Praying in the Holy Ghost

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. JUDE 1:20

The last chapter was about the habits of prayer. This one is about its inner secret. Torrey believed that God answers prayer — not in a vague sense, but definitely, specifically and in ways that can be recognised. He also believed that there are conditions to prevailing prayer, and that the deepest of them is that the prayer be prayed in the Holy Spirit. His chapter on the subject in The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit is short, and it is one of the best things he wrote.

We know not what we should pray for

Torrey started from our ignorance. The disciples did not know how to pray, and asked Jesus to teach them. We are no different. We do not know what to pray for, or how to ask for it. “There is no place where we need to recognize our ignorance more than we do in prayer,” he wrote.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ROMANS 8:26

But there is One always at hand who does know. True prayer, Torrey said, is prayer in the Spirit: the prayer that the Spirit inspires and directs. And the prayer He directs is prayer according to the will of God.

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. ROMANS 8:27

This led him to a sentence that sums up his whole doctrine: “The prayer that God, the Holy Spirit, inspires is the prayer that God, the Father, answers.”

Not bending God to our will

Torrey was aware of an objection. Some people thought the Christian doctrine of prayer meant that ignorant human beings could go to God and change His will, subjecting His wisdom to their foolishness. That, he said, is not the Christian doctrine at all. The Christian doctrine is that the believer may be taught by the Spirit what the will of God is, and so be led to ask not for what our foolishness would suggest, but for what the Spirit prompts.

How do we know the will of God? First, Torrey said, by what is written. Every promise in the Bible is sure, and if God has promised something, we may be certain it is His will to give it. Second, where there is no specific promise, the Spirit Himself may lead us, sometimes clearly and sometimes in longings too deep for words, which God understands even if we do not.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. EPHESIANS 3:20

The confidence of faith

Once the will of God is known, Torrey held, faith can be definite. He told how the strange tenses of Mark 11:24 had long confused him, until the answer came to him while studying John’s first epistle.

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 1 JOHN 5:14–15

If I know the prayer is according to God’s will, I know it is heard. If it is heard, I have the petition, even if I do not yet see it. That was how he came to understand the words believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. It was the confidence that let him rise from his knees and go to his work expecting the answer.

Conditions of prevailing prayer

Torrey did not think every prayer was answered simply because it was sincere. In How to Pray and elsewhere he set out conditions drawn from Scripture, and they are searching.

Prayer is to be made in the name of Christ — not as a formula at the end, but resting entirely on His merit and claims.

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. JOHN 14:13

It depends on abiding in Christ and letting His words abide in us.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. JOHN 15:7

It depends on obedience. Unconfessed sin shuts the door, and cherished iniquity closes God’s ear.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. PSALM 66:18

And it requires persistence.

Praying through

Torrey learned from George Müller, whose life he had read, the habit of persevering in prayer until the answer came. He called it praying through. The parables of the friend at midnight and the unjust judge were for him not puzzles but commands.

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. LUKE 18:1

He believed that many prayers fail not because God refuses, but because we stop asking too soon. We pray once or twice, grow discouraged and move on. The friend at midnight received what he needed because of his importunity. Torrey did not think this meant God is reluctant and must be worn down. He thought it meant that persevering prayer tests and deepens our desire, and brings us into line with God’s will, and that God delights to answer the one who will not let Him go.

Where care is needed

There is much here to embrace. There is also a danger, and it is the same as with his teaching on the baptism with the Spirit.

It is possible to take believe that ye receive them as a method for obtaining whatever we want, and to decide in advance that because we have asked with enough faith the thing must be ours. Torrey guarded against this by insisting that the prayer be according to God’s will, and by teaching that we must wait on the Spirit to know it. But his confident manner can hide those safeguards from a hasty reader.

Scripture shows us prayers that were not answered in the way they were asked. Paul besought the Lord three times for his thorn to be removed, and was given grace instead.

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:8–9

And the Son of God Himself prayed in Gethsemane, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. No one prayed more perfectly in the Spirit than He did. The answer was the cross, and through the cross, the resurrection.

So pray definitely. Pray boldly. Pray through. But let the Spirit teach you what to ask, and hold every request, as Jesus did, within not my will but Thine.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Next time you pray, begin by confessing your ignorance of what to ask, and wait quietly for the Spirit to lead your desires before you speak.

2. Find one promise of God that applies to a present need. Pray it back to Him, and thank Him that He has heard.

3. Ask whether there is any sin you are regarding in your heart that may be hindering your prayers. Deal with it today.

4. Choose one long-standing request and resolve to pray through: to keep asking daily until God answers or makes His will plain.

5. Where a prayer has not been answered as you hoped, read 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 and ask whether God is offering grace instead.

A PRAYER

Holy Spirit, I do not know what I should pray for as I ought. Teach me to pray.

Lead my desires into the will of the Father. Where there is a promise, give me faith to take it. Where there is none, give me wisdom to wait.

Keep me from giving up too soon, and keep me from demanding what You have not promised.

I bring my requests in the name of Jesus, resting on His merit alone, and I leave them in Your hands: not my will, but Thine be done. Amen.