Hi Mike,

I have a question for you, and I was not able to find anywhere on your site that you have written on it. If you did, then I missed it. Twice in Romans chapter 8, verses 26 and 27, we are told that:

“The Spirit makes intercession for us” (The saints)

And we are plainly told that the reason why the Spirit makes intercession for us is because “we” (the saints) do not know what we should pray for AS WE OUGHT. Could you give me your understanding on this?

Thank you brother! R____

Hi R____,

You ask about the spirit praying for us with groaning which cannot be uttered and the fact that we do not know for what we should be praying. Here are the verses you reference:

Rom 8:26  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.
Rom 8:27  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.

We have shown in the paper on the trinity (Is God a Trinity?) that God’s spirit is given to us all through Christ. Christ actually calls it His spirit, but He explains to us that He can do that only because the Father has given His spirit to Christ.

Joh 3:35  The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
Joh 16:15  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you.

Verse 15 of John 16 is a direct reference to “the comforter which is the holy spirit.” God has given His spirit to Christ and Christ is now at liberty to give God’s spirit to us. So when we read that “the spirit also helps our infirmities, making intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered, because we don’t know what we should pray for as we ought,” what we are really being told is that Christ is being our advocate with the Father when there are trials facing us we do not even see coming. Note the previous verses. I think they help to clear up what is meant by “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:” Here are the verses that immediately precede that opening word, “Likewise…”

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for it.

So let’s just restructure these verses without adding to or taking away from them.  “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought… likewise we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

I have said many times that God has “given us exceeding great and precious promises”, but He has not taken us into His confidence to show us what either blessings or trials tomorrow holds for us.

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

It is in His mercy that He has not shown us our tomorrow. He shows us only what we are able to bear, only as we are able bear it. Christ, who has been given God’s spirit and can now call it His spirit, knows what trials we face because He has already been through them all, and He knows what we are facing before we know.

Joh 2:24  But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all [men – the word ‘men’ is not in the Greek]

That is how He is able to comfort us in and pray for us as we come into all of our trials. These are the things that cause the whole creation to groan and travail, and likewise provokes our advocate to “pray for us with groaning which we cannot utter” simply because we do not see the storms between us and that for which we hope.

Christ deliberately sent His disciples across the sea, knowing a storm was coming and that He would rescue them out of that storm and in the process, reveal just a little more to His disciples, that all storms and all of our trials are of and under His power. Christ knew that storm was coming “because He knew all.”

Here is a Biblical example of the spirit praying for us because we do not know what we should pray for as we ought:

Joh 17:1  These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
Joh 17:2  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Joh 17:4  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Joh 17:5  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Joh 17:6  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
Joh 17:7  Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received [them], and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
Joh 17:9  I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Joh 17:10  And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
Joh 17:11  And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we [are].
Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Joh 17:13  And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Joh 17:14  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Joh 17:19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
Joh 17:21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Joh 17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Joh 17:24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
Joh 17:25  O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:26  And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare [it]: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

I hope that you can see the answer to your question lies in seeing the groanings of “the whole creation” in the previous verses. We groan to be with Christ in the redemption of the purchased possession, and Christ prays for us and has delivered us out of our trials even though we do not yet see what lies before us.

Num 21:34  And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.
Jos 10:8  And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall no t a man of them stand before thee.

God “speaks of things that are not as though they were”, and Christ prays for us before we even know we need that prayer. This is a very comforting thought. As I told you on the phone, it is a comfort to know that whatever happens was written in His book before the world began.

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Your brother in the Christ,
Mike