“Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give Him advice or teach Him? Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice? Does He need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach Him what is right or show Him the path of justice?” -Isaiah 40:13-14
[Continuation of previous post…]
We don’t know how to pray as we ought, yet He does. The writer of Isaiah 40:13 asks, “Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?…” The answer is no one. So how should we approach God? Should we silently go before Him and never speak? No, because He has said to “ask, and it shall be given to you…”
The answer is found in the last part of the question: “Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?” If there is none that can advise Him, then who knows what is needed more than anyone else? The Spirit of the Lord! And who knows how to pray more than anyone else? You guessed it! The Spirit of the Lord!
He says in Romans 8:26-27: “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father, who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”
If God already knows what should be done, and His Spirit is interceding on our behalf, then He doesn’t need someone as weak and needy as you and I to ask Him to do it… right? That’s just it! He doesn’t need us, but He wants us desperately! In fact, “…the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him…” (2 Chronicles 16:9). He’s searching for someone that He can use in this area of prayer to prove that He is indeed strong! What an incredible privilege!
It is not that we should strive to pray perfectly. He’s not looking for
perfect ones. He’s looking for someone whose heart is perfect towards him, nothing holding you back from going all out for Him, nothing holding you back from reckless obedience to Him because of a love for Him that’s found in Christ.
His own Spirit lives within us to intercede not only for us but through us. We can’t pray without Him! He’s the only One who knows exactly what to say to God, for He Himself is God and He longs to prove who God is through us. He seeks to teach us what communion with this God who knows all and is all, through Christ. He is within us, and though we don’t need to advise Him, we need Him, because He is the One who is Wisdom itself.
Our focus should not be on the prayer we pray, but on the One we pray to, and the One who prays through us, because He’s not as interested in our words as He is in our interest in Him; because in Him you and I find all the wisdom, grace, discernment, boldness, strength, and everything that we could possibly need.
~Sandie Jalbert
“We can’t pray without Him!” I have never thought of it this way before but you are right. Even our prayer is abomination if it is not led of His Spirit! Very well said. “Our focus should not be on the prayer we pray, but on the One we pray to.”