In Ephesians 6:18, Paul writes “With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit, and stay alert in this, with all perseverance and intercession for all of the saints.” (HCSB)

I have often pondered this notion of “praying in the Spirit.” What exactly is Paul talking about here? And what exactly is he refering to in Romans 8:26 when he writes “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”(NIV)

I have sought to “pray in the Spirit” and regularly ask God for a fresh infilling of His Spirit when I began my prayer time, but am often not sure if that is really what is going on during my prayer time. To be sure, there are times that during my prayers I feel myself praying about things that I had not expected to, and often feel the presence of God’s Spirit with me during prayer. There have also been a number of times where I felt somehow or another that I was “unattached” during private prayer times. But I still have not been fully sure that I was actually praying in the Spirit like Paul was referring to here in Ephesians.

Today, however, I witnessed an example of “praying in the Spirit” that is still sending “Holy Ghost Goose Bumps” across my body.

My wife and I were attending our monthly Tres Dias Secretariat meeting, and the table agendas were completed. We have begun to make it a practice at our meetings to submit prayer requests at the end of each meeting, and then pray over each individual request before closing. As we went around the room, the requests were made. Healing for a sick son, strengthening and Divine protection for our Tres Dias President and his wife, another member asked for prayers for a family member who was recently saved, and there was another request from our Spiritual Director for a car for one of his children who is moving to Colorado and just was in a wreck.

At the urging of our Presidents wife, Ellen, my wife asked for the group to offer a prayer concerning the trials that we have been experiencing with our family. The first part was concerning my atheist brother, of whom we have had to sever family ties with because of intense persecution from him and his wife directed at our family. The second part of my wife’s prayer request was for our seventeen year old daughter, with whom we have had a lot of difficulties with over the course of the last year, and is no longer living with us. She has been living with a friend of the family and my wife and I have been in prayer over her for a very long time now. Additionally, my daughters uncle, my atheist brother, has been calling her and making matters worse with his slander and hatred for Christianity.

We began the prayers, and went around the room, each one praying for the others as the Spirit led them.

When it came time for the prayers over my family, a new member of our Secretariat named Lori, who recently joined us from another Tres Dias community, began to pray over my wife and I’s family.

What happened next I’ll never forget.

Although Lori doesn’t really know us, having just joined the Secretariat two months ago, she began to pray with a knowledge and power that could have only come from the Holy Spirit.

As Lori prayed for the issues concerning our daughter as well as the attacks against our family, she began to pray in such a detail that there was no doubt in my mind that she was, in fact, being led by the Holy Spirit in her prayers. She prayed in such detail that she could have had no possible way of knowing about what to pray about unless the Spirit was putting the words in her mouth. As she continued to pray, I felt the hot tears streaming down my face and felt my wife sobbing beside me. There is simply no way to put into written form what transpired during this time of prayer.

I have sometimes watched crime shows where a detective will relate an accused criminals confession. The detective will sometimes talk about how they knew that they had their man, because the confession had details in it known only to the police and the the person confessing.

It was kind of like that during Lori’s prayer over our family. The details that she prayed about could have only been known by my wife and I and God. Lori simply could not have prayed in the detail that she did without the Spirit leading her in her prayer.

After our meeting on the drive home, my wife and I talked about our meeting and Lori’s prayer. We were of the same mind that the Spirit had to have given Lori the words to pray. We both thanked God for putting us in such a Godly group of people such as we have found in Tres Dias. God is good.