The Potential of Prayer (5) 

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me…But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1.4, 8

You have to want it
Gaining access to the promise and power of prayer begins with wanting to improve prayer. When we get to the place where we’re no longer satisfied with our prayers, when we feel like we’re missing something, and realize that we’re not making good use of an almost unbelievable privilege, then perhaps we’ll want to do something about that.

That’s apparently where Jesus’ disciples arrived fairly early in His ministry with them. They noticed something in the disciples of John the Baptist – their prayers were so sincere, so earnest, and so enviable. One of Jesus’ disciples recognized that his own prayers were lacking something, compared to those of John’s disciples, so in Luke 11.1, he appealed to Jesus to teach him and the other disciples how to pray.

Jesus was more than willing to comply. In His answer, which we have already looked at in this series, we see several important teachings about prayer. First, Jesus provided a pattern for their prayers, an outline for praying which we know as the Lord’s Prayer (vv. 2-4). Second, He told His disciples that they must be persistent in prayer, even to the point of “annoying” God with their prayers, refusing to relent from prayer until God grants what they seek (vv. 5-10; cf. Is. 62.6, 7). Next, Jesus encouraged His disciples to pray by reminding them of the promise of prayer – that God their heavenly Father loves them and will grant what they seek when they come to Him in prayer.

And then, when Jesus had provided these practical guidelines for improving prayer, He dropped a bombshell on the disciples which must have left them scratching their heads and saying, “What the…?”

He knows our needs
There’s a corny commercial I’ve seen a few times. It shows a guy on an airplane, rubbing his back as if in pain. He rings for the flight attendant and, when she shows up, the man asks for something to help his back pain. She offers him a common aspirin tablet. He, thinking she doesn’t understand him, stands up and rubs his back and says, “No, I don’t have a headache; I have back pain.” She offers the same remedy, because she knows what he needs and that what she has to offer will do the trick.

Jesus promised that our heavenly Father knows what we need even before we ask Him (Matt. 6.8). And so, to conclude his brief seminar on how to pray, Jesus said to His disciples, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Again, just before His ascension into heaven, Jesus did the same thing. He taught them for forty days about the Kingdom of God, then told them to wait for the promise of God. They, eager to get the power of His Kingdom, asked if this was the time when He would grant the Kingdom to them. He answered by promising to give them the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.7, 8).

In neither of these situations were the disciples asking about the Holy Spirit. They didn’t have “Holy Spirit shortage,” as they saw it; they had a prayer deficiency, and a Kingdom longing. Nevertheless, the request and remedy were the same in each case: You want to learn to pray? Pray for the Holy Spirit. You’re seeking the Kingdom of God? Wait for the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what our Father knows we need, regardless of what we may be seeking from Him in prayer.

The gift of the Spirit
This only makes sense. After all, the Holy Spirit is the Giver of life (Jn. 6.63), our Helper in every situation (Jn. 14.16), and the One Who teaches us the righteous works of God (Jn. 14.26). He reveals our sins to us (Jn. 16.8-11), guides us in the way of righteousness (Ps. 139.23, 24), brings forth spiritual fruit and gifts within us (Gal. 5.22, 23; 1 Cor. 12.7-11), empowers us to do what is pleasing to God as witnesses to Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 4.20; Phil. 2.13; Acts 1.8), and brings us more fully into our calling as citizens of the Kingdom of God, privileged to know Him in glory (Rom. 14.17, 18; 2 Cor. 3.12-18). The Holy Spirit is the Keeper of the great and mighty things of the Lord (Eph. 3.20), the Agent of His peace (Gal. 5.22, 23), and the Power for every good and evil-overcoming work (Jn. 6.63).

So, while we’re rubbing our backs, seeking some relief from the pains and stresses of life’s journey, our heavenly Father is holding out His Spirit as the remedy for everything we seek from Him in prayer.

Whatever we ask in prayer, God will only ultimately give us Himself as the answer to what we seek. He is the grace for all our times of need. For Him to do otherwise would be to invite us into idolatry. This is not to say that God does not often grant us such things as direction in life, provision of our material needs, relief in the midst of trials, and the like. He does, but what He is ultimately offering with those fleeting, temporal remedies and solutions is the presence of His indwelling Spirit with exceeding abundant power, more than we have ever dared to ask or think, power to overcome even the greatest evils we might have to confront, and to rest in the peace and joy of the Lord (Heb. 12.1, 2).

Which makes me wonder: Might the great and mighty things of God, the peace that passes understanding, and the power that overcomes evil in every area of life – might such gifts of God be more readily available to us if we simply began, sustained, and ended our prayers by pleading for the Spirit of God Himself?

For reflection
1.  How do you presently experience the power of God’s Spirit in your life? Do you think more of this power is available to you? Explain.

2.  Meditate on Philippians 2.13, Ephesians 3.20, and Acts 1.8. For what primary ends is God willing to grant us the power of His Spirit?

3.  Meditate on Galatians 5.16-23. How can believers help one another to walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh?

Next steps – Preparation: Begin today clothing your prayers in an overall request for the Spirit of God. Practice doing this throughout the day. At the end of the day reflect on how praying this way has affected your prayers. What have you learned? Are you praying any more frequently? Are you finding more perspective or rest in your prayers? Keep this up tomorrow, and share your experience of doing this with a Christian friend.

T. M. Moore
Each of our “next steps” exercises is tied into goals and disciplines involved in working your Personal Mission Field. If you have not yet identified your Personal Mission Field, watch the brief video showing you how to get started right away (click here). Learn how to work your Personal Mission Field by finding a friend and signing-up for our Mission Partners Outreach.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.