A beautiful day in the PNW and I could not pass up the opportunity to sit outside for my QT. I feel so blessed to have the home we do. God has been sooo gracious to us.
So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will. Romans 8:26-27 [AMP]
I love these 2 verses so much! Essentially what Paul is telling us here is that the Holy Spirit “has our backs”. Even when we don’t know what to pray, when our hearts are in the right place, He intercedes on our behalf to the Throne room of heaven. In the days I feel my weakest or alone, the Spirit comes to my aid. The Spirit has a communication style with the Father that is beyond my understanding.
Verse 27 is even more insightful – Rather than try to explain the insight I am going to paste a really good clip from David E. Garland who wrote the Tyndale commentary on this verse :
The Spirit knows the thoughts (1 Cor. 2:11) and the will of God and intercedes for us in accordance with God’s will. It is not a one-way prayer, however, from the believer through the Spirit to God. A reciprocal interaction transpires. Through the Spirit who dwells in the believer’s innermost being, God can communicate his will to the believer. When we stop our attempts at eloquence in prayer and listen to the Spirit praying in us, a new doorway opens between heaven and earth that allows us to receive what God has to say and to give to us.
David E. Garland – Tyndale Commentary on Romans
Isn’t that awesome! Today, after I was done praying for those requests in my PrayerMate app, I just sat in quiet mind and heart, listening to what God had for me through the Spirit. I found myself praying for additional people and circumstances He brought to my mind. I will have to say that I first prayed and asked the Lord to speak to me as I closed my mind and thinking off from the world around me. It was such a wonderful time of ‘Communion’ with the Lord through the Spirit.
Application:
I already start to apply this today just in what I talk about directly above. Moving forward into the next several days and weeks, I want to continue this ‘Quietness of Mind’ in my prayer and quiet times.