Cp. 6 Understanding our Weapons of Warfare - Part 2

Let’s take a look at the last part of the armor passage: Eph 6:18 - “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; “(KJV)
To begin with we are to “pray always“, 2 Th. says to “pray without ceasing”. When we pray: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.” (Rom 8:16 - NIV) and Jesus says: - “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matt 7:11 - NIV). Our purpose of being is to be as much like Christ as we can because, after all, that is what the word Christian means: to be Christ-like.

Satan does not want you to pray! He fears the prayers of righteous believers. Gurnall states that there are three ways Satan tries to attack our prayers.

1. He will seek to keep you from praying: by bringing distractions into your prayer time. He’ll call you a hypocrite for trying to pray and he’ll put stumbling blocks to prevent you from reaching your time of prayer and try to convince you that you are unworthy of being heard by God.

2. He will try to interrupt your prayer time: by telling you that God won’t hear your prayers or he’ll send evil thoughts and distracting temptations. He will also make you weary of praying and cause the same type of sleepiness to hit you as the disciples experienced when Christ asked them to pray with Him in the garden. He might try to convince you to put it off until a later time, maybe when you’re “feeling” a little more spiritual.

3. He will try to hinder the answer: An angel gives Daniel an example of the devil doing just that: Dan 10:13 - “But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.” (NIV)

We are to pray, “with all prayers and supplications.” Let’s take a look at the Lord’s Prayer as this is the model He gave us to go by: Matt 6:9-13 -
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” Amen! (KJV)


There are nine important parts to this prayer.

1. It starts with the word “Our”. It implies a unity between believers. We are to strive for unity one with another. No Christian can successfully be an island of one. First we all belong to the church universal which encompasses all the believers around the world, living and dead. Secondly, we should all be part of a local body of believers to encourage us and aid each other in our spiritual battles.

2. “hallowed be thy name”: we should start with praise and thanksgiving for all that He has already done for us.

3. “Thy kingdom come “: we pray for his return and that He won’t come and catch us sleeping.

4. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”: Above all we pray that His will be accomplished in our life. As believers we have surrendered our will and right of self-determination to Him.

5. “Give us this day our daily bread”: We are not to be concerned with the future. The last verse of this chapter says to: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (KJV)

6. “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”: we need to repent and ask forgiveness for anything that may stand between us and God and ask His help in forgiving those who have wronged us, which we must do if we want forgiveness.

7. “lead us not into temptation”: this is a pre-emptive strike in our spiritual warfare.

8. “But deliver us from evil”: this is part of the believer’s prayer that we use in our warfare.

9. The prayer ends with another time of praise and worship to God, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

Let’s get back to our original study. The next part of Eph. 6:18 says we are to be “watching thereunto”. To be watchful means to be alert and sober-minded. The strong man can be as easily overcome as a child while he is sleeping. We watch for opportunities to serve and to speak with holy boldness at the correct time. We also watch for tempta-tions and snares that the devil may use to entrap us. We don’t want to be caught unaware: Luke 21:34 - "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap” (NIV). The phrase “and that day.” is the same day spoken of in Eph. 6:13 and what Chapter 3 explained in more depth.

“In all perseverance”, means that we need to be diligent about fulfilling our Christian duties and do what He commands whether we feel like it or not. “We are not to be weary of well-doing.”

“For all saints”, takes us back to the community of believers we spoke about when we examined the Lord’s prayer.