Tuesday, July 3, 2018 – Ephesians 6:18
Prayer Makes the Armor of God Effective for Victory!, Pt. 2
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
Vs. 18,
Prayer Makes the Armor of God Effective for Victory!
Eph 6:18, “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.”
The position of victory for the Christian Soldier is on his
knees in prayer and reverence to God.
Continuing in vs. 18,
next, we have the Dative of Means construction of the Preposition EN, and the
Noun PNEUMA for “in the Spirit.”
This could be a Dative of Sphere, indicating that the filling of the Holy
Spirit is necessary as we pray. Yet, the Dative of Means tells us of the
instrument by which the action is accomplished. This gives us a principle of
prayer that is noted in Rom 8:26-27.
Rom 8:26, “In
the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray
as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words.”
When we are in the sphere of the filling of the Holy Spirit,
He is the instrument by which our prayers are effective.
The second half of this passage tells us of two other
important aspects of our prayer life; “and
with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all
the saints.”
“And with this in
view be on the alert,” in the Greek is simply, KAI EIS AUTO AGRUPNEO. KAI
EIS AUTO means, “and with this thing or same thing.” In view” is added in the
English translation for emphasis and understanding. This is a Prepositional
phrase of “PURPOSE.” In other words, being filled with the Holy Spirit, we are
to be praying for every occasion, including all categories of prayer;
petitions, intercessory, imprecatory, thanksgiving, glorification, rebounding,
etc.
“Be on the alert,”
is the Verb AGRUPNEO ἀγρυπνέω in the Present, Active,
Participle, Nominative, Plural, that means, “keep oneself awake, be on the
alert, or to be vigilant.” It is only used in Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36; Heb 13:17, and our verse. As you can see,
this is not in the Imperative Mood for a command, but the word itself with its
meaning virtually is a command to “stay awake, keep alert, etc.” Figuratively,
it was used for, “to guard or care for,” as we should be diligent and mindful
of our prayer life at all times, including the content of our prayers regarding
God’s guidance and protection from Satan through His Armor that we put on. In
the Gospel of Luke, Jesus admonishes us to be constantly alert with the notion
of prayer.
Luke 21:36, “But keep
on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all
these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Paul also noted in Col
4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of
thanksgiving.”
A better translation of this section would be, “and into (i.e., regarding) this same thing, (i.e., prayers and
petitions), be vigilant.”
Next, we have the emphasis for how we are to be vigilant in
our prayer life, “with all perseverance
and petition,” which in the Greek is EN PAS PROSKARTERESIS KAI DEESIS. This
is another “HOW” Prepositional Phrase.
We noted DEESIS above, so petition prayer is in view once
again, but here is added the Noun in the Dative of Manner case of
PROSKARTERESIS, προσκαρτέρησις that means, “perseverance, continue to do
something with intense effort, or devotion.” BDAG defines it as, “persistence
in an undertaking or circumstance.” (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.)
The Noun is only used here in the NT; it is an
hapaxlegomena. But the verb PROSKARTEREO that means, “to persist in or adhere
to, or remain devoted to” is used 10 times in the NT, and 6 of those are
regarding prayer, Acts 1:14; 2:42, 46;
6:4; Rom 12:12; Col 4:2.
The root word is KARTEREO that means, “persevere, be strong,
endure, or be steadfast.” And in fact, TEREO means, “to watch carefully, guard,
preserve, or protect.” With the prefix “PROS,” that means “with or face to
face,” we see the emphasis of our prayer life to continue steadfastly in our
petitions face to face with God the Father.
Rom 12:12, “Rejoicing
in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer.”
Acts 1:14, “These all
with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the
women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”
In addition, this third “all” in this passage, is a marker
of the highest degree of something. It means, “to have the greatest,” that is,
the greatest perseverance possible, along with the greatest petitions possible.
“Part of the spiritual
warfare which the Christian has to wage in daily life is the prayer which must
be constantly offered in faith. Prayer knits together all Christian Soldiers
with a firm bond. It establishes the community in the power of God. The bond
should not be broken. Indeed, it should become increasingly close. The roots
should go deeper and deeper into the sphere of God’s life and power. To this
end, there is need of persistence. Prayer is not just a pious exercise. It is
serious work. It is part of the battle, of our spiritual warfare.”
(Theological Dictionary of the New Testament)
And finally, we have the group we should be praying for, “for all the saints,”
PERI PAS HO HAGIOS, in the Genitive case. In other words, “On whose behalf
should we be praying?” The answer is, “all fellow believers.”
The preposition PERI means, “About, concerning, on account
of, for, near, around.” Our prayers should not just be about our own warfare,
but that of our fellow brethren. We should be constantly concerned about others’
spiritual walk, which should be reflected in our prayer life.
“The Saints” is
HO with the Adjective HAGIOS, ἅγιος in the Genitive case that means, “holy,
consecrated, unapproachable, perfect, pure, upright, worthy of God, or saint.”
Here it describes the position every believer stands in before the Lord.
Therefore, our mental attitude towards our fellow believers should not be based
on their experiential status as a sinner, but on the positional status as holy,
righteous, and blameless before the Lord; fellows members of the family of God,
fellow members of the body of Jesus Christ. When we view one another from the
position we have in Christ, we always see Christ in each other and will love
one another more, and more, and more, regardless of “who they are,” or “what
they have done.” And in return, we will pray for each other, and pray for one
another more diligently, as we should.
2 Thes 3:1, “Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word
of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you. 2and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for
not all have faith.”
Therefore, because the proper
attitude in battle is just as important as the proper equipment, Paul reminds
us of the need for prayer and watchfulness in this spiritual conflict. Prayer
must be “in the sphere of the Holy Spirit,” in order to be effective. “Praying”
speaks of the necessity of always being in an attitude of prayer, of having a
consistent prayer life. “Supplication” comes from a Greek term which relates to
special times of need. If Christians truly practice prayer as a way of life,
when the special times of need come, they will be prepared for them.
That is why having the proper mental attitude
in this spiritual warfare cannot be overemphasized. It is dangerous to take a
flippant attitude about something this serious. The conflict is a real one, the
enemies are spiritual forces that are not limited to the physical realm, but
God has provided sufficient necessary equipment and power for believers to be
victorious in the battle. And with prayer, the whole thing works together for
good. Therefore, the believer should be devoting himself to prayer, Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4; 12:5.
Acts 2:42, “They
were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
Acts 6:4, “But we
will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Acts 12:5, “So Peter
was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the
church to God.”
Christians should first and foremost be people of prayer.
You should be continually in prayer, 1
Thes 5:17, “Pray without
ceasing,” realizing that Jesus’ words in Mark 11:24, “All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you
have received them, and they shall be granted you,” are true! Faith and
confidence in God and His Word provide holy boldness before the Almighty.
When we pray for each other, we are fulfilling our corporate
duty as professional Christians. We are “closing the ranks” as it were,
regarding our collective spiritual warfare. Just as the Roman soldiers closed
ranks and were arrayed for both defensive and offensive success, with prayer
the full Armor of God closes our ranks and arrays our spiritual gifts inside
the body of Christ for both defensive and offensive victory inside the Angelic
Conflict.
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