In Romans 8:26 the Apostle Paul says, “the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with wordless groanings.” This intercession is different from the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of God. It is an intercession from within our hearts and is the foundation of Jesus’ intercession for us.
The passage includes verse 27. “Moreover likewise also the Spirit helps our infirmities for we have not known what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with wordless groanings. Moreover he who searches the hearts has known what the mind of the Spirit is because according to God He intercedes for saints.”
The problem that Paul addresses here is that we do not always know how to pray or cannot pray. In Psalm 77:4 Asaph says, “I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” After betraying Jesus, Peter went out and wept bitterly (Matt. 26:75). He could not pray because remorse overwhelmed him. And the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears in the house of Simon (Luke 7:36f) was too ignorant to know what it was that she needed. The Pharisees’ false teaching and bad example had buried the gospel of forgiveness under a great burden of legalistic regulation. So we too may be too afflicted or too ignorant to know how to pray. We can only groan wordlessly.
But these groanings are holy groanings filled with longing for the presence and grace of God. They are the work of the Holy Spirit in us, and he makes them his own.
Therefore, the intercession of the Spirit is from within our hearts where He dwells. He helps us in our weaknesses by presenting our holy desires, our anguished and wordless cries, to the throne of grace and making explicit what we cannot put into words. He knows our needs fully, better than we can ever know them.
Verse 27 reveals that there is another side to this wonderful comfort. God searches our hearts and knows all our groanings. He also knows the mind of the Spirit, what the Spirit has worked in our hearts, how the Spirit Himself has sanctified our groanings, and what the Spirit has made explicit from them. Nothing is hidden from him: no sin, no ignorance, but also no overwhelming trouble or holy desire.
Furthermore, the Spirit makes intercession for saints “according to God,” or according to the will of God. Therefore, God finds in the mind of the Spirit exactly those things that please Him, prayers that are acceptable in His sight.
Our God’s receiving of our prayers is a Trinitarian work. The Holy Spirit works holy longings and holy prayers in us and intercedes for us even when we cannot pray. Our Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, adds his intercession. He too knows what we need. Our Father knows the mind of the Spirit and hears the intercession of Christ. Surely, He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him (Psalm. 145:19).