No Compromise "No Empty Words, No White Lies, No Token Prayers…"

Militant Prayer

The following post is a manuscript is from a recent Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting at Heritage Baptist Church:

Ephesians 6:18-20

^“18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,  ¹⁹ and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,  ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

This evening we will seek to answer three questions from our passage:

1)   How must we pray?

2)   For whom must we pray?

3)   For what must we pray?

How Must We Pray

We must pray continually in the Spirit.

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit…”

The first thing that we must see is that: WE MUST PRAY. In the vss. 10-17, Paul has given an extensive listed of armor for the Christian’s battle against the ruler of darkness. Though the list is wonderfully crafted and important, it is all vain without prayer. The grammatical structure of this paragraph suggests that while putting on the “whole armor of God” is certainly important, it cannot be done apart from pray.

The second thing that we must see is that: We must pray CONTINUALLY. Just as the armor must be worn at all time, so should pray be continually offered to God. It is continuous prayer or as Paul would put it elsewhere, “Pray without ceasing.”

The third thing that we must see is that: We must pray continually IN THE SPIRIT. This idea of praying in the Spirit is not intended to be mystical or to refer to “speaking in tongues”, but rather it is used to refer to the Spirit’s prompting and directing of our prayers according to God’s will. And how is that we know God’s will? We know it and understand it from God’s Word. When we plead the promises of God’s word, God is pleased to answer us because it is His will to do what we ask of Him.

For example, Scriptures teaches us that “God desires all peoples to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” Upon reading this, we ought to see that we now have Biblical warrant to plead with God to save all peoples, from every kindred, tongue, tribe and nation.

Do not let a misunderstanding of the doctrines of grace stifle your prayers for the lost. Instead, allow the doctrines of grace to be a wonderful encouragement for you to boldly ask God to save all types of people. Whether someone is elect or not is not your concern when praying for their salvation. God will never be