Thank you for joining listeners in this community and in communities all around the world for leading the way with pastor and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Yusef. Up next, Dr. Yusef continues and wraps up his challenging, encouraging series called The Full Armor of God. You'll see how prayer is vital in the arsenal for winning spiritual battles in life. Hopefully, your prayer life will be revolutionized by hearing what the Word of God has to say.
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The phone number to call is 866-626-4356 and the website ltw.org. Wait for just a little bit though, because right now, here's Dr. Michael Yusef to begin today's teaching time. We saw the three permanent ones that are permanently on, that can never be taken off ever, ever, ever. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the shoes of the gospel. We saw the three that are always to be in a state of readiness for war, for warfare.
Three must always be ready, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. So now I want you to imagine, okay, this is imagining time, okay, that a Roman soldier has got all the equipment, everything he needs to be in that battle. And he finds himself in the battlefield in a very smoke filled environment. I'm talking about thick smoke all around him. Smoke that makes it difficult for him even to breathe. He's well equipped. All the equipments are in the right place. But he's constantly coughing and clearing his throat because the smoke is just so thick.
He's equipped, but he has blurry eyes from the smoke. You say, where are you going with this, Michael? I'm glad you asked. It would be a good question. Because after explaining the amazing provision of God of these six pieces of the whole armor of God, these six pieces of equipment, the Apostle Paul does not stop there.
He cannot stop there. Now I'm talking about the urgent appeal by the Apostle Paul for the important of prayfulness in the battle, prayfulness in the battle. Now I don't know about you, but I think I've never met anybody, any Christian believer who is very satisfied with their prayer life. And that is why when the subject of prayer comes up, people feel guilty. I pray that whatever stage you're in, in your prayer life and whether you're discontented and unhappy with it or you are or you're not, it doesn't matter. After this message, your prayer life will be absolutely revolutionized.
Can I get an amen? The reason Paul closes Ephesians, the whole epistle to the Ephesians, the whole reason why he closes with the important of prayful life is of absolute significance for everyone at the sound of my voice. Here's the reason why Paul does not include prayer as the number seven in the equipment of the armor of God.
He could have said, well there's another equipment. He did not include it as part of the equipment for the whole armor of God, the full armor of God. While prayer is closely, very, very closely associated with the full armor of God, it is much more than that.
Why? Because prayer is not, is not, is not, is not just another spiritual weapon. As vital as those six pieces of equipment that we've been seeing are as absolutely necessary, these six pieces of the full armor of God are. Yet prayer is as important and necessary as the very air you breathe. Someone might still ask, but with that breathtaking blessings that are in the first five chapters of Ephesians, this breathtaking blessings that you've been blessed in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, then he goes and enumerate them with this impressive six piece equipment for the whole armor of God. With all of that, why prayer is the most important of all.
Oh, great question. Listen to me. With all of these blessings in the first five chapters of Ephesians, with all of these powerful armor of God, we can be, with all of that, you with me? We can become vulnerable to the temptation of thinking, I must be a super duper. I must be so important to be blessed this way, to have all those resources. I must be the best thing since sliced bread. What is that?
You know what that is? Spiritual pride. You see, that is the vulnerability with all of the blessings and of all the equipment is to have spiritual pride, spiritual arrogance, self smugness. In fact, Satan can use all of these blessings, all of that equipment for the battlefield, all the armor, everything else, he can use them to turn our spiritual head.
How can he do that? How can he turn our spiritual heads? We lose the sense of absolutely, totally moment by moment, humbly dependent on God in prayer. That is why praying in the Spirit is the most humbling position to be in. Praying in the Spirit is the most humbling position to be in. Now, if you haven't already turned to Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 18, please do so now as I conclude this very short series of messages on the whole armor of God.
Let me just give you a homespun translation. With all prayer and petition and at all times in the Spirit, with this in mind, be alert. With all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Now, here the apostle Paul is emphasizing what Jesus taught. He's really amplifying what Jesus taught, namely the absolute necessity of being watchful in prayer all of the time. The frequency of all here is very important.
It really is. Undermine it in the Bible. There are four times at least. Praying at all times with all perseverance. That's very important.
It's very important. The Word of God forever calls us to pray always, always. That is not to undermine or take away from the time that you should spend daily in intimacy with the Lord.
This is in addition to that. In variety of ways, the Bible tells us to pray with a publicly or privately, loud cries or soft whisper, whether deliberately or spontaneously, whether sitting or standing or kneeling or even lying down at home, at church, in the car, jogging, exercising, wherever you are, wherever you may be, at work, on the road, with hands raised up or folded, with eyes open or closed, with heads bowed down or raised up, whatever and wherever you are and in every situation and in every circumstances. Beloved, we worship an omnipotent God, an omnipresent God, an omniscient God.
He hears and answers prayers at all times and everywhere. Even in the Old Testament, they prayed three times every morning, noon and evening. But in the New Testament, we are encouraged to pray always, always.
Why? What does it mean to pray all the time? It means continuously, God conscious. Whatever you see or hear or you experience becomes a subject of prayer. Praying always means to be deep in deep awareness of constantly surrendered to the Heavenly Father. When we hear of a need, immediately we stop and pray. When you experience a blessing, stop immediately and say, praise you Lord, thank you Lord. When you wait until you go to a prayer time, when you see how some evil is being perpetrated, we cry out to God on the spot. When you run into some non-believing neighbor or friend or coworker, you immediately pray for their salvation, not loud. Then I pray for the opportunity I might be able to witness to them. When you encounter a challenge, you immediately turn to God, talk to God. Oh beloved, listen, the ultimate purpose of our salvation is the glory of God. And that leads us to constant intimacy in His presence, not just for the moment that we spend praying and reading the scripture every day.
I'm talking about moment by moment by moment. I'm sure some of you are probably asking, but what is this praying in the Spirit? What is this praying in the Spirit? Well, some of our Pentecostal and Charismatic friends, not all of them, some, they say, well that means you pray in tongues. Well, the text doesn't even go anywhere near that. It has nothing to do with that.
So I'm not going to get into it. But praying in the Spirit means, listen to me please, praying in the Spirit, first of all, you're praying in Jesus' name. To pray in the Spirit means that your prayer is consistent with the Lord for His nature and with His will. To pray in the Spirit, that means you are in concert, you're in concert with the Holy Spirit.
It means you have grieved Him. Or if you have, you have prayed for repentance and ungrieved Him. Pray in the Spirit, meaning that you are not going to pray for something or about something that is outside of the Word of God or inconsistent with the Word of God or goes against the Word of God. Romans 8, 26 and 27 has been a huge comfort to me through the years. When I heard that expounded one year back in 1973, it's been absolutely huge comfort in my prayer life. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercede for us with groaning too deep for words. I cannot tell you how many times I groaned in prayer. To pray in the Spirit is to be in harmony with the Holy Spirit.
Let me repeat this. To pray in the Spirit, it means that you are in harmony with the Holy Spirit. That's why we are praying in subjection and in submission to the Holy Spirit. Not my whims, not what I think is right, not what I think is important, but what the Holy Spirit says is important. Oh Beloved, please listen to me.
Most Christians, most Christians never get serious about praying in the Spirit until a problem or a difficulty arises. Now don't stop praying when difficulties are neither right. Don't stop that.
Don't stop. That's not what I'm talking about. But prayer should be as regular as you are breathing. You say, Michael this is unrealistic. How can that be? Please try it. Listen to me. If you see prayer as a continuous spiritual activity, then when the need arises, you're not going to stop and make a U-turn and stop praying. You're really into it.
Just include whatever the challenge or whatever thing that just popped up, difficulty that popped up. And don't ever forget, please, please, please don't ever forget that the context of Paul asking us to pray in the Spirit is the spiritual warfare. Are you with me? It is in the context of being continuously alert, continuously ready for battle. You see, when you are praying in the Spirit all the time, you are in a state of watchfulness. You are in a state of alertness, of Satan's scheme all the time. You know the fascinating part about the next two verses in Ephesians 6.
It's fascinating to me anyway. Paul doesn't pray for himself. He doesn't pray for himself. He asks him to pray for him.
Look at verses 19 and 20. The healthiest prayer life is when we pray for one another. The most powerful prayer is when we are constantly praying for each other. Listen, I get more blessed when I pray for others than you can imagine. Prayer is not being self-absorbed.
My needs, my wants, my agenda, and become so overly occupied with self. When Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that's in prayer. Since you are continuously praying, you are continuously seeking His kingdom and His righteousness first.
He said, watch out. All of your needs are going to be met. This will be added to you. As I pray for you and you pray for me, that is the highest form of praying in the Spirit.
Verse 19, pray on my behalf that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. Don't miss this. Please, I plead with you. Don't miss this.
Don't miss this. He did not ask him to pray for his sore ankles because they have been in shackles and they probably swallowed and he was in pain. I promise you, I would have prayed for that. I asked you to pray for that.
That would be me. Hey, pray for my sore ankles. He didn't even ask him to pray that he may be set free from the prison from that miserable dungeon.
I would have done that. Oh my goodness, I would have made that my foremost in my mind. But no, not the great apostle Paul. His priorities were far from self-occupation. His primary concern was the gospel proclamation for his passion. His first passion is for the lost people to be saved. His plea for prayer is that the kingdom of God would expand. Now, he's asking believers to intercede on his behalf so that he will be faithful in his proclamation. To petition God to help him overcome that temptation that Satan is bringing his way.
To plead with his brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for strength to overcome Satan's scheme to silence him or make him compromise. The fact that he's in that miserable place. The fact that he's in chains. The fact that he's in solitary confinement. These were incidental as far as Paul was concerned.
They were incidental. Listen to me. He would rather have them pray for spiritual victory not even for his physical freedom.
Hear me right. I'm going to say that with fear and trepidation but it's the absolute truth. God cannot truly use a self-sufficient person. Oh, they may be big shots with tens of thousands of followers and oh, they may have created a personality cult with millions of people just saying, quoting them all the time. That doesn't mean God is using them. I'm talking about saving of souls. God cannot use a self-sufficient person.
Don't miss this. If the great apostle Paul recognizes the absolute necessity for God's people to intercede on his behalf, who are we not to ask for prayer? Why did Paul ask for prayer? Listen to me, beloved, and you know you see that every day in the news because he knew that Satan would go after spiritual leaders and pastors with vengeance as he's doing right now in order to discourage the sheep. Even in prison, he asked them to pray for the impact of the gospel, the impact of the gospel. But there's some irony here that I cannot conclude with that, draw your attention to it. Paul saw himself as an accredited ambassador of Jesus to the courts of Rome. Paul was proud in good sense, good pride, to be an ambassador of Christ. But look at the anomaly here.
It's an incredible anomaly. He is an ambassador in what? Chains. Ambassador in chains. Actually, in Rome.
Rome was at the height of its power at that time. Okay, so during that height of its power, in Rome, the dignitaries, the noble men, the wealthy people, the elite of society, and the ambassadors from other provinces would wear heavy gold chains around their neck and on their wrists. Big gold chains, especially in public occasions, public festivities, national days, all the big celebrations.
Have you seen sometimes in the crowning of a king or queen in England with them, they're just big occasions. They're all put on as much of their gold chains around their necks and on their wrists as they can literally carry. What are they doing? What are they doing? They're showing off their power. They're showing off their wealth.
They're showing off their status. Oh, but Paul knows that he is an ambassador of Christ crucified. He knows that he's a soldier in chains. And yet his biggest concern is the gospel.
It's the gospel of Jesus. That's his biggest concern. I want to ask you this as I conclude here, but I plead with you before God. I plead with every one of you here. When I ask you a question, please do not fudge.
Do not try to get out of it. You may not answer it in this moment, but you got to answer it yourself at some moment, at some time. And here's that question. What does your concern for the gospel, what does your concern for the gospel fit in in your life's priority? Where does it fit in?
Where does it fit in? Plead with you. Don't shrug it off. Don't rest until you answer it for yourself. Dr. Michael Youssef with challenging questions for you on this episode of Leading the Way. Want to hear more from Dr. Youssef?
You can do it in several ways. Listen online at ltw.org or listen with the Leading the Way app or by listening to the podcast. Details on all of these are at ltw.org. Oh, and in addition to a prayer-filled life, you're encouraged to dig deeper into God's word as we begin this new year. A great resource to help you learn more is Dr. Youssef's book, How to Read the Bible.
Here's more. Do you read the Bible as if your life depends on it? Well, you should. In Dr. Michael Youssef's book, How to Read the Bible, he reveals how the Bible guides you through life with faith and power. You'll understand that from the first pages of Genesis all the way through the last words of Revelation, God is pointing you toward the Lord who saves completely and eternally. In a day when so many preachers are saying that we need to ditch the Old Testament, we need to give up the Old Testament, I'm going to show you in this book how to read the Bible, that the two Old and New Testaments are interrelated. You cannot have one without the other.
One does not make sense without the other. And so I hope you're going to read that book and you're going to apply it to your life. It will strengthen your faith and your trust in the Word of God. Learn how to get your copy of Dr. Youssef's book, How to Read the Bible today when you visit ltw.org, ltw.org. And you can always call and speak to one of our ministry representatives at the call center. Order your copy that way. Call 866-626-4356. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.
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