Creation is groaning.
All that is happening within the world right now… all of the division… all of the anger… all of the tension… all of the fear… all of the uncertainty… is the anxious longing of creation that waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God (see Romans 8:19).
Likewise, the Holy Spirit is groaning, too.
Because we don’t know how to pray as we should, He intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (see Romans 8:26).
In other words, our language cannot adequately describe or capture the depths of what the Holy Spirit feels and prays on behalf of you and me.
Where words fail, groanings prevail.
And when you don’t know what to pray, He does.
It’s an amazing thing to think that God the Holy Spirit is praying on behalf of you and me, and I believe that the number one thing He is praying for right now is for the church to see her need for Him.
I don’t know if you can sense it or feel it, but there’s an agitation in the air.
Something is wooing us to Him… something is bringing us low.
Humility is filling the atmosphere.
There’s a conviction that’s coming to the church and it’s sole design is to convince us that we need the Holy Spirit.
All that’s happening right now is a light that’s shining upon and revealing this need.
Whereas the world and its corruption is being exposed, our need for God is being exposed.
The church can only become convinced, however, when she’s convicted.
There’s an alarm that’s ringing right now and it’s beckoning that the church wake up from her slumber and cry out to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
I believe both the groaning of creation and the groaning of the Spirit is going to produce a groaning within the church.
When the church begins to pray, the longing of creation and the intercession of the Spirit in this season has been answered.
Their groaning will have become our groaning.
What they long for, we will long for.
I believe the blinders are coming off.
I believe the church will begin to see that she requires help from the Helper.
When the church is convinced that the Holy Spirit is her greatest need… when she is persuaded… she’ll pray.
And like the disciples gathered in the upper room, the people of God will continually devote themselves to prayer until they receive the promise of the Father (see Acts 1:14).
This is why I believe that prayer will become the most important ministry within the church.
The zeal that consumed Jesus to flip the tables on all that was hindering the house of God from being the house of prayer it was originally intended to be will become the zeal of God’s people.
They will flip the tables of what seeks to distract them from this mandate and pray.
They’ll do it in private and they’ll do it corporately.
But there will be no eloquence of speech.
The groaning of the heart will replace the knowledge of the head.
There is something that is going to come forth from deep within the people of God.
It’ll be something words can’t express.
The yearnings from within will replace what words cannot articulate.
There will be no human language that can capture the ache from inside.
Like Hannah, we will speak from our heart (see 1 Samuel 1:13).
It’ll be a longing… a desperation… a cry.
They’ll desire for God like never before.
They’ll see that they owe it to the world to demonstrate the gospel in a greater way.
They won’t cry out on behalf of themselves, but on behalf of those they long to minister to.
They will come into agreement with what creation longs to see and what the Holy Spirit is interceding for.
And as a result, the unity of these groanings will become one of the greatest prayer gatherings of all time.
- Brian Connolly, Faith Like Birds
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