenced my spiritual journey. The most profound lesson I learned from him was not merely doctrinal or theological but intensely practical: how to pray. Specifically, Lloyd-Jones taught me how to pray in the Holy Spirit, an experience that reshaped my understanding of communion with God.
For many Christians, including myself, Ephesians 6:18 is a verse that challenges us: “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” Despite my familiarity with the words, I struggled to grasp their full meaning. My prayers often felt dry, lifeless, and mechanical. This verse bothered me because, while I could understand it intellectually, I knew I wasn’t living it out. That’s where Lloyd-Jones stepped in, guiding me through a three-stage process of discovery: understanding what praying in the Spirit is not, what it is, and how to do it.
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Understanding What Praying in the Spirit Is Not
Lloyd-Jones began by helping me identify what praying in the Spirit is not, contrasting it with its opposite: praying in the flesh. Praying in the flesh relies on human effort, willpower, and ability to push through the act of prayer. We’ve all experienced moments of deadness in prayer—those times when our words feel forced, our minds are distracted, and our hearts are disengaged. Lloyd-Jones described this as the experience of being tongue-tied, having nothing to say, and trying to push through prayer with sheer determination.
When we encounter such difficulties, our natural inclination is to overcome them through human effort. We may try to extend our prayers by using many words, thinking that God will hear us for our verbosity. However, Jesus warns us against this in Matthew 6:7, teaching that our prayers are not made effective by their length or the eloquence of our words. Similarly, we might focus on the duration of our prayers, believing that more time spent in prayer equates to greater spiritual success. Yet, the quality of our prayers is not measured by the clock.
Another common mistake is to concentrate on how well we pray, striving for doctrinal precision, perfect language, or emotional intensity. These efforts can create an illusion of spiritual vitality, but they are mere imitations of the true liveliness that the Holy Spirit imparts in prayer. As Lloyd-Jones aptly put it, the Spirit brings life and vitality to our prayers, which cannot be replicated by human effort.
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Discovering What Praying in the Spirit Is
After clarifying what praying in the Spirit is not, Lloyd-Jones led me to discover what it truly means. The key difference lies in the source of power behind the prayer. When we pray in the flesh, we rely on our own strength to move the prayer forward. In contrast, praying in the Spirit involves being carried along by the Holy Spirit, who breathes life into our prayers and connects us with God in a profound way.
Praying in the Spirit is characterized by a sense of warmth, freedom, and a living exchange with God. It is an experience of being in His presence, where the Spirit illuminates our minds, stirs our hearts, and grants us the liberty to express ourselves with authenticity and sincerity. Lloyd-Jones often used stark contrasts to illustrate this point, emphasizing the radical difference between praying in the flesh and praying in the Spirit.
However, it’s important to note that praying in the Spirit does not always feel electrifying or ecstatic. There are varying degrees of experience, and sometimes it may feel more like groaning than rejoicing. As Romans 8:26-27 reminds us, the Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us according to God’s will, even when we do not know what to pray for.
Lloyd-Jones likened the difference between praying in the flesh and praying in the Spirit to the experience of riding a bike on an incline. Praying in the flesh feels like an uphill struggle, where we exert great effort to make progress. Praying in the Spirit, on the other hand, is like riding downhill, where the momentum carries us forward with a sense of ease and flow. While the degree of incline may vary, the fundamental difference in energy and movement is always present when we pray in the Spirit.
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How to Pray in the Spirit
Praying in the Spirit involves three key aspects: admitting our inability to pray, enjoying a living communion with God, and pleading the promises of God with boldness and assurance.
Step 1: Admitting Our Inability to Pray
The first step in praying in the Spirit is to acknowledge our inability to pray as we ought. This requires a humble confession of our dependence on God. We must recognize that prayer is a spiritual activity that cannot be accomplished through human effort alone. Lloyd-Jones emphasized the importance of facing our dryness, difficulty, and spiritual sluggishness in prayer, and bringing these realities before God in confession.
However, this admission is not a passive act; it is an active yielding to the Holy Spirit. When we confess our weakness, we open ourselves to the Spirit’s work in us, leading to a posture of expectation and anticipation that God will move in our prayers.
Step 2: Enjoying Living Communion with God
The second aspect of praying in the Spirit is enjoying a living communion with God. When we pray in the Spirit, we experience a vibrant and dynamic relationship with God, characterized by a sense of give-and-take. We are not forcing ourselves to pray or trying to make conversation with a distant deity. Instead, the Spirit of adoption brings us into the very presence of God, where prayer becomes an act of fellowship and communion, rich with life.
Lloyd-Jones described this experience as being aware of God’s presence in a tangible way. The place where we pray is transformed; we may start out in our living room, but suddenly we sense that we are in the throne room of God. This awareness of God’s presence becomes more important than any petition we might make. It is in this living reality that we find the freedom to rest in God’s presence without feeling the need to rush or force our words.
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Step 3: Pleading with Holy Boldness
The final aspect of praying in the Spirit is pleading the promises of God with holy boldness. When the Spirit moves in our prayers, we approach God not as distant supplicants but as children of God, humbled by His majesty yet confident in His love. This boldness is not presumptuous; it is a humble and holy boldness that trusts in God’s promises and rests in His sovereignty.
Lloyd-Jones cautioned against demanding or claiming anything from God in a way that presumes upon His will. Instead, he urged believers to pray urgently, using all the arguments and promises of Scripture, but always with the recognition that God is sovereign and His ways are beyond our understanding. This humble approach to prayer allows us to plead with God while submitting to His wisdom and timing.
Don’t Quench the Spirit
Lloyd-Jones once said that the quickest way to quench the Spirit is to ignore an impulse to pray. This teaching became deeply personal to me during an experience I had while driving home from work. One night, exhausted from my night shift, I struggled to stay awake behind the wheel. Despite my efforts, I dozed off and woke up in my driveway, unsure of how I got there.
When I entered the house, I found my wife wide awake, waiting for me. She explained that she had felt an intense prompting to pray for me at the exact time I was struggling on the road. Her obedience to the Spirit’s prompting may have saved my life.
This experience reminded me of the critical importance of being sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in prayer. Ignoring the Spirit’s promptings is not a trivial matter; it can have profound consequences. Let us, therefore, commit ourselves to praying in the Spirit, yielding to His guidance, and obeying every impulse to pray.
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Conclusion
Learning to pray in the Holy Spirit is a journey that transforms our relationship with God. It begins with acknowledging our own weakness and inability to pray as we ought. From this place of humility, we enter into a living communion with God, where prayer becomes a vibrant exchange, infused with the life and presence of the Holy Spirit. As we pray in the Spirit, we are empowered to plead God’s promises with boldness, trusting in His sovereignty and goodness.
Let us follow the example of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a man who knew the power of prayer, and commit ourselves to praying in the Holy Spirit, always attentive to His leading and promptings. In doing so, we will experience the fullness of life that God desires for us in our prayer lives, and we will grow in our communion with Him.
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