The Holy Spirit and Prayer
Introduction
It’s funny how different two weeks can be. When planning this Lent series on prayer I simply put the Lectionary readings down knowing that depending on the topic the preacher might want to choose something more appropriate. Last week Deborah found none of the set readings really fitted the topic of contemplative prayer. By contrast, when I came to look at this week’s readings I found the set gospel reading was John 3:1-17 with Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus.
I wonder what you are anticipating this morning – with a sermon on the Holy Spirit and prayer? Something about speaking in tongues perhaps, visions, dreams, pictures and prophecies? All of these are important aspects of the Holy Spirit and prayer but I want to go way back – to the place where Jesus starts with Nicodemus, being born again.
Birthed in the Spirit
The passage from John3 is very well-known, if for no other reason than giving rise to the over-used and often misunderstood phrase “born again”. I used to get very cross with people who asked “Are you a born-again Christian?” because as Jesus points out to Nicodemus here there is no other sort. You cannot enter God’s kingdom without being born again. This is where the spiritual life starts and it is both terrifying and exhilarating. John O’Donohue imagines this conversation with a baby about to be born: “(quote from Third Way”). Jesus uses the analogy of birth to describe our new life in Him, a radical transformation, powered by the Spirit, which launches our life of prayer. Deborah said last week that prayer was “becoming one with the heart of God”. The true essence of prayer is this relationship with God. Our intercessions frequently start with the phrase “In union with Christ and in the power of the Spirit let us pray to the Father”
Earthed in the Spirit
Having been born through the Spirit we now take our place within God’s family. Romans 8:14-16 “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (&daughters) of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear but you received the Spirit of adoption and by him we cry Abba, father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God”.
Despite what some psychologists would have us believe we cannot remember being born physically. Many of us cannot remember being “born again”, either because it happened when we were very young or because it was a more gradual process. However through the working of the Spirit we can know beyond any reasonable doubt that we are children of our Father in heaven, adopted into His family through Jesus and his dying for us.
It is the Holy Spirit who nurtures our growing relationship with God and just as with our human relationships the cement or glue that holds this relationship together is communication, in other words prayer. Even when words fail us the Holy Spirit comes to our aid: “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” Rom.8:26
?????? in the Spirit
Having been birthed in the Spirit and earthed in the Spirit I couldn’t think of a word to describe the third aspect, being caught up in the Spirit. Both Scripture and on-going experience tell us that as well as the background experience of being born by the Spirit and united to God through the Spirit there is the more fluctuating experience of being filled with the Spirit. When teaching on this in Alpha I often use the illustration of a gas water heater, the difference between the pilot light and the woosh when the water heats up.
I imagine something of this was in mind when John wrote of being “in the Spirit” when he received his revelation Rev.1:10. Paul also speaks of being “caught up to the third heaven” 2Cor.12:2. In a similar way the more dramatic manifestations of the Spirit referred to at the beginning, (speaking in tongues etc.) are often experienced by those caught up in the Spirit. However for many of us these experiences also form part of the everyday way of communicating with our heavenly Father.
Conclusion
I put on the card carrying details of this series a verse from Ephesians 6 “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions” Eph 6:18. YBH