Praying in the Spirit

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

And now the greatest weapon of all times, and yet it belongs to the armor of God, praying in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. There are several instructions about prayer that we are told here. First, that prayer should be consistent, on all occasions. We should also consider that prayer and requests are two different aspects. Prayer as mentioned here is worship, however, the Greek word translated as prayer is first defined as an address to God, which we would think is a given. Who would pray to anyone else than God. But it is also used as a place of prayer, such as the Jews would do in an open space when no synagogue is available. Here our place of prayer is in the Spirit, which we are at all times as he dwells within us. So, we should always be on communication with God, praying always on every occasion. Second, we can also bring our requests to God, but we do not think this is a time for our laundry list of needs, although we are told to ask anything in the name of Jesus, and it will be done. However, the clue here is that we are to pray in the Spirit. This might be a point of discussion among certain denominations as to what praying in the Spirit looks and sounds like. What we do know is that if we are praying in the Spirit, then it is the Spirit who both inspires and directs our prayer. We also know that we have an excellent example of being filled with the Spirit when the disciples were in that upper room. Their prayers as the spilled out into the street were prayer of worship, giving God all the glory, yet they were also not voicing their prayers in their own language, but that which the Spirit empowered them to speak. Of course, it might be improper for us to always pray in a different language, as we mostly all speak the same language, nevertheless, our prayers should not be from our own desires, but from the desires of the Spirit. This just might require that we speak a language of the Spirit rather than of our own so that we would be praying perfecting within the will of God for every occasion, which would be outside our will. This would seem to us that because the Spirit is directing our prayers, they would not be repetitive in nature, but would be inspired by the Spirit for every occasion we are in. We cannot either live in a rut, nor our prayer should not be stuck in that rut. We know that prayer is a form of praise to God, and that pray affords us time to hear from God through the Spirit. If we read this and understand praying in the Spirit on all occasions it would be right for us to be constantly connected to God. Prayer is also an offensive weapon against the schemes of the devil and all the dark forces of the world. Let us not just be on defense but let us live offensively with prayer.