How does the Spirit intercede for us with groanings that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26)?

Then again, such is our weakness and limitation that very frequently we find ourselves in circumstances where we simply do not know what to pray for. Then the Spirit indwelling us takes up the role of Intercessor, and utters His voice even in our groanings which baffle utterance. God who searches all hearts, knows what is the mind and desire of the Spirit, for all His desires and intercessions are perfectly according to the mind of God, whatever our desires might be. God hears according to the Spirit's desires, and not according to ours, and we may well be very thankful that this is so.

A. The meaning of the passage appears to be this: we do not know what to pray for as we ought, and therefore the grace of God gives us, not only an Advocate on high for us, but the Holy Ghost within us to identify Himself in grace with our sorrowing suffering condition, so as to put us in fellowship with God as His redeemed ones in bodies withal and a creation not yet redeemed. He accordingly intercedes for us — within us of course — according to God, so as to give a divine and sympathetic character to what otherwise would have been but selfish sorrow. Thus we are entitled to know that our very groanings as Christians is not without the Spirit, though these cannot be expressed in words, and they rise up acceptable to God, and will be surely answered by the revelation of the glory by and by, for which we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and all creation also, wait. How sweet to think that the Holy Spirit, who gives and directs the joys of our hearts and makes us bid the bridegroom "come" (Rev. 22) takes equal part in our present griefs and travail of spirit! And if we do not know what to ask for, we do know that all things work together for good, as the apostle proceeds and proves so triumphantly to the end of the chapter.

When Christ was with His disciples He taught them to pray; John had similarly taught his disciples. But now all that is changed. It was expedient for the disciples that Christ should go away in order that the Holy Ghost should come; and He, being there, takes the office of forming our minds and hearts in prayer. Truly, we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but — as dwelling in us — the Spirit Himself maketh intercession. The words "for us" in Rom. 8:26, are not in the best texts, and, like many well-meant additions to Scripture, only mar its perfectness. Maketh intercession for us inserted in this verse, would rather give the idea of the blessed Spirit and the saints as two distinct parties, and that He, externally to us, makes intercession for us. That this is not the sense, is clear from the next words — "He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God" (ver. 27). Thus then, God who looks down into the heart, sees there the inwrought desires and prayers of the Spirit; and the intercession which the Spirit there makes, for and on behalf of the saints, is according to God. The structure of this scripture (Rom. 8:26-27) is remarkable. As regards ourselves, the Spirit is so identified with us, that God, in searching the hearts, finds there the mind of the Spirit; and this is what He graciously takes up, not the workings of the flesh. But as regards God — whatever may be the Spirit's condescension to us — the Spirit stands in all His own power and dignity as a Person of the Godhead, to plead for the saints. What solemnity, what divine value, clothes the prayers of saints, when the form in which they come before God is that of intercession by the Spirit Himself! On our side this may reach down to an inarticulate groan; Godward it rises to the height of the Spirit's own intercession.

The bearing of this upon prayer is most encouraging. Here we find the Holy Spirit as dwelling in us, graciously identifying Himself in tender sympathy with our weakness, with our infirmities. The church which Christ has purchased with His own blood, is so precious that the blessed Spirit must come and dwell there and look after it. Being here He is our Paraclete; that is, Manager of our affairs. He opposes the flesh in us (Gal. 5:17), helps our infirmities, condescends to our ignorance, and enters into our sorrows with groanings which cannot be uttered. We do not think enough of the sympathy of the Spirit of God with us. He is that "other Paraclete" who, the Lord said, was to replace Himself on earth. Jesus took our infirmities; and the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; Jesus groaned at Lazarus' grave, and the Spirit intercedes for the saints with groanings which cannot be uttered. How great must be the interest of the Holy Spirit in us when He can come and dwell in us, not discontinuing His stay, albeit, alas, our ways so often grieve Him (Eph. 4:30)!

We have now finally, in this part, the Spirit Himself entering into this groaning condition. The Spirit joins His help to our infirmity. In such a condition of trial and sorrow, our weakness is made fully evident, but that only opens to us more the heart of God and produces in us a healthful dependence upon Him every step of the way. Notice, therefore, that in connection with the Spirit helping our infirmities, prayer is that upon which the apostle dwells. Prayer is the expression of dependence. It is the expression of the creature-place which we have with God. It is the expression, also, if it be that which can rightly be called prayer, of our confidence in God. Prayer is thus, as one may say, a large part of the Christian life, or rather, it is that which links itself with every part of it. If the Lord, in the sermon on the mount, would give us a special example of righteousness Godward, He illustrates this by prayer; but the very prayer itself manifests our infirmity. We do not know even what to pray for as we ought. How blessed to know that here we have a divine Intercessor; as we have Christ before God for us, so we have the Spirit of God in us, and He makes intercession for us according to God. The prayer that He makes is, of course, absolutely according to God; yet as wrought in our hearts it may be on that very account simply a groaning which cannot be uttered intelligibly, — a wonderful thing to realize that these groanings which are the evidence of our own infirmity may, nevertheless, be the fruit of the Spirit within us; that in the ear of God they may speak intelligently, and in absolute accordance with His mind concerning us. We do not know what to pray for, and yet we pray; and God who searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, little as we may know it and blunder as we may. "He maketh intercession for the saints according to God." That does not mean simply that it is God's will that He should make the intercession, as our common version might lead some to suppose, but that the intercession itself, as being; His, is of necessity in complete accordance with His thought and character. We are not, however, to suppose by all this, that the Spirit's prayer is simply groaning. The groaning accompanies the prayer and is part of the prayer. "With groanings that cannot be uttered." Nevertheless, these groanings express, as it were, after all, that which is higher in character, it may be, than the very prayers themselves, however intelligent. Our intelligence fails to accompany them. They go beyond it. But if they go beyond it, all the more they express the power of the Spirit in them — of Him who has come to join His help to our infirmities, and to carry us along the lighted road which leads to God.

In the meantime the groaning has to be continued, and even we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves waiting the redemption of the body. And just because we have the Spirit of God we feel the depth of the misery around us more acutely than others, and the pressure is sometimes so great we are able to descry no way out of the troubles that beset us, and though we know our resource is in God we know not what to ask Him for when we go to Him. Here the Spirit comes in, and joins His help to our weaknesses, making intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. He identifies Himself with us in all our sorrows, and gives intelligent utterance to them in the ear of God. And we are told that He who searches the heart knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession according to the will of God. He intercedes on that line, not with the object in view of making easy the circumstances of our lives down here, but according to the object the blessed God has in view in all the circumstances through which we are passed, for all our pathway is marked out for us by the finger of God, and is destined to prosper the work of God in our souls.

A mother bends her knees in earnest supplication for an only son. He is exposed to many dangers in the great city where he toils, and the greater her knowledge of this the more she prays, until prayers merge into groans, and the groans are the evidence of the depth of her love. So the Spirit intercedes for us. It does not say here that we groan; what is said of us is that we do not know what to pray for as we ought. It is the Spirit that intercedes with groanings, and these groanings are unutterable. So completely has the Spirit identified itself with our need that the full weight of it is carried in these groanings before God, and God hears the unutterable groanings of the Spirit, and He understands them, and answers them so blessedly, that all things work together for the good of them that love God, and we may know it. That is the answer to the unutterable groanings of the Spirit. The very things that might appear to be against us are the very things that will help us in our journey to the full manifestation of the purpose of God.

Moreover, moved by the Spirit of God our needs are presented with an earnestness that no human words can express. A groan always presumes a depth of feeling beyond the power of words to utter. For this reason only God can interpret a groan. Therefore it is said, "He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit", even though the mind of the Spirit is expressed in us by a groan.

88 In speaking of the Spirit of God, He is spoken of up to verse 11 as being life, and after that as distinct from one's life in Christ, as a present Person, as dwelling in us and witnessing with our spirit. See how strikingly these two points of view are brought together in verse 27. It attributes the thoughts and feelings which God searches out to my heart, because it is in my heart that the Spirit works, but it goes on to the source: in my heart it finds the mind of the Spirit according to the doctrine of verses 5-7, which is wrought by the Holy Ghost; and lastly, it is the Holy Ghost Himself who makes intercession in the saints. It is me, because it is wrought in my new nature; but as to the power that wrought it, it is not me. The Holy Ghost does it in and by me. It is me as to the act, but it is He as to the source. We have the new nature given to us, and the Spirit is the source, nor is the stream separated from it; this is the teaching up to verse 11; but the Holy Ghost dwells in us. Well, a groan comes out, and I may not understand what to ask for, but through the Holy Ghost my groan is according to the mind of the Spirit, by the Spirit of God which is in me; but this brings in the last truth referred to, His intercession. It is the Spirit Himself in me; He makes intercession according to God, and "God that searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit." It is attributed to my heart, but to Him also that produced it. It is me, and at the same time it is the Holy Ghost. I have anticipated in my reference to this verse, because it made plain the doctrine of the indwelling of the Spirit of God. It is a sweet thing to know that the Searcher of hearts finds the Spirit's mind and intercession in us, in place of sin and the flesh.

The Spirit is our Intercessor. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” We may have only the true desire, being ignorant of the right way, and then it is that He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, and hears His groanings which cannot be uttered. It is a far deeper thing to have the right desire than to have the right words. Speaking practically, it is the smaller thing to have intelligence respecting the Father's will; the great thing is to have true desires to do that will. There are children of God living in known transgression of their Father's will, whose consciences are becoming seared as with a hot iron, and whose souls are losing their sensitiveness while on the other hand there are the children of the Father with but small intelligence, whose consciences are tender, and whose souls are true. It is the latter who enjoy the manifestation of the love by the Spirit. The solemn question to be answered, in the presence of the great Searcher of hearts, concerns our practical state, and where this is as God would have it be, then follows the availing intercession of the indwelling Spirit. “He makes intercession for the saints according to God,” in entire uniformity with the character and will of God. How much uttered prayer is after all no prayer at all! How vain is eloquence, in the view of these groanings which cannot be expressed! And how frequently we pray out the wishes of our own wills, so that numbers of our requests are, after all, not according to God, and therefore, not made in the Spirit, nor helped by His intercession.

Thus He who searches the hearts, and scrutinises what is found there, finds, not our poor selfish feelings or complaints, but the mind of the Spirit - what the Holy Ghost has produced in them; for the Holy Ghost Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He makes intercession for the saints according to God. Wonderful privilege in our sorrows and sufferings, that, when God searches the heart, He finds the mind formed by the Spirit there, the Spirit itself, as in us, making intercession for us according to God! It is a privilege to be in suffering thus, God by His Spirit taking part in it. As Christ personally felt all the sorrow perfectly through which He passed, so we through grace by the Spirit take our part in it (not according to selfishness, but) according to God, with the increased sense of our infirmity and weakness of our dependence and connection with a fallen creation from which we cannot escape down here, and feeling it so much the more as we see the glory, but given by the power of the Spirit to take part in it according to God - to be its voice, so to speak, in grace felt by ourselves, though having part in it. It is the mind of the Spirit in it which God finds in us when He searches the hearts, and the Holy Ghost Himself is there making intercession for the saints according to God. It is wonderful grace: the heart of man is searched; the mind of the Spirit is there, because the Holy Ghost Himself is there interceding, but, though Himself, in groans which are in our hearts. But (for such is the force of it), though we do not know "what to pray for as we ought," we do "know that all things work together for good to them that love God." God works of and from Himself in our favour - and makes everything work together for our good. We know not what to look for. Perhaps in the present state of things there is no remedy, no direct setting aside or remedy for what makes us groan; but this is certain - God makes all things work together for good to those who love Him. The sorrow may not be remedied, but the sorrow is blessed. We are called according to God's purpose, and God orders everything for our good.