Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for all God’s people. ~ Ephesians 6:18
The protocol for our spiritual battle is to put on the armor of God first, then pray. Putting on the armor means that our thought life is framed up by the word of God, and therefore made strong and ready to engage in the battle. It is the adjustment of the attitude of our heart to reality, to life as God defines it. Putting on the various pieces of weaponry enables us to think through the implications of the faith.
Then, we are to "pray in the Spirit." Prayer should he an outgrowth of the thoughtfulness that comes out of working through the implications of the belt of truth being tied around our waist, of putting on the shoes of the Good News of peace to help us stand strong. And, also, using the shield of faith and the helmet of our salvation, and taking up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Now, prayer is conversation with God. It is intimate, honest, and unrestricted conversation with God. After we have put on the armor of God, after we have thought through the implications of the faith, then we are to talk to God about it. In developing these conversations with God, we address many different aspects of our lives and others with Him.
Although prayer is for us, it must not start with us, it must start with God. God has given promises and they form the only proper basis for our prayer life. This is what Paul means by his reminder that we are to pray at all times in the Spirit.
This phrase, "in the Spirit," means to pray according to the promises which the Spirit has given, according to the character of God whom the Spirit has made known to us. God has never promised to answer just any prayer, but he does promise to answer prayer in a way that he has carefully outlined for us.
When we learn to pray like this, we will be made aware of the exciting and unexpected things that God is doing all around us. We learn of a quiet power at work upon whom we can rely. And as we learn to pray in this way we find there is put at our disposal a tremendous weapon, a mighty power to influence our own lives and the lives of others.
In his book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote that this world is enemy-occupied territory and that Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, and is calling us, His followers, to take part in a campaign of sabotage. And it is primarily through prayer that this sabotage takes place. Prayer is how we spiritually fight back against the enemy. “Prayer is fundamentally a warfare activity.” Think of it, we factor in on that which will last for eternity through prayer. When we pray, we partner with God, we enter in on what He is doing in the lives of everyone around us.
In our text, we are told that our "need" prompts us to pray. Most often we are prompted to pray because of our needs, our difficulties, our pain. And yet, we hate the pain, difficulties and our needs. But, when these "unwanteds" come into our lives, we are motivated to do the most important thing we can ever do. In this case, our needs are our blessings. And, when this happens, we will not be defined by our needs but by the One to whom we take these needs.
Finally, all of the weapons of our warfare provide for us the internal substance that we need to live this life on planet earth. Prayer aligns our will to His will, rendering for us a settledness, a sense of His presence that serves us in our service to Him. So, in the end, prayer changes us, it provides focus to our hearts for God. And, it is this focus that brings His kingdom to rest in our souls.
