Align Your Prayers with His Presence: Praying Beyond What Your Mind Can Comprehend

Most people miss out on the leading of the Spirit in prayer because they don’t recognize His manifestation.

Whenever the Spirit of God manifests, it is an expression of His desire to help and assist us in whatever we are doing. So when the Holy Spirit begins to express Himself in you as you pray, it’s only because He desires to help you pray more effectively. He is an expert in the protocol of heaven and the plan of God, so the help that He brings will always be needful.

All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you (John 16:15).

Everything that the Father has is mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you (John 16:15 AMPC).

In John 16:15, Jesus conveys to us how the Spirit will lead us in prayer and all other areas of our lives. If you can follow the Spirit in prayer, you can follow Him anywhere. Remember, the Holy Spirit leads us from the inside out. And He does it by declaring, disclosing, and transmitting revelation through our Spirit.

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

But just as it is written [in Scripture] “Things which the eye has not seen and the hear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, who obey him, and who gratefully recognize the benefits that he has bestowed].” For God has unveiled them and revealed them to us through the [Holy] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things [diligently], even [sounding and measuring] the [profound] depths of God [the divine counsels and things far beyond human understanding] (1 Corinthians 2:9-10 AMP).

We should expect the Holy Spirit to declare things in our Spirit as we pray. Paul paints such a vivid picture of how the Holy Spirit conveys revelation to our Spirit. As you pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit diligently searches all things pertaining to the things you’re praying about. Then He begins to give voice and expression to the divine counsel of God in your spirit. This spiritual intelligence is beyond what your mind can even begin to comprehend. He conveys this to your spirit in other tongues, spontaneous leadings, to pray along certain lines, bringing scriptures to you to pray over a situation and a myriad of other ways.

Declaring

I remember when my dad was in need of another building for their church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. At that time, he was having two services in a small building and had considered starting a third service. He asked the prayer department to begin praying about another location. As we began to pray about the next step for our church, I found myself frequently praying in tongues about the next property. Even after our prayer group would meet, I’d find myself with a strong desire to pray about it later in the day. I remember praying in tongues about the church on my way to work one day, when I heard two words intermingled in my tongues: main street.

You may ask, “How exactly did that happen?” I will do my best to describe this manifestation. The Holy Spirit began giving me utterance to speak in tongues. As I spoke, I got into a rhythm of speaking without filtering every word through my mind. I connected my lips to my spirit and allowed my mouth to speak without the permission of my mind. In other words, I wasn’t actively thinking about every syllable escaping my lips. I just attached my mouth to the flow of prayer coming through my spirit. As I did that, I noticed that there was a series of syllables that I kept repeating. It wasn’t long that I noticed that I was repeating words that sounded like “main street.” I wasn’t thinking about Main Street at all. These words were coming out of my mouth without my permission or conscious effort. As far as I knew, I was just speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit gave me utterance.

I responded to what was happening to me in prayer by saying, “Yes, Lord, I hear You. I lift up Main Street. Thank You, Lord, for Main Street.” The more I prayed over those two words, the more they grew in my heart and the more urgency I felt to pray. This is where unskilled pray-ers can get in trouble. When you can sense the Holy Spirit leading you in prayer, it’s easy to turn what the Holy Spirit is inspiring you to pray into a “prophecy” and say, “The Lord is saying…” Just because you are led to pray a certain direction doesn’t mean God wants you to turn that prayer into a prophecy. We see and know in part. God is not telling you to prophesy to anybody; He’s inspiring you to pray.

The temptation was to call my dad and have him look at all the properties on Main Street in Murfreesboro. But that’s not what a skilled prayer does. Don’t turn a cue in prayer into a concrete directive. Be led by the Spirit, not a cue you’ve received in prayer (Romans 8:26-27). I resisted the temptation to call my dad and continued to pray. Before I reached my destination, I heard these words strongly in my spirit, “The church is on the main street.” What was happening? The Holy Spirit was declaring something in my spirit for the purpose of me praying it out loud. Recognizing the leading of the Spirit, I declared this phrase out of my mouth over and over again until I sensed I was finished praying.

I don’t recall praying that way about the church ever again. A few months later I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attend Bible school. One day after classes I got a call from my dad saying they had bought an old Baptist church on one of the busiest streets in Murfreesboro. The church was located on one of the main streets that runs all the way through the city.

My point in sharing this story is not to insinuate that God gave my dad the new building because of my praying. I’m sure the Holy Spirit had other people praying about the new church building. And I’m also sure that the Holy Spirit led them in many different ways in prayer. I am simply trying to give you an example of how the Holy Spirit will declare things to you in prayer when you allow Him to take the lead.

Disclose

Other times the Holy Spirit will disclose things to your spirit. The only way I can describe this is if I compare it to a dark room. When you walk into a dark room, the details of the room (furniture, carpet, closets, etc.) are hidden from your view. But when you turn on the light, everything that was hidden from your sight is now revealed. The flow of the Spirit in prayer can be like this.

For example, let’s say you are praying for your marriage. It is God’s design that if you want to be married that you have a healthy, vibrant, and exciting marriage. But maybe over the years your marriage has become lifeless. As you begin to pray about your marriage, you cast your care on God. Casting your care on God would include you detailing everything that is on your heart concerning your marriage. You would talk about your love for your spouse (past and present). Express to God exactly what kind of fulfillment (emotional, physical, and spiritual) you would like to experience from your marriage and why. Pray out the scriptures in the Word concerning marriage and the roles of each person.

After you have poured out your heart and prayed the promises of God over your marriage, now it’s time to pray in tongues about it. This is where a lot of people disconnect in prayer. We think because we’ve shared our heart with the Lord and prayed a few scriptures that we are finished praying. It’s good to pour our heart out to God and pray the Word. But you should never end a prayer without actively looking inside to see how the Holy Spirit will instruct you to pray.

One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is by spending a few moments praying in tongues. Speaking in tongues will edify your spirit in such a way that it will awaken your spiritual senses. Paul said that God is ready to reveal what your eyes haven’t seen, ears haven’t heard, and what your heart hasn’t conceived yet. When you speak in tongues, you release your spirit to see, hear, and understand what your intellect cannot calculate and receive.

As you begin to pray in tongues, you are releasing the utterances as they are given by the Holy Spirit. These utterances you received are sounds and syllables that actually escape your lips in an unknown tongue. The Holy Spirit is now actively engaged in your prayer right down to the enunciation of your words. The more you speak in tongues, the easier it is to connect your lips to your spirit and release yourself to speak without the permission of your mind. You will step into a greater flow and expression of the Spirit when you release your inhibitions to Him in prayer.

Your mouth is speaking in tongues as your spirit is receiving utterance. But what are you doing with your mind? Obviously you are watching for utterance as it springs out of your spirit. But one thing that will help to keep your mind from wandering as you pray in tongues, is to grab a scripture and hold it in your mind as you pray. For example, Ephesians 5:25 tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. You can work that scripture in your heart as you pray in tongues. Meditating on the scriptures as you pray in tongues expands your capacity to receive revelation and utterance as you pray.

As you are praying about your marriage in other tongues, suddenly the eyes of your understanding are flooded with light and you are able to see things in your marriage from a different perspective. Remember when you walk into a dark room, the particulars of the room are hid- den from your sight. But once you turn the light on, everything comes into view. That’s one of the ways the Holy Spirit will lead you in prayer.

In this instance, He could open your eyes to see exactly what is wrong in your marriage. Maybe what’s really lacking in your marriage is an extended time of vacationing for you and your wife. So God begins to reveal to you the need for fun, rest, and relaxation. With the responsibilities of a career and parenthood, you and your spouse have grown apart. A time of vacationing will provide you an opportunity to reconnect and refocus your life and marriage on God’s plan.

What should you do with this information that you’ve received in prayer? Some people would praise God for the answer, end the prayer and move on with the rest of their day. But this is not the part where you stop praying. You started praying about the marriage, and then God revealed to you what was needed. Don’t leave prayer and try to create something based on a glimpse that God gave you. When you receive insight in prayer, lift it back up to the Lord. Begin to pray about what He told you. Something as simple as, “Lord, I thank You for that. I can see clearly now. I ask You now to forgive me for my negligence in that area. Show me how to make this shift. Cause wisdom, innovation, and witty ideas to spring up inside me concerning the next series of steps in my marriage.” Then go back to praying in tongues. The Lord may speak to you further concerning strategic ways to implement ideas into your marriage, and He may not. The important thing is that you don’t leave the prayer time until the Holy Spirit is finished leading and speaking.