WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING.
THIRD. And now to the next thing, what it is to pray with the Spirit and with understanding. For the apostle puts a clear distinction between praying with the Spirit, and praying with the Spirit and understanding: therefore when he saith, "he will pray with the Spirit," he adds, "and I will pray with the understanding ALSO." This distinction was occasioned through the Corinthians not observing that it was their duty to do what they did to the edification of themselves and others, too, whereas they did it for their own commendation. So I judge: for many of them having extraordinary gifts, as to speak with divers tongues, &c., therefore they were more for those mighty gifts than they were for the edifying of their brethren; which was the cause that Paul wrote this chapter to them, to let them understand, that though extraordinary gifts were excellent, yet to do what they did to the edification of the church was more remarkable. For, saith the apostle, "if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding," and also the understanding of others, "is unfruitful" (I Cor 14:3, 4, 12, 19, 24, 25. Read the scope of the whole chapter). Therefore, "I will pray with the Spirit and with the understanding also."
It is expedient then that the understanding should be occupied in prayer, as well as the heart and mouth: "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." That which is done with understanding, is done more effectually, sensibly, and heartily, as I shall show farther anon, than that which is done without it; which made the apostle pray for the Colossians, that God would fill them "with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Col 1:9). And for the Ephesians, that God would give unto them "the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him" (Eph 1:17). And so for the Philippians, that God would make them abound "in knowledge, and in all judgment" (Phil 1:9). A suitable understanding is good in everything a man undertakes, either civil or spiritual; and therefore it must be desired by all them that would be a praying people. In speaking to this, I shall show you what it is to pray with understanding.
Understanding is to be taken both for speaking in our mother tongue and experimentally. I pass the first and treat only the second.
For the right prayers to be made, there should be a good or spiritual understanding in all who pray to God.
First, to pray with understanding is to pray as instructed by the Spirit in the knowledge of the want of those things the soul is to pray for. Though a man be in never so much need of pardon of sin, and deliverance from wrath to come, yet if he understand not this, he will either not desire them at all, or else be so cold and lukewarm in his desires after them, that God will even loathe his frame of spirit in asking for them. Thus it was with the church of the Laodiceans; they wanted knowledge or spiritual understanding; they knew not that they were poor, wretched, blind, and naked. The cause whereof made them, and all their services, so loathsome to Christ, that he threatens to spew them out of his mouth (Rev 3:16, 17). Men without understanding may say the exact words in prayer as others do, but if there is an understanding in one and none in the other, there is a mighty difference in speaking the exact words! The one speaking from a spiritual knowledge of those things that he desires, and the other words it only, and there is all.
Second. Spiritual understanding espieth in the heart of God a readiness and willingness to give those things to the soul that it needs. David by this could guess at the very thoughts of God towards him (Psa 40:5). And thus it was with the woman of Canaan; she did by faith and a right understanding discern, beyond all the rough carriage of Christ, tenderness and willingness in his heart to save, which caused her to be vehement and earnest, yea, restless, until she did enjoy the mercy she needed (Matt 15:22-28).
And understanding of the willingness that is in the heart of God to save sinners, there is nothing that will press the soul more to seek after God, and to cry for pardon, than it. If a man should see a pearl worth a hundred pounds lying in a ditch, yet if he understood not the value of it, he would lightly pass it by; but if he once gets the knowledge of it, he would venture up to the neck for it. So it is with souls concerning the things of God: if a man once understands their worth, then his heart, nay, the very strength of his soul, runs after them, and he will never leave crying till he has them. The two blind men in the gospel certainly knew that Jesus, who was going by them, was both able and willing to heal such infirmities as they were afflicted with; therefore, they cried, and the more they were rebuked, the more they cried (Matt 20:29-31).
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