Well tonight we're looking at Ephesians 6
and bringing to its conclusion a look at the armor of God, the believer's armor from this
chapter. Timing is good since we're really getting
into the busyness of the holiday season and trying to compete with that and collide with
that is a great challenge in the weeks to come in the future. Now in looking at the text of the armor of
the believer, it starts in verse 10. Let me read it for you. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength
of His might. Put on the full armor of God that you may
be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against
flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this
darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God that
you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your
loins with truth; and having put on the breastplate of righteousness; and having shod your feet
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of
faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one;
and take the helmet of salvation; and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God
with all prayer and petition, praying at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with
all perseverance and petition for all the saints." And we'll stop at that point. This great letter begins with the fact that
we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. And here in chapter 6, it is the same domain
of the heavenlies from which our formidable enemy comes. That is to say, we have been blessed with
supernatural spiritual benefits. We also confront a supernatural spiritual
enemy. We need to be equipped to deal with that,
as we have been learning through the series. But there's one final additional and all-pervasive
element to our armor and it is contained in verse 18, and that's where we find ourselves
for tonight. "With all prayer and petition," modifying
the main verb, "pray at all times in the Spirit." The final element of the believer's weapon
is prayer...prayer. You will remember if you've read Pilgrim's
Progress, the great classic allegory by John Bunyan, that the last piece of armor that
Christian is given in that story is the weapon of all prayer...all prayer. It is given because it will stand him in good
stead when all else fails. And with this weapon of all prayer, Christian
is instructed that he will be able to prevail against all who come against him in the valley
of the shadow. When he pours out his soul in prayer, he is
most formidable. That is, of course, a reflection of what our
Lord says in Luke 18:1 that men ought always to pray and not to faint, no matter how difficult
the challenge is, no matter how formidable the enemy, no matter how hard the victory,
men ought always to pray and not to faint. There are the two options. You can pray or you can faint. The Lord opts for the praying side. This instruction is essential, foundational
in the life of every believer. And when it comes to the armor of the Christian,
of course, it is climactic, it comes at the end. It is all encompassing, it is all pervasive. The whole picture here then ends with this
plea for prayer. But it's not just the end, as it were, of
the armor section, it's actually the end of the epistle. All that's left in verses 19 and 20 is an
application of the prayer principle and then some final words to sign off so that this
majestic epistle which begins in the heights in chapter 1 with one of the greatest theological
statements written anywhere in the Scripture, in which we are lifted up and exalted into
the heavenlies from which all blessings come, this epistle, you might say, that begins in
the heights, ends on its knees. And it's important, I think, to get the big
picture to understand the importance of prayer. It's crucial for us to back up a little bit
and capture the essence of this whole epistle. And I know that's hard, we haven't really
studied it together but you might be familiar enough with it to follow, tracking with me
a little bit. Let's go back to chapter 1 for a moment for
this is the context in which we are to understand prayer. If there is any epistle in the New Testament
that celebrates what we have in Christ, it is this epistle. It is an accumulation of blessings and benefits
and privileges and gifts and empowerments. In chapter 1 verse 3, we are blessed with
all spiritual blessings, or every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. In verse 4 we are chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world to become holy and blameless. At the end of verse 4 and in to verse 5, we
are loved so as to be predestined to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. Verse 7, He has given us redemption which
includes the forgiveness of our trespasses to the degree that is commensurate with the
richness of His grace. We are even given an inheritance, verse 11,
that inheritance is an inheritance that is described for us elsewhere in Scripture as
undefiled, that fades not away as incorruptible and is lavish. We are made secure, verse 13. We are sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit
of promise which is the pledge of our inheritance which guarantees the redemption of God's own
possession for the ending point of all, and that is the glory that belongs only to Him. In chapter 2 we start out realizing that we
are dead in trespasses and sin, we're under control of the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, which children all of us
are. We live in the lust of the flesh, desires
of the flesh and lusts guide us, guard us, motivate us, drive us, compel us. We are by nature headed for divine wrath like
everybody else. But, verse 4 says, "God who is rich in mercy
because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were in that condition, raised
us with Christ, seated us with Him in the heavenlies in Christ. We are alive and we shall live forever." We are objects of grace and will always be. In verse 7 it says that God is going to show
us the riches of His grace in kindness through Christ Jesus, not just in time, but in the
ages to come. Eternally, we will receive His grace. Verse 10 says we are His masterpiece, His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God designed from the very,
very beginning. We are, according to verses 13 and following,
brought near who were formally far off. Brought near to whom? Brought near to God, brought near to one another,
both Jew and Gentile made one, the barrier between the two broken down, abolished in
His flesh, that is in His death at the cross. We are members of His family, verse 19. We are God's household. We are, in verse 22, a building in which the
Holy Spirit lives. In chapter 3 there are many more elements
to the blessedness that has been given to us...fellow heirs, fellow members of the body,
fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. We are part of the manifold wisdom of God,
manifest through the church to the heavenly authorities, that is to the angels both holy
and unholy. Chapter 3 ends with a prayer that we would
understand the riches, verse 16, of His glory. That we would be strengthened with the available
power through the Holy Spirit in our inner man, that we would experience Christ settling
down in our hearts, being rooted and grounded in love which is shed abroad in us. He prays that we would be able to grasp with
all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love
of Christ which surpasses knowledge. To be able to get a comprehension of the vastness
of this saving love. That we would experience the fullness of God,
that we would know what it means to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can ask or think
according to the power that works not outside of us but inside of us so that God can be
glorified through His church. Those are just some of the statements in the
opening three chapters that tell us who we are in Christ. What it means to be a Christian. It is lavish, it is massive, it is high and
low and wide. And that is how it's described. Starting in chapter 4 we are called on to
act like this. Since we possess the Son of God and the Spirit
of God, and have a relationship with God the Father, since we are members of the body of
Christ, since we are in the church and come under the direction and leadership of the
Apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the teaching pastors who are given to the
church for the perfecting of the saints, since all these things work for us and in us, since
we are growing together into Christ's likeness, we need to make sure, verse 17 says, that
we don't live the way we used to live, we don't walk the way we used to walk, since,
verse 20 says, we have learned Christ, we've been taught the truth, our old self laid aside
with all its lusts and corruption. We need to be continually being renewed in
the spirit of our minds, put on fully the new self in the likeness of God, that new
self having been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Then he talks about some very practical things
that we are to do. We are, in chapter 5, to be imitators of God,
as beloved children. We are to walk in love as Christ loved us. Verse 8 of chapter 5, "Since we dwell in light,
we are to walk in light." Chapter 5 verses 15 and following says, "Be
careful how you walk not as unwise but as wise. We're to talk in love, or to walk in light,
we're to walk in wisdom." We're to walk in the fullness of the Spirit,
verse 18, "Be being kept filled with the Holy Spirit." We have the power of the Spirit for every
relationship, marriage, family, work, every relationship. And finally he comes down to chapter 6 and
verse 10 and says, "We have received armor." Though we have all these things, we have a
formidable foe and we need to be armed to have victory over him. And we're given the armor." On top of all the things we're given, through
the five chapters, we're also given this added armor to defend ourselves against the onslaught
of Satan as he works the world system against our sinful flesh. The bottom line, we have all things that pertain
to life and Godliness, we lack nothing. But it is precisely at this point that there
is a potentially destructive problem. You might call it spiritual overconfidence,
"Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." By the time you got to verse 17 of Ephesians
6, if you just swept through it with me, there might be a sort of sense of invincibility. Since you have all blessings, all power, all
resources, all grace and since victory is guaranteed, triumph is settled and you have
the Spirit as a seal of that final triumph and a full inheritance, since you are secure
forever, since you have all of these things you might think that that in itself enough. But I remind you, we are still human, we still
have remaining sin. We still operate with the principles of the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes in their death throes though we are a new creation
we are incarcerated in that flesh. And we cannot become smug and feeling adequate
think we can just march on in the understanding of these theological truths with no need of
God. When all is said and done, when all is in
place, verse 18 brings us to the culmination. "Take all this armor, put it on. With all prayer and petition pray at all times
in the Spirit." You might think that there's nothing you lack,
but that would be wrong. We are all vulnerable. We can all stumble. We can all fall into sin. We can all be defeated along the way. We can bring dishonor on the Lord and shame
on His church. We can wound ourselves in the matter of sin
and disobedience to the degree that we destroy our personal testimony and our opportunity
for service and usefulness to the Lord. We can forfeit our joy. Paul says, "At the end of everything, you
must realize that even with all that you have, remaining sin is so powerful and Satan himself
has devised such a mighty force in the evil in the world system that you need constant
submission to God in prayer. You have to depend on Him. I think it's a latent danger that Christians
who have a knowledge of doctrine, who have a very strong knowledge of doctrine, a fairly
effective grip on principles of living the Christian life can become satisfied and that
sort of heart-rending passionate constant dependence on God isn't there. And that is sin. And that is dangerous. So Paul closes the great letter, the final
crescendo, the music peaks out in a call to prayer. Prayer is the breath of the Christian's life. Prayer is the air which we breathe. As the human body exists in an atmosphere
and takes in the air because the air forces its way in, so the believer should be living
in an attitude of prayer in which the need to come before God forces its way in. You don't have to try to breathe, the air
makes you breathe. Just try holding your breath. It's easy to breathe, it's hard to hold your
breath. For the believer, it's easy to pray, it's
hard not to pray. You have to work at it cause this is our communion,
this is how we inhale spiritually. Christian is like a special class of animal
called caduceus(??) animal I read about, neither fish nor foul inhabits the depth of the sea,
the sea is their home, they never leave the sea, they swim in the darkest depths of the
sea and yet are compelled at certain intervals to rise to the surface to grasp some air. That is how it is for us. We might live at the depth of theological
understanding but we need to come up for that air that sustains our life. The Christian only by ever ascending to God,
rising to breathe in constant prayer maintains the fullness of spiritual life. All of us need to be moving throughout all
the days and hours of our lives in the presence of the Lord. That's the general essence of what this is
coming to. And if you just looked at Ephesians and you
just sort of plopped down at verse 18, it might not have the impact that it would have
if you were able to understand everything I've told you tonight. This, in some ways, is the culminating reality
of the book and without an understanding of what comes before, you don't get that. You might treat this statement about prayer
like so many other statements about prayer. Prayer seems for most people to be something
of an option. But here it's the culmination of everything,
on top of everything, with all your blessings and all the armor, praying at all times. So let's talk about this instruction for a
minute. Pas, the Greek word for all, is used four
times in this verse...four times, all...all...all...all. We understand then that this is pervasive. This is important. This is far-reaching. So let's talk about the elements that fall
under the category of all. First of all, the frequency of prayer. "Pray at all times." Pray at all times, that's the frequency of
prayer. What does that mean? Just exactly what it says. There doesn't need to be an explanation of
that. Jesus said in Luke 21:36, "Watch and pray
always." The early Apostles said in Acts 6:4, "We will
give ourselves continually to prayer." It was said about Cornelius in Acts chapter
10 that he prayed to God always. Paul in Romans 12:12 says, "Continue diligently
in prayer." In Colossians 4:2, "Continue in prayer." Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing but
in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known
to God." And famous, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without...what?...ceasing." Pray without ceasing. Paul did that. Second Timothy 1:3, "Without ceasing...he
says...I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day." The idea here is constancy. Now this stretches us beyond just some recited
prayer. This cannot mean some focused isolated prayer
experience. That would have been typical of Judaism, formula
prayers, hours to pray, times to pray, places to pray, postures in which to pray. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a life pattern. We're talking about a consciousness of God's
presence at all times that leaves my heart open fully to Him. That's what this is all about. To be so God-conscious that you see and experience
everything with reference to Him. You see all events in life as related to God. If you see something good, what is your immediate
response to what is good? It is to offer God thanks and praise and adoration. You see evil, you see sin, what is your response? You ask Him to make it right. You confess it. You pray for the sinner. You grieve that God is dishonored, that His
name is reproached. You ask God to vindicate Himself and to bring
righteousness where there is only iniquity. You see trouble. You see people in distress. What is your initial response? To go to God and ask that God will somehow
be honored in the distress and bring a deliverance that can glorify His name. It's simply living your life in that kind
of dominant God-consciousness so that God is the filter through which every experience
passes. I see everything that way...absolutely everything...good,
bad, indifferent, minor, major, big picture, small picture. I see everything that way. If you will, I have God-colored glasses. Everything I see is viewed through my understanding
of God. David said that, "I have set the Lord always
before me. I have set the Lord always before me." Everything in life is filtered through that
God-enhanced vision. There's no waking moment then that prayer
cannot rise. It isn't a time that wait for, it's a life
that you live. It's a God-conscious life. It's not just finding a list of requests and
going over it, although that's part of it. It's not just having a prescribed prayer time,
although that's certainly part of it...private place. It's much more than that. It's that every single thing in your life
is something to talk to God about, everything...everything. When Paul said in Colossians 4:2, "Continue
in prayer," he used a verb kartereo which means to be steadfast and constant. It's the same verb used in Hebrews 11:27 speaking
of Moses, enduring. It's the enduring attitude of prayer. It's to hang in there with strength. Now we're not talking about an easy-going
God-consciousness, we're talking about a strong persevering vibrant even struggling God-consciousness
sometimes it says, "Lord, why did You...why did You choose to do that? Why did that happen? Help me understand. It's a struggle for me. I can't understand it. Why do You tolerate that?" I can't tell you how many times I ask the
Lord that. I just...there are things in the church, there
are things in the name of Christ that I do not understand why God allows. I don't understand it. There are things that happen that I don't
understand. People ask me, "Why did this happen?" I don't know, but I trust God. But sometimes I struggle with the reality
of what's going on and all I can say is...like the martyrs under the altar in Revelation...how
long, O Lord, how long, till You will be vindicated and things like this will no longer have to
happen? It's not then an easy-going God-consciousness. It's a struggling persevering love of righteousness
and love of the honor of God and desire to see God exalted and glorified. And that's where the struggle lies. And so the prayer is always, "Lord, glorify
Yourself somehow through this. I may not understand it, it may be against
the grain of everything that I think makes sense. So show Yourself powerful, bring honor to
Yourself." This is part of the persistence in prayer
that Jesus talked about in the story of the man who kept knocking and kept knocking and
kept knocking and because of his much knocking, he received what he wanted from someone who
didn't even care about him. And the point that our Lord is making, if
somebody who doesn't care will give you what you want just because you bug him, what will
God give you when He loves you if you're persistent? Prayer is a constant God-consciousness but
it's not an easy-going God-consciousness, it's a struggling God-consciousness because
you're struggling with the world and the way it is because you love to see God honored. You love to see Him glorified. There are so many tragedies, tragedy after
tragedy after tragedy, sometimes I'm fascinated by television programs that do these documentaries
on trials of people who have murdered somebody and they go through all the machinations. They can always solve the crime in exactly
56 minutes every time I watch one of those. But at the end of it all, all I can think
to myself and I know it rises to the Lord as from my heart to Him, is how tragic...how
tragic, what a sad person, what a human eternal tragedy this is. That's the God-consciousness with which you
view the world. "O Lord, how long does this have to go on? Please be gracious to sinners, save them and
glorify Yourself in that way. And finally, glorify Yourself in the world
at Your return." Second aspect of prayer...the first is the
frequency, the second is the variety. Here's another use of the word "all", "With
all prayer and petition." First one, pray at all times. Second, pray with all prayer and petition,
or the old word, supplication. What does that mean? All kinds of prayers. You pray all the time. You pray all kinds of prayers...public, private,
verbal, silent, loud, soft, deliberate, planned, unplanned, spontaneous, requests, thanks,
confession, humiliation, praise, standing, kneeling, lying down, lifting up your hands,
putting your hands down...you name it. Every kind of prayer expressive of every emotional
attitude of every kind of thinking and every kind of circumstance, that's the idea. Pray all kinds of prayer, proseuchomai, prayer
in general. All kinds of petition, deesis, definite prayer. Pray all kinds of petitions, pray every definite
prayer in every way in every manner on every occasion. Like 1 Timothy 2:8, "I will that all men everywhere
pray." Pray in the general pattern of life, in the
specific issues of life we are to pray. And this is part of our defense. This is part of the armor. This is part of our protection. This is what allows us to defeat the schemes
of Satan. It's the kind of living that opens up our
resources to the flow of God's power. Pray in every way you can possibly pray in
every kind of prayer and every circumstance which calls for prayer. It is to be in variety, it is varied as the
needs. We pray prayers of thanksgiving, don't we? We come together and worship, sometimes our
prayers are filled with joy, sometimes our exuberance is manifest in our praying. And then there are times when we pray and
our eyes are filled with tears and they're all the range of emotions that we experience
as human beings which give rise to certain kinds of prayers. There are all kinds of circumstances, good,
bad and indifferent...horrible as well as wonderful that draw out prayer. We're not talking about prayer books. We're not talking about prayers that are memorized
or written down although that in itself is certainly not wrong. We're not talking about vain repetition. I once heard a preacher preach a sermon on
why you must pray in the morning. Took every Old Testament passage where people
rose up early in the morning and prayed. And as I was listening, I was flipping around
my Bible, Psalm 55:17, "Evening and morning and noon will I pray." Luke 6:12, Jesus said He continued all night
in prayer. And 1 Timothy 5:5 says that Godly widows be
supported by the church are known as those who pray night and day. Yes, pray in the morning. Yes, pray at noon. Yes, pray at night. Yes, pray all night. Yes, pray all the time with all kinds of prayer. There are no limits on that. And the third thing he talks about is the
manner of prayer...with all prayer and petition, praying at all times. And the manner? It says, "Be on the alert with all perseverance
and petition." Let's just take the word perseverance here. What we've got here is the frequency all the
time, the variety, all kinds of prayer, the manner with perseverance and alertness. In other words, you need to know what you're
praying about. One of my children when I used to go from
room to room and pray with the little kids when they were little at home. I had one child, I'll let you figure out which
one, who was always tired and wanted to go to sleep. And so this child would say...I'd say, "Well,
now, I want to pray with you." And this...the prayer inevitably would go
like this, "Dear God, thank You for Mommy and Daddy. Bless the whole wide world. Amen." Oh...you know, you're really making it difficult
for God to answer that prayer. Just exactly how does He do that? Bless the whole wide world, amen. That doesn't quite get specific enough. Find something to pray about. Watch. Mark 14:38, Jesus said, "Watch and pray." First Peter 4:7, "Watch unto prayer." Incessant attentiveness, vigilance, alertness. Pick out specifics. I remember years ago we were meeting in the
gym, there was a guy in our church named Frank, I haven't seen him in a long time. He had a spiral notebook and he would come
up to me in the patio every week and he would say, "Now what can I pray for?" And I would always have to give him a list
of specific things to pray for and he would write them down in this spiral notebook. He did that all the time. And he would come back to me week after week
and he would ask me, "Now I prayed for that last week, how did that work out?" And then he would write down an answer. And he was moving through...he came to me
one day, and I said, "Now, Frank, how many of these books have you filled up?" He said, "Thirteen...thirteen." Now if you were to ask Frank, "Does God answer
prayer?" He'd say, "What kind of prayer would you like
answered?" Just flip through, grab one here, one there. All kinds of notebooks cause he watched and
he persevered...all perseverance. The Greek means intensive commitment, perseverance. So watch, see what's going on, pray on the
positive side, pray defensively, lead us not into temptation...that's a defensive prayer
as well as prayers to glorify Himself, to manifest His Kingdom. So we stay with it in a continued steadfast
consuming perseverance as we follow through praying. Most people, I think, don't pray in a persevering
way unless some personal tragedy strikes them, then they do. But that really manifests our tendency, doesn't
it, to be selfish. We don't get consumed with the things that
consume the heart of Christ. We tend to get consumed with the things that
affect us. We're a little less sometimes consumed with
the things that affect others. Persevering prayer on behalf of those things
that are a concern to the heart of God which is everything that occurs within the framework
of His purpose and His Kingdom should be the mark of a believer who is mature. Watching beyond ourselves, persevering in
an all-consuming devotion to prayer. Colossians chapter 4 is a good illustration
of this, Epaphras who is one of your number, Paul says to the Colossians, a slave of Jesus
Christ, send you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers that you
may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. I bear him witness, he has a deep concern
for you. This is somebody who was a persevering person
who watched, who saw needs and who prayed faithfully in an all-consuming effort. Then there's another "all" here, a fourth
one. "These prayers are to be offered, end of the
verse, for all the saints." The frequency of prayers--at all times. The variety of prayers-all kinds of prayers. The manner of prayer-watching at all times
so you don't miss anything. And here the indirect object of prayer. What is the indirect object? All the saints. The direct object is whom? God because in the end, John 14, the promise
is this that whatever you ask in My name I will do it that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. The direct object of all prayer is God. You pray to God for God's glory. The indirect object is the saints. You pray for the saints by a means of those
saints God may display His glory. So when you want to glorify God, you pray,
"God, glorify Yourself by putting Your power on display, Your grace on display, Your mercy
on display, Your wisdom on display, Your truth on display by answering this prayer concerning
these saints." So you pray indirectly for the saints, directly
for the glory of God. This is critical that the direction of our
prayers is outside of us, okay? For all the saints. Praying at all times in all kinds of prayers,
all variety of prayers with all alertness and all perseverance for all the saints. This is how the body of Christ operates. A Christian is not to think only of his own
conflict, but that of the whole body. Not to be concerned only with his own issues
but those of the whole body. In fact, there's a certain sense in which
you have a basic indifference to what happens to you. If it glorifies God, bring it on. "Whatever, Lord, You need to do in my life
to glorify Yourself, do that. Help me to discern Your glory even in the
things I don't understand in my life." You pray, of course, "Lead us not into temptation,"
but that's us. Of course you're included in that, but it's
a bigger picture. We need to understand that part of the body
of Christ function is praying for each other. And this, of course, is the epistle in which
there is so much important instruction about the life of the body of Christ in chapter
4. When your physical body is hurt, when your
physical body is ill, all the other parts of the body come together, don't they?, to
compensate for that, to defend you, to fight for you, to heal, to restore you. This is how it is in the body of Christ. When one member has a need, when one member
has a struggle or when other members have a struggle, we come alongside and we minister
healing and mercy and grace and restoration to each other. That's a whole subject that we could and probably
should address together. But the idea here is to be consumed with praying
for others...for others. Not just our own concerns, not being selfish
about ourselves, it's so hard to get beyond us. Praying always for all saints. Now, in the midst of all of this there is
one other statement that we need to consider. All of this occurs in the Spirit. All of this occurs in the Spirit. All the variety of prayer, all the times of
prayer, all of the things that cause us to pray and persevere and pray..in prayer, and
all the saints for whom we pray, all our praying needs to be in the Spirit...in the Spirit. And by the way, this is a very, very common
New Testament principle. Jude 20, "But you, beloved, building yourselves
up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit." If you want to grow and be strong and be triumphant,
you need to pray in the Holy Spirit. All prayer must be in the Spirit. What does that mean? Well for years Charismatics and Pentecostals
have told us it means speaking in tongues. It doesn't mention that at all. That is never a biblical description of praying
in the Spirit. What it means is to pray in harmony with the
Holy Spirit. Pray consistently with the mind and will of
the Spirit. And a clear understanding of that is granted
to us in the eighth chapter of Romans, if you look at it for a moment, Romans chapter
8 and verse 26. The Spirit helps our weakness. We don't know how to pray as we should, but
the Spirit itself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. That is just one of the most encouraging verses
in all the Bible. Here we are, we're believers, he's talking
about us. He's saying we need help because we don't
even know what to pray for. We don't know how to pray. There are things we can't anticipate. There are things that are too complicated
for us to know which direction to direct our prayers. We don't always know what to pray for or how
to pray. So, "The Spirit Himself intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words." Some people think that means speaking in tongues. No, it's not us speaking gibberish, it's the
Holy Spirit praying for us with a kind of groaning that can't be audibilized. And verse 27 says, "He who searches the hearts,"
that's God, "knows what the mind of the Spirit is." Would you believe this that the Spirit knows
how to pray for you? Yes. Omniscient. That the Father knows what you need, that
the Spirit prays in perfect accord with the will of the Father. Verse 27, "He intercedes for the saints according
to the will of God." So when you're praying in the Spirit, it is
simply praying consistently with the mind of the Spirit and the will of God. We don't always know what that is, but we
know a lot about what that is cause God has disclosed His will in Scripture. Praying in the Spirit simply means praying
in perfect harmony and perfect accord with the mind of the Spirit of God and the will
of God. It's a magnificent concept. It has nothing to do with speaking in tongues. It has nothing to do with some ecstatic language. Has nothing to do with some kind of gibberish
which can't be discerned. It is the Holy Spirit who prays for us in
perfect harmony with the will of the Father and we need to make sure we line up with our
prayers consistent with the Spirit. And I think it would be a stretch to demand
from God that He heal us or make us rich. That not be the will of God and therefore
wouldn't be the will of the Holy Spirit either. So, we need to pray for things we know God
wills, our virtue, our holiness, our strength, our spiritual maturity, our usefulness, our
service, a deepening of our love for Christ. Those are the things the Spirit prays for
that God agrees with and our prayers need to be consistent with that. Zechariah 12:10 calls the Holy Spirit...I
love this...the Spirit of supplication. One of the overlooked ministries of the Holy
Spirit is that He is the One who prays for us. You say, "I thought Christ did that in His
high priestly work?" Yes, He's at the right hand of the Father
praying for us as our great High Priest. The Holy Spirit is inside of us praying for
us from here, and the One who searches the hearts, who is God, knows what is the mind
of the Spirit because He always prays according to the will of God and therefore whatever
it is that the Spirit prays for, God gives. So learn to line up your prayers, get pass
the trivial, pass the mundane, pass the superficial and learn to line up your prayers with what
you know to be the will of God and the desire of the Holy Spirit. So you're praying, for example, for the things
that are manifestly evident when you walk in the Spirit...the fruit of the Spirit, love,
joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Instead of praying for some material thing,
pray that God would grant you love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Pray that you would walk in the Spirit and
not fulfill the lust of the flesh rather than walking in the flesh and doing the deeds of
the flesh. It is even true that Galatians 4 gives us
a further insight into this ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is so wonderful. "Because you are sons," verse 6, "God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts." And what's He saying? "Crying Abba, Father." Now that is an amazing statement. Because you are a son, God has placed His
Holy Spirit in you and from within you, the Spirit on your behalf is crying Abba, Father. In other words, the Spirit is interpreting
what it means to be an intimate child of God for you. His pleading for those things that belong
to you because God is your Pappa. This is Spirit-driven, Spirit-directed prayer. Paul closes this letter with a practical opportunity
to put these principles to work. And I'm going to borrow it. Verse 19, here's his application. "Pray on my behalf." As long as we're talking about prayer, how
about me? What did he want? Prosperity? No. Earthly success? No. Results? No. All he wanted was pray on my behalf that utterance
may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of
the gospel. That's as far as he could go. He couldn't determine the results. He couldn't determine the effect. Just pray...just pray that when I open my
mouth the truth of God and the glory of the gospel will come out boldly. That's as far as any preacher can go because
this...he says...is why I live. It is for the mystery of the gospel that I
am an ambassador in chains that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Pray for my utterance. Pray for my boldness because the price of
me doing this is very high. That's why I'm in prison. The bottom line, pray for the preacher so
that when you start applying Ephesians this week, you can start with me. Pray for the preacher that the Lord would
give him utterance and boldness and courage to speak the glorious gospel for which we
all are ambassadors and he was an ambassador in chains. Lord, we come again at the end of a wonderful
day before You and we have to confess that we bewail our cold and listless and heartless
prayers. The poverty of our own prayers adds sin to
sin and if we were to hope in our prayers, we would be without hope. We ask You, Lord, to forgive us for that. Help us to understand that in prayer we literally
catapult ourselves into the eternal world and on that glorious heavenly ground, our
soul enters in to Your triumph. In prayer we see ourselves as nothing and
our hearts going after You with intensity because You are everything. In prayer, all things mundane and superficial
here below vanish and nothing seems important but the salvation of others, holiness of heart
and Your glory. In prayer, all our worldly cares and fears
and anxieties disappear and are of little significance, like a puff of air. In prayer our souls inwardly rejoice at what
You have done for us and are doing in Your church. In prayer we are lifted above the disappointments
as well as the earthly victories and taste heavenly joys. In prayer we put everything in Your hands. We live entirely at Your disposal for Your
glory. Lead us into that, that we may be victorious
and triumphant not only in our own lives but together as Your church and always that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. We pray in His name. Amen.
