SPIRITUAL ARMOR Part 4

8 14 12 Spiritual Armor Part 4  

Don’t forget to pray.  

Scripture:  Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV) 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.

Note: We continue with our study about the Spiritual Armor God provides to the believer. Today we will look at the last piece of God’s Armor listed in our text. Please continue to keep in mind, this study is about a spiritual battle being waged within us and around us. The battle is not about the “things of this world” but a battle about your heart and your soul.

The last piece of spiritual equipment available to us is prayer. Verse 18 reveals to us that we are to      “…pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” To be faithful to Jesus Christ requires supernatural power and provision. This power and provision is ours through prayer. We often think of prayer as the way in which we make our needs known to God but God is omniscient, he already knows our needs. What he really wants us to do is to make sure the need we are praying about is in accordance with his will. Although there is no specific formula to prayer they are several conditions that we must meet in order for our prayers to be answered. 

1. Our faith in God must be steadfast. When we pray we must believe and exercise faith that God hears our prayers and has the power to answer them. We must also believe that when we pray God will answer our prayers in the best way possible. (Mark 11:24) 

2. We are to make our prayers in Jesus’ name. We are pray in the power and the authority of His Name. A power he has made available to us through the Holy Spirit and the authority he has given us as children of God. Jesus is God. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. When we pray in Jesus’s name we are praying believing God loves his children and wants to respond to our needs and requests. All answers to prayer will always be in our best interest.

3. We must always pray in agreement with God’s will for our prayers to be answered. There is only one way to know God’s desires, plans and purposes for his creation; the Bible. When we know God’s heart and his will, his plan and purpose as revealed in the word of God, we can pray with confidence and know that God not only hears us but will answer our prayers. 1 John 5:14-15 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.” Any prayer we pray that is based on the promises of God will be answered; we may not know exactly when or how, but it will be answered. This confidence is especially ours when we pray for victory over our enemy, Satan. God wants us to be victorious in our journey of faith.

4. We must pray according to God’s will. For our prayers to be effective, we must be living in God’s will. To live in accordance with God’s will is to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). The apostle John who was deeply loved by Jesus wrote the following in 1 John 3:21b-22 “…we have anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” Loving God, submitting our will to his, following his commands and striving to please him in all we do and say is necessary for receiving answers to our prayers. God wants to have a personal relationship with us. He will do His part; but we must do our part.

We are to live our lives in a continuous attitude of prayer; this means we are to pray often, asking the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. The moment we are tempted or feel we are under attack, we are to pray, pray for strength, wisdom and the power necessary to overcome all temptations. Temptation is not a sin but what we do with temptation can result in sin. We are not only to pray for ourselves, we are to pray for one another and if need be join them in their spiritual battles as they seek to defeat the enemy that is coming against them.

Word from the Lord: “Beloved, pray persistently and be alert to all that is going on around you. The enemy is seeking every opportunity made available to him to attack you and destroy your faith. My Holy Spirit will guard your heart and will alert you when the attacks come. Don’t drop your guard, be spiritually sensitive, stay in my Word and more importantly, live it out. Don’t forget to pray for others. Many today from all over the world will lose their life rather than renounce their faith. Pray for them to have a powerful witness before those who are unsaved, those who do not know Me. Pray that their unshakable faith that resulted in their loss of life will be a strong witness to the unsaved and that countless numbers will come to faith by confessing Me as their Lord and Savior.”

Did the Lord speak to you today?  Why not write it down and claim it for His Glory.

Prayer:  What do you need to pray to the Lord today? Listen to your heart. He loves you!