If believers desire to see their prayers becoming effective in the spiritual realm and if they desire that their prayers would not be fleshly, they should confess their weakness, acknowledging that they do not know how to pray (Rom. 8:26), and ask the Holy Spirit to teach them to pray. They should then pray according to the instruction of the Holy Spirit. If God grants words for preaching, He will surely grant words for prayer. The need for the latter is the same as that for the former. We must acknowledge our own weakness and powerlessness before we can utter His prayer through the operation of the Holy Spirit in our spirit. In the work it is vain to put one's trust in the flesh. In prayer it is equally useless to put one's trust in the flesh.

However, we must not only pray with the spirit, we must "pray also with the mind" (1 Cor. 14:15). When we pray, the spirit and the mind must cooperate. A believer receives the answer to his prayer in his spirit and understands what he has received in his mind. The spirit receives the burden to pray, and the mind prays out the prayer sentence by sentence. Only after this kind of cooperative work by the spirit and the mind can a believer's prayer be perfected. Many times prayers are only the exercise of the mind; they do not have the inspiration of the spirit. When this happens, the believers themselves become the origin of their prayer. Real prayer should originate from God's throne and should be felt in the believers' spirit, known in their mind, and prayed through the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer and the human spirit cannot be separated from one another.

If a believer wants to pray in spirit, he must first learn to walk in spirit. A man can never walk during the day according to the flesh and pray in the spirit when it is time to pray. The way he prays cannot be very different from the way he lives. The spiritual condition of many people shows that they are not qualified to pray. The quality of a person's prayer is determined by the way he lives. How can a fleshly person pray a spiritual prayer? Even a spiritual person may not necessarily pray a spiritual prayer because if he is not watchful, he will fall into the flesh. However, if a spiritual person continually prays in spirit, his prayer will maintain his spirit and mind in a state of harmony with God. Prayer is an exercise of our spirit, and our spirit is strengthened through exercise. If we become negligent in prayer, our spirit will shrivel. Nothing can substitute for prayer. Even work cannot substitute for prayer. Many of us do not spend much time to pray because we are too busy with our work. Consequently, the demons are not cast out. Prayer allows us to first overcome the enemy within, before we deal with him outside of us. Whoever fights the enemy on their knees will find the enemy defeated when they rise up to meet him face to face. Through this kind of exercise, a spiritual man gradually becomes strong.

If believers pray all the time in the Holy Spirit, their spirit will be greatly developed, they will have very keen feelings in spiritual matters, and all of their spiritual drowsiness will be removed.

The present need of a spiritual believer is to detect the senses in his spirit. He should know how the enemy attacks, what God has revealed, and should express through his prayer the things that he has understood one by one. Believers should quickly realize any move in their spirit so that they can accomplish in prayer what God wants them to accomplish. Prayer is a kind of work. The experience of God's children proves that prayer accomplishes greater results than any other kind of work. Prayer is also a kind of warfare because it is the one weapon in our battle against the enemy (Eph. 6:18). Nevertheless, only the prayers that are prayed in the spirit are effective.

Prayers in the spirit are the most effective means of attacking the enemy and withstanding his wiles. Prayer can destroy and also build. It can destroy everything of sin and Satan and can build up everything of God. Therefore, prayer is the most crucial thing in our spiritual work and warfare. The success of spiritual work and victory in warfare both hinge on prayer. If a believer fails in prayer, he fails in everything.