This means Wa... Prayer

 

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This means WAR… nope Prayer! 

 

The greatest weapon of our time…

Nuclear war? Lasers? Robotic weaponry? Drones? 

I am not sure to be honest. But it does not matter if the person with the power to push the button isn’t willing to do just that… push the button. 

 

 

I remember working in Chicago and listening to a gang banger tell me that no matter where he is at, home, west side, east side, north side, south side, High school, the mall, the car wash, the arcade, a party…

It did not matter - he said there was always someone out to kill him from a rival gang. To him there was not safe place… his goal was to get old enough to save up money and move to Montana… why? he figured they didn’t have gangs and no one would know him.

 

Guess what… all of us should be able to relate as followers of Christ. Everywhere we go there is an enemy out to destroy us, kill us, steal from us, lie to us. 

 

When life gets bad… this means war…

No actually when things get bad… this means prayer

 

5 weapons of prayer

Eph. 6 

Perpetual Prayer (Ephesians 6:18a)

The first two words of verse 18 it says praying always.

 

ALWAYS??? What is one thing you do always? 

Work? no

Sleep? nope

Eat… not always 

Breath? Yep! 

Prayer should be like breathing. We pray all the time over everything, about everything, anyone, everyone. It is just a second nature. 

We must understand just how powerful prayer is that we need to do it always.

 

 

Petitionary Prayer (Ephesians 6:18b)

We get this from what he says next in verse 18. …with all prayer and supplication. The first term prayer, refers to general requests whereas the second term, supplication (some of you maybe have petitions or requests), is a word for specific prayer needs.

 

You know what this speaks to me about. Sure we can run to God with emergency specific prayers… but it goes beyond that. This is speaking of the things we continually pray for. I specifically pray for my kids all the time. More my church and my parents and my health. SPECIFIC, PETITIONARY PRAYER IS POWERFUL PRAYER. 

 

 

Powerful Prayer (Ephesians 6:18c)

When we pray, and whatever it is we pray for, the true effectiveness, the true answers to prayer, come when we are—as verse 18 says next—praying in the Spirit.

 

Now does this mean praying in tongues? Sure does. But I also believe we can pray on auto pilot and not really be praying in the spirit wether in tongues or in english. Look we have all driven home or to work and wondered how did I get here… I don’t remember a thing. autopilot. 

For powerful prayer to be powerful you should pray in tongues and in an expectancy that God is talking back. 

 

 

Perseverant Prayer (Ephesians 6:18d)

This fourth aspect to our secret weapon of prayer is that we need to keep on praying.

Verse 18 reads being watchful to this end with all perseverance. We need to persevere, continue, keep on praying.

 

Ever pray for a few days and then let it slide?

What about for a few weeks and let it slide?

What about a few months, years…

I think sometimes we quit praying not because it is boring or because we just get busy… but rather maybe because we don’t get the answers we expect or we don’t feel like it makes a difference. Persevere anyway! 

it is the small drip drip drip of water that erodes the rock.

 

 

Purposeful Prayer for the Saints (Ephesians 6:18e)

At the end of verse 18, he tell us to pray, or to make supplication for all the saints. There’s that word supplication again, which means specific prayer requests. And to pray for all the saints means to pray for all Christians.

 

You know as Christians we can sometimes be selfish without realizing it. We pray for ourselves our problems our family our needs… we forget there are many out there that need prayer… especially the other Christians. I think as we pray unselfishly for others it is like reaping and sowing to some degree. When we give we always get a blessing back. When we pray for others we have a supernatural expediency to our prayers… Don’t ask me how, But I have witnessed it hundreds of times.