Being a Christian who doesn't pray regularly is like being a soldier who enters the battlefield unprotected. Prayer is essential to your life and growth. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah turns to Ephesians. Where the Apostle Paul offers instruction for taking prayer into the battlefield of life each and every day.
To introduce his special message, The Warfare of Prayer, Here's David.
Well, we have been studying prayer and understanding it as it helps us in our daily walk. But I wanted to end this discussion on prayer during the month of August with you by reminding you that prayer is also a weapon. In the book of Ephesians, where we're given the implements of spiritual warfare, we get to the end and then it says, Praying always with all prayer. That is such a part of our warfare. And if we would grasp that, if we would understand that, what a difference it could make.
So here is that lesson from Ephesians to encourage you and strengthen you and lift you up. and help you to use prayer as it was meant to be used as a weapon for winning spiritual warfare in your life. It begins right now. The Christian life is a life of warfare. And only as we take on the mentality of soldiers Are we able to move through this life and maintain our course?
and be what God wants us to be.
So, as we open our Bibles today to the book of Ephesians, we begin to read in the 18th verse. A section of Scripture that often is associated with the armor of the believer, but in essence it transcends the armor of the believer. It's beyond the armor of the believer, though it could easily be included as a part of it. Listen to what it says. Ephesians 6:18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
Being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me, 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 chains. that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. But that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you, whom I have sent to you for this very purpose.
that you may know our affairs and that he may comfort your hearts. Peace to the brethren in love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen. Throughout the scripture, there are illustrations of the power of prayer in the midst of battle.
Moses prayed on the mountain, and God gave Joshua victory over the Amalekites. Joshua prayed on the walls and Jericho fell right before them. Gideon prayed, and his 300 soldiers routed the Midianite men and women who fought. As you study the Old Testament, you will see that when Israel fought in her own strength, She was defeated. But when she cast herself upon the Lord and trusted in the strength of the Lord, she was victorious.
That's A situation that is never altered throughout the whole Old Testament. When Israel trusted God, she was victorious. When she trusted the arm of the flesh, she failed. after conquering the Assyrians. King Hezekiah wrote these words.
He said, With him, the king of the Assyrians is the arm of the flesh. But with us is the Lord our God to help us and fight our battles, and the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Listen to those words. With him is the arm of flesh, but with us... With us Is the Lord our God.
And the link that puts us in touch with the Lord our God is prayer. But the Word of God tells us that there's no such thing as living the Christian life without prayer. And while we want to continue to grow in our ability to pray, we can't ever make it if we don't pray. And so, at the end of this whole section where Paul is teaching on how to be good soldiers in the Christian faith. He tells us that we're to be praying always with all prayer.
And I want to just teach one verse of scripture primarily today, if I can, and that's the 18th verse. And I want to tell you quickly seven things that are in that verse about how we pray as warriors. First of all, I want you to notice the persistence of the warrior's prayer. It says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Watching to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
I want you to notice How Many times the word all or always is in that verse. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end. With all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. How many times is that? Class, four times in one verse.
Is the word all. or always. This verse takes a comprehensive view of the ministry of prayer. It is very similar to what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians when he said, pray without ceasing. Those verses always have challenged me.
How do you pray without ceasing? And I can imagine teenagers and young people thinking: you know, who goes around muttering prayers all the time? It was like somebody in a cult or something, pray without ceasing. What does it mean to pray without ceasing? It doesn't mean we go around muttering under our breath.
But that we keep a constant attitude of trust and communication with God at every moment. If you were in the military and you were out at the front and you were the communication person, You wouldn't be talking all of the time, but you would leave your receiver on so that you could be in instant contact any moment. With your commander-in-chief, or whoever was directing the affair. We are always to be available to God as He is always available to us, to be praying without ceasing. means that we're living our life In fellowship with God, I read a statement that might help.
Here's what it says: To pray at all times is to live in continual God-consciousness. where everything we see and experience becomes a kind of prayer. Lived in deep awareness and surrender to our Heavenly Father.
Now, watch this and just kind of think your way through the day with me. To obey this exhortation means that when we're tempted, We hold our temptation before God and we ask Him for help. When we experience something good and beautiful, we immediately thank the Lord for it. When we see evil around us, we pray that God would make it right and that perhaps He might even use us as a part of that. When we meet somebody who doesn't know Christ, we pray for God to draw that person to Himself.
When we encounter trouble, we turn to God as our deliverer. In other words, our life becomes a continual ascending prayer, a perpetual communing with our Heavenly Father. Instead of honking our horn at the guy who's driving crazy. We give him to God. God Do what you need to do to get that guy in line.
When you see something that's Beautiful. You're driving by the ocean and the sunset is out. You don't just take it for granted. You just offer up a prayer. Lord, thank you for this beautiful day.
I've gotten into the habit when I get up in the morning, first thing out of my mouth is, Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for another day. Thank you for a night's rest. Thank you for this new day. Praying always is staying in a prayer spirit.
Satan will use every single device he can to keep us from praying because he knows. how powerful it is in our life. He will use fatigue and doubt and discouragement and depression. to get into our lives and keep us from staying in touch with God. We are called upon in this passage of Scripture to stay in touch with God.
All prayer. all times. Always. Pray without ceasing. It's not muttering prayers, it's just staying in touch.
Do you know that when you're married for forty years, You don't have to talk all the time to be in communication. Have you noticed that? You're just in communication. You can pick up where you left off two hours ago and you don't have to catch up to do it. And as you all know, You don't have to speak to communicate.
Raised eyebrows say a lot. Stay in touch. Are you with me on this? Pray always. Be in fellowship with God so that you don't have to.
catch up to say A little whisper of prayer. Lord, thank you. Thank you. Whenever you're prompted, you just pray. Notice the possibility of the warrior's prayer.
That's the second thing. It says, praying always with all prayer. And I want to give you four things about this real quickly. Did you know that we can pray on any occasion? in public worship, in prayer groups, and in private.
We can pray in any location, in the car, in the classroom, in the office. around the family table. We can pray in any situation. In prosperity and in adversity, we can pray in the morning, we can pray at noon, and we can pray at night. and we can pray for any supplication.
We can pray for personal needs and family needs and business needs and church needs. All things should be bathed in prayer. And it ought to be possible at any time and without long preparation for us to get in touch with God. Prayer, talking with God, should come as naturally as breathing. We should be able to say, Lord, show me what to do here.
Lord, I got this situation. Help me know what's next. Lord, help me to understand your will about this. We're kind of in a conversation. Constant running conversation with our Lord because He's become so special to us.
We pray. in any situation for any supplication. on any occasion in any location. What I'm trying to say to you men and women is you don't have to come to church to pray. You don't have to be on your knees to pray.
Prayer is communion. with a friend. Prayer is fellowship with your God. Prayer is continually Being aware of God's presence in your life. This is something you cultivate as you grow in Christ.
Notice the petition of the warrior's prayer. It says praying always with all prayer and supplication. The word supplication means to ask. Ask God for what you need. Of course, you were to come in worship and thanksgiving and gratitude, and we enter into the presence of the Lord through the gates of thanksgiving.
But sometimes I think we get all the way through the gates and we forget why we've come. We've come through the gates of thanksgiving so that we can ask. What is it? The Bible says in James, ye have not because what? Ye ask not.
I don't want to get to heaven and realize that God wanted to do much more for me than I asked him to do. Don't be afraid to ask. When the Bible tells us that we are to pray always with all prayer and supplication, it means that the things we have need of we're to ask God for. We are to come and in supplication were to ask him. That's why we keep prayer lists.
How many of you have a prayer list? Let me see. Anyone got a prayer list beside me? Too many Christians spend their energy worrying about things and they should pray about things. Asking is the rule of the kingdom, and God has the resources to meet your need.
Can you imagine your children asking, and you have the resources, and you don't give it? Just as a father gives to his children in an earthly way.
So God gives to his children when they ask. If you read that in Matthew 7, You will see that God The Son, Jesus Christ, used that very illustration. He says, Which of you has a child and he needs bread and you give him a stone? Which of you has a child and he needs fish? and you give him a serpent.
So then he said, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your Father in heaven know how to give good gifts to you who ask? You have to ask. That's the petition of this prayer. And this one verse is pregnant with this truth about how we pray. If you only had one verse on prayer, this would be enough.
To help you know what to do. Ephesians 6:18.
So you've got the persistence of the warrior's prayer and the possibilities of it in the petition. Notice the power of it in verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication. In the spirit. What does it mean to pray in the Spirit?
Praying in the spirit means To find out what the Spirit is doing and pray in the Spirit. How do you find out what the Spirit is doing? You read the Word of God. And the Bible says this: if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you ask anything in my will, I will do it.
How do you find out what the will of God is? You read the Word of God, you find out what the will of God is, and the Holy Spirit takes the will of God and interprets it in your heart, and you pray that back to God. You pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. There are some things you know for a fact that are in the will of God. The salvation of your friends and of your loved ones.
You can find out how to pray in the Spirit when you read the Word of God and find out what the Spirit is up to. Otherwise, you are praying in your own power. Romans 8 says that it is only through the Spirit's power that we can pray in the will of God. Romans 8:26 and 27. You can put it in your notes and look it up later.
So, as you spend time with God through prayer and Bible reading, the Spirit makes clear what the will of God is. You come into an agreement with it and you pray in the Spirit's power. I remember when I was teaching the book of Daniel, I came across this. Daniel was in captivity in Babylon. And he began to read.
Jeremiah's prophecy. And in Jeremiah's prophecy, there was a promise that God was going to bring his people back out of captivity after a period of time. And Daniel got that prophecy in front of him. And he read it back to God in his prayer. And he said, Oh God, this is what you said.
Now, do what you said you were gonna do. And of course, God did that. Was Daniel praying in the will of God? Absolutely. He was certain his prayer was going to be answered because he was praying the promises of God right back to him.
That's how you pray in the Spirit. Find out what God is up to. Is God anxious that your marriage succeed? Absolutely. Pray.
In the power of the Holy Spirit, for what you know to be the will of God. And that's where you will find the energy. in your prayer with God. Notice the precision of the warrior's prayer in the same verse. It says, be watchful to this end.
The warrior has to be watchful in his prayer life. Let's see if we can explore that for a moment and make it help us. Let it help us in our prayers. Are you watchful in prayer? That doesn't mean you pray with one eye open.
That's not what it's talking about. It doesn't mean you do, like we used to do as children in prayer meetings, continue to look up to see if they're almost done, you know?
So it can be over. Watchful praying is very important. The Bible says we must diligently pray and be vigilant, permitting nothing to disrupt our prayer life. Prayer is not just the time that you spend before the Lord, and I've learned this the hard way. Prayer begins hours before your prayer time.
In the decisions that you make, The prayer warrior guards his time, plans his schedule, watches for everything that feeds the prayer life. and guards against anything that will distract from the prayer life. One of the things I've done now for years is to find a good book on prayer and to read a chapter out of that book every day to prepare my heart for praying. It's like priming the pump. It's preparing your heart to pray.
And Jesus commands us that we're to watch and pray. Lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak, and we can all say amen to that. The spirit's willing, the flesh is what's weak.
So, when you watch and pray, what do you do? You get a strategy for your prayers. You turn your prayers into the objective of your life, and you find a time to pray, and you guard that time. You prepare your heart.
So that nothing interrupts that. The word watch in the Greek language actually means to stay awake. It's used by the military to warn sentries of their duty. They were to stay awake when watching the gate. I know that I could Go off on this business of falling asleep while you pray.
How many beside the preachers ever fallen asleep while you've been praying? Kind of embarrassing, isn't it? Lord, I'm sorry. Hi, I'm so sorry. Are you still there?
Yeah. And you know, sometimes that's a matter of not just getting enough sleep the night before.
Sometimes it's a matter of. What's going on in your own life? I've learned That when I'm fatigued, I walk and pray. You know, it says, watch and pray, but I walk and pray. In the hallways where my office is, I walk up and down the hallway and I pray out loud.
It's really hard to fall asleep when you're walking, you know? I know some people sleepwalk, but I have never heard anybody sleep, walk, and pray. And then I pray out loud. to guard my time. I don't want God to think.
While he's talking to me, I've gone off. in some other direction.
So I watch and pray. The Bible says in Colossians 4:2, continue in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. And if you look that up in the language of the New Testament, the word continue there means be devoted to prayer. Devote yourself to prayer. Paul is telling the Colossians and he's telling us that we're to devote ourselves to prayer.
That means to earnestly and courageously and consistently bring everything in our lives before God and make prayer a priority. It can't be, I'm going to pray when I get around to it. How many of you know that doesn't work? You can't say, well, if I get home in time tonight and get everything else done before I go to bed, I'll pray. I've tried that, it doesn't work.
Prayer has to be a priority in your life. You have to devote yourself to it. And you know what I've discovered? I've discovered that when you finally realize how vital it is into your life, you will do that. And sometimes we don't learn that until we're down the road a ways as Christians.
We think we can just sail along and things are going pretty good. We're making it all right, and so we can throw God a few prayers here and there and not really get serious about it. But when you face threatening situations in your life and problems that are greater than you can handle, you get serious about prayer and you realize that prayer has always been a priority, even though you've not honored it in the past. Peter gave this word to us in our attitude of prayer, and I think this is especially true for those of us who live in this generation. Listen, he said in 1 Peter 4:7, but the end of all things is at hand.
You ever get that impression when you read the news these days? The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious, watch this, and watchful. in your prayers. Should we be wringing our hands because we read the newspaper and Wonder what's going to happen.
We don't have to sit around and, oh, isn't, you know, ain't things awful. Yeah, things are the way they are. But we can pray. Amen. We can pray for our country.
We can pray for our state. We can pray for. Our president. This is what the scripture says. The end of all things is at hand.
So get serious and watchful in your prayers. Amen. That's where the answer is. We've already proven there's no political answer to the problems we've got in this country. No political answer.
I don't care what Party you belong to, or who your favorite politician is, the answer is not in the political arena. But I promise you, if this country ever got serious about prayer, you'd see some changes in a hurry. And then notice the perseverance of the warrior's prayer. Being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Here's the challenge: if I could be so bold.
It's possible, in fact, it's quite easy to get pumped up about prayer.
Some of you walk out of this service and you go home and you'll start praying. You'll pray tonight and tomorrow. It's easy to start praying after you've heard a message on prayer, or you've read a good book on prayer, or when you're going through a difficult time in your life, but the challenge is to keep on praying no matter what. Romans 12, 12 says, rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.
When it comes to praying, we need to hold on, not quit or yield. Prayer is never going to be something we just automatically do. It is a proactive thing on our part. It requires discipline. We have to discipline ourselves for godliness' sake.
We have to make a strategy to make it happen. And finally, there's the purpose of the warrior's prayer, and I can just touch on it. In verse 19, Paul says, I want you to pray for all the saints and for me. We don't have to fight this battle alone. Amen?
We can pray for one another. We can intercede for one another. We can hold up one another's arms. We can bring people together and pray through the issues that we have in our lives. The purpose of our praying is that we might pray for others.
And Paul gave a very specific request, did he not? He said, pray for me, not that I'll get out of jail, isn't that interesting? Don't pray for me that things will be better for me. Don't pray for me that I'll be better physically. He said, Pray for me that I will have boldness to speak the mystery of Christ.
Hallelujah. That's the kind of prayers we ought to pray. And then he said, in case you want to know more about how you can pray, I'm sending Tychicus to you, and he's going to tell you everything about me so you'll really be an informed prayer. No such thing as general praying that has power. We pray particularly, don't we?
We pray for the needs that people have. That's why we have missionary letters and prayer lists and. prayer chains and websites for prayer. If you want to know the power that God intended you to have. Began to pray.
And you know what? We're all beginners at prayer when we start.
Sometimes we're beginners for a lot of our life. But we've got to pray. Pray. Well, that is true, isn't it? We begin where the Spirit of God intersects with our heart and we realize this is something we need to do.
And we need to do it more often and we need to do it better. And I hope maybe the instruction of this past month will have encouraged and strengthened you in your prayer life. And I want to remind you one last time that there is a resource that we can send to you that will be an asset to you in your praying. It's called Everything to God in Prayer. It's a beautiful gift book, and it's the resource for the month of August.
And this is the last time I will be mentioning this on the air. You can get this book for a gift of any size. Send your gift today and simply say, Please send me the prayer book, Everything to God in Prayer, and we'll do that. With joy, knowing that it will be such a blessing in your life. It's Friday.
Make sure you get to church on the Lord's Day, and we'll join you right here. For the next edition of Turning Point on Monday. Thanks for listening. The message you just heard came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah.
Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where to find it, visit our website davidjeremiah.org/slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book for strengthening your prayer life.
everything to God in prayer. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard New International and New King James Versions. Complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study.
If God's moving in your life through this ministry, let us know at Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we begin the series on Joseph: God Meant It for Good on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
