Author: missionspaul

Many have brought their interpretation as to what the Apostle means when he says, “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 Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6 v 18

What we know is Paul has been thinking about the Holy Spirit and His help in our lives throughout this letter, 16 times actually and this is the last time before he closes.

He is there helping us to submit to one another; helping us in our relationships, in our home and work.

Over the last 8 days I chose to write a prayer regarding ‘the armour of God’ because it is only through prayer that we put these items on. Who helps us in those prayers? Of course, in every aspect of our lives the Helper is helping. None more so than in prayer.

I think that’s what Paul is saying. The Holy Spirit alongside us, helping us to pray.

The Message says, “In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”

So …

1. If you are praying for you then pray for who you are more than what you can get.
2. If you are praying for others then pray with your eyes open so that you give a helping hand where you can.
3. If prayer enables you to get through any occasion then pray every day and all the time, don’t give up.

“Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

The greatest need for the Church today is not to move into the digital world but to move into the world with prayer.

The world is not waiting for the Church to become modernised and slick in front of a camera but it is waiting for the Church to discover the ancient paths of being in front of God.

Great communication is only successful if there has been communication with a great God.

A final prayer for the armour of God …

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6 v 17

Lord, cover my mind, you are my Helmet of Salvation. It is the area that becomes the playground for so many negative thoughts. Be my Saviour in that place. Save me from every anxious thought. These are not my thoughts, they come from the enemy, I must take hold of them and stop their destructive pathway. Saviour, save me. My hope is in you. My future is in you. I was saved, I am saved and I will be saved in the future.

Word of God live in me and live through me. Word of God speak to me and speak through me. My only weapon is your Rhema, your spoken word in season for my circumstance. You are my now God with a now Word for today. Be in my mouth today as a sword to fight every opposing, declining and oppressive attack, let us cut it into pieces. I choose today to not be silent but I will speak Christ over my life and into my situation. The creative agent of God, Christ the Word in my mouth is stronger than any foe. So bring to my memory a passage or a verse which specifically applies to this immediate situation I am in today.

So fill me again and again with the Spirit so that Holy Spirit will illuminate the Bible to me but also bring to my mouth the Rhema, the Word of God, Christ, the Sword of the Spirit.

My Saviour and Sword, I am now complete.

Amen

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6 v 16

Lord, you are my shield. The enemy doesn’t give warning of the attacks. I don’t see in advance where the next hurt will come from. It may happen today so I lift you up. Christ over me will extinguish whatever fiery attack that comes my way.

I don’t need to ask ‘How will I make it through?’ or believe ‘I’m not going to make it.’ I stand with YOU covering me.

When anxiety comes it is extinguished because I have lifted Christ over me.

When condemnation comes I get my shield up.

When doubt rages I will extinguish it and I will keep standing firm.

Just as Roman soldiers saturated their shields in water to extinguish the fiery arrows so I also ask that you saturate my life in your presence and in your promise for my life.

My faith is held high and covers my life completely. You empower me to stand against every attack on my mind and heart.

When I don’t think I will make it, I will make it.

When I feel alone, I am not.

What you have said about who I am and my situation outweighs anything anyone else says about it.

You are my shield and helper and my glorious sword. My enemies will cower before you and you will march all over them. (Deut 33 v 29)

Amen

“ … with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Ephesians 6 v 15

Lord, I see with fresh eyes this morning that the gospel I am called to is one of peace. Anger is all around. People are anxious about many things. They are highly strung in their opinions and they express these freely. But you have brought good news; news of peace that is good. Of course the ultimate peace you bring is not between human beings but between us and you. Anger incurred from some person is one thing but the anger from an omnipotent God is something completely different. I don’t have that. I don’t face your anger. Thank you Jesus for taking that wrath.

Give me divine moments to tell people that they can live their lives with the joy of knowing only peace and not anger. To live peacefully is all of grace.

Sin breeds anger but your grace breeds peace. The battle I am in is a war between sin and grace.

I stand in this battle with my shoes of readiness. I am ready to move. Whatever you have for me today and whoever I come across today I am ready. I want to bring good news and be good news of peace. I want to declare ‘Our God reigns!’

Let my mouth be filled with such vocabulary. Where others may rant let me raise the God of Peace into the circumstance and situation we are in.

Amen

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place Ephesians 6 v 14

Lord, I put on you today. I clothe myself with Christ. You are Truth. I fasten you around myself. All around me people are stumbling and are unstable in all their ways. But you are the answer. You have the final say in my life. How do I journey the relationships of my life? How do I submit? Do I do that through emotion and how I feel at any one time? Do I do that simply because I am told to? Is it because it is culturally acceptable? No none of those Lord. I do it because of you. I discover truth bows to TRUTH, to you, the Suffering Servant.

I live in a world of fake news and people being fake. I slow my mind so not to believe everything I see and hear. In order to resist deception I hide more in you.

So with the belt of Truth around me I now receive from you the breastplate of righteousness. I clothe myself with Christ. I am not unaware of the devils schemes. Voices of accusation penetrate my ears and mind and sometimes I see them from the unlikeliest of places. But I choose not to be clothed by accusation but by righteousness. It is not mine, it is yours. Your righteousness contains right thinking and right actions. It is not what I can drum up myself. All my righteous acts are like filthy rags. I guard my heart for it is the well-spring of life. It is protected by your righteousness; my thoughts, my feelings, my ambitions and conscience are precious to you and are crucial to my future. Where I have been wounded, heal me.

The accusations have no hold on me because I have the belt and the breastplate on me. The Truth and the Righteousness of Christ clothe me.

Spirit of God hide me in the Truth and the Righteousness of Christ.

Amen

It isn’t my armour it is God’s.

Therefore put on the full armour 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. Ephesians 6 v 13

Lord, I have fought and argued in my life and I have also run and hid. But you offer me an alternative. To stand. Fully-prepared, immovable and still standing no matter what comes my way. I choose to stand before the battle of today, during it and after it.

I choose to stand and watch you do your work.

I stand protected by your armour. It is not my strength, power or armour, it is yours.

I stand with you, by your side, never forsaken nor forgotten. You are near.

In the day of evil, during the onslaught of the schemes of the enemy, I remain.

I don’t need to react like others do. There’s no need to rant either in my head or for the world to see. I don’t need to retreat either. I just stand here. Not moving. Stubbornly standing.

I stand in what I know. You.

I stand protected. By you.

I stand in peace. It is your battle not mine.

I stand in victory. I know who you are!

So I get up onto my feet. I will not indulge in self-pity.

I still and rest my soul.

I stand in you.

Amen

Prayer is not just talking to God it is preparing yourself to fight against what will hurt.

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. Ephesians 6 v 12

Lord, the defeated don’t fight anymore, but those who follow you know the battle is relentless.

I am in a war. It’s the war of the soul. It is our struggle. I am not alone. It is a community fight. You fill us with the Spirit and the impact is seen in our submission in community and in marriage, in the home and work. It is also where the arguments exist. But that’s not where you want me to argue. I begin again today. Whether hurting or angry, bitter or complaining, I silence myself. That person is not the problem. So I refuse to argue anymore in my mind with them.

As I talk to you I know there is one talking to me constantly moving against your purposes in my life, church, community and nation. He sows seeds of doubt and confusion. He wants many to retreat and surrender to him not YOU.

So I contend in prayer.

As I talk to you I also declare against the enemy of my soul. I fight the rulers, authorities, the powers and the spiritual forces. I don’t care how organised the devil is nor where these positional forces are but I speak radically and passionately in prayer against those opposed to your purposes. I am not sure how to differentiate them, others have their opinion on this, but I don’t care, I just take my stand.

I know they seek to frustrate Your plan for my life. So I commit myself to your will once again.

I know they seek to attack me when I least expect it so I stand alert today. I stand alert to the community you have placed me in. I stand alert in all my relationships with people. I stand alert and I go to the cross.

They seek discouragement but you cannot discourage what has died to self.

In prayer I die.

In the Amen I rise, ready for the battle has been won for today.

Amen

Life is tough. But we don’t need to go under.

There is another way.

Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6 v 11

Lord, fill me again and again with the Spirit.

I am aware of the battle I am in. I will not run from it. I will not cave into it. I will stand up against it. I stand in faith.

I set my face like flint, I resolutely set myself towards what is ahead of me, just like you did.

I am where you have placed me. So I will remain. I will not be removed. I will keep going.

I embrace courage. I say NO to easier paths.

I choose my attitude and my actions for today, this is my armour. My character is inside of me and it is there where the armour is needed.

My outward appearance is not as important as what is inside of me.

I can only do this battle with your armour. I can only go through the pain and the trials with your armour. So Lord, fill me again and again with the Spirit.

The devil is my accuser and I am not unaware that he is scheming even now. He has his methods, crafty and deceptive they may be, but he will not outwit me, for you are with me and your armour is on me. He may condemn me but there is no condemnation. He may accuse me before you but your blood speaks a better word. He is a liar and there is no truth in him.

I put on your armour. I clothe myself with Christ. I take my stand. I am ready today.

Amen

It’s finally. After all that has been said …

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians 6 v 10

Lord Jesus, if the Apostle could write those words while he was in prison then in my circumstance I also know I can have confidence that you will protect me and strengthen me.

If he knew what it was to suffer like the persecuted Church today and if he went through stoning to the point of nearly dying and found he could rely on you, then so can I.

If he didn’t know what tomorrow would bring though he knew it involved pain and if he could focus on being strong in the Lord then I can certainly face my tomorrow.

If he instructs the Church (in a city where witchcraft and worship to Artemis was rife) to demonstrate the power of the Lord then in my locality I can ask for the power of the Lord to triumph over all powers.

Finally, after all he has already said about the power of resurrection (1: 19-20) may that same power which raised Christ from the dead be in me today.

Finally, after all he has already said about the power that transforms (3: 7) and how the gospel had radically changed him then I have confidence in that same gospel today.

Finally, after all he has said about the power of love (3: 18-19) I pray that people will see Jesus in me today. Help me see Jesus in other people and in the circumstances of my life.

Amen

I don’t think there has been a year quite like this year in my lifetime. The pandemic and then issues like identity and race have become a very important discussion point in our society and Churches.

If this is the Apostles household code then it is at first reading uncomfortable reading. Words like submission cause a reaction, obedience in the home between children to their parents have also responses of the many horrible stories of abuse and now slavery? Surely Paul will call for the emancipation of slaves? It doesn’t even appear the thought had crossed his mind.

I think perhaps Paul is not trying to devise a new way of life but how the Spirit would help us in the one we are in.

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favour when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favouritism with him.” Ephesians 6 v 5-9.

Slavery seems to have been universal at this time. There are estimates of up to 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. Many were well-treated and many were abused. They included not only domestic slaves and manual labourers but educated people as well. Nobody challenged this constitution.

Paul is not looking to a new world but with the filling of the Spirit our lives are then changed and charged with purpose so that whatever we are doing we are really serving Christ. Behind their master is Christ, maybe hard to imagine, but the Spirit can help you find the face of Christ even in the worst of places.

But again, slaves have rights according to Paul. Masters are given 3 principles to live by:

1. Do the same as slaves. That is if you hope to receive respect then show it; if you hope to receive service then give it.
2. Don’t threaten. They are not to misuse their position of authority.
3. Realise that Jesus is the Master. He is over them as much as they are over the slaves.

The Spirit impacts our church relationships, our marriages, our homes and our work places. That’s why we need to go on being filled.