“Likewise, the Spirit helps our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).

In many trials and overwhelming situations words fail us in our prayers and petitions to the Almighty. Sometimes we are confounded with feelings of helplessness, and we are unable to cope with the pain of loss. In such times of stress and pressure we must rely entirely upon the only source God has given us for expressions which are made not with words, but with the groanings of the Holy Spirit.

Groanings (Gr. Stenagmos from Stenazo): To be in straits, to sigh, inaudible prayer

The groanings of the Spirit, however, do not only have to do with our feelings and our stresses and pressures; rather, they are the groanings from the heart of the Father for His people as He Who knows all things sees the coming disasters and groans through His intercessors with groans that cannot be spoken in words.

There are also the groanings of the entire Creation as expressed by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans: “For we know that the whole Creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but we ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the Redemption of our body” (Romans 8:22-23).

Therefore, on these three levels: The Creation; We Ourselves in our mortal bodies; and God, the Father, by the Holy Spirit groan in intercessions with groanings that cannot be uttered.

Why does the Creation groan? The Creation groans because it “was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him Who subjected the same in hope. Because the Creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). When sin entered the world through the fall of Man, the entire Creation was brought under the bondage of corruption. Likewise, when the Redemption of Man was accomplished through the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creation was also given hope of deliverance from the judgment of sin into the Liberty of the Redeemed, into an “expectation that is waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God” (Romans 8:19).

The groanings of the Holy Spirit have been evident throughout the history of man; and most evident through the Prophets, Jeremiah in particular declared “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” (Jeremiah 4:19). The Prophets, the Seers, were moved by the Holy Spirit to make intercessions for the People to save them from the calamities that were about to come upon them be they war, famine, pestilence, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

The Apostle Paul was in deep groanings in the Spirit for the Church of Galatia and expressed himself by writing, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). Travailing prayer is a very intense experience of intercessions with cries and groans in the Spirit for people, events and moves of God in the world. Many great revivals have come as a result of travailing prayer with groanings that cannot be uttered.

We are living in such an hour in our world today. This is a time for Prayer. This is a time for Travailing Prayer. This is a time for Intercessions by the Spirit of God through the Saints with groanings that cannot be uttered.

Seek the Lord with all your heart, cry unto Him for His salvation to be revealed in the earth. Give yourself to the Holy Spirit to be a vessel of interceding prayer and let His Spirit have His way. Let us wait upon Him. Let us experience the Heart of the Father by the Holy Spirit and see what marvelous things He will do through us when we pray, whether with words, or groanings that cannot be uttered.

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