Paul here, when he gives a prayer request, he doesn't say, oh, pray for me, I'm in jail. Oh, pray for me, I have this chain on me that's rubbing me raw. Pray for my right leg.
No. What he says is, pray for me that boldness may be given unto me, that I may have utterance to speak the mystery of the gospel. In other words, pray for me that when Satan tempts me to shut my mouth, I'll win out over temptation and I'll speak the gospel. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's said that nothing is discussed more and practiced less than prayer. Of course, that's not to say Christians aren't committed to prayer, but you'd probably have to admit that you've failed at some point to follow the biblical command to pray without ceasing, to make prayer a constantly flowing element of your life.
But realistically, how do you do that? Is Paul simply saying you need to pray a lot, or are you supposed to talk to God literally every minute of every day? Today on Grace to You, explore with John MacArthur the link between constant prayer and the powerful protection against spiritual attacks that God provides. It's all part of John's series titled, The Believer's Armor.
So turn to Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18, and John begins right there. Now here you have the four alls of prayer. Four times all is emphasized.
This is so great. Each piece put on with prayer. Prayer pervades all that we are and we do. It is the all and encompassing element of our lives.
That's why I say it is the air we breathe. There's no time in our lives when we should not be in prayer. Let's look first of all at the frequency of prayer.
We'll take these alls one at a time. The frequency of prayer. Verse 18, praying always. When are we to pray? Always.
Always. Whatever you see in life ascends to God in a prayer because the communion is so open. Secondly, we see not only the frequency of prayer but the second all shows us the variety of prayer. Praying always with all prayer and supplication. All prayer and supplication. The word prayer, simple word, just generally means requests. Prasuke, prayer in general.
Conversation. Then the word supplication, deesis, it means a specific. So there are general, the general area of prayer. We pray more generally, we pray specifically. But notice we are with all prayer and all supplication to be praying at all times. Now what does he mean by all prayer and all supplication?
Simply all kinds. That's all. There's all different ways to pray. Let everything become a prayer. And so does Paul say to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, 8, I will, that men pray everywhere. You study the prayers of the Bible, you find there were all kinds of prayers in all kinds of positions at all kinds of times.
It's a way of life. A soldier is praying at all times so that whenever the battle comes, even if it's a surprise attack, he is ready. He has the kind of a life that's opened up to God totally. Listen, I remember going to a pastor's conference with some of the staff and a guy got up and he preached on the fact that we ought to pray in the morning. And I mean he preached, we are to pray in the morning. And he went to every passage like Psalm 63 early, well I seek the old God. And he went to the guys who prayed in the morning and here they were in the morning and we are to pray in the morning. It was his great sermon. And all the time he was preaching I kept looking up all the scriptures that talked about praying in the evening and in the noon and so forth and so on.
I mean he had a good point. We are to pray in the morning but not to the exclusion of any other time. Even Psalm 55 17 says evening and morning and at noon will I pray. And Daniel prayed three times a day. And of Jesus, Luke 6 12 says he continued all night in prayer.
And 1 Timothy 5 5 says the widows prayed night and day. It is a way of life. Prayer in a sense, beloved, is more important than knowledge.
And that's a good word for us here. In a sense it's a more important element than knowledge. Martin Lloyd-Jones says our ultimate position as Christians is tested by the character of our prayer life. You may have a lot of knowledge. You may be a seminary student or a seminary graduate or a minister, a pastor, a missionary, a Bible teacher, but your prayer life will be a monitor on how really deep your knowledge of God and your relationship to Him is. Why do I say that?
For this reason. Listen. Theology, listen, is ultimately the knowledge of God, right? Theology is the knowledge of God. So the more theology I know, the more I know about God. And the more I know about God, the more I ought to be driven, as the psalmist said, to follow close behind Him. And if I say I have all this knowledge, but I am not driven to be in His presence all my waking hours, then it's questionable the effect that knowledge has had on my life. It is that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent that I study. It is that I want to learn the word that I may know God, and the more I know Him, the more I want to be in His presence. And if you know all of that, but you don't hunger and thirst to be in His presence, and your life is not an open communication line to Him every waking moment, then it's questionable that your theology has had the proper effect. And see then, we are to pray at all times, all kinds of prayers, as our lives are open to God. As I said, He wants us to know Him, because fellowship is the end result. Do you have that fellowship? Is your life a constant prayer?
Oh, what a cleansing thing that is. Thirdly, we see not only the frequency of prayer and the kinds of prayer, the variety of prayer, but the manner of prayer. Thirdly, He says, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication. In other words, we are to watch with all perseverance.
And again, you see the idea of perseverance, meaning to stick to it, to stay at it, to hang in there, to continue, to persevere, praying continuously while watching. Prayer is to be alert to the issues, alert to what's happening. Jesus said, watch and pray many times. 1 Peter 4, 7, watch unto prayer. You can't pray properly unless you see what's going on. When you come to the place where your heart is filled with prayer, it'll be because you see so many things going on. I was praying even with my wife last night. We were talking about the fact that it's hard nowadays to pray not because you don't know what to pray for, but because there's so much you don't know what to put your arms around. You know, we live in a day of tremendous communication.
I get mail from radio listeners, people in mission fields, from all over the place. There's so many things that sometimes I just say, Lord, God, I don't even know what to say to you other than read the prayer list. You know? I mean, I can't. I used to try to keep a prayer list and write things down, and it just became, it's just monstrous.
I still do that, but it's just monstrous. I can't even begin. Listen, if I prayed without ceasing, I couldn't pray for all of the things that are in my heart to pray for. But I have to keep watching, and I have to be alert so that I can see the needful things. I want to pray specifically because then God answers specifically. Then I give Him specific glory. That's John 14, 13, and 14. You ask anything in my name, and I'll do it that the Father may be glorified.
God answers with specifics, and we give Him glory. Watch! Be alert! You know what's going on in the people around you? By the way, the term watch tells us a little bit also that we're looking out rather than in. We know our own problems. That's not where we need to spend our time in prayer. Where we need to spend our time in prayers with other people, looking out, watching, seeing their needs. And I'll tell you what kills this. Selfishness.
Frankly, I'll give you a simple illustration. Most of us never really get serious about prayer until something happens in our own lives that's troublesome. We are 10 times more intense about our own problems than we are about anybody else's, and that shows the self-centeredness that we have to live with. Can you lose yourself in the needs of others like the dear Apostle Paul? Could you say I prayed for you night and day with tears? Have you ever prayed for anybody night and day with tears?
You may have wept a few over your own troubles, but I doubt whether many of us have done that over somebody else's. That shows the self-centeredness of the human heart, even a regenerate believer. We are to proscartiracist, that is, be persevering, intense, continuing, steadfastly watching and praying, being alert to the needs of others.
And by the way, I could add here, get past the physical. You know, we pray for Aunt Martha's rheumatism and somebody's heart problems and somebody's broken leg and somebody's surgery, and I don't mind all of that, but frankly, folks, on my prayer list, those things come at the bottom. What I'm concerned about is the spiritual battle, is the warfare, and are the believers winning the battle?
The physical, in a sense, though it is material, is immaterial. What gets my heart anxious is somebody who's not seeing victory in their life, somebody who's not seeing God do His mighty work, somebody who doesn't know what it is to see the release of the power of the Spirit of God. That's what concerns my heart. I am praying for the advance of the kingdom of God in the lives of His people. I am praying for souls to be won to Jesus Christ. It's very hard for me to put at the top of my list the physical, although I realize that that's a need and it has a tremendous effect upon our spiritual lives.
That comes secondary. What Paul is saying is this, look, here is the war and it is about the war that you must pray. It's not easy for you to fight the battle, and so I pray for you. Well, I pray now and then for people's physical things, but more than that, I pray that God will give you victory. I pray that you'll win the battle against the enemy. I don't really care what happens to my physical body or yours as long as we gain the victory for the glory of God. Amen? That's the battle.
That's the issue. So we concentrate on the thing that is most needful. And so Paul here, when he gives a prayer request, he doesn't say, oh, pray for me, I'm in jail. Oh, pray for me, I have this chain on me that's just rubbing me raw. Pray for my right leg. Pray for my right leg.
No. What he says is pray for me that boldness may be given unto me, that I may have utterance to speak the mystery of the gospel. In other words, pray for me that when Satan tempts me to shut my mouth, I'll win out over temptation and I'll speak the gospel.
Pray that I'll win the battle. Oh, beloved, we're to get involved in supplicating for each other persistently while we watch and see what the needs are. Do you really know the needs of the people around you? Do you know the spiritual needs of your spouse, of your children, of your friends, of your neighbors, of people in your Bible study, people that you know? Do you really pray for them as they fight the battle?
Sometimes all we ever do is pray when the disaster comes and maybe a little preventative prayer could have helped. So we see the frequency of prayer always, the variety of prayer, all prayer and supplication, the manner of prayer, watching with all perseverance, and finally, the indirect objects of prayer. Praying always for all saints, it says at the end of verse 18.
And this has been led into by our last point. We're to pray for each other. You know it doesn't tell us to pray for ourselves?
That isn't the priority. I just have a personal commitment in my own life, and I don't want to push it off at anybody, but I just, I don't pray for myself. I can hardly encompass all the things that are needful, and I just, I've never found the need to pray for me.
I realize that I have needs, and I do ask the Lord about sinful things, and I do confess things in my life, but as far as concentrating on me, I am rather obedient at this point. I trust the Scripture in praying for others than myself. I get covered because others pray for me. Oh, it's so wonderful when we give ourselves to pray for others.
I met a guy one time. He said to me, he said, you know, your ministry has blessed me. I'm going to put you on my prayer list for six months. I thought, that's funny.
What do I have to do to get a year? But then as I began to think about it, I thought, well, now that's a commitment he's made. Bless his heart for that commitment. He'll pray for me, and I wound up praying for him, because all the six months I knew he was praying for me, I felt responsible to pray for him, because if anything happened to him, he stopped praying for me, see? And so this is the way the body grows into love. This is the way we become one, when we don't have to wait for our own trouble to pray, but when we're lost in the needs of others. So we learn to pray by praying for others. This is the body's prayer life.
Oh, the Apostle Paul illustrates it so well. He always prayed for everybody else. 1 Samuel 12 23, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you.
Don't worry about you. You pray for somebody else. Somebody else prays for you, and everybody gets covered, right? When one part of the physical body is ill, the rest of the body compensates directly and indirectly, and so it is in prayer, pray for each other. The sick finger can't help itself. The rest of the body has to pump new life into that finger, that wounded one, that a part of your anatomy that's injured or whatever has to be supported by all the rest.
It can't support itself in its weakness, and so it is that we must pray for each other. You'll be concerned about that. You know that before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in Barcelona and Madrid and other parts of Spain, there were psychological clinics that had arisen all over the land of Spain and they had large numbers of neurotics, according to historians, and these neurotics were undergoing series of treatments for their neurosis. They were attended regularly by psychiatrists and so forth, and there were lots of outpatients. And this one historian said, interestingly enough, they did a psychological and sociological study of the effects of the Spanish Civil War, and all these people had personal problems and worries and anxieties and temptations, and they were involved in psychiatry and psychoanalysis and all this. As soon as the Civil War came, one of the first and most striking effects of the war was that it virtually emptied all psychological and psychiatric clinics in Spain.
How interesting. And one writer said, these neurotic people were suddenly cured by a greater anxiety. The anxiety about their whole life, whether their homes would still be there, whether their husbands would be alive, whether their children would be killed. Their greater anxieties got rid of the lesser ones. In having to give attention to the bigger problem, they forgot their own petty problems.
You want to be a healthy person? Then lose yourselves in the real things that matter, the spiritual battles of other people. Lose yourselves in consuming prayer for the kingdom of God, and you won't have trouble with your little petty anxieties.
I understand the same thing happened in Britain during the Second World War. A greater fear drove out a lesser fear, and I think it's needful for us to learn that. One of the reasons we have such a sick basket case society, people running around with all kinds of psycho-induced aches and pains and problems is simply because we are so totally self-centered. You know, really, I consider myself to be somewhat patient.
I use the somewhat, just because some people might argue with that. But, you know, one thing that's hard for me to tolerate is people who are just totally consumed with all their own problems because it's such a manifestation of self-centeredness that is so foreign to the concept of the Christian life. We should be so lost in the needs of others that self vanishes. Let your little anxieties give way to greater ones, the spiritual battles of others. Well, there's one final thought in this verse 18, and it's this. When you've said it all, the frequency of prayer always, the variety of prayer, all prayer, the manner of prayer watching so you know the needs with all perseverance, the indirect objects of prayer, all saints, but the pervasive thought is in the middle of the verse, we are to pray in the Spirit.
In the Spirit. Now please, beloved, this does not have anything to do with speaking in tongues. He is not talking about, you cannot introduce tongues into this verse. In Jude 20 it says, praying in the Holy Spirit.
It is not talking about some ecstatic language. Praying in the Spirit is the same as praying in the name of Christ. It is praying in consistency with who He is and what His will is. Learn to pray in concert with the Spirit. Make your prayers a duet with the one whoever intercedes for you. You know that Romans 8 26 says, we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and God knows the mind of the Spirit and He hears and answers. Listen, all the while you live the Christian life, the Spirit of God within you prays on your behalf and He always prays the right prayer and He always gets the right answer. So that verse 28 says, all things work together for what? For good.
That's not an accident. That's because the Spirit is praying. And praying in the Spirit is simply lining up your own prayer consistent with the mind and the will of the Spirit.
You see, how do you do that? By simply walking in the fullness of the Spirit. As your life is filled with the Spirit, as you walk in the Spirit in obedience to the Spirit, as you are walking close behind the Lord, as you are constantly communing in His presence, the Spirit of God will govern your thoughts so that your prayers will be in harmony with the Spirit of God. That's praying in the Spirit. What a tremendous thing it is to know that I can join my prayers with the Spirit of God, that I can cry from the depths of my heart because of the indwelling Spirit, Abba Father, and know that God hears and answers. So the one over all pervasive qualification in our prayers is that we are to pray in the Spirit. In fact, Zechariah 12, 10 calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of supplication, the Spirit of supplication. It's no different than praying in Jesus' name.
In fact, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of His Son. And so, beloved, we're to pray. Our lives are to be opened, communed. And you know something? This is such a healing thing.
Oh, what a healing thing it is. So the frequency, the variety, the manner, the indirect objects all work to God's glory and to our joy as we pray. Then Paul closes with a specific illustration. I'll just read it to you.
Simple. Now you want something specific to pray for? Verse 19, pray for me. What should I pray for, Paul? That utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds that in this I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. He says on the illustration, pray for me, not my physical needs but my battle, my warfare.
Pray that God will allow me to be bold and courageous and straightforward and give me utterance. This is the pattern, beloved. The warfare was there. Paul was facing the enemy nose to nose, eyeball to eyeball as he was a prisoner in Rome.
Ambassadors had diplomatic immunity but not this ambassador. He was chained and there he was. And he says, oh, the battle is tough. You know, sometimes I want to quit. Sometimes I feel I'm losing my courage. Pray for me that God will give me utterance.
I'm going to ride his coattail. I'm telling you, pray for the preacher. People say, well, what do we need to pray for you guys? Pray for Paul. Who needs to pray for Paul?
I mean, he's got it all together. We've got to pray for the people on the periphery. You just remember that if the guy in the lead falls, a whole lot of people are going with him. And Paul was knowledgeable about the fact that the rest were as strong as their leader was and their pattern. Pray for me, he says, that I may have boldness and utterance and in my boldness maybe I'll gather some of the others around me and they too will have boldness. And you know when he wrote the Philippian letter after this, he wrote and he said, oh, he said, what's happened to me in jail has given greater boldness to others.
See? So as they prayed for him, he became a stronger example and it helped others. Pray for me. And the point I want you to get is that he prayed, he wanted them to pray for a spiritual battle to be won, that he wouldn't lose his courage and his boldness. You say, well, you know, I'd like to pray for other people, but I don't have any information.
And that's why Paul added verse 21 and 22. He says, but that you also may know my affairs and how I do. Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things. I don't expect you to pray for me if you don't have any information.
So I'm going to send my good friend, Tychicus. By the way, a dear friend of Paul's mentioned five times in the New Testament who is the one who delivers the letter of Ephesians and also brings word about Paul. They were worried and concerned. They didn't know what was going on in his life.
They didn't know how it was in prison. They wanted to hear. He says, I'm sending him and he'll give you all this information so you can really pray intelligently. Verse 22, I have sent him to you for the same purpose that you might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts. He'll tell you I'm doing well and he'll tell you where the battle lies and you can pray. Listen, beloved, if we're going to pray, let's pray about spiritual things and let's open up our lives to each other so we have something to pray about, right? We have to communicate.
We've got to share the struggle, share the battle, share the victories so we can carry each other's cares. What a lesson on prayer. We are to be God-conscious, selfless, watchful, Holy Spirit-filled, persistent, bold people seeking only God's glory in our prayers. And I believe as we live that kind of life and pray those kind of prayers that we'll be more and more fitted into the image of Jesus Christ. And as we pray for each other, the body will be built up and he'll be glorified.
And that's the climax to the letter. Paul closes with a benediction to which I add nothing. Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all of them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
Amen. That's John MacArthur here on Grace to You. John is the pastor of Grace Community Church and chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary. Today he looked at how constant prayer is a key strategy to withstanding spiritual attack. It's what empowers and activates the believer's armor. Now, you know, John, there may be people listening right now from the front lines of the spiritual battle, and they're feeling a bit alone or overwhelmed.
Maybe new Christians, and maybe they're the only Christians in their families. Is the believer's armor that you've been talking about, is that all that those people need? I would say they need that, but the Apostle Paul ends by saying you need prayer.
That's where it all culminates. You need prayer. You know, I guess you could say these are the elements of our armor, but the collective application of those armor elements is totally dependent on divine power. So praying always with all prayer is, I mean, that's about as broadly as you can say it.
Praying all the time with all prayer. So I think the believer's armor as we draw the series to a close, looking at Ephesians 6, so important, the reality of the battle we all face, how the enemy attacks, the methods the enemy uses, the spiritual weapons available to us. But then we wrap it up with the role of prayer, and the prayer is what draws down divine power for living. So this has been an incredibly important series.
I think it's something you have to go back to time and time again and refresh your mind and your heart, because we can become a little too confident in life, a little too settled with the way things are, and sometimes we lose that battle-ready mentality. So my suggestion is that you would order the series. It's available, the entire series on the believer's armor on a 12-CD album. You need also to order the Believer's Armor Study Guide, and if you want to listen to the messages and download fashion, you can find them free at GTY.org. Yes, friend, I encourage you to get the Believer's Armor Study Guide.
It will take you deeper into all that John has been talking about in this series. You'll see how to fight discouragement, what to do when you're tempted to doubt God's promises, and how to make sure you're using and benefiting from the spiritual protection that God has given you. To pick up the Believer's Armor Study Guide or the audio series, contact us today. Call toll-free 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. The Believer's Armor Study Guide is the second volume in our relaunched Study Guide series.
It costs $11 and shipping is free. To purchase the Believer's Armor Study Guide, call 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. Also, as John said, you can download all 12 messages from the Believer's Armor free of charge in MP3 or transcript format at GTY.org.
If you prefer the 12-CD album, we also have that available. Now as we close, a reminder that if you are regularly finding encouragement from this broadcast, let us know. Particularly, your notes are more important than you know. They may help us measure our impact in your area. Send your email to letters at GTY.org.
Once more that's letters at GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Be watching for Grace to You television this Sunday and then tune in next week when John shows you how to focus on what's most important this Christmas season, glorifying Christ. The real meaning of Christmas, that's John's study and it starts Monday when another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, comes your way on Grace to You.
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