With my spirit. Romans 1:9 God knows what no one else ever will. He knows every aspect of my service, from motive to plans, plans to preparation, preparation to action, and action to completion. When we serve Him with our spirit, there is no area of deception that can impose itself between the true servant and his or her God. The human spirit is motivated by a conscious desire to maintain our relationship with God in good standing. When we were spiritually dead, nothing of lasting value motivated us to serve God or even want to. But like Paul, everything changed when the Holy Spirit generated spiritual life. There was an immediate desire on the part of the apostle Paul to act in service for God. "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
Paul served with his spirit in the Gospel of His Son because it is part of the new nature that comes alive when one is born of God. There is an inner desire to see souls saved, and the people of God we have been given family love toward are in our hearts that God might bless them. Names of people and places arise in our minds, and our spirit is stirred to get on quickly with the ministry of reconciliation God has given us. The Holy Spirit opens our hearts to pray for those laboring in places we have not been called to. Names and faces rise before us, and as we think of them and mention them to the Father in prayer, our spirit is joined with His who has placed those dear ones where they are. We can participate with them, at least to the extent of emotionally and spiritually entering into their service.
God is there with us, witnessing our interest and degree of involvement. He makes what we cannot know on our own real, as the Holy Spirit joins in the intercession with "groaning that cannot be uttered." The intercessory work of our Lord Jesus Christ takes the mere mention of a name and fills in the blanks I leave in my prayers. He knows every breathing of my spirit and every need of the object of my prayer and, in His sovereign grace, meets that need.