Acts 4:31 – And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
Every fresh move of God has its practices, terminology, and its own personality. The Welch Revival was known for spontaneous singing of psalms and hymns that would go on for hours, the Moravians were known for their emphasis on the wounds of Jesus, and of course there was the outpouring in the nineties that was permeated with “holy laughter”. The Pentecostals from the early 20th Century had their own unique flavor. They would sing in tongues as a group in supernatural harmony, and fall out in trances. One of their favorite phrases was the term “praying through”. Now, that doesn’t mean praying until you are finished or through, but actually praying until the Holy Spirit falls. He Himself prays through us in specific and empowered requests. He actually will take over private or corporate prayer when His presence falls. This is what the Pentecostals meant by praying through. Here are some comments from Arthur Wallis on the Holy Spirit and prayer.
“The Holy Spirit thus provides the answer to our weakness in this matter of getting through to God, for He makes our praying a conscious experience of fellowship with God. What a wonderful thing is “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” Let us draw near to God and pray with the full assurance of faith that the Holy Spirit will indeed help us in our weakness. “The Lord God is a sun” (Ps. 84:11), and when we commune with Him in the Spirit we shall be conscious of a spiritual warmth pervading our beings, and when we go our way, like Moses descending the mount, we shall be unconsciously reflecting something of the glory.”
So praying through is the best solution if you are having a problem praying. Prayer can be like a labor or it can become a joy. Human energy doesn’t get very far in prayer; supernatural energy is limitless. My first experience with this kind of prayer was praying for my mom while riding in the back of a pickup driving back to our tree-planter’s camp near Coos Bay, Oregon. The Holy Spirit came upon me with weeping and love as I prayed for my mom. Shortly after this, she had a stroke that almost took her life. I believe the Holy Spirit injected Himself in this situation; only eternity will tell the whole story.