Scripture: "He that searcheth the hearts knowetk what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the Will of God." — ROM. viii. 27.
What a light these words cast upon the life of prayer in the hearts of the saints! We know not what we should pray for as we ought. How often this hinders our prayer or hinders the faith that is essential to its success. But here we are told for our encouragement, that the Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered: "He maketh intercession for the saints according to the Will of God."
What a prospect is here opened up to us! Where and how does the Spirit make intercession for the saints ? In no other way than that, in the heart which knows not what to pray. He secretly and effectually prays what is according to the Will of God. This of course implies that we trust Him to do His work in us, and that we tarry before God even when we know what to pray, in the assurance that the Holy Spirit is praying in us. This implies fur¬ther that we take time to tarry in God's presence, that we exercise an unbounded dependence upon the Holy Spirit who has been given us to cry "Abba Father" within us, even when we have nothing to offer but groanings and sighs that cannot be uttered.
What a difference it would make in the life of many of God's saints if they realized this! They have not only Jesus the Son of God, the great High Priest, ever living to intercede for them, they have not only the liberty of asking in faith, what they desire, and the promise that it shall be given them, but they have actually and in very deed the Holy Spirit, "the Spirit of grace and supplica¬tion," to carry on, in the depths of their being, His work of interceding for them according to the Will of God.
What a call to separate ourselves from the world, to yield ourselves wholeheartedly to the leading and praying of the Spirit within us, deeper than all our thoughts or expectations ! What a call to surrender ourselves in stillness of soul, resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him, as the Holy Spirit prays within us not only for ourselves, but specially for all saints according to the Will of God.
