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The Weapon of Prayer

Ephesians 6:11, 18
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

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

We have walked through each piece of armor as identified by Paul, but there is one point or area remaining. Prayer. Interestingly, Paul didn’t specifically associate this area with a piece of weaponry or armor, but I am going to borrow from Pastor Raymond Woodward the analogy of comparing prayer to a soldier’s spear.

If you will recall from Session 3, we read this statement, “the devil’s attacks against your life will always fail if your flesh refuses to cooperate.” To be completely honest, this is the whole point of this series. We know we face battles. We acknowledge that we are in a war. So, it stands to reason that every day we face attacks from our enemy. Each attack is designed to target a specific weakness that we have in our flesh. But we can win because we have been given the “whole armor of God”. This is why Paul tells the Galatians,

Galatians 5:24-25
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

If we can consistently keep our flesh in check, we can consistently overcome the attack of the enemy. How? By walking in the Spirit and the most consistent way to do this is to step into the armory and take the Spear of Prayer in our hands and then go and learn how to use it.

Previously, we discussed the Sword of the Spirit, and the fact that this is a weapon designed for close contact. However, a spear is designed as a weapon for distance.

We also mentioned the Sheild of Faith which is used to “quench all the fiery darts” meaning, we know the enemy will throw things at us. He’s not close enough for hand-to-hand combat, but he’s attacking, but God has given us weapons, not just to defend ourselves, but weapons to attack the enemy. Even from a distance. This specific weapon is prayer. Concerning the Full Armor of God, Paul says two words toward the end.

Ephesians 6:18
18 Praying always […]

I don’t believe Paul is telling us that we should spend every minute of every day praying, but that we should take every opportunity to pray. To constantly and consistently be in a mind of prayer. Ready to pray at any given opportunity. Because when we pray, we are employing a weapon that is attacking our enemy not only here in this present moment, in this present location, but it is attacking him at a distance. Both now and in future conflicts.

Acts 10:1-4
1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.
3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.
4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

I found this to be an interesting fact, in June 2018 in Volume 57, Issue 2 of the Alexandria Engineering Journal there was an article published titled, Performance and design of spear shaped antenna for UWB (ultra-wide band) band applications. Not to boar you with science, the point of the article is that one of the best antennas for wireless communication is a spear shaped antenna.

Not only is prayer a weapon that we can use to launch strategic attacks against the enemy, but it is also the way to communicate with command. Cornelius was praying daily, not only setting up a consistent line of attacks against the enemy, but he was creating a consistent line of communication between Heaven and Earth. A line that not only connected Cornelius to God, but God to Peter, and then Peter to Cornelius. [Kinda like triangulating a cell phone. Cool isn’t it.]

We can fight by releasing prayers designed to hit our enemy where it hurts, but we can also release prayers to gain insight on how to maneuver. But in prayer we can also receive insight on how to approach and attack the enemy, and when to stand still and see “the salvation of the Lord” [Exodus 14:13].

Prayer is essential if you are going to fight a Spiritual Battle. Prayer is essential if you want to tear down strongholds. Prayer is essential because Jesus Himself said that “this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” [Mark 9:29].

Prayer is a topic that Jesus did not mince words on.

Luke 18:1
1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

Matthew 5:44
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Jesus taught about prayer, so much that His disciples actually asked Him this question, “Lord, teach us to pray” [Luke 11:1].

So, it make sense that prayer is the last piece of weaponry identified in the Full Armor of God represented in Ephesians 6.

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

Prayer is the essential weapon we need to use in our battle against the enemy. Without prayer, everything else will become ineffective in our hands. Prayer is the element of the Full Armor of God that brings everything together. His Truth, His Righteousness, His Peace, His Word, Our Faith, Our Salvation, to effectively use each of these we must connect with them in Prayer. Prayer brings these weapons online, it’s what connects the weapon to the warrior and the warrior to the weapon.

We need to be consistent in prayer, we need to be connected to prayer, and we need to be competent in prayer.

Paul describes four types of prayers in 1 Timothy 2:1 - supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings.

Each one is significant and each one is different from the other. Not only do we need to know that we must pray, but we also need to know how to pray, and when to pray these specific types of prayer.

The first in the list is the word supplication which is synonymous with our word petition. In laymen’s terms, this is something that you need where you are completely at someone else’s mercy for resolution. We petition for rights, we petition for removals, we petition for status. None of which we can bestow upon ourselves. It must come from a higher authority. There are some things you can take care of yourself, and while it’s good to pray for the situation, the truth is you are in complete control of the situation. You can pray all day, “Lord help me lose 50 pounds”, but if you pray it while slurping a big gulp and eating a box of twinkies, I’m not too sure if your prayers are going to get off the floor. But when you are struggling with a situation that’s out of your control, you’re standing at the Red Sea, the enemy is behind you, the sun is going down, and you’ve done all you can do, this is the time for supplication. This is when you go to a higher authority. It may not happen the first time, so you do it again. It may not happen the second time, so you do it again. Petitions don’t stop. Supplications continue until they are completed. Sometimes you may have to get loud. Sometimes you may have to put in some overtime. Sometimes you need to get someone else to sign their name with you. That’s okay because we realize that this is a battle and it gets loud on the front line. It gets heated on the front line. It may take more than one soldier to push back the enemy on the front line. This is why Paul said to  

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

This is a prayer, not where you are just hurling a spear at the enemy, but you are setting your spear up as an antenna and you are releasing SOS signals to command.

The second on the list is prayers. The word used here is the Greek word, προσευχή (pros-yoo-khay') and it is the most common used word for prayer in the New Testament. Supplication refers to a specific request given to God, while προσευχή (pros-yoo-khay') is really more about a consistent, regular conversation with God. Another application of the word is a “place to pray”. Meaning you need to establish a consistent pattern (both in time and place) in your life where you converse with God. I find it interesting that this is the word used when Jesus said, “this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” [Mark 9:29]. All too often I am of the opinion that in this verse we tend to think about the loud and harsh rebuking (which I believe has its place), but instead I believe Jesus is trying to establish something known as “faithfulness” in us, rather than “show-off-ness” [See Luke 18:9-14]. Again, “Pray always […]”, not “always pray loud”.

The third in the list is intercessions. Now, this is where you can pick up your spear and begin flinging it at the enemy. The Greek word is ἔντευξις (en-TOOK-sis) which literally means “to hit the mark”. Intercessory prayer is where the action is. This is where, in my opinion, you begin binding and losing, decreeing and declaring. This is where you intersect your prayers with His Word, this is where your prayer and the measure of faith combine, this is where your prayer and the shoes of peace join. It’s not that they don’t in the other two, it’s just here is where you begin leashing a bombardment against the enemy. You take supplications and prayer and intersect them together. You already have a direct line of communication established with Heaven through prayer. You already have a rapport for making requests in place through supplications. Now, you are sending up the need and Heaven is calculating the coordinates, and when you release the “spear of intercession” it hits the mark – every time. This is also where the old-timers would talk of “praying in the Spirit” [See Romans 8:26].

Lastly, Paul concluded the list with thanksgivings. This word doesn’t (or shouldn’t) need a lot of explanation. Or at least it shouldn’t to a true Christian. When Jesus was asked by His disciples to teach them to pray, His example began with thanksgiving, and it ended with thanksgiving. Jesus wanted to instill in His followers an “attitude of gratitude”. Why? Because this is the most explosive attack you can release on your enemy. Thanksgiving confuses Hell. When you are in the throws of battle and you begin praising God for the victory the enemy is confused. When you are in the depths of despair and you begin thanking God for strength and peace, Satan can’t quite figure out what you are doing. The world grumbles, the world complains. The world looks at what is happening and sees the glass half empty. But the child of God looks at the glass and sees potential for an overflow. When in battle the best way to throw everything plus the kitchen sink at the enemy is to simply give God thanksgiving. Trust me, when you stop focusing on your problem, and begin praising the problem solver, the battle line begins to move.

So, we’ve walked through these powerful eight verses of the Bible.  Let me end with a summation of the whole matter, “the devil’s attacks against your life will always fail if your flesh refuses to cooperate.” This is true 100% of the time. So how do we do it 100% of the time? Put on the Whole Armor of God, piece by piece. Not just when things are bad, it’s too late if you wait. You need to begin now, and then do it again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after. And you keep doing it, until it becomes a part of you and on a day when things fall apart, you find yourself saying, wait somethings off, oh yeah, I need to go grab my armor.