One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to bring us His own prayer burden. But in order to receive that Holy Spirit burden—so that we can pray for the world with the burden of the Spirit—our heart must be prepared.

According to Wesley Duewel, “We must feel before we can heal. We must see before we can prevail.” Thus if we expect the Holy Spirit to send us His prayer burden we must prepare our heart to see and feel the needs of others. Here are six ways that we can prepare ourselves to bear burdens in prayer:

1. Regularly go to quiet places to pray. God knows the hearts and feelings of all people more than anyone does. He has more compassion for people than they have for themselves. Therefore, in order to know the hearts of others and to take on the compassion of Christ for…