|
|
BATTLE IN PRAYER by Amy sholdt Ephesians 6:18 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.
In this verse Paul is first telling us to pray in the Spirit. When we are in the Spirit praying, we are not being guided by our desires and our will; but we are being guided by the Spirit and therefore praying God’s Will. Our own words will accomplish little but when we join with the Holy Spirit in prayer and follow His direction, God’s power is added to the words we pray and that is when we see things happen – that is when we know things are happening even when we can’t see them.
Secondly, we need to pray on all occasions. This means during times of darkness, temptation, sadness, joy, blessings, etc. We need to pray even when we don’t feel like it… we need to pray especially when we don’t feel like it. This is probably when Satan is trying to keep us from praying and messing with his business. When we are praying on all occasions we are keeping in contact with God – to hear from Him, follow Him, keep on His path, and in His Spirit.
We also need to pray with all kinds of prayers and requests. This includes petitions for mercy, thanksgivings for blessings, confessions of sins, mental and vocal prayers, public and private, etc. Basically we need to come to the Lord with everything at all times in all ways.
In the second part of the verse, we read that prayers are not only about our concerns and ourselves but that we need to “be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” In the Amplified Bible it tells us to, “keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance.” Be alert, looking purposely (not just glancing around) and with perseverance (never quitting or giving up) to “see” whom the Lord has put in your life and on your heart to pray for.
Did you notice that it says to “always keep on praying?" That doesn’t mean sometimes, occasionally or even frequently – always means always – all ways and at all times we must pray for the saints. Who are the saints? Anyone that is a child of God. Paul also says all the saints – that means the ones we know and the ones we don’t know, the saints all over this world. All saints need prayer, no matter who they are or what they do – they need our intercessory prayer and we are called to pray for them.
This one verse tells us how, when, and who to pray for but why do we need to pray. Looking at the verses that precede this one, we need to pray because we are in battle!
Ephesians 6:10 – 12 say, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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.”
Who are we fighting? We are fighting the devil’s schemes; the rulers, authorities, and powers of the dark world; and the spiritual forces of evil. Where are these forces? They are in the heavenly realms. These are not physical forces we are fighting but spiritual ones. Not only that, these forces are in the heavenly realms!
To fight in a spiritual battle we need spiritual armor; which means we need the armor of God. Each piece of armor of God is described in Ephesians 6:14-17. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Fortunately God has given us each piece of armor; but, have you put yours on today? Have you put on your belt of truth? Your breastplate of righteousness? Your shoes with the readiness of the gospel of peace? Have you put on your shield of faith? Your helmet of salvation? And your sword of the Spirit? If not get them on and get ready. We are in the midst of battle!
Look at Ephesians 6:10; the verse before all these:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
To be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, we must put on His armor. Without the Lord’s strength and without his might power, we will be useless in fighting the spiritual forces of evil. We become empowered by and draw strength from the Lord through the times we spend with Him and as we listen and obey Him. Only then, with His power and strength and with our armor on, can we strike out against the dark forces and come away as victors.
Let’s look at all these verses together:
Eph 6:10-17 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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. 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
After your salvation, the greatest experience you could ever have in your life is the experience with the unseen Person of the Holy Spirit. “Holy Ghost” and “Holy Spirit” refer to the same Person.
The COMFORTER
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (John 14:16-17).
Jesus, talking to His disciples in one of the last meetings He had with them before He was crucified, told them He was going away to be with the Father. As He told them these things, His disciples were sad because they wondered how they would cope without Him.
But what kind of Comforter was Jesus talking about? Was He talking about a passive helper, one who just says, “Oh, don’t worry about the problem, every thing is going to be alright”? Was He talking about One who’ll suffer with you when you suffer or tell you, “Don’t worry, move forward, I’ll be with you?” Was that the kind of Comforter Jesus was talking about? Absolutely not!
The Amplified Bible translation lets us know that the Comforter Who has been sent to go along with us is pro-active by giving us six synonyms of the word “Comforter” (Parakletos). They are Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby.
THE COUNSELLOR
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengt-hener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever…” (John 14:16 Amp).
When you receive the Holy Spirit, He becomes your Counsellor. He is the One who gives you advice, but the kind of advice He gives is not passive. The word “counsellor” is a legal term which means “legal adviser.” This simply implies that as your Counsellor, the Holy Spirit gives you legal advice, He becomes your lawyer.
There are issues of life not expressly dealt with in the Scriptures for which you require guidance. For example, things that concern daily living such as decision-making, travelling or even making purchases. Perhaps you want to see a friend and you want to know whether he’s in or not. There’s no way you can tell that if you search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. But you can hear the Holy Spirit speak to you. You can walk in His counsel and make the right choices and decisions in your life.
One day, while Peter was praying in the house of Simon the tanner, the Spirit of God said to him, “Three men seek you, I sent them. Go with them.”
“And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. And the spirit bade me go with them..." (Acts 11:11-12).
Peter said, “The Spirit bade me go…” The Holy Spirit can tell you to do something and He can tell you not to. He can direct you. Has He ever told you to do anything? Has He instructed you about anything before? Are you acquainted with the Counsellor or do you find yourself always getting advice from people? Let the Holy Spirit function in you. He’ll talk to you and instruct you.
THE HELPER
The Holy Spirit is also your Helper. When you receive Him into your life, you should never say again, “I don’t have anybody to help me,” because He’s your Helper.
While meditating many years ago, the Holy Spirit inspired this thought in me and I penned it down. I wrote, “God has the right people in the right place to help me at the right time.” Why? It’s because the Holy Ghost is my Helper and when He needs to use somebody to help me, He’ll get anybody to do it. He’s my Helper and He can assign anybody to it. There are people who will help me even when they don’t want to, because the Holy Ghost compels them to.
The psalmist calls the Holy Spirit a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). When he says “a very present help,” it doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit is one out of the many “present helps.” By attaching the “very” to the “present help” the psalmist lets us know he’s referring to a definite personality, in spite of the generic tone that the “a” suggests.
He could simply have said, “He is a present help in trouble,” instead he strengthens it by saying, “He’s ‘a very present’ help.” In other words, His presence with you is something you don’t need to doubt at all. You don’t have to look for Him. If you ever get into trouble, you might as well laugh and say, “Thank You Holy Spirit, I’m not alone!”
If you made a new friend, you’d have to spend some time with him to know him and understand his language. In the same way, you need to spend time with the Holy Spirit. You need to take time to understand His language so that you can recognize His voice when He speaks to you. Start today to follow His leading in your decisions and actions as you consistently meditate on the Word and fellowship with Him.
THE INTERCESSOR
The Holy Spirit goes with you as your Intercessor, but He also carries out His intercessory ministry through you, a believer.
If a Christian has a problem or is in trouble, the Holy Spirit is the One who will pray for him. Does He do this by Himself? No, He doesn’t. How could God pray for you by Himself? It would be illegal for Him to do that. He prays for us only through another believer in Christ Jesus who’s filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not human. He doesn’t have a human body, so He works through us.To explain that with the scriptures, let’s take a look at Romans 8:26:
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself (Himself) maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
A lot of other translations use the word “weaknesses” in place of “infirmities” but it still doesn’t communicate it strongly enough. That’s why I like the J.B. Philips’ translation of this verse. It uses the word “limitations” instead of “infirmities” or “weaknesses.”
When you’re talking in tongues, you don’t know what you’re saying because it’s your spirit talking. But in this case, the Bible says, the Holy Ghost Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered or as the New Revised Standard Version puts it, ‘sighs too deep for words.’ .
The Bible says in Romans 8:27, “And he that searcheth the hearts (that means, He that searches the spirit of man) knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.”
‘He that searches the heart’ is God who knows what the mind of the Spirit is, and the Spirit knows how to make intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
So, the Spirit of God intercedes for His people through other believers. He doesn’t do it all by Himself; He needs to do it through us. He heals the sick and leads men and women to Christ through us.
THE ADVOCATE
The kind of intercessor the Holy Ghost is to us is that of an advocate – a counsel for the defence. He’s our legal representative. He speaks on our behalf; He defends us. So when Jesus said, “…I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter…” He was talking about Someone Who engages our adversaries; Someone Who comes right into the middle of the heat and takes charge with us, not someone who watches us from the background as we grapple with forces and circumstances that assail us.
You can never be disadvantaged anymore. When people are saying evil things about you and have judged you wrongly, don’t worry. Your Advocate will be right there. They may not give you an opportunity for defence or explanation. Your Counsel for the defence will show up at the right time. You just keep saying this: “I can never be disadvantaged. I can never be discouraged,” praise the Lord!
THE STRENGTHENER
The Holy Spirit also ministers to you as your ‘Strengthener.’ The reason He strengthens you is so that while He’s taking His own steps to ensure that everything works out right for you, you are also participating actively in the process, since He has to function through you.
If you have the Holy Ghost in your life, weakness no longer describes you. No wonder Paul said, “…when I am weak then am I strong.” In other words, when he was bruised and battered; broken down by outside factors, he was made even stronger by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Have you ever felt yourself so weak and without strength that it seemed like everything was going dark. I hear that some people sometimes pass out because they have high blood pressure. Some others have a demonic experience and they pass out. The last thing they remember is their eyes shutting and they can’t tell what followed afterward.
Understand this: such things are not supposed to happen to you; and if they’ve been happening to you, you can stop them by applying the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit strengthens you with might in your inner man. Bless God, the Holy Ghost is your strengthener!
THE STANDBY
The last operation of the Holy Spirit mentioned, which is so beautiful, is the word Standby: He’s your Standby. When you run out of everything – your strength, information, ideas and options – there is a standby, the Holy Spirit; and He never fails. When things fail in your life, He’ll show up. He’s your Standby.
He’s like a standby generator. When you run out of the electricity and the power source shuts down, a standby generator kicks off immediately so you can continue to enjoy all the nice things of life.
The Bible says it’s by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, not another one that resembles Him. It doesn’t matter where the trouble came from. It may be from a spiritual attack or from something you ate. It makes no difference; it just doesn’t matter. When the Holy Ghost takes over, He will give life to your body. He will energize your spirit and supply you with the necessary requirements in knowledge, wisdom and understanding.
OTHER REFERENCES
Romans 8:27-28, Acts 10:4, Acts 9:4-5, 2 Corinthians 5:18, Luke 22:43, Ephesians 3:16, Romans 8:11, 2 Corinthians 12:10,OTHER REFERENCES
Acts 10:38, Romans 8:26, Acts 11:11-12, 1Corinthians 14:14, Acts 10:4, Acts 9:4-5, 2 Corinthians 5:18
| | |
|