At times when I’m praying in the Spirit I feel like a butterfly looks. Have you ever observed a butterfly flying from one location to another? They flutter this way and that, up and down, “herky-jerky.” It appears they do not have the slightest idea where they are going. They almost look drunk. When I begin to pray in the Spirit, not knowing what I’m saying, sometimes with my mind wondering this way and that, I feel as though I’m trying to move in the “butterfly anointing.”

Where am I going? What am I doing? Will I land in the right place, on the right person? Is this really accomplishing anything?

But just as surely as that butterfly knows exactly where it’s going, so the Holy Spirit directs my prayers precisely! They WILL “light upon” correctly.

This truth is profoundly illustrated by a story I heard a minister from Cleveland, Tennessee relate which happened in one of his meetings. He was ministering in a small church in Canada. He did not know anyone in the church well, as it was his first time there. About 15 minutes into his message, he heard the Holy Spirit speak inwardly to him, Stop your message and begin to pray in the Spirit.

I’m sure you can imagine the awkwardness of such a thing, especially since he really didn’t know these people. The leading of the Holy Spirit was so strong, however, that he obeyed. “You’ll have to excuse me,” he said, “but the Lord has just instructed me to stop my message and pray in the Spirit.” He began to pace the platform, praying in the Spirit audibly.

Five minutes went by Nothing. Ten minutes went by Nothing. Fifteen minutes went by. Still nothing.

I don’t know about you, but I would be feeling pretty nervous by that time. I would have been looking for that button on the podium I’ve longed for a time or two that I could push to disappear through a trap door! Talk about a weakness-an inability to produce results (anaideia). He hadn’t even the slightest idea what this was all about.

Talk about not knowing how to pray as he should-what was necessary, right or proper (dei)!

Talk about needing to light upon by chance. Talk about the butterfly anointing!

Twenty minutes.

The people had simply sat and watched and listened. Suddenly a woman in the back began to scream, leaped to her feet and ran to the front of the church.

“What is happening?” The minister asked.

“My daughter is a missionary deep in Africa,” the lady began. “So deep, in fact, that it takes 3 weeks to get where she is. You have to travel by automobile, then a boat, ride an animal and walk for a total of 21 days. My husband and I just yesterday received a telegram from the people she works with informing us that she had contracted a fatal disease that runs its course in 3 days. If she was in civilization it could be treated, but it would take too long to get her there. ‘She’ll probably die within 3 days,’ they told me, ‘and all we can do is send you her body as soon as possible.”‘

“The last time my daughter was home,” the lady continued, “she taught me some of the dialect of the people with whom she works. And you just said, in that dialect, ‘You can rejoice, your daughter is healed. You can rejoice, your daughter is healed.”‘ And she was!

Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets, p.100-101. 1996, Gospel Light/Regal Books, Ventura, CA 93003. Used by Permission.