The Spirit Joins in to Help in our Weakness and Intercede for us according to God

Christ as our High Priest intercedes for us before God, and the Spirit joins in to help in our weakness to intercede for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; these two intercessions are one, for Christ and the Spirit are one.

Our Lord Jesus died for us, He was resurrected, and now He is in the heavens at the right hand of God interceding for us. Christ today is in the highest heaven, holding the highest position at God’s right hand; as such a One, He intercedes for us.

Christ intercedes for us not according to our concept, feeling, or desire; He intercedes for our glorification, and this corresponds to His interceding for us to be saved to the uttermost in Heb. 7:25-26.

Christ in heavens is interceding that we, the many believers in Christ as the many God-men and members of His Body, would overcome opposition and all kinds of circumstances and be kept in union with Him so that we may be conformed to His image.

Christ intercedes for us that we may become His reproduction for the constitution of the corporate Body of Christ, the expression of God in humanity.

So all we need to do is love God and open to Him in prayer, allowing Him to work Himself into us through all the experiences we have, be it pleasant experiences or sufferings, trials, and problems, for all things work together for our transformation, conformation, and glorification.

At the same time that Christ in heavens intercedes for our overcoming, saving to the uttermost, and glorification, the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we don’t know what to pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26).

The Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and many times when we pray – even though we may pray for general things such as our family, health, friends, etc – we have a burden, a weight in our being that we feel we should pray for, but we have no words to utter.

So all we can say is, Oh Lord Jesus, Oh Lord… – we groan, and in our groaning the Spirit joins us, in like manner, to pray in our prayer. This is a very wonderful yet mysterious matter in our Christian life, in which we experience Christ in a very subjective way as the Spirit who intercedes for us by being in us.

We don’t know for what to Pray as is Fitting, but the Spirit Joins in to Intercede for us

Rom. 8:26 is such a sweet verse to all believers, for it assures us that, even though we don’t know what to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

In like manner the Spirit joins in our prayer to help us; in whatever manner we are in, that’s how He comes in. If we are quick, He comes to intercede in that quick manner; if we pray loudly, He comes to pray in that manner….apparently He is loud, but actually He’s not – He simply joins in – in like manner with us.

The Spirit doesn’t require that we join Him – He joins us. The very Christ who intercedes in the heavens is the Spirit in our spirit to carry out a subjective intercession.

We need a lot of help; we need the Lord. He is not up there in heavens saying, Come up here and pray like Me! Rather, in whatever manner we are, he comes in to join us, even in our weakest state.

Our weakness is mainly our ignorance of how we should pray; we don’t know the kind of prayer that God desires, and we are not clear how to pray.

We may pray for many outward things, for our needs, for our family, etc but intercession is not about those things. Intercession is related to our need for the growth in life, being transformed, being matured in life, and being conformed to the image of Christ.

We don’t know how short we are, and we don’t know how to pray for our growth in life, for our need of transformation and conformation….we don’t know, but the Spirit does, so He joins us to help us in our weakness.

The Spirit intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. We may have an inward feeling or burden to pray, but we don’t have the words to pray; something inwardly is there, a weight on our heart, but we don’t know how to express it and what is that prayer.

This unutterable prayer is the most genuine prayer, and it is related to our growth in life. Even though we may not know how to express the prayer deep within, we may groan, Oh Lord…

The Spirit prays for us and in us every second of the day; He prays continuously, 24/7, every day of the year. There is One in our spirit who prays continually.

And He joins us wherever we are, and we groan…this groaning which cannot be uttered is not our groaning but it is actually the Spirit’s groaning, the Spirit’s intercession for us.

In our groaning the Spirit groans also, interceding for us; the Spirit intercedes for us mainly that we may experience the transformation in life for growth in life unto the maturity of sonship, so that we may be fully conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God (see Rom. 12:2; 8:29).

Thank You Lord for being the Spirit in our spirit interceding for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Thank You for joining us to help in our weakness, for we don’t know for what we should pray as is fitting. Oh Lord Jesus! We just open to You in prayer, and we want to utter the prayers that You as the Spirit are praying in us. Bring us on with You to experience transformation in life unto the maturity of sonship, so that we may be fully conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son!

The Spirit’s Mind is Mingled with our Mind, and the Spirit Intercedes for us According to God

The Spirit searches the hearts, and He knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to God (Rom. 8:27). He, the Spirit, is searching our heart; and He knows what the mind of the Spirit is.

The mind of the Spirit here is not the mind of the Spirit that is independent from us; rather, it is the mind of the Spirit that has been mingled with our mind and has become part of our heart (Rom. 8:6). The Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and His mind is mingled with our mind.

As He is groaning, He is searching our heart, and He knows the mind of the Spirit.

The mind of the Spirit is one with our mind to become part of our heart; our heart is not the common heart that we had before we believed into the Lord, but a new heart, with a mind that is being renewed.

The New Testament revelation gives us a clear view of such a mingling. Our mind can be set on the spirit, making our mind one with the Spirit. Hence, the Spirit’s mind is one with our mind, and this mingled heart, this mingled mind, becomes a part of our spirit. Now when we groan, our groaning is not a religious prayer but an aspiration from the depths of our being, where the mingling of divinity with humanity is. This is the result of the Spirit’s work of infusing His according-to-God mind into us. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 989-990, by Witness Lee)

Eph. 4:23 speaks of the spirit of the mind, which is for our renewing, and Rom. 8:27 speaks of the mind of the Spirit, which is for interceding. The Spirit has mingled Himself with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:16), and He is mingling His mind with our mind.

The searching Spirit prays for us according to God Himself – the Spirit intercedes for us according to God, that we may be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29).

He joins in our weakness to help us, and He intercedes not according to us or our need and condition, but according to God, His will, His way, His glory, and His nature. All this is happening in our spirit.

The purpose of Christ’s intercession in the heavens is so that He can transmit Himself into our spirit through the Spirit’s intercession to stir up the spirit of prayer and intercession in us; He wants us to respond to Him.

We should not rely merely on His objective intercession in the heavens, but cooperate with the Spirit in our spirit who intercedes for us according to God. His intercession is for our intercession, for He needs our intercession.

This is a very deep matter, but the application is very simple. Every day as we rise up, spend time with the Lord in the morning, go to work, and do our daily chores, there’s a burden in our being, and we groan to the Lord inwardly. As we go to work and see the corruption and immorality in the world, our groaning intensifies.

This groaning is His groaning in us, our groaning has His groaning in it and expresses it, and in this we cooperate with His intercession in us. This is how we experience growth in life, little by little, gradually….even with unutterable words.

At a certain time we may have a prayer for a brother or a sister, and we groan; then an utterance is transmitted into us, and the Spirit intercedes for us and with us in our spirit. Our prayer and utterance come from the Spirit interceding in our spirit.

Lord, mingle Your mind with our mind so that we may have the utterance in our prayer of intercession according to God. We want to cooperate with the Spirit who intercedes for us in our spirit. Thank You Lord for being the searching Spirit who prays for us according to God Himself that we may be conformed to the image of His Son. Lord, stir up the spirit of prayer and intercession in us, that we may groan in the Spirit’s groaning and utter the Spirit’s prayer to meet Your need!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James L. for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 92, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 6 (week 6), Responding to Christ’s Intercession in His Heavenly Ministry.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # So many times we are so weak, / But Someone deep within / Supplies the very help we need, / And we’re upheld by Him. / He says, “Don’t be disappointed.” / He knows all your fears and failures; / He’s praying for you / As no one else can do. (Song on the Spirit’s interceding)
  # Through God’s word, my hope at His returning / Is that all my being be redeemed; / Yet in times of grief and tribulation, / Doubt and fear arise, no hope is seen. / In those hours, when prayer cannot be uttered, / Only groaning from my breast is heard. / Then the Spirit, in like manner, helps me, / Praying in my weakness unto God. (Hymns #1210)
  # Intercede! Intercede! For Your people, meet Your need! / Hallelujah! Get Your Bride this way. / Have Your way! Have Your way! Do a building work we pray— / Hallelujah—in our life each day! (Song on blending and building)