Prayer in the Spirit

So many people do not understand what it means to pray in the Spirit.  This message from Min. David Pawson breaks this down from the Scriptures.

• Prayer is not a natural thing to the flesh and we don't know how to pray as we ought.
• One of the main functions of the Holy Spirit is to help us in how to pray.
• Praying in the Spirit is an added dimension to all prayer and supplication.
• The Holy Spirit is the divine letter writer; He takes what we want to say but cannot express or put to words and gets it out on our behalf.
• Prayer in the Spirit has two distinct aspects:
• The Holy Spirit takes over your mind, giving you the right thoughts, which you have the responsibility to express.
• The Holy Spirit does not use your mind at all, but takes over your mouth, and it is your responsibility to move your mouth and tongue.
• Both of these kinds of prayer are praying in the Spirit.
• Without praying in the Spirit, you are simply telling God what you want or what you feel is needed; it is coming from your mind and can be offered through Jesus to God.
• When praying in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is giving you the exact words to pray; by either taking over your mind to give you the thoughts to express or bypassing your mind & taking over your mouth to provide the actual words to pray.
• In both cases, the Holy Spirit does not pray for you, but He is helping you to pray with your infirmity.
• The problems we have with prayer are precisely the areas where the Holy Spirit can help us:
• Our Hearts -We don't have a strong enough desire to pray.
• Our Minds - Wandering thoughts and concentration.
• Our Wills - Sheer discipline.
• When someone is praying in the Spirit, you can be assured of three things:
• You can pray the will of God
• The Glory of Jesus will be in the prayer
• Echoes of God's word will be in the prayer
• Praying in the Spirit when the Holy Spirit takes over our mouths (the understanding is unfruitful, I Corinthians 14:14) may sound like groans at times or may be the Spirit expressing words in any language He knows.
• The word translated tongues in many Bibles simply means "languages".
• The devil hates this type of prayer because he knows that it sets people free in prayer and because he knows every word of that prayer will be just right.  
• To turn people off from receiving this gift, Satan will make people fanatical about it so as to put others off, will claim that you don't need it, or say it is only for some.  It is the first gift God gave to His Church.
• It is a type of prayer addressed to God and its primary use is private prayer.  This was the secret of Paul's power.
• All we have to do is ask and receive to obtain this gift.  There is also an act of surrender involved in receiving it.