Groanings

"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. 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." (Rom 8:26-27)

I heard a story once about a woman who had decided to learn Hebrew. Her reason for this, so she said, was to be able to speak to God in His own language. It's rather silly, of course, but is fairly typical of how some people think of speaking to God.

We need to always remember that God is Spirit and is worshipped in spirit. When God communicates to us it is by a spiritual language. However, we think in language. Just try to think without words sometime and see how difficult it is. Even more difficult is to try and communicate without words. So, in our mind we translate, so to speak, the spiritual knowledge into words that we know. For example, if God gives the word "UTTER DESTRUCTION" to someone, that person will probably imagine something familiar to them. For one person it might be understood as world-wide plague, while to another some natural disaster. Prophecy often works that way. The prophet has to translate the spiritual message into some image that can be communicated. So, it gets pretty confusing some times.

This is one reason two people can be expressing the same spiritual thing in very different words. It's important to remember that the important thing is the spiritual knowledge not so much the words or images that are used. That can be difficult, especially when the person is using words we are not familiar with, or, using familiar words in a way we are not used to.

We have the same situation in our prayers. We will speak to God using the language that we know. But, sometimes it is very difficult to find just the right words to express what we feel. There are of course many prayer books available so that you can just read a prayer someone else wrote. That seems to be helpful to some people. Others (myself included) tend to just make it up as they go, as if they are having a conversation with God. Whatever the case, we have to remember that it is not the particular words we use that get God's attention.

That's the meaning I get from these verses Paul wrote in Romans. We may be in such a beaten down condition that we can't even think straight and it seems like we just can't find words to pray. The promise we have is that God looks at the intention in our mind. That's what the phrase "knoweth the mind" is referring too. The word translated mind means "intention" or "purpose" and that is what the Spirit is hearing when we pray, and then makes intercession for us.

I know there are times when I just can't seem to find the words to express what I need to say to the Father, or to find the words for the things that I should ask. But, I remember these verses and know that if I just get my heart and intent going in the right direction, no matter how clumsy the words are, the Holy Spirit will jump in and help. If all one can do is just cry out with a groan, that can be enough.

Let me help you with your confusion. If you are a little bit confused, I can help. When you get totally confused, then you won't need my help.

The Bible is confusing. (What's up with all those prophets telling about destruction and judgement anyway? And what's that got to do with me?)

The righteous must keep all of God's law. No one is righteous, no not one, but the righteous shall live by faith.

Not even the least part of the law will be taken away but we are not under law.

The law is good and we are saved by grace not by works of the law.

I do nothing good and by their fruits you shall know them.

A rich man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven and those in the Kingdom of Heaven have a hundredfold riches.

Some foods are clean and some are unclean but the Kingdom of Heaven is not food and drink and all of God's creation is good and may be received with thanksgiving. What goes in the mouth does not defile a man.

Jesus was flesh and blood and said "I and my Father are one" and said the Father is greater than the Son.

No one has seen the Father but those who see Jesus have seen the Father.

God is in heaven but will make His abode with you.

Judge not but be sure to discern what is good and what is evil.

If you gain your life you lose it. If you lose your life you gain it.

Totally confused yet? Let me help some more.

Do you know what confusion is? When you take two dissimilar things and treat them as the same then that is confusion. The word is a combination of "con-" meaning with and "fusion" which means --- well, it's from metallurgy. If you take two metals, melt them until they become liquid and then pour them together the metals get fused into an alloy. That's what confusion literally means. To merge two dissimilar things together into one. Like this:

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. (Mark 10:7-8)

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:16-17)

So, are you confused yet? In the same way that a marriage between man and woman makes the two one flesh, so a marriage between Jesus and us makes us one spirit. When we talk about a marriage the most important thing is "fidelity." That's what makes the marriage, isn't it? Each bonds to the other and to no one else. Do you know what fidelity means? The root word is "fide" which is the same root of the word "faith". Fide becomes faith in English. Faithful in your confusion is what makes the unity last. So, the just shall live by "fidelity" - remaining in faith with Jesus so that we have that constant union of spirit.

You need to get your spirit merged with the spirit of Christ so that you are one with him. That's confusion in the same way Jesus was confused with God. Like this:

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:21-23)

Unless we are confused with Christ, we cannot be saved. Or, to put it another way, when you and Christ are one then God sees the "confusion" of who He is looking at. He doesn't see you in your filthy sins but sees Jesus in you instead. This should make sense now:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:8-11)

All of the apparent confusion that people worry about can be resolved when we get faithfully confused with Christ.

Now, does that help you with your confusion?