The Holy Spirit Helps Us Pray
...Have you never had this experience, that when you knelt to pray it seemed as if there were no one there, as if you were just talking into the air, or into empty space? What shall we do at such a time as that? Shall we stop praying and wait until some time when we feel like praying? No, when we least feel like praying, and when God is least real to us, that is the time we most need to pray. What shall we do then? Simply be quiet and look up to God and ask God to fulfill His promise and to send His Holy Spirit to lead us into His presence and to make Him real to us, and then wait and expect. And He will come, and He will take us into God’s presence, and He will make God real to us. I can testify today that some of the most wonderful seasons of prayer I have ever had, have been times when as I first knelt to pray I had no real sense of God. There seemed to be no one there, it seemed as if I were talking into empty space; and then I have just looked up to God and asked Him and trusted Him to send His Holy Spirit to teach me to pray, to lead me into His presence, and to make Him real to me, and the Spirit has come, and He has made God so real to me that it almost seemed that if I opened my eyes I could see Him, in fact I did see Him with the eyes of my soul.
http://www.heraldofhiscoming.com/Past%20Issues/2013/August/the_power_of_prayer.htm