Prayer as part of our spiritual armour


In Ephesians 6, Paul encourages us to put on the FULL armour of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the enemy in our lives and the church and having done all that we continue to stand in the day of evil.

He encourages us to put on various parts of the armour of God and finally to pray at all times!

Eph 6:18-20 'praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel....'

His exhortation to pray is twofold: 1) Pray for the saints  and 2) pray for him to declare the gospel boldly (while imprisoned I might add, for the gospel!)

Why is that? Because we all need prayer! We all need to pray regularly for every other member of our church. We never know when someone could be going through a trying time or a 'day of evil' as Paul describes it in a preceding verse. Yet, if we prayed for them regularly, they would be able to 'stand' and not fall in the day of evil! 

The second reason is that when we struggle to talk to our friends about the gospel, one of the main reasons is fear that the enemy puts on us! He wants to keep us in a place of fear so that the gospel will not advance because he wants people in bondage to him, enslaved in sin. Yet, when we pray regularly for our fellow believers to have boldness to share the gospel, the Holy Spirit can work in their lives giving them courage and boldness in place of fear, so that they can share the gospel fearlessly! 

Imagine how our lives would be if we prayed for each other regularly in this manner! Well, I'm glad to tell you that we have been doing this regularly in our church since this church started. I believe it's been a key factor in the life of our church, the victories we've all experienced personally (and corporately) at various times in our lives and disciples being made. 

I want to encourage you all to continue to join us as a leadership team as we pray together corporately tonight for our church. God will honour your step of obedience and faith and you will be making an impact in the church while benefiting yourself too :) 

(Pic (c) Adrianna Geo, Unsplash)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prayer: the key to unlocking and entering into God's will

Image
Oftentimes, in our lives, we get so side tracked by so many things that we forget one of the most important keys to walking in everything God has for us on earth and that is 'prayer'. I hope my blogs provide some encouragement when you are struggling in this area to keep going. I know it's not always easy to pray, but when we do, we gain far more from it that we can imagine. It's any wonder the enemy will do all he can to stop us from praying, both personally and corporately.  God is all sovereign and all powerful and can do anything. Yet, He has given us a key to unlocking His will on earth and that is 'prayer'.  Imagine God's will to be like a house that God has built for you and wants to give you. For you to go in and live in and enjoy it, you need a key. Well, prayer is the key that will cause you to enter in and possess God's will for your life. We see it time and time again in the Bible when God was waiting on a man/woman to pray for His...
Read more

We can approach the Throne of Grace anytime!

Happy New Year! Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" We serve a God who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!  His throne is unlike   any   earthly king's throne. Besides it being the most amazing throne, filled with His glory and majesty that is incomprehensible with our human minds, it is also a throne of 'grace'. Our God is   so  filled with grace, so much so that the writer of Hebrews calls His throne, the 'throne of grace'! Grace is God's unmerited favour, His kindness, generosity of disposition and also His   empowerment. We can approach this throne of grace without fear and trepidation. We can approach this throne of grace freely, boldly and confidently because of our trust in Jesus and His redemption in our lives. We do this so that 'we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need...
Read more

Consecration enables us to hear God clearly and receive empowerment

Image
Well, it seemed like yesterday when we said goodbye to 2023 but here we are in February already!  All of January, we've been focusing as a church on the topic of 'Set Apart' which includes the areas of holiness, being consecrated to God and living in obedience and in accordance with our calling. The early apostles and believers were asked by Jesus to stay in the city of Jerusalem, until they were empowered by being baptised in the Holy Spirit. In obedience to Him, they waited patiently, gathering together and praying regularly. It was during one of these times of prayer, God spoke clearly lead them to choose Matthias to replace Judas (who betrayed Jesus).  Later on, during one of these times of prayer together, God sent the Holy Spirit and baptised them, they began to speak in tongues and received the power of the Holy Spirit which dramatically changed their lives to living in courage and boldness to preach the gospel!  You can read about this in Acts 1 and 2.  We le...
Read more