Continuing with our study on the armor of God, we come to prayer:

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

A heavily armored soldier should pray before going into battle, and so Paul tells us to be praying always with ALL prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

Prayer is many things.  First, it is simply letting your requests be known to God. Our text says that we are to pray with supplication, and supplication is a petition or special request to the Lord.  Paul has more to say about supplication in Philippians 4:6:

Php_4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Prayer is our part of our conversations with God. His part is through the Bible…you know, the word of God. J Prayer is talking to God about what is on our heart and mind, about our circumstances and about the lives of those for whom we are making supplication, with thanksgiving.

Prayer is NOT repeating words by rote, as many religions teach.

Vain repetition as prayer is not a good thing, (Mt.6:7) such as the repeating of the so-called Lord’s Prayer, as in “Our Father, who art in heaven….” (v.9), which is NOT a prayer for us today. It was a prayer for Israel, as WE are NOT praying for His kingdom to come, but for the church to GO in the catching away! (Phil 3:20-21; 1 Cor 15:51-54; 1 Thess 4: 16-18)  We are looking for a heavenly kingdom, not the earthly kingdom that the Lord had in mind when He gave the twelve apostles that prayer.

Not to be side tracked by this prayer for Israel, but we know for sure it is not for us today by this command in the prayer: “Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” And couple this verse with Mat 6:14-15 to understand fully, that this was a prayer under the law, with CONDITIONAL forgiveness, (if you do this, I will forgive you…if you do not, you are not forgiven) under the covenant. This is not a prayer for a saint today! Our salvation is NOT under the law or covenant, but by GRACE, which is NOT based on conditional forgiveness. Today it is by grace as our Apostle Paul teaches this about forgiveness from the Risen Christ:

Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

It is not wise to pray to the Lord for what you ALREADY have! Thank Him instead for having been forgiven the moment you opened His free gift of salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation by believing on His death, burial and resurrection!

We are to pray for those who do not know God, as we bring them the message of reconciliation between man and God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Prayer is also not about manipulating God to do things for us or for others.  Prayer is interaction with God, and it changes us! Prayer brings us peace!

Php 4:6-7 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

We pray knowing God has ALREADY given us all spiritual blessing in heavenly places! We pray knowing whatever circumstance we find ourselves that what Christ has already done is complete and sufficient for us!

2Co_12:9   And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

I grew up believing that I was to pray to “Saints”, such as Mary, or Joseph, or some dead pope who had been declared a Saint by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.  We had Saints to pray to for special intentions, such as “Saint” Christopher for safe travels, or “Saint” Jude to help us find something that was lost.  Worse yet, we prayed to Mary, who was to “soften” the heart of Jesus to hear our prayers! It is absolutely evil, and totally unscriptural to be taught to pray to everyone and anyone but GOD!

Some religions use a prayer wheel, which is a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod handle, and containing a tightly wound scroll printed with a mantra.   Prayer wheels are used primarily by the Buddhists of Tibet and Nepal, where hand-held prayer wheels are carried by pilgrims and others, and turned during devotional activities.  According to Tibetan Buddhist belief, spinning a prayer wheel is just as effective as reciting the sacred texts aloud. This belief derives from the Buddhist belief in the power of sound and the formulas to which deities are subject. For many Buddhists, the prayer wheel also represents the Wheel of the Law (or Dharma) set in motion by the Buddha.  The prayer wheel is also used by illiterate members of the lay Buddhist community, since they can “read” the prayers by turning the wheel.

This is NOT prayer according to the Scriptures!  It certainly makes one’s prayer a very non-personal, non-connective type of worship, wouldn’t you say?!  I would say they are simply “spinning their wheels”…getting nowhere fast with their false gods!

Here are some verses from the Scriptures about prayer from Paul’s epistles, so we can KNOW that they are for us today:

Rom 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 maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Rom 12:12 …continuing instant in prayer

I Cor 14:15 …I will pray with the understanding…

II Cor 1:11 Ye also helping together by prayer…

II Cor 13:7 …I pray to God that ye do no evil…

Phil 1:4 …this shall turn to my salvation [from prison] through your prayer…

Col 1:9 …we also…do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding

Col 4:2,3  Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ…

I Thes 3:10 Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith

1Thes 5:17  Pray without ceasing.

1Thes 5:25  Brethren, pray for us.

II Thes 3:1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you

1Ti 2:8  I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

Phil 1:22 “…prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you

Praying “without ceasing” (ITh.5:18) means that we are to keep our focus on the Lord.

Keep in mind that Satan shines a deceitful, false light, fostering and promoting heretical teachings and programs that go against the word of God. He likes people to think they know the truth when they do not. (2 Cor 11:13-14) The enemy wants to keep us out of touch with God, to lead us away from the truth, especially when we are not applying right doctrine through prayer! (such as praying rote prayers, like the rosary or the Lord’s prayer…praying to dead spirits… using what was for Israel and is not dispensational for today, for example Gideon’s prayer with the fleeces (looking for signs), praying for forgiveness when we have already been forgiven, because if you are a believer you have ALREADY been forgiven, past present and future sins…this is why we are thankful when we pray!) I hope you will take time to continue and do a study about prayer on your own, as there is so much more than can be covered in this short study!

We must be constantly in prayer because we are constantly in danger! It is what we have been studying about in this whole Armour of God study!  The danger is why the Lord wants us to wear the full armor of God! We need to be able to fight off false doctrines and stand for the truth.

Our flesh will cause us to doubt, be distracted, be discouraged, and depression to seep into our lives trying to keep us from our true source of power. This is why we need to be praying regularly, not just when we feel like it. Pray is work and it is a good work! Prayer can help us fight these things by getting us out of our flesh and into the Spirit, to mind heavenly things, and help us walk in newness of life!

The “key”, if you will, to the armor is to be praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

Without prayer, the armor will not be very effective.

The Gospel of the Grace of God: 1Co 15:1-4 I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you…By which also ye are saved…How that Christ died for our sins…And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: