What's in 'Jesus wept'?

The Apostle Paul assures in Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

“Intercession is to intervene for the purpose of producing agreements,” explains Jordan. “When someone intercedes in something, they come between two people and intervene to try and bring them into harmony.

“I’ve got a situation and I don’t know how He can best be glorified in this situation. So the Spirit of God is going to intercede for me. How does He do that?

“Verse 27: ‘And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.’

“Where would you find the will of God? You’ve got the Book in your lap. So when the Holy Spirit is interceding . . . See, people read verse 26 and say when I pray . . .

“I heard a preacher who’s on TV all over the world say, ‘When you pray, your prayers go up to heaven.’ No. 1, you don’t pray by Pony Express and long distance. You’ve got God the Holy Spirit residing inside of you.

"Somebody says, ‘My prayers don’t get through the roof.’ Well, quit trying to pray through the roof; He’s inside! God says, ‘I’m not up there; I’m in here!’ The words you’re using for the narrative are wrong.

“People will tell you Paul is saying that as you pray, the Holy Spirit re-translates the words so they come out like they ought to come out up there. I’m thinking, ‘That’s weird, I wonder what I said to the Lord?’

“Because if the words God the Father hears aren’t the words I said, and the Holy Spirit kind of moves around in there and makes them straight, I don’t know what I said then, right?

“I thought I was praying for that Mercedes and I was really praying for a scooter and I didn’t know it. So when you get the scooter, you say, ‘Oh, I was really praying for the scooter!’ See, that’s how they get around that.

“Instead of praying with the understanding, as I Corinthians 14 says we’re to pray, you’ve got this voodoo stuff. Superstitious nonsense.

“A groaning that can’t be uttered isn’t uttered, so it can’t be something the Holy Spirit retranslates and utters.

“So what is it? I think the great illustration of that is in John 11:35, the verse every kid knows in a sword drill contest: ‘Jesus wept.’

"Christ stood at the grave of Lazarus and sorrow gripped His heart and He wept. A groaning that can’t be uttered is grief so deep that you really just can’t put it into words. Any one who’s experienced the loss of a child can tell you what a 'groaning that can’t be uttered' is.

“He’s talking about how the Spirit of God can go down to the lowest depth of your human agony and right there, He can bring that experience into line with what God’s Word says.

“Now that verse is not a verse that says, ‘Whatsoever you ask in prayer believing,’ because you don’t even know what to ask here.

“The verses back in John, Matthew, Mark and I John and so forth have to do with a special time period connected with the kingdom reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in which the new covenant is put into effect for the nation Israel and they have a knowledge level based upon that; that direct empowering of the Spirit of God.

“Isaiah 65:23-24 says, [23] They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
[24] And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

“Now, how’s that for prayer? Before they can even get the words out of their mouth to pray, 'I’ll do it.' That’s the kind of prayer environment these promises Christ gives the apostles are to function in. They will know God’s will, and before they’re able to verbalize it completely, it will be so completely in line with His will that He’ll do it.

“So when you look at prayer promises like in John 15:7 (‘If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you’), don’t take them out of the context in which they belong and try to move them into your life, or the life of someone else.

“These are kingdom promises about the way life is going to function for Israel under the new covenant and especially in the kingdom. The new covenant is inaugurated with the nation Israel on the day of Pentecost, but it isn’t brought into FULL operation until the day of atonement when Christ comes back and sets up His kingdom.

Here’s a related piece:

We pray with limited knowledge and limited resources. The Holy Spirit prays for the things we’re unable to express and that helping ministry of the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us.

“That ought to tell you how deeply interested, and how personally, intimately involved in your life God Himself is, to the point that He even makes intercessions for you when you don’t even know what to pray for, with groanings that you couldn’t express.

“You pray in line with what you know the Holy Spirit is doing and He begins to adjust your prayer life to bring about in you synchronization between what you’re praying and what He wants you to pray and that’s an active ministry that the Spirit of God performs in your life.

“Now He doesn’t come back to your head and go, ‘Psst, psst, psst! Pray this instead of that!’ He does it through that capacity that you build up with sound doctrine in your soul.

 “As you exercise that sonship privilege of discernment, living consistent with your position, then you begin to take these details in life and know how to handle them and you know what that winds up being? That’s praying in the Spirit. That’s how prayer operates today.

“In Ephesians 3:14, Paul prays, ‘For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
[15] Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
[16] That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.’

“You get the idea there there’s some thinking you need to be able to do here? You need to get your mind around some things here?

“Down in your inner man, the Spirit of God’s going to work, and when He works there, Christ is going to dwell; He’s going to settle down and feel at home in your life because you comprehend some things about His love and His grace.

“The way the Spirit of God’s going to WORK and bring this stuff to reality in your life is through His Word in your inner man.

“Don’t look for circumstances and situations out there for confirmation of God’s approval and that you have His access. Don’t look for a raise in your paycheck as an affirmation of God’s love. Where you find this is in your inner man.

“That’s why most of what religion does is so useless because it’s all focused on your OUTER man and God says, ‘I want to work on your inner man.’

"Roman 8:14, ‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.’

“You have the conscious awareness produced by believing His Word. I don’t need any more discussion. I don’t need confirmation. I don’t need a priest, or a preacher, or a pundit to put a stamp of approval on me. In fact, when they do it kind of takes away from my ability to say it’s Him and Him alone.

“When you believe it, it begins to produce some confidence in your inner man because God’s Word works effectually in you that believe, and one of the things it does is give you the full assurance of faith. He bears testimony through His Word.

“You see how he says in verse 15, ‘Whereby we CRY Abba Father?’ To me that’s one of the most important words in that verse and there are a lot of important words in that verse; that one gets overlooked.

“He doesn’t say, ‘Whereby we make the statement Abba Father.’ He doesn’t say, ‘Whereby we logically deduce that it’s the Father.’ He doesn’t say, ‘This is a doctrinal affirmation that we make and proclaim.’ He says, ‘Whereby we cry out of a heart that understands I’ve reached the Father’s heart.’

“When you cry, you’ve reached down into the depths of the reality of who you are and all the other stuff is taken away.

“A cry is something that reaches down into the depths of your soul with the reality of the moment and that personal affection.

*****

“If you’re complete and totally satisfied with who you are, then who is there to live for? Others. That’s what eternal life is all about.

“When you cherish the Lord Jesus Christ, and you think about Him, and you glory in Him the way the Father does, you thrill the Father’s heart. You are delighting in what the Father delights in. You’re thinking like the Father thinks.”