What Does It Mean To Pray In The Holy Spirit?

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt;”
Jude 20-22

In his short letter, Jude packs a lot of powerful ideas. One of the most powerful, is the idea of praying in the Holy Spirit. Now for someone who grew up in a Cessationist Baptist background, I read this and my “Spidey-sense” starts tingling.

What does Jude mean by this? Well for starters, I think we have to say that he means something other than normal prayer. He could have just encouraged us to pray and no one would have argued, but he asks us to pray “in the Holy Spirit”.

I believe he is encouraging the readers of his letter to actually pray in tongues or in their heavenly prayer language. What makes me say that? Two reasons, its biblical and there is an encouragement to do it.

I believe Jude felt the need to encourage us in this practice because it edifies (builds up) the person doing it. Building yourself up and praying in the Spirit are linked in other places as well, but namely in Paul’s famous defense of praying in tongues in 1st Corinthians 14.

“The one who speaks in tongues builds up himself…” Paul says in 1 Cor. 14:4 and then he continues a little later in verse 14, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays…”

Paul here connects praying in the Spirit with building yourself up. These two ideas for Paul were connected ideas. He contrasts this idea in his passage with the gift of prophecy by saying that prophecy is better in a church meeting because it builds up the entire body.

As I think on this, one of the biggest hindrances for me personally is that praying in tongues sounds a bit crazy. It sounds like someone praying in jibber jabber. But, I am reminded that God wants us to walk in faith. He wants us to exercise our faith and that includes even in prayer.

When we pray in our prayer language, we are praying in faith. It takes faith to pray to God and not know what we are saying. We are trusting that the Holy Spirit in us knows what to pray and we are submitting ourselves to his prayers. All of us would agree that the Holy Spirit certainly knows better than we do what to pray.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
Romans 8:26-27

One of the main postures of prayer, I believe, is weakness. We must come to God humbly and weakly, knowing that we have no power to answer our own prayers. We cannot do what we are asking God to do. When we come into prayer this way, I believe it honors God. We are declaring our utter dependence on Him!

Paul says that the Spirit helps us in this. He sees our weakness in prayer and comes alongside of us to pray for us and through us. Sometimes this comes out as groaning, but other times it will be our prayer language. Either way, the result is the same, the Spirit which knows the mind of Christ, intercedes for us according to God’s will for our lives.

This is a big deal. We should know that if God is praying for us, great things will happen. His will is going to be accomplished through us and in us as the Spirit prays. I think this is why Jude encourages us to pray in the Holy Spirit. It’s a practical way for us to honor the request in the Lord’s Prayer - “your will be done on Earth…”

Prayer - Father, increase my faith to pray in the Spirit more often. I want your will to be done in me and through me. Give me the courage and faith to pray with you. Help me to submit my will to yours. We love you Lord. Amen.