Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

CHAPTER 9

What to Do When You Don’t Know How to Pray Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. —R OMANS 8:26–27 I N JOURNALISM AND writing there are five words used as an outline when answering questions in a major article or a documentary. They are who, what, when, where, and how . In Romans 8, Paul did not say, “We do not know who to pray for,” because when praying for an individual we normally know that person’s name. Neither does he say, “We don’t know when to pray,” for the Bible says to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) and to be “ready in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2). The when is never the issue, as we can pray at any place and at any time. We can also pray anywhere; therefore the verse does not read, “We know not where we should