Prayer "in the Spirit"
What does it mean to "pray in the Spirit"? Christians are called to do various things "in" the Spirit. The Greek preposition en
usually means either "in" or "by" and it’s only by looking closely at
the context we can determine which rendering is best. But our grasp of
the context doesn’t always help us sufficiently so serious students of
scripture remind us that a given text could equally be translated "in
the Spirit" or "by the Spirit". While the meaning of these two
prepositions can overlap they can and sometimes do send us in two
distinct directions. Then, again, there are times when there is no
preposition, just a simple dative case (as in pneumati) but the question remains whether we should render it "in" or "by".
Occasionally there is a dispute whether the Greek word pneuma
in such a context is the human spirit or the Holy Spirit but most of
the time there’s agreement that the Holy Spirit is in view. Certainly it
appears to be the Holy Spirit that Paul has in mind in Ephesians 6:18.
Paul speaks of people "beginning" their life with God in Christ in/by
the Spirit (Galatians 3:3) "walking" (living, says NIV) in/by the Spirit
(Galatians 5:16) and "living" in/by the Spirit in 5:25. Christians,
Jews and Gentiles in context, access the Father in/by the Spirit
(Ephesians 2:18) are made into God’s dwelling place in/by the Spirit
(2:22). The Colossians "love" in/by the Spirit (1:8) and so forth.
When Paul says we live or love or walk (behave or conduct ourselves)
in/by the Spirit what does he mean? Would it be the same if he said we
live or love or walk in/by the Father? Would it be the same if he said
we live or love or walk in/by the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, yes and no.
We’re certainly told that it’s in/by Christ that we live and have access
to God; but while the same work is accomplished by the triune God
working in concert it’s clear that there are specific roles maintained
by the Father, Son and Spirit (the "economic" Trinity as it’s sometimes
called).
Yes, but what does it mean to do something "in/by" the Spirit? For us
the word "by" is clear enough. We’d immediately think of the Spirit
enabling or empowering us so that if Paul says, "we live by the Spirit"
we can easily understand him to mean that the Spirit empowers us; that
it’s because of what the Spirit does that we are able to live. We could
just as easily understand him to mean we live by (the teaching, guidance
or in accordance with) the Spirit. We might think of God's
statement to Israel that humans live "by every word that comes from
God". If Paul says we live "in" the Spirit we find that a little harder
to grasp but the dative of sphere is common enough to us. There are people who live "in" fear and there are those who live "in" faith. This locates them in a particular realm or setting. Obviously they aren’t physically
located "in" faith or fear the way people sleep "in" a room; faith or
fear is the boundary within which they live. So it is with those who
live or walk or pray "in (the) Spirit". The Spirit, so to speak, is the
realm in which they move, the atmosphere in which they breathe, the
parameter within which they think or shape their prayers or behaviour.
So what does it mean to "pray in the Spirit"? It means to allow the
Spirit to be the shaper of our prayers, the guide and teacher on the
things for which we should pray and the purifier of our motives in
praying such prayers. It means we won't pray for something that is
contrary to what the Holy Spirit aims for or nurtures.
But what does that mean? Does he mean we are to say nothing until the
Spirit puts the specific words and subjects into our minds; as if he
literally whispered into or minds something like, "Here’s what you are
to pray for, here is how you will word the prayer and here is the motive
from which you should pray it"?
I’m sure that’s not what Paul has in mind. He seems to think the
Christians have more personal input into the matter than that. He isn’t
asking the Holy Spirit to do the praying he calls on the Christians to do the praying. Yes, but if the Spirit shapes and enables us to pray what do we
have to do with it? Look, we need to work with scripture and life and
stop thinking as if lives were like already played chess games and that
we’re mindless pawns or a limp rag flopping in the wind. This section in
Ephesians is a call to war! Certainly it is God that enables, protects
and sustains us but we are up to our necks in the battle, we are supposed to exert ourselves, we
are to engage the enemy. Paul says "pray!" He tells them to pray not in
terms of "the flesh" (in selfishness, self-reliance or with personal
agendas) but in terms of the Spirit. We are to think of who and what he
is, who and what he stands for, what his agenda and ultimate purposes are and within those parameters—pray!
He calls them to pray for him and he calls them to pray all the time
for all the saints. And how, by the grace of the Spirit, are we to get
to know the Spirit? Well, whatever else we are to do we must in
community with the saints wield the Spirit’s sword, wear the gospel on
our feet and carry the shield of faith and pay attention to the armor he
speaks of. Experience of the Spirit as we know him in and through Jesus
Christ (for he is the Spirit of Christ!) will purify our conceptions of him and more and more we’ll pray "in the Spirit". This section is martial and prayer is part of the equipment of our warfare!