Armor of God 7 – Praying in the Spirit at all times – Is that possible, praying without ceasing, how can I do that? Is that what it means?

The Armor of God is amazing, I am so thankful that God gave us His armor, and that He is steady and sure. We are on our 7th week of discussing the armor of God. We have founded it all on the belt of truth, the truth that God is good and we have the armor, and that we have the breastplate of righteousness, and the enemy cannot tell us otherwise.  The shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace make us ready to share these truths and not be tossed.  We have the shield of faith, a part of us because we have a faithful God!  The helmet of salvation is a part of us as well, and we will not let anyone tell us otherwise.  We have the word of God as our sword, our offensive weapon.  And now we get to talk about another weapon, praying in the spirit at all times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK5osdbqf9c

We are told to “Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:18 BSB.  Prayer in this verse is to exchange our wishes and will for God’s as He imparts faith.  So beautiful.  We may not feel like we are constantly praying, or exchanging our wishes and wills for Gods, but as we choose to focus on Him, and truth, it’s happening, and we are letting God transform us, and give us His amazing faith, and fruit of faithfulness.  We also get to ask for anything we or the body of Christ need, petition (or supplication) is that.  It says in many versions pray in the spirit at all times, but its more literally in every season, which means every opportunity that we have, we should take full advantage of.  I love that, let’s take full advantage of the minutes of this life we have been gifted to be more like Jesus, and love the body of Christ. Perseverance in this verse is only used in this verse, and its strong perseverance which prevails by interacting with God.  It brings to mind standing faith, not giving up no matter what the world says.  It means don’t cease.  It is all in the Spirit, or by means of the Spirit, because it’s the Holy Spirit in us that empowers us.  It says we are to maintain constant alertness also, but again, it’s the Holy Spirit in us, making this all possible.  And we have Jesus always there interceding for us. What a miracle.

There are still often doubts on praying at all times, even though it literally means at every opportunity, it can still feel impossible. But remember, we are not doing this from our flesh. Jesus “always lives to intercede for [us]”.  Hebrews 7:25b BSB.  In the Kenneth S. Wuest version, this verse reads Jesus is “always alive for the purpose of continually making intercession for them”.   Since we are the body of Christ, and Jesus is our head, the second we connect to Jesus, and are led by the spirit, where there is life and peace, we are praying in the spirit too.  Because Jesus is, and we are one spirit with Him. The body of Christ is connected too, and there is always somebody across the globe praying.  So, we are constantly interceding, and praying as and entire body when connected to the head.  But to me, the bigger key is that we are not ceasing. That means we are not choosing to stop. Even if we are not consciously connected to exchanging our thoughts and wills for Gods, we are not deciding to stop doing that. God says “let there be light”, and there was light, and the universe is still expanding to this day (Genesis 1:3 BSB).  He didn’t tell the light to cease, so it didn’t.  It’s the same with our prayers.  Speak them, and let the word of God work.  Don’t tell it to cease, and that is prayer without ceasing.

This is key.  Along with the fact that we haven’t told whatever we were or are praying for to cease.  God didn’t say light stop after He said light be, so light hasn’t stopped growing. 

It is so amazing that God has given us opportunity to support each other, and intercede for each other as He is doing for us.  We know that we have an enemy who is “seeking someone to devour” 1 Peter 5:8b BSB. And that the body of Christ, is going through the same suffering of resisting the temptation of the enemy to follow our “own evil desires” and “lured away and enticed (from James 1:14 BSB). We get to stand together, and point each other to Christ, pray, meaning exchange our will and thoughts for God’s, and God then restores, secures, strengthens and establishes us (from 1 Peter 5:10 BSB).  The word suffering here is pathema, and its redeptive, its only negative experienced outside of faith.  So when we resist the enemy, and every temptation of the enemy, and we stand together, in prayer, it grows us, builds our character. So let’s stand together, and speak life over one another so that we can resist the enemy, and our flesh, and stand with God, and grow up into the mature stature of Christ.

We have an advocate, a partner in the Holy Spirit.  So let’s utilize it. Let’s be led by the Spirit, where there is life and peace, and let’s let the Holy “Spirit Himself intercede for us” (from Romans 8:26 BSB). The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness (from Romans 8:26), and by definition this weakness is a terminal case. But He helps us.  And this word help, is 3 words used together for the first time.   And it means that we get to be co-workers with Christ, to aggressively seize or take hold of something.  So this could be aggressively take back what the enemy stole, or aggressively take hold of what Jesus offers.

What an amazing opportunity to partner with the Holy Spirit, to focus on Christ as our head, to be part of the body of Christ, and be in constant fellowship and communion with the Father, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  It is possible. We just get to let the Holy Spirit work through us. And choose to praise and rejoice forever in this truth.

This reminds me of an image I got last week based on a real experience with a harbor seal. But God just showed me this image of the harbor seal happily following me, and swimming around me, just watching me.  And I felt God say that He is watching us swim in His spirit, in His word, cheering us on, watching over us, and celebrating our every attempt to keep our mind stayed on Him.

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References

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