Ephesians 6:19-20

Ephesians 6:19-20 PODCAST

19 Also pray for me that when I speak, God will give me words so that I can tell the secret of the Good News without fear. 20 I have been sent to preach this Good News, and I am doing that now, here in prison. Pray that when I preach the Good News I will speak without fear, as I should. ~ Ephesians 6:19-20

Prayer is evidence of our relationship with the Lord. It is also the pathway toward intimacy with Him. This intimacy is the fuel of our familiarity with God. Perhaps, this familiarity will translate in heaven into our ability to worship Christ. Perhaps the quality of our ability to recognize the Lord Jesus more deeply will be impacted. There is no question, intimacy with God, in our current state here on earth, impacts the quality and depth of our worship.

Whereas prayer is conversing with God, supplication, on the other hand, is asking for something specific. In James 4:2, we read, "You have not because you ask not." God answers prayer on the basis of His promises, and He answers every prayer which is based upon a biblical promise. 

We cannot put on the armor of God for others, but we can put it on for ourselves and we can pray for them. We can call on our Heavenly Father to intervene in such a way that those who we pray for are helped. In order to do so, we must be aware of their problems, asking the Father to open their eyes to their need to embrace His culture by obeying His word.

Notice how Paul asks this for himself in v.20: "Pray that when I preach the Good News I will speak without fear, as I should." Sharing the Gospel not only is something we do for the unbeliever, it is also something we do for believers. We must never tire of preaching the gospel and if the Apostle Paul saw the need for such, how much more do we need it? The sharing of the Good News is of utmost importance, everything else is secondary.

In addition, the Apostle prays in other epistles that the believer's spiritual understanding might be enlightened. He asks that the eyes of our mind, our intelligence, might be opened to the rule of God in our souls. He prays that we might recognize the importance of understanding intelligently what life is truly about, what is true and what is false, what is real and what is phony. This is important because it impacts how we receive it and how we share the Gospel with others. 

Paul's prayers also illustrate the power of the devil to blind and confuse and to make things look one way when they are quite another. So the repeated prayer of the apostle is, "Lord, open their eyes that their understanding may be enlightened, that their intelligence may be clarified, that they may see things as they are."

Our prayers are powerful. In fact, they can change everything on the behalf of those for whom we pray. Paul consistently calls us to this ministry of prayer. In fact, as indicated in our last devotional, prayer is the outflow of our good theology. Yet, we can have the best theology, but not be filled with the Holy Spirit. When we learn to pray as God teaches us, we release in our own lives and in the lives of others the resources of God to provide inner stability to all involved.

Note that the Apostle is in prison as he writes the words of this letter to the Ephesians. In v.20, Paul writes, "I have been sent to preach this Good News, and I am doing that now, here in prison." Even though we may be imprisoned ourselves by faulty theology, our prayers are not shackled.  It is the Gospel, the Good News through Jesus Christ, that brings freedom to the soul of any willing person. In tandem with the hearing of the Gospel, prayer involves God in the process of opening the eyes of those held in bondage, even our own.

We have all experienced a power outage when a storm hits. Everything in the home is left powerless. Refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions and whatever else that relies on power to operate do not function at all, because they have no power. Isn’t it good to know that God’s power never goes out? There is nothing that can happen in our lives that will cause God’s power from being available to us. When we pray, we can rest assured that we pray to a powerful God who does powerful things according to His will and for His glory. We don’t have to worry about an all powerful God being powerless. 

Now, there are times when we are guilty of not plugging into the power that God provides. When we go through our day without prayer, we are like an appliance that has been unplugged from the available power it needs to function. We must be in the habit to exercising God's presence and of appropriating His resources. This will result in our ability access His resources and as a result, experiencing the transcendent life the Lord Jesus died to make possible. This is true in all areas of our lives, especially in our efforts to share the Gospel with people who do not know Christ for themselves.