Johnny C. Serafini

“Prayer, in the whole compass and extent of it, as comprising meditation, supplication, praise, and thanksgiving, is one of the most signal duties of religion…. It is not only an important duty in religion, but…without it there neither is nor can be the exercise of any religion in the world.”¹ So wrote John Owen (1616 –1683), who, like his Puritan brethren, saw that prayer is essential to the Christian life. Prayer must also be true, that is, acceptable to God and according to His will; for this, the believer needs the help of the Spirit. The Puritans were keen on showing that Spirit-less prayer is as good as “a little cold prattle and spiritless talk,” as Thomas Manton (1620 –1677) wrote.² William Fenner (1600 –1640) concurred and described it as no better than “the lowing of oxen, or the grunting of hogs.”³ John Bunyan (1628–1688) said that prayer without the assistance of the Holy Spirit could not possibly be “according to the will of God.”⁴ On the other hand, the Puritans excelled in declaring the truth that those who have the indwelling Spirit will truly pray, as Matthew Henry (1662–1714) pointed out: “You may as soon find a living man without breath as a living saint without prayer.”⁵ “When the Spirit gets into the heart then there is prayer indeed, and not till then,” said Bunyan.⁶

The indwelling Spirit is the author of prayer in the soul of the believer. There simply cannot be true prayer—heaven-bound prayer—without the Spirit’s help. And all true Christians, being indwelt by the Spirit, have the gift of true prayer and will seek to grow in the exercise of that gift. The Puritans based most of their writing upon the Spirit’s work in prayer upon the classic text, Romans 8:26 –27.

Romans 8:26 declares that the Spirit “helpeth our infirmities.” Thus, the Spirit’s work of intercession is characterized as giving assistance and carrying the weight, both with and in one’s stead, as the word in the original suggests. Robert Traill (1642–1716) defined the word “helpeth” (Greek, sunantilambanomai) as the Spirit’s helping us “over-against us, as a powerful assistant to the weak, in carrying a heavy burden.”⁷ Manton showed the Spirit’s help is necessary, first, due to the economy of the Trinity, for in prayer we come to the Father through Christ our Mediator with the Spirit as our guide; second, due to the spirituality of all Christian duties, for “all the children of God are led by the Spirit of God, Rom. 8:14; as in their whole conversation, so especially in this act of prayer”; and third, due to our spiritual impotency, for, as Manton said, “We cannot speak of God without the Spirit, much less to God.”⁸

James Ussher (1581–1656) listed the many infirmities that comprise our need for the Spirit’s help in prayer: “Roving imaginations, inordinate affections, dullness of spirit, weakness of faith, coldness in feeling, faintness in asking, weariness in waiting, too much passion in our own matters, and too little compassion in other men’s miseries.”⁹ Manton added “afflictions, and the perturbations occasioned thereby, as fretting or fainting; or more generally any sinful infirmities, as ignorance, distrust, etc.”¹⁰

Although believers are regenerate, they still must deal with indwelling sin, which renders them to be of “little strength,” as Thomas Boston (1676 –1732) said, and “much bowed down with pressure.”¹¹ Owen wrote of the blinding effect of sin: “Nature is so corrupted as not to understand its own depravation…. Nature is blind, and cannot see them; it is proud, and will not own them; stupid, and is senseless of them.” Although this blindness renders man hopeless, the Spirit’s work is exactly the remedy we need. Owen expressed this well: “It is the work of the Spirit of God alone to give us a due conviction of, a spiritual insight into, and a sense of the concernment of, these things.” He concluded, “Without a sense of these things, I must profess I understand not how any man can pray.”¹²

The apostle Paul shows in Romans 8:26 that these infirmities leave us in need of the Spirit’s help in two particular aspects of prayer. The first is the matter or content of prayer or, as Paul says, “we know not what we should pray for.” The second, which will be considered next month, is the manner of prayer, or how we ought to pray: “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.”

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1. John Owen, The Works of John Owen (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1999), 4:251.
2. Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1873), 5:337.
3. William Fenner, “The Sacrifice of the Faithful,” in The Works of W. Fenner (London: George neer Fleet-Bridge for E. Tyler, 1657), 267 (sermon 20).
4. John Bunyan, “I Will Pray with the Spirit,” in The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded and I Will Pray with the Spirit, ed. Richard L. Greaves (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), 243.
5. Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2003), 4:1152.
6. Bunyan, The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded, 257.
7. Robert Traill, The Works of the Late Reverend Robert Traill (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), 1:72.
8. Manton, Complete Works, 12:235–36.
9. James Ussher, A Body of Divinity: or the Sum and Substance of Christian Religion (London: J.D., 1677), 335.
10. Manton, Complete Works, 12:225.
11. Thomas Boston, The Complete Works of Thomas Boston (Stoke-on-Trent, England: Tentmaker Publications, 2002), 11:20.
12. Owen, Works, 4:279.

Published by The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, used with permission.