Praying in the Spirit

Vision Moment:

Introduction:

We have spent the month of July teaching about Spiritual Warfare

How is that going?

How many feel like they have all the information, but applying it has been a struggle?

We know why there is SW, we know that we play a role in God’s plan, we know what that role is, we know we’re supposed to put on the armor of God, but...

All of this information is incomplete without hearing Paul’s final instructions

Scripture:

Ephesians 6:18–20 ESV

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, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Big Idea:

Prayer in the Spirit is the location of the battle, so we must learn to pray in the Spirit in order to go to battle

Question:

If prayer in the Spirit is the location of the battle, what does that mean and how do we do it?

How do we get to the place where we are praying in the Spirit?

I always try to resist thinking about how 21st century Christians think about certain phrases in the Bible

I don’t know how groups of Christians have determined definitions, but when we’re trying to discern phrases, we can’t always just go to the Greek, because just like English has drastically changed over time, so have all languages.

Paul doesn’t use this phrase anywhere else in his writings, but he does instruct the Ephesians to “not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.” And he does instruct the churches in Galatia to “walk in the Spirit.”

We also can’t just go to any place in the Scripture and assume that John the Apostle and Paul the Apostle were working off of the same dictionary.

So I think the most reliable way to understand what a word or phrase means is to begin within the book that was written, then move to the broader writings of the author, and then compare that with the rest of the NT, and then lastly the rest of the Scriptures.

Does Paul use the phrase “praying in the Spirit” in the rest of the letter? The short answer is no… but he does talk about the correlation between the Spirit and prayer

Eph 1:

Ephesians 1:17 ESV

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

Near the end of the first section of his letter, he breaks out in prayer for the Ephesian Christians, he says:

Eph 2:

Ephesians 2:18 ESV

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 3:14–19 ESV

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul is praying that they will be strengthened with the power of the Spirit in their inner being. What would that look like?

Anybody remember “The Power Team” - watched at Grandma’s house

The Kingdom of God is an upside down kingdom. When we hear “power” and then assume it means that only supernatural feats will follow, we’re asking God’s Kingdom to just be a better version of our current situation.

Christ’s Kingdom is not merely a better Kingdom, it’s an altogether different Kingdom - what would this Spiritual power look like?

Why Spiritual power? So that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith — so Spiritual power is an awareness of Christ’s presence

Why an awareness of Christ’s presence? So that we would be Rooted and grounded in love - so Spiritual power is being grounded in Christ’s love

And why, Paul would we need to be grounded in Christ’s love?

To have the strength to comprehend Christ’s love

And why do we need a greater comprehension? Do you see the distinction between mere knowledge of the love of Christ, to the experience of Christ’s love?

God wants us to have the knowledge of His love, but we need to personally experience His love in order to be changed by His love. Back to WHY do we need a greater comprehension

So we will be filled with all of the fullness of God.

The deeper you are grounded in Christ’s love for you, the more you will be in tune with the Triune God.

Your intellect, yes / Your emotions, yes / Your desires, yes / Your passions, yes

I think that what Paul means when he instructs the Ephesians to pray in the Spirit IS that they are to pray out of the awareness and presence of Christ’s enduring love and faithfulness.

There is one other passage that gives me this conclusion:

Jude 20 ESV

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

Jude 20–21 ESV

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

How do you build yourself up in faith?

How do you pray in the Spirit?

You keep yourself IN the LOVE of GOD

How do I do that? How do I keep myself in the love of God?

I wouldn’t spend this much time on this if I didn’t believe that this is a major struggle for us

And we are deficient in this practice of keeping ourself in God’s love

Consequently, we are not seeing the personal transformation in ourselves, in our families, and in our church...

And the reason we’re not seeing that transformation is because we’re deceived - we have all the head knowledge to fill up libraries...

The missing step is not in our educational knowledge of God’s love, but in the acknowledgement of ourselves. We don’t think we’re all that bad. We still see ourselves as pretty good people. We just need a little more theological knowledge and then, we’ll be good.

What is your micro-reaction to hearing about someone else’s sin?

What is your reaction to injustice?

I live with with a guy whose response to sins he deems worse than his own need to be exposed

God’s love is not all that attractive unless you’ve acknowledged just how unlovely you are...

Only when you are willing to be transparent and vulnerable to humbly express your own sinfulness and unworthiness will you be captivated and transformed by the unconditional, covenant love of God.

Here’s a quick test, when was the last time your apologized to someone and asked for their forgiveness? When was the last time you admitted that you royally messed something or someone up? Are you perpetually blaming others for the way your life is shaping up? Are you always the victim?

We’re constantly seeking to earn love from those around us, so the brain learns to say, do, and think what we think people want us to say, think, and do… That transfers into the way we think about God, so we’re constantly trying to earn His love:

Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees? Philip Yancey

Keeping yourself in God’s love is an exercise in meditating on the Gospel

Keeping yourself in God’s love is an exercise in meditating on the Gospel

For only when we meditate on the Gospel will we be ready for the battle

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:31–38 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

Romans 8:

Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Sit in reflection of just one of these passages a day and watch as you well up with the flaming affections of the Almighty God who has EVERLASTING, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR YOU

What would change if you were totally certain, totally convinced that the Triune and Eternal God was unashamedly - unmistakeably on your side, in your corner, FOR YOU?

This is where praying in the Spirit begins; we must be grounded in something other than ourselves, we must be grounded in more than just what others are saying or thinking about us, we must be grounded in what God says and thinks about us.

Then, we can be like David, who said, in that because God was on his side, he could face an entire army; he said because God’s on my side, I can scale a wall.

Where have Christians through the years received their courage and strength? From grounding themselves in Christ’s unrelentling love.

George Mueller who is so well-known for his work with orphans and his unshakeable faith that God was going to provide for their needs said that the first thing he did every morning was get his soul happy by meditating on a passage from the NT.

And believe me, I have been there when I don’t feel like God still loves me...

Measure not God’s love and favour by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof. Richard Sibbes

The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands. Martin Luther

Keeping yourself, grounding yourself in God’s love will lead you to being filled with the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit....

The alternative to praying in the Spirit is praying in the flesh

We have been taught that all that matters is that we pray, but James reminds us,

James 4:3 ESV

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Praying in the Spirit will always align with the will of God

Praying in the flesh will always align you with the will of self

And that’s why we put the armor of God on first… putting on the armor of God is meditating on the Gospel… think about it:

Truth

Righteousness (justice)

Salvation (rescue)

Peace

Faith

The Word of God

Ground yourself in that Good news, stand firm in that Good news, now you’re ready for battle. What does that battle look like?

Paul explains how that battle is fought with one word, repeated four times

As we have been saying, SW warfare never stops. Paul affirms that by using the word ALL to precede each component of the battlefield.

Praying in the Spirit at All Times

Morning, Noon, and Night

After preaching through the Lord’s prayer I set a reminder to pray it three times a day

Jesus said - “men ought always to pray and not to faint”

Paul riffing off of that said, “pray without ceasing”

Paul reteaches this same concept to Timothy “men should pray in every place, lifting holy hands”

We don’t need a lot of explanation, we need to ground ourselves in the Love of Christ and be in a constant state of prayer

Praying in the Spirit with All Types of Prayers

All (kinds of) prayers

Prayers of adoration

Prayers of thanksgiving

Prayers of confession

Prayers of intercession

Prayers of doubt, worry, fear, complaint, lament

Prayers for daily need

Prayers for peace

Prayers for help and wisdom

Prayers for forgiveness

Prayers for power

And supplication

This is not a specific type of prayer as much as it is a specific attitude of neediness

To beg, to seek, to beseech are all words used to describe supplication

Praying in the Spirit with All Perseverance

What did Jesus say to his disciples when he asked them to pray with him in the garden?

Matthew 26:41 ESV

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Persevere in your prayer life

It is hard work to pray

I know you had a goal to pray every day with your family and you fell off track, persevere

I know you promised to pray for the Chapman’s for 30 and you haven’t, persevere

Continue steadfastly in prayer, Paul told the Church in Colossae

Encourage each other, help hold each other accountable, this is where the war is waged, you’ve got to show up

You persevere to work and workout, you persevere to eat your meals, brush your teeth, and watch the sitcoms, now persevere in prayer, LIVES REALLY DEPEND ON IT

Praying in the Spirit for All the Saints

Lastly, pray for ALL the saints

Besides praying for ourselves and each other, praying for the saints we don’t know is the hardest thing to do

I can’t tell you how the Spirit will lead you to pray in this way, I struggle with it

But one practical way to pray for the saints who are first in your community is to be in fellowship with them

And praying for our enemies

You’re too busy NOT to be in fellowship with the people around you

Conclusion:

I pray that we have seen this morning that praying in the Spirit is where the battle is fought and we wage that war when we are praying at all times, with all types of prayers, with all perseverance, and for all the saints.

I am going to invite you this morning to find your fellowship or a small group of men or ladies and take some time to pray

Then I want to invite you to join the elders for prayer next Sunday at 9:30am

If this church is going to make a splash by making disciples, we must immerse ourselves first in the love of Christ and second in persistent, continual, effectual prayers.