Wartime Prayer - Spiritual Warfare

And tonight we will conclude with verse 18, which

says this, With all prayer and petition, pray

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 pray on my behalf

that utterance may be given to me in the opening

of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come

to you this evening. And Lord, we ask that you

would bless our time in the word of God. Lord,

we ask that you would use your word to encourage.

the downcast. Lord, to strengthen the weak. Father,

we ask that you would use your word to stir up

a spirit of prayer in those who are struggling

to pray. Lord, comfort those who are hurting.

Lord, build up your people. Edify and sanctify

the people of God through the word of God. Father,

we thank you that we can come to you by the Spirit,

through Christ, to you, our Father. Lord, we

ask that we would never take for granted the

great reality and privilege that we have to come

to your throne. We ask these things in Jesus'

name. Amen. So we have seen in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

6. The armor of God that the Christian life is

likened to an ongoing battle, an ongoing warfare.

The Christian throughout their life from the

time they are saved unto the time that they enter

into glory are in fact in a spiritual battle.

Every day. Every hour. Every moment. Paul exhorts

the believers in Ephesus to be strong in the

Lord and in the strength of his might. He exhorts

them to put on the full armor of God. He gives

them the pieces of armor. And he lists for them.

How to stand firm, he says, having girded your

loins with truth, having put on the breastplate

of righteousness, having shod your feet with

the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking

up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation,

and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word

of God. Now, when we come to verse 18, You notice

in the NASB, it begins with the word with. With

all prayer. Some translations that translate

this differently, they will have this included

with the armor. Others break and start a new

paragraph. But it seems a bit abrupt to begin

the next word with, with. What is he trying to

tell us about prayer as it relates to the armor?

Or is he trying to tell us anything about it?

What if I told you that in the Christian life,

the armor alone, the means alone that God has

given us, are not enough? What if I told you

that the armor, the belt of truth, and all of

these pieces are not enough by themselves, but

something must accompany them in order for them

to be vitalized, in order for them to be useful,

in order for them... to have their effect in

order for the power of God to be at work in and

through them. Paul wants us to recognize and

see that prayer is meant to accompany the armor

that he has just exhorted the readers to. So

he's not necessarily including prayer in the

armor. but he's showing that prayer must accompany

the armor in order for it to be effective and

vibrant. So prayer is an essential aspect of

the Christian life. In this text, we are given

a comprehensive view of wartime prayer in the

Christian life. Notice the emphasis on all in

verse 18. With all prayer and petition, pray

at all times in the Spirit. And with this in

view, be on the alert with all perseverance and

petition for all the saints. Paul wants us to

have a comprehensive and full view of prayer.

With regards to how it ought to accompany the

armor that he has given to the believer to stand

firm with. We'll begin considering this with

this. Wartime prayer must be continual and in

the spirit. Notice what Paul says in verse 18.

Pray at all times. In the Spirit. What is He

teaching us? The Christian life. The Christian

in their life. They are supposed to have a life

of continual and ongoing dependence and reliance

upon the Lord. On the power of the Holy Spirit

in their life. They are constantly To be looking

to the Lord for strength and power. We find,

Paul says elsewhere in 1 Thessalonians 5, to

pray without ceasing. Now, some in this room

might hear that and say, that seems very spiritual.

Isn't that overly pious? For the Apostle Paul

to be telling Christians to pray without ceasing,

meaning to continually be speaking and talking

with God throughout their day, throughout their

week, throughout their lives, throughout their

months. Isn't that overly pious? Brothers and

sisters, does the devil grow weary of tempting

you? Does the devil grow weary of seducing your

heart? Does your enemy grow tired of alluring

you to the world? Absolutely not. There is a

constant and a continual need in your life. You

are constantly battling sin. Don't tell me you're

not. You are constantly battling pride. Don't

tell me you're not. You are constantly battling

lust and anxiety and worry and stress. Don't

tell me you're not wrestling with things in your

heart. Therefore, we must pray at all times.

We must continue to pray. We must pray without

ceasing, brothers and sisters. The Lord Jesus

teaches on this in the Gospel of Luke, chapter

Luke 18 · chapter mention

18. He teaches His disciples through a parable.

He says this. Now, He was telling them a parable

starting in verse 1. And listen to why He's telling

them this. Now, He was telling them a parable

to show that at all times... They ought to pray

and not lose heart. So the Lord Jesus, the Lord

Jesus is connecting prayerfulness to being discouraged

in one's heart. And he's connecting constant

prayer with being uplifted in one's heart. And

listen to what he says. In a certain city there

was a judge who did not fear God and did not

respect man. There was a widow in that city and

she kept coming to him saying, Give me legal

protection from my opponent. For a while he was

unwilling, but afterward he said to himself,

Even though I do not fear God nor respect man,

yet because this widow bothers me, I will give

her legal protection. Otherwise, by continually

coming, she will wear me out. And the Lord said,

Hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now, will

not God bring about justice for his left who

cry out to him day and night? And will he delay

long over them? I tell you that he will bring

about justice for them quickly. However, When

the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the

earth? Jesus is teaching them about the significance

of praying and praying and praying. And he connects

it to faith. Enduring, persevering prayer is

an expression of enduring and persevering faith,

brothers and sisters. So, wartime prayer must

be continual. This is set, we think about private

prayer, secret prayer, which the Lord Jesus teaches

his disciples about. Meaning going into your

closet, be alone. This is prayer we could say

on the go. C .H. Spurgeon referred to them as

arrow prayers. You shoot one up real quick. You

shoot a dart, an arrow, here, there. As you move,

as you go, as you need, you send up an arrow

to heaven. Arrow prayers. Now, wartime prayer

must also be in the Spirit. Paul says in this

text, in verse 18, pray at all times in the Spirit.

Now there's all kinds of erroneous and false

perspectives on this. Some would say when the

Bible talks about praying in the Spirit, it's

speaking of ecstatic speech, or tongues, or various

things associated with that. The New Covenant

is clear. It speaks of praying in the Spirit.

But what does that mean? What does it mean for

a Christian to pray in the Spirit? Not your Spirit,

but the Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit. Well,

notice also there's a similar statement in Jude,

verse 20. In Jude, verse 20, we read this. But

you, beloved, building yourselves up on your

most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously

for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal

life. Now, notice in this how this verse is kind

of sandwiched between these other two statements.

Building up, edifying oneself in the most holy

faith, and then it's between that and keeping

oneself in the love of God. So prayer, historically,

has been referenced as the chief exercise or

act of faith. Meaning, when a person prays, they

are acting or they are exercising their God -given

faith. Therefore, exercising that faith builds

them up, edifies them, and keeps them in the

love of God. It strengthens and develops the

muscles, we could say, that God has given us

in our souls with regards to holy desires, joy.

peace, and so forth. The graces that God has

given to us. Naturally, we do not want to pray.

A man, woman, child, in their natural condition,

ruled and dominated by their sin nature, do not

want to pray. They have no desire to enter into

the holy throne room of God and to come before

a thrice holy God. They have no desire to close

the gap between them and God. They have a desire

to separate from God. But because the Christian

is born again and the Holy Spirit dwells within

them, they have been given a spirit of supplication,

as Zechariah 11, verse 10 says. Meaning, God,

Zechariah 11:10

when He gives us the Holy Spirit, He works in

us a desire and a longing to commune and fellowship

with Him. He's given us the Holy Spirit that

cries out, Abba, Father. It's evidence and points

to our sonship. and our adoption in Christ. So

the Spirit is given to us, brothers and sisters,

to help us overcome our weakness. The Spirit

is given to us to help us overcome those natural

tendencies that don't want to pray. So the Spirit

is constantly working in the believer to weaken,

the old man, to quicken the new man, and to incline

their heart to fellowship and communion with

God. Let me read from the book of Romans chapter

Romans 8 · chapter mention

8. Paul says this, starting in verse 26. In the

same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness.

For we do not know how to pray, as we should,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with

groanings too deep for words. And he who searches

the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit

is because he intercedes for the saints according

to the will of God. The Holy Spirit is constantly

working in the believer, brothers and sisters,

doing the heavy lifting, So that we can and will

pray to God. So what does it mean to pray in

the Holy Spirit? Well I believe it means to pray

as those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

As Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18.

Ephesians 5:18

It means to pray under the influence. under the

control, under the power, or in the power and

in the strength as directed and governed by the

Spirit of God as He works in us, bearing witness

to His truth that He has inspired. So as the

Spirit works in us, we pray. As the Spirit gives

us willingness to pray, We pray. As the flesh

is diminished and weakened in our life and we

have holy desires to pray, we pray. The Holy

Spirit is constantly working in the people of

God to sanctify them and to renew them and to

bring them more and more. to God experientially

in their lives. And He helps us in our prayers,

brothers and sisters. We have to pray in the

Spirit. All true and effective prayer is prayer

that is offered up in the Spirit of God. In Ephesians

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, We read this in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

2. I apologize. We read this in verse 18. After

Paul has just elaborated on Jews and Gentiles

being brought together in Christ and they're

being made into one new man, he says this in

verse 18. For through him, meaning through Christ,

we both have our access. In one spirit to the

Father. He's talking about prayer there. So believers

pray by the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father,

brothers and sisters. That's how prayer works.

That is the redemptive economy of prayer in the

life of the Christian. Now, wartime prayer will

also vary in its kinds or its expressions. What

do I mean by that? Well, what is prayer in general?

The Catechism says that prayer is talking with

God. We can expand on that a little bit and say

that prayer is... Fellowship and communion with

God. And we all know from the Bible that there's

different expressions or different kinds of prayers

in the scripture. Here in Ephesians chapter 6,

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Paul says, with all prayer and petition. So all

kinds of prayers, brothers and sisters. What

are some of the kinds of prayer that we see throughout

the Bible? We see prayers of worship. We see

prayers of praise. We see prayers of lament.

The psalmist oftentimes brought his laments and

his burdens and his struggles openly and transparently

before God. It's prayer. He is lamenting before

God. But we also see that there are those arrow

prayers. There's cries for deliverance that we

see throughout the scriptures. There's prayer

of thanksgiving. Paul tells in Colossians, he

says, devote yourselves to prayer. And then he

says, stay alert with thanksgiving in prayer.

But here he specifically mentions petitions.

So wartime prayer necessarily involves and is

characterized by sincere and earnest requests

that arise from needs in our lives. Isn't that

appropriate for the context, brothers and sisters?

Do you have any... Unique needs and difficulties

in your life. That are possibly involved in spiritual

warfare. That possibly have to do with the opposition

of the devil. Have you talked to God about those

things? Or have you only talked to men about

them? Why are we so eager to speak to men? And

to speak to women. And to speak to people. And

to see the face of man. And to come before people

with our problems and our issues. Do you talk

to God about those? Do you bring your requests

to Him? Do you make your prayers and your requests

and your petitions and your supplications known?

To the Almighty in heaven, the Sovereign One,

who can actually do something about it. The One

who is King of kings and Lord of lords. The One

who made the world and sustains all that is in

it. What can we do? Go and talk to the One who

is on the throne, brothers and sisters. Bring

your petitions, your needs to Him. Do you bring

them to Him? Or do you just lay them out before

people? Bring your petitions, make your petitions

known to God. Charles Spurgeon said something

similar to, we should seek the face of God or

we should see the face of God before we see the

face of men. We could play on that in all kinds

of different ways. If we think about our needs,

In life, we could say our needs ought to be presented

to God before they're ever made known or presented

to men. There's all kinds of things, brothers

and sisters. Talk to God about those things in

your life. Bring them to Him. Cast all your cares

at His feet because He cares for you. Don't hang

on to the anxieties and the worries and the burdens

of your life. Give them to God. Now, wartime

prayer also has a necessary attitude that's involved

with it. We read in verse 18, And with this in

view, be on the alert with all perseverance and

petition for all the saints. A good prayer warrior

is aware of what's going on. A good prayer warrior,

brothers and sisters, is conscious and vigilant

of what is taking place with them as they are

praying. They are vigilant and watchful. They

are alert with regards to their own soul, their

own mind, their own thinking, their body. They're

in what's taking place between them and the living

God as they commune together. There's an alertness.

Do you remember in Matthew 26 where the Lord

Jesus is the night before his crucifixion and

he tells his disciples to stay and watch and

pray with him? He goes away and he comes back

and he goes away and he comes back. And what's

he find every single time? The disciples are

dozing off. And what's he say? Watch and pray.

We have a great need to be alert in our prayers,

brothers and sisters. We need a spiritual attentiveness

in our spiritual lives. Because we have such

tendencies to drift or be distracted or to follow

rabbits. Everybody knows what I'm talking about.

If you've spent any time in prayer, you know

that as soon as you sit down or as soon as you

kneel or as soon as you begin to pray, your mind

all becomes scattered like nobody's business.

All of a sudden you're thinking about your wife.

All of a sudden you're thinking about church.

All of a sudden you're thinking about finances.

All of a sudden you're thinking about the yard.

It's incredible. What do we do? We're alert.

We're attentive. We rein it in. We control our

minds as believers. We exercise discipline with

our minds. And we focus on communion with God.

If we think about our conversations with people,

and I am guilty of this, when we talk with certain

individuals, it is clear and obvious that they

are not really involved in the conversation.

Everybody knows what I'm talking about with that

too. They're over here. They're over here. They're

up here. And they're down here. They're off in

China, probably. They're clearly worried and

thinking about other things. Now, it's one thing

for us to do that with people. We shouldn't.

We shouldn't do that with people. We should listen

to people. We should... Be intent and focused

with people. But brothers and sisters. Imagine

doing that. At the throne of grace. The holy

of holies. In front of our heavenly father. The

sovereign of sovereigns. Brothers and sisters.

We ought to be alert and attentive. in our praying.

We have a tendency to fall into patterns or to

fall into unhealthy patterns in our prayer life.

Meaning we can just continue doing the same things

almost from rote memory. This is what I always

do. This is what I always say. And it's really

not impactful or meaningful. What do we do? We're

spiritually attentive. My heart is not involved

in this. I'm just going through the motions.

There's no warmth. There's no true piety or sincerity

in my heart. We're attentive to these things.

We have to be alert. But a good prayer warrior

is also diligent and they endure or they persevere.

This word means to overcome. in spite or in the

face of difficulties. The Christian life is not

easy. Prayer life is not easy. In fact, I believe

that prayer is the most difficult, the most challenging

of all the spiritual disciplines. Because it

is the chief act of faith. And every time we

pray, it requires that we mortify our flesh's

desire and enmity to rule over us. Every time.

Why is it that you don't want to pray? Because

the flesh fights against holy and good desires

in your life. Prayer forces you to mortify those

desires. If you are to pray, you must overcome

your unwillingness to pray. If you are to lay

hold of the willingness of God in prayer, you

must overcome your unwillingness to pray. Brothers

and sisters, it is hard to pray and it requires

perseverance and diligence. It's hard work. The

spiritual disciplines are hard work. Paul in

Romans 15 requests that the recipients would

join together with him in prayer and that they

would strive together with him in prayer for

him and his deliverance, but also for the success

of his mission work. That word he uses for strive.

It comes from the Greek word where we get the

word gymnasium. What's he saying? Strain yourself

in prayer. Work out in prayer. Exert energy.

Exert force. Exert discipline in prayer. That's

what Paul is saying. At the end of Colossians,

I do want to read this just because it's one

of my favorites. Snippets regarding prayer. In

Colossians chapter 4 verses 12 -13 we read this.

Colossians 4:12–13

Paul is walking through his fellow prisoners.

His fellow prisoner lists. And his friends and

his co -workers and co -laborers. And listen

to what he says about Epaphras. What a remarkable

testimony regarding a man. And Paul obviously

witnessed this. He saw this. Because they are

in close quarters and they are near and they

work together all the time. Epaphras, who is

one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ,

sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly

for you in his prayers. That you may stand perfect,

fully assured in all the will, Always laboring

earnestly for you all in prayer. What a testimony

from the Apostle Paul. In the beginning of Romans,

Paul talks about how God is his witness, how

he constantly remembers them in prayer. Meaning

God witnesses Paul's prayers. he can witness

how often Paul prays for them. It necessarily

requires perseverance and diligence. We're in

great danger when prayer becomes occasional,

periodic, and neglected. Great danger. Remember,

this is warfare. I can almost guarantee you that

if the person has fallen into sin, they have

first fallen out of prayer. If a person has willingly

caved to the devil's temptations in their life,

they have been unwilling to go to the throne

of grace for help because of the strength. and

power of corruption within them. It's significant,

brothers and sisters. When prayer is constant

and regular, we must expect that sin won't be.

When prayer is neglected, when prayer diminishes,

we ought to expect that sin and transgression

and desires and lusts will increase and multiply.

We must be constant and continual in prayer,

going to the throne of grace for help. Lastly,

we see that wartime prayer comes to the aid of

others. Notice the last portion of this verse.

Be on the alert with all perseverance and petition

for all the saints. So wartime prayer. is intercessory

prayer. It is prayer that intercedes and comes

to the aid and the side of all those who are

in the battle with us, other believers in Jesus

Christ. As believers, we all have a unique trial.

In a sense, the church in the world At this time.

Every single Christian. Is in the trenches. Together.

And you know. The scourges. Of the devil in your

own heart. And your own mind. And your own soul.

You know the difficulties. You know the hardship.

You know the trial. And all your brothers and

sisters around the world, in this area, in this

place, in this church, they're going through

the same things, brothers and sisters. So what

does wartime prayer do? It comes alongside and

helps your brothers and sisters by interceding

for them. It's amazing how often in my own life

I find holy prayer turning into unholy prayer.

Because it's so focused on me. True Christian

maturity in prayer will inevitably lead outward

to brothers and sisters in Christ. To support

and strengthen and aid the saints in the world

because they're all the object of the devil's

John Bunyan said this. He said, pray often for

prayer is a shield to your soul. A sacrifice

to God and a scourge to the devil. Meaning a

whip to the devil. I want to close by reading

a hymn from John Newton. It's called The Power

of Prayer. I love this. Listen to these words

and then we'll close in prayer. In themselves

as weak as worms, how can poor believers stand?

When temptations, foes, and storms press them

close on every hand. Weak indeed they feel they

are, but they know the throne of grace and the

God who answers prayer helps them. When they

seek his face. Though the Lord a while delay.

Help they at length obtain. He who taught their

hearts to pray. Will not let them cry in vain.

Wrestling prayer can wonders do. Bring relief

in deepest straits. Prayer can force a passage

through. Iron bars and brazen gates. Hezekiah

on his knees, proud of serious hosts subdued,

and when smitten with disease, had his life by

prayer renewed. Peter, though confined and chained,

prayer prevailed and brought him out. When Elijah

prayed, it rained after three long years of drought.

We can likewise witness bear that the Lord is

still the same. Though we feared he would not

hear, suddenly deliverance came. For the wonders

he has wrought, let us now our praises give,

and by sweet experience taught, call upon him

while we live.