Ephesians 6:18

6:18

And – Paul dealt with the 3 constants of our preparedness. And he explained the 3 items to have immediately at hand for use in the moment of attack. Now he adds only one action. There is only 1 thing for me to do in the hour of attack. And until the attack passes, I have no business doing anything else. For that time, there is nothing more important, nothing that cannot wait.

pray – I used to say that prayer is talking with God. And I suppose if a young believer asked me how to pray, I would still give that simple response as a starting point. But lately God has been teaching me so much more. I’m embarrassed to say it has taken so long for me to learn this (I just passed my 46th spiritual birthday). But then, some people never get beyond the “talking to God” stage. What I’m going to say next is very preliminary and rudimentary. But it’s an attempt to look at some of the stages of growth in a believer’s prayer life.

Perhaps the beginning is very childlike: “Daddy, can I have ____?” It is self-centered in many respects. I knew I had grown when I moved beyond my wants to ponder God’s wants. Then a little more growth came when I realized that I could express my views and actually influence God’s plans (His immediate plans; not His ultimate plans). In a respectful and submitting spirit, I can argue that a certain course of action would bring glory to His name. This is what Moses did in the wilderness all those times when he interceded for the Hebrews. This is what Abraham did when God was preparing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. I can hear my friend L.A. insisting that we must submit to God’s will not ours. And I totally agree. But I enjoy telling God that I think such-and-such course of action would bring Him great glory (which I know is a key driving force for Him). But then I immediately follow that up with confessing that He sees all these things better than I and He sees the end from the beginning. So I submit to His decision (read: “Not my will, but Thine be done). Still, I tell Him, if it’s all the same to Him (yes, I actually use that phrase), if it’s all the same to Him, I would recommend such-and-such course of action.

I take no pride in saying that my prayer life has grown to that point in 46 years. First, the growth came because I kept looking for solutions to my struggles. But second, I should have learned these basics very early in my walk with Christ. This perspective is for an early believer, not brand new, but still young. Of late, God has started opening my eyes to a completely other realm of prayer.

What if mature prayer took me into the realm of spiritual warfare? What if in my prayer time I could influence the spiritual war that rages in the heavenly realms? It is an incredible thought. And I’m just starting to explore its implications. But one thing I see right off is this: It lifts prayer to a whole other realm from what most of us imagine. For most of my life prayer was that “option” that always left me feeling guilty. Guilt came because everyone told me I should pray. But no one ever taught me how or why. If prayer takes me into the inner chambers where the spiritual war is waged, then this becomes the most important thing I can do. If a weak follower of Christ like I am can influence the war between God and the rebellious hosts, I had better get to it.

This possibility also explains why the enemy helps me see so many other things that just have to be done before I pray. They are distractions. And it explains (possibly) why the enemy is not greatly bothered if my prayer shrinks to talking to God while I commute to work. Of course, he would prefer that I not think of God at all. But getting me to talk with God while I face all the distractions of my commute serves as a workable compromise from the enemy’s perspective. But when I set aside all distractions, get on my knees (it helps me focus), and enter the war room, then spirit rulers pay heed. So, I think I had better follow that suggestion right now: I will put down my pen and pray.

in the Spirit – guided by the Counselor, upheld by the Comforter, made to soar by the Wind. This is so much more than speaking in tongues or praying in a heavenly language. (At least I think so, since I have never experienced those.) My occasional experiences of praying in the Spirit have involved an intense awareness that Another had taken charge of the conversation. You know how this happens in human-to-human interactions. I might begin a conversation with someone. But sometimes the other person is more dynamic than I, or feels more passionate about the topic at hand. Suddenly, my friend has taken charge of the conversation. While I have opportunity for input, the flow of the topic will go in the direction my friend has chosen for it to go.

In a similar way, but much more loving and intimate, the Holy Spirit occasionally takes charge of my prayer time. I consistently invite Him to direct my thoughts and my spirit to pray about the things He cares about. And I ask Him to help me pray for the outcomes He wants, which generally boils down to what will bring the most glory to Christ and thereby to God the Father. But sometimes—more frequently of late—He seems to take charge more emphatically. I don’t want to suggest “forcefully,” because that is not my experience with the Holy Spirit. Still, gently yet urgently, He presses me to pray about this or that situation and to pray for this or that outcome. I don’t have a good sense yet of what this is about, because He has only started doing this with me in recent weeks (maybe 2 or 3). So I don’t know if there is more to come in His school of prayer. But to the degree I know God, I suspect there is much more to come.

on all occasions – My first thoughts from this phrase go to all the clichés I have heard connected to it over the years. And if I ever preached from this passage, I’m sure I used some of these also. But now I picture 2 polar opposite scenes: (1) the lowest point in my life. I came home to an empty house—no longer a home. I threw myself prone on the shag carpet. I stretched my arms forward. I clenched my hands as if I were grasping the feet of Jesus. I did not see Him. But suddenly I was aware that He stood at my head. In my spirit I sobbed, “What do I do now?” And His Spirit replied very clearly with a verse of Scripture. The verse applied to my situation, but I never would have expected that statement coming in that setting in response to that question.

(2) Some years later, Nancy and I were praying. I had just read about a Muslim Sheik in Egypt who had declared his faith in Christ. He was soon arrested and sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. At his age this almost certainly meant he would die there. When it came my turn to pray, I lifted this sheik by name. Quickly, my prayer shifted from my concern for this brother in Christ. In short order, it became God’s concern for His newly adopted son. As words began to fail me, I sensed the Holy Spirit assuring me that He was—at that very moment—in the prison cell with that sheik. What an incredible sense of wonder came over me. A few months later, I learned that the sheik had been released from prison—no warning, no explanation. “Here is your cab fare. Go home.”

From the depths to the pinnacles, the Holy Spirit of Christ breathes through our prayers when we allow Him. I don’t want to suggest that this happens constantly with me. It does not. The fact that I remember these events so vividly testifies that they are the exception for me. But I can attest that the sense of the Spirit’s empowering and inspiring my prayers—that is increasing in frequency.

with – accompanied by, or by means of

all kinds of prayers – Two nights ago a friend asked some of us to pray for her daughter for a certain difficulty. Yesterday, her daughter’s situation came to mind about 6 different times while I was busy with other activities. So I spoke to God about her while I was doing those other things. I think that is more than the cliché “arrow prayer.” But it is one kind of prayer. Other kinds of prayers: alone, family prayer, couple prayer, home Bible study group prayer, all church prayer time, community prayer services. Those are contexts for prayer, and the contexts influence how I pray in each respective setting.

Other means of identifying different kinds of prayer: (1) Casual on-the-go prayer that responds to a reminder from the Holy Spirit; (2) Regular, scheduled, daily prayer that is intentional and focused as I stop other activities. This would include praise, worship, confession, requests and thanksgiving. (3) Paul referred elsewhere to carrying the burdens of the churches. This is another kind of prayer that I find myself doing for a handful of people and their ministries. I just have them in/on my heart throughout the day and night. Maybe I could call this “carrying prayer.” (4) Intercession takes on myself the struggles of the other. This is far more difficult, and therefore rarer, than we are usually led to think. (5) Fasting and prayer: again difficult and rare, at least in the Western church. (6) Season of prayer, when a person gets away from distractions for a few days or a week and spends/invests that time in focused prayer, often intercession and perhaps with fasting. I’m sure there are other kinds of prayer. But I remain such a novice in this discipline that I don’t know what they might be.

and requests – What kinds of requests? Clearly the list could be exhausting. But these things come to mind from mundane to celestial, but none are trivial: Physical provision (food, clothing, etc.), health, another person’s needs, salvation for someone else, life issues (e.g. marriage, career, etc.), political issues, government leaders, nations, suffering populations, the persecuted church, demonic sway over the nations.

With this in mind – I see the word “this” reflecting back to the entire word picture painted starting at v 10. Taking into account (1) the spiritual war in which I am engaged; (2) The importance of living in truth, righteousness and peace; (3) The preparedness involved in my at-hand equipment of faith, assurance of salvation and knowing the Word of God; (4) God’s command to pray. With this picture in mind of a spiritual warrior, dressed and armed for battle, Paul has a twin command:

be alert – on guard, watchful, with physical and spiritual eyes, listening with physical and spiritual ears to clues from either God’s enemy or from God’s Holy Spirit. Mindful, careful, giving special attention to areas of vulnerability. Initially, I think of my personal issues of vulnerability. But to the degree that I mature and serve within the body of Christ, I must also guard the group’s area(s) of weakness(es). That is a completely new and other direction of thought that I cannot explore right now.

and – second part of twin command. I don’t know if it is accurate to call these twin commands. Really, he is telling me to pray, pray, pray. And in order to pray, I must stay alert to the flow of the spiritual battle around me.

always keep on praying [NLT: be persistent in your prayers] – I think I’ve said about all I have to say on the topic of prayer, for now. However, I notice this repetition, again, as a means of emphasis: All in the same verse, pray, prayers, requests, and praying. When I first saw NLT’s “persistent,” I felt uncomfortable. Granted, Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow. But that doesn’t seem to fit here. That story carries the lesson to persist with God, to keep after God, until He answers my prayer. But the sense I get here is different. Now thinking about persistence a little more I see this: persist in my fight against evil, stick to it; not an occasional flurry of prayer, but ongoing, non-stop. God’s enemies will not stop; neither should we; neither should I. I have read about great men of God who prayed for hours every day. I am still far from that, and I’ll probably never get to that point. But God is helping me grow in that area. Currently, my time of focused, on-my-knees prayer lasts about 20 minutes, moving toward 30. I know that is not very long. But it is focused and intense. And it is infinitely more than I prayed just a few months ago. In addition, it seems that my days have increasingly become an ongoing conversation with the Boss.

for – on behalf of

all the saints – I need to break this down more:

all – not just the believers in my local fellowship, or those in my denomination, or fellow evangelicals, or fellow Protestants. I need to include in my prayers all those who claim to follow Christ. How can I pray for the entire world wide church? I get hung up with the Western church and how far we have drifted. And I end up shedding tears for the Western church (cf. II Chr. 7:14). And occasionally I pray for the churches in other countries. But I have never gone full circle to pray for all the followers of Christ.

saints – no halos, no special category of believers. These are all of us called and set apart by and for God. The fact that He chose me and sanctified me makes me a saint. And I need to see those around me in the same light.