Today on The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton, we talk about what it is to be strengthened, to be fortified in the power of God's Word. It's our ultimate fortification. That's today's message from Dr. Don as we open God's Word and open the phone lines at 866-899-WORD. We would love to connect with you.
Also online at www.tewonline.org. And now Dr. Don Wilton. God does not change His opinion governed by the circumstance or the trails that we find ourselves in. God's Word is absolute and sure. He's our unchanging God.
And so what is it that He has to say to us in the final analysis? I speak to you today on our ultimate fortification. If there was one thing our most gracious Heavenly Father would give to us and say to us and tell us to do, what would it be? I read to you from Ephesians chapter 6 and beginning at verse 17, verse 18, I beg your pardon, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and with all kinds of requests. And with this in mind, as you pray, be alert. Always keep on praying for all the saints and pray also for me, Paul said, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fiercely make known the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.
Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. What is our ultimate fortification? It's prayer. We've looked at our world and we've looked at our struggle and we've considered our armor. God's given to us everything that we need to know, but our ultimate fortification is something every one of us can do. Pray.
Why? Why would He say this to the church at Ephesus? Why would He culminate everything with prayer? Let me give you a couple of thoughts from the Word of God. It is amazing to me as I began to pour over this passage, as I began to ask God time without number and relentlessly, Lord, just show me what you're saying. Teach me. Cast my eyes where you would have them be.
Say something to me that I might say to these whom I love with all of my heart. Why is prayer our ultimate fortification? Number one, because it is mandated. That word there in pray, in the King James Version, it's really quite simple. Pray. It's not a request. It's a mandate.
It's an exclamation. It's a demand. Pray. Why does God do that? What does God offer this to us? First of all, because it gives us unlimited access to God. He wants us to know that.
Pray. It's the means by which you in your world, your family, your business, your sickness, your diagnosis, your struggle, your emotions, your politics, your queries, your attitudes, your depression, you can have direct access to me. We're about to launch next week into a wonderful Christmas. I love Christmas because it's about Jesus. Jesus is about access to this God of whom we speak through His shed blood. The sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross made it possible. Jesus put it like this. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man can come to the Father, but through me.
That's access. Do you know what they did back in the Old Testament? They had a temple.
It's beautiful. All the people could gather. They would make sacrifices, but it had a big curtain.
There was a separation. Only one person could get access to God. That was the high priest. In fact, his access was so limited they had to tie a rope around him in case something happened to him because nobody else could go into the presence of God.
Nobody. And then Jesus died on the cross. The curtain was torn from top to bottom. The way was made possible. Jesus says, come to me. You got access to God. Gives us unlimited access to God. And at the same time, this mandate gives us, grants us unrestricted words from God. We tap into God's unlimited grace and love when we come to Him.
But we also are given His unrestricted words. It doesn't hold back. There's nothing that's too much.
You and I find ourselves all the time, perhaps at least pondering, you know, I don't think God would really be interested in that. It's too little. It's not important enough. But He does.
He gives us unrestricted access. Pray. It's mandated by God. But second, because it is powerful.
It's not only mandated. Prayer is the ultimate fortification because it's powerful. Pray in the Spirit. Now in context here, what Paul is speaking about is our submission to Him. In the Spirit, we submit unto Him by His Spirit. Here's what happened to you when you gave your heart to Jesus. The moment precious little Sarah Schuler gave her heart to Jesus, she was completely indwelt by the living power and presence of God, the Holy Spirit. He lives in us. And God's Spirit is the single most powerful weapon that we have.
Why? Because it is by that very means that we link up with God because He is God. God is Spirit. I hope I'm not being too frivolous or too simplistic, but in prayer and supplication by His Spirit, the power that is in me because God is in me.
He is with me. Christ is in me, my hope of glory. I link up with God, with His person, the person and work of God Himself.
It's that powerful by His Spirit. But it also means that you line up with God. You not only link up with God, but you line up with God. You line up with His ways and His ways are not our ways. They're God's ways.
God's got the answer. God knows everything. He's all powerful. He's all loving. He's all knowing.
And He is all engaging. He's with us. And when we pray in the Spirit, we link up with God and we line up with what He has to say. We line up with Him. God doesn't line up with us.
We line up with Him. That's what the Spirit does. And He says here, this is our ultimate prayer.
It's mandated. It's powerful, but it's also inclusive. You can't but read this passage, but see what He says here, with all kinds of prayers. All kinds of prayers.
It's all inclusive. So which prayer qualifies before a holy and a righteous God? Which prayer is acceptable to God? Any and all prayers prayed in and through the name of Jesus is acceptable to God. Now what is not acceptable to God is any and all prayers not prayed through Jesus. I cannot, as a believer, pray a prayer and just begin, say, I want to talk to you God and thank you for a lovely day and bless everybody and thank you. Amen. All prayers are inclusive in Jesus' name. What does that mean? Why is it so powerful, this ultimate fortification?
Because it is inclusive. It includes all means by which to pray. I began to write down the different means by which we pray. Some prayers are read. Don't you love reading great prayers? In fact, in my time of preparation, I found myself reading a number of prayers written by great, wonderful, precious people and I would read their prayers. My mother was a great artist and she would write prayers and then put it in calligraphy and then put it in frames and of course we've got some of those and I pulled one of those out the other day and just read a prayer that my mother had written and it was so beautiful. It became my prayer. Prayers that are written, prayers that are read, prayers that are thought. I find myself thinking prayer, don't you?
Many times. I can pray even now while I preach. I'm praying right now as I preach. I'm actually praying but I'm also preaching and I'm talking about Ephesians chapter 6 and I'm busy praying. My mind can do that because God can. Do you know that God can deal with more than one thing at a time? And sometimes I find myself just before I go to sleep whispering a prayer.
Sometimes I find myself driving my car down the road and with my eyes wide open and I hope yours are too, talking to the Lord. A man the other day pulled up right next to me on a motorcycle and he was talking something like the hind leg of a donkey and I looked over at him and he was having a conversation. I said, is he on the telephone? There was no microphone at his mouth.
There was no telephone in the front of his motorbike. I said to myself, I'm sure this man's just praying sitting on a motorcycle. It's inclusive because it includes all means but it also includes all postures, all kinds of prayers, all postures through which we pray. What's acceptable to God? Does he say we should kneel every time we pray? Does he say we should stand? Does he tell us that we should sit? Does he tell us to close our eyes, to open them?
Well, we can infer many things. We do a lot of things for good reason. It's a good thing to close your eyes when you pray out of reverence, to avoid distractions. It's a good thing to kneel in the presence of the Lord.
It's a good thing to bow your head. Gentlemen, it's a good thing to remove your cap when you pray. Does God say to remove your cap? No, I just remove my cap. Sometimes I'm sure I forget. I just find it hard to pray. I've got a cap on my head. Maybe it's just because I'm talking to my Heavenly Father.
But he includes all kinds, all postures, every means. Our ultimate fortification prayer is the ultimate means by which God fortifies us. Isn't that beautiful?
Indeed, it is wonderful. I know it's not so wonderful to interrupt, but Dr. Don insists so I can let you know we're here to pray with you anytime at 866-899-9673. We'd love to pray with you and for you and also connect you with great resources like the Daily Encouraging Word Bible Guide. It's available via email, online on our website. You can sign up right now at www.tewonline.org.
That's www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. Maybe it's our ultimate fortification because it is embracing. It's embracing. See that little word, make your requests. That little word request there is all embracing.
It means two things, every need, physical, emotional, financial, family, political, painful, every need, but every circumstance, small, large. God wants us to come to Him because He's our Heavenly Father. It's just our Heavenly Father and He just loves us, He embraces us. Jesus died for us. He knows all about us. Why is this so wonderful?
Why is this such an ultimate fortification? Because prayer is watchful. There's a little word that He introduces here and He says, when you pray with this in mind, be alert.
In many ways that's a warning. It's a prayer warning to us. I think what God is doing, He's sounding the alarm. He's saying watch out when you pray. This is your ultimate fortification and it calls for spiritual watchfulness. I feel that what God was saying to me, which I just simply pass on to you, He was reminding me and He was saying to me, let this be known to you. When you pray of all times, that old devil is going to get you.
Spiritual watchfulness. There's one thing that He doesn't want us to do church, it's to pray. It's one thing He doesn't want us to do individually. One thing He doesn't want us to do as a family. I can tell you unequivocally, Karen and I will tell you right up front, probably the single most difficult thing we do as a couple is to consistently pray together. You cannot imagine how many times I'll get to lunchtime or the evening or Karen will and we'll say, we didn't even pray together.
Oh, and it's all for good reason. The toast was burning. I didn't get up and stop the toast otherwise my house would have burnt down or my eggs were getting hard and no Christian eats hard eggs.
There's always something there. The phone rings. I've got to go.
Wake up too late. Watchful calls for spiritual watchfulness and it calls for praying distractedness. As you pray, be alert. I personally find that there is no time quite like when I'm praying for my mind to wander. I can be in the middle of a prayer and I find myself on the beach.
I'm in my happy place or I'm hooking into that big fish or I'm playing with one of my grandchildren. I mean in the middle of it. I can be praying about the most. I can be on my knees before the Lord and suddenly it's like I have to pat myself on the cheek because all of a sudden my prayer was forgotten. My mind wasn't there. One of the ways I can guarantee that I will fall asleep at night is just start praying.
It beats any tablet, I'm going to tell you. Even a vaccine. I just have to lie in bed and say, Lord, let me just talk. Gone. Like that. I think maybe that's what the Lord is trying to say here. Prayer is our ultimate fortification because it's watchful, but also because it's family.
I love this. Prayer is family. It's family. Look what he says here in this passage. He says something. He says, always keep on praying for all the saints.
I love that about prayer. You know what it's about? Us. All of us. We are family. You know the greatest thing you can ever say about your church is that you're a family. You're a spiritual family together. I regard you as a vital critical part of my family. No, you're not my wife. You're not my children. You're not my grandkids. We all come from different places and some of us speak a little differently.
We all have different frames of reference. But man, are you family or what? You are my family. If there's anything that I have personally just agonized over, it's the ability over these long months of us to be able to just do what families do.
Just really have family times. We're doing jolly well. We're working with what we have and we've got wonderful programming and we've got all that going on, great Christmas things coming up and gathering together and taking care of one another.
But you know what I mean. It's just that sitting around and loving on each other and sharing and high-fiving and chatting and talking and crying together and laughing together and entering into one another's lives. It's the touch. It's the feel. It's the person. It's the flesh. It's just great. God says, let me give you the ultimate fortification. It's prayer because it's family.
It's the ultimate familiness. But there's one final point that needs to be made about this ultimate fortification. You can go through it. It's the ultimate fortification because it is very specific.
I love that final verse there, actually 19 and 20. Paul having said these things to all these believers, he said, pray for me. It's very specific.
It's personal. Pray for me. You can see what Paul needed in his life. Pray that God would speak to me. Pray that I would speak fearlessly.
Pray that I would be the ambassador. Pray for me because I'm speaking the truth of God in chains. The world out there is chaining us, closing in, putting handcuffs. Paul said, I got to be careful, man, but do I?
I need to stop. Do I need to be intimidated? Do I need to lower the rhetoric? Do I need to soften God? Do I need to apologize for God?
Do I need to accommodate him? Do I need to help our world try and fit God? No. Pray for me that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.
Specific. What is it about you? Oh, and God has called us to declare fearlessly. I pray you would know that you can receive the truth of Jesus.
It's been powerful to hear Dr. Don preaching from the pulpit, but right now, as he comes into the studio, would you open your heart to what he has to talk about next? Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.
This is exciting news. Welcome to the family of God. I know some of you have prayed along with a pastor in your heart, and you're ready for a new start. We would love to encourage you in that to put some resources that will help you grow. So call us at 866-899-WORD, and let us help you take the next steps. More importantly, let us walk with you in those next steps as prayer supporters and folks that can give you encouragement from God's encouraging word. Again, the number is 866-899-WORD, 866-899-9673, or online at TEWOnline.org. We've got a brand new website.
That's TEWOnline.org, where you'll discover great resources like this. As you reflect upon your life this season, think about your friends and family members outside of Christ or those who are drifting away from God. Could this be you? This Christmas, Dr. Wilton wants to encourage you to make a commitment to meet Jesus every day so you can learn more about him and be able to live a life of trust and not fear. With your gift of $30 and support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive the Spirit of God Within You, a beautiful 52-week leather-bound devotional written by 52 trusted pastors and leaders, including Dr. Wilton. You will find blessings upon blessings as you read uplifting scripture verses, daily devotions, and prayers. Plus, you will receive psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, instrumental music CD by gifted pianist and Louisiana College President, Dr. Rick Brewer. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request the new devotional and music CD. They will make great Christmas gifts of encouragement, too. Thank you for your continued partnership. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you from all of us here at The Encouraging Word. Those are such wonderful books. Help us spend time in God's Word this year. Maybe you don't have time to get one to give as a gift, but maybe the gift is to you to help you spend time in God's Word. Call us at 866-899-9673. That's 866-899-9673 or online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G.
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