Message #12 (of 20) from the PrayerPower radio series
"Intercession - Our Responsibility"

by Kaye Johns

We all face times of prayer when the need is so great we don’t know where to begin, or even what the right thing to pray for would be. But our Lord never asks us to do anything He doesn’t equip and enable us to do, and that includes intercessory prayer, praying for others.

In Romans 8 Paul tells us: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will." [Romans 8:26-28]

When Paul says "the Spirit helps us," the Greek word for "help" conveys the meaning of "taking hold together." It’s the idea of someone coming alongside and helping us take hold of something, such as a heavy log. We take one end, he takes the other. The Lord has given us His Spirit to be our Helper [John 14:15] in everything, including prayer. As we pray, the Spirit takes hold with us. Not instead of us, but with us. In our weakness and inadequacy, He reads our hearts, and more importantly, He knows the heart of God. He is our prayer partner, our enabler, Who intercedes with us.

Pray with me now -- Father, there is such comfort in knowing You have given us Your Spirit as our Helper in prayer. We thank You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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