Eph.
6:18-20
“Pray at All Times in the Spirit”
This
passage is found at the very end of the main body of Ephesians. The section
that follows is Paul's final greeting to the Ephesian church. When we consider
the main body of this epistle, which begins in 1:3, we find that this is a most
fitting conclusion to the epistle. If you recall, this epistle began with a
prayer, a doxology, or a benediction, to God. It began with "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ….” This
epistle, which began with that kind of doxology and benediction, ends with an exhortation
to pray. What a wonderful picture of our Christian life! Our Christian life
must begin with worship, with a doxology, bringing our praise and benediction to
God for his wonderful redemption. But our Christian life is to be sustained
also by prayer.
But this
section is a fitting conclusion also to the section on the full armor of God
and our spiritual battle. What precedes these three verses is Paul's description
of the full armor of God, which we must put on in order to fight the spiritual battle
against the schemes of the evil one. As one commentator mentioned, the spiritual
weapons can be wielded effectively only with prayer. And so after his
exhortation to put on the full armor of God, Paul now tells the Ephesian
Christians, and all the Christians, to pray.
He tells them to pray at all times. Why? We need to pray because we
cannot win this spiritual battle on our own. There is no victory for us apart
from God. For we have a formidable enemy who far transcends us in his intelligence
and power. On our own, we have no hope. So we are to pray to God, who alone can
defeat the enemy, who alone has defeated the enemy on our behalf. We need to
pray, but we also need to pray at all times because our spiritual war is
ongoing without truce until the end of the world. We have to pray at all times
because our enemy will not stop until the day of judgment,
at which he will be thrust into the flames of eternal hell forever.
But let us
also consider this command from a distinctly New Testament perspective. The New
Testament commandments are not merely rules given to us to follow. All the New Testament
commandments have this flavor of announcement: God has won victory in the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All we are called to do should be seen in the
light of this victory of Christ. Through Christ’s victory a new environment has
been created for us to live in a new way, which the New Testament commands
prescribe. It is not as though we have to accomplish these things with our own
strength. Christ has conquered the evil one. Christ has brought in the
So then let us not forget the most important thing about this command to pray. We
can pray at all times; that is, we can approach at all
times because God has made Himself available to us at all times. To see this,
we have to put ourselves in the redemptive-historical context, and a good
example is given about the privilege of approaching God at all times. A good
example is given by Queen Esther. Do you remember how Esther replied when
Mordecai asked her to intercede for the Jews to King Ahasuerus?
She said, “All the king's servants and people of the king's province know that
if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being
called, there is but one law: To be put to death except be one to whom the king
holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not
been called to come into the king these thirty days.” This law was true even for Esther, though she was his queen. So after asking Mordecai
to have the Jews pray and fast for her, she said, "I will go to the king,
though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish."
This is a dramatic historical example to show what a privilege it is to have
audience with a king. A king is not someone you can just have a visit with
whenever you like it. And it also shows what terrible consequences you can expect
if you try to force yourself on a king, to approach the king without his royal
grant. And if such things are true of approaching earthly kings, how about
approaching the sovereign king of Heaven and earth, who is holy, holy, holy, three times holy?
Think of the Old Testament ceremonial laws, especially the laws concerning the Levitical sacrifices, the meticulous procedures outlined
and required when the people of God wanted to approach God at the tabernacle or
the temple. People could not just approach God whenever they wanted to. They
could not just think of God and approach God wherever they wanted to. They
could not just bring any kind of animal, whichever was available. There were
meticulous procedures that had to be followed strictly. If the people of God
were to approach God, they could not do it themselves, but only through the
mediation of the priests.
Of course, the Old Testament saints did not just pray to God only when they
brought their offerings to the temple. In times of need, in times of danger as
well as times of joy they prayed, often spontaneously. We have many examples of
David praying in the wilderness while running from Saul’s pursuit. Although he
was away from the temple, although he could not approach the temple, he offered
many prayers to God. We also see Daniel praying three times a day toward
But in the
Old Testament, we see an important of distinction, which existed among the
people of God. We see the people of
Do you see
what the OT arrangement was like regarding prayer? Yes, even the OT saints did
not just pray when they were at the temple. They were not forbidden to pray in
times of great need or danger, no matter how far they were from the temple,
whether they had sacrifices in their hands or not. But to pray at all times for the people of God was the responsibility and
ministry of the prophets and priests, special categories of people. In a sense,
these people of God depended on these priests to pray for them.
But, of
course, this division of labor (so to speak) was not to be a permanent
arrangement. From the very beginning of God’s covenant with the nation of
Israel, God declared His purpose of delivering them and setting them apart as
His own people: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my
covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the
earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation” (Ex. 19:5-6).
We do not see
this fulfilled in the Old Testament. But we see everywhere throughout the NT
that this purpose of God was finally realized with the coming of Jesus Christ
(the true High Priest). We see that even in our passage, don’t we, as Paul
commands us to pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
What Paul is telling us is that we have been promoted into royal priesthood. “You
were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of
Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without
God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). That who we were. But Paul
also declares to the Ephesians, “But now you are no longer strangers and
aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ
Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built
together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph.
The previous section, which talked about the armor of God, presents us as God's royal warriors, equipped with the full armor of God. Those who are equipped with the full armor of God--can they be anything less than royal warriors? But now in this exhortation to pray at all times, we are being addressed as royal priestly warriors, fighting the Satanic army with prayer, as it were.
How did this come about? Jesus is the answer. Through his once-for-all
sacrifice, He removed all that made our approaching God so dangerous and fatal
without all that meticulous procedures, without animal sacrifices and shedding
of blood. Through his all-sufficient, atoning sacrifice, He removed all that
made the curtains and the veils of the temple necessary--the partitions that
separated God and His people--the sins of His people. Do you see? To make our
access to God always open, Christ Himself had to be banned from the presence of
God, bearing away our guilt and punishment. To enable us to approach God at all
times, he had to be subject to the utter abandonment to Hell itself, which made
him cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?"
If we can pray to God at all times, with all prayer and supplication, it is
because Christ reconciled God to us and made us acceptable to God and, yea,
pleasing and delightful to Him. So pleased is God with us that He says to us, yea,
He commands us, “Pray at all times. You may approach me at all times because of
my beloved Son. If the Old Testament saints were able to pray in times of need
and danger, it was because the grace of Christ was available to them in advance
as they in faith looked forward to the promised Messiah, the true priest. If
the priests were able to approach God at the temple through the sacrifice of
animals, it was because the blood of those animals prefigured the blood of
Jesus Christ, which alone is effective to forgive us of our sins.
But notice Paul calls us to pray at all times. He is saying much more than
"You may pray at all times.” We are royal priests to whom the
responsibility and ministry of prayer have been entrusted. Again, think about Jesus
Christ. Jesus did not just die as our atoning sacrifice, as our substitute. He
rose again from the dead, demonstrating that His work of atonement paid for our
sins, was successful and fully completed. So he has removed our sins as far as the
east is from the west; indeed, never to be remembered by God, never to be
counted against us, even at the final judgment. Now, even now, there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
But not only that, He arose from the dead, is seated at the right hand of God, interceding
for us without ceasing as our great high priest. And it is in Him that we have
been made royal priests. Thus, we have the royal priestly command, pray at all
times. And we are to pray at all times and every opportunity, literally, for
all the saints. Do you see? Charles Dennison pointed out that, in the Old
Testament there is a peculiar absence of intercessory prayer by God's people
for others, except maybe in the case of the priests. But now, we are called to
pray for others, for all the saints. As the chief priests of the Old Testament
were to pray for the people of
So think also about the intensity of the command. We are to pray at all times
for all the saints with all prayer and supplication with all perseverance. In
these short verses there are four occurrences of "all," showing how urgent
and how intense is our call to pray at all times. This does not just show the
urgency of our situation as we find ourselves in the midst of spiritual
warfare, but this also shows the abundance of God's help and provision. He is
indeed our ever-present help in times of need, and at all times.
When we consider all these things, can we think of this command to pray at all
times as a burden? Think about the great love which God has towards you. What
is man that God should be mindful of us? People can get weary of us when we
constantly badger them with our needs and requests. We get weary of dealing
with needy people. But thank God that is not true with God. God does not just
tolerate our requests and petitions, does He? How can we say that? How can we
even think like that when it is God who takes the initiative and commands us to
pray at all times to approach his throne of grace with all prayer and petition
at any time, no matter how great and many our petitions might be? It is He who
says “Come to Me, you weary and heavy-laden. Come, cast all your cares upon me because I care for you
deeply with My infinite and almighty love. He is compelling us to come when He
does that. How can we think of this command as a burden? Isn't it the greatest
privilege and joy that the almighty God calls you into His presence?
But God is not merely a divine butler, who exists primarily
to lend us help when we need it! Is that why we are to pray at all times--because
we are in need? But what is our greatest need? What is the greatest need that
we have now? Isn't it God Himself? Isn't it to have more of God in our life, in
our experience of God, who is the source of the strength that we need to fight
our spiritual battle? Who is the source of the comfort and encouragement that
we seek for all the trials of our life? Who is the source of our protection and
security? Who is the source of all the provisions? Going back to the full armor
of God, who is the source of the truth which with we are to gird our loins with?
Who is the source of the righteousness which we are to put on our heart as our
breastplate? Who is the source of the Gospel of Peace which with we are to shod our feet with? Who is the source of the faith with
which we are to shield ourselves against schemes, the missiles, of Satan? And
who is the source of the salvation with which we are to protect our head as our
helmet? Who? Who is the source of the Word of God which we are to wield as our
sword against our enemy? God! God! God! God! God! God is the source. And God is
your greatest need, is He not? What better thing can we hope for and desire
than God? Who loves you as much as God does? Who is strong enough to overcome
death and stay with you forever? Who is wiser than God?
In fact, what is it that can make us victorious in our spiritual battle? What
can enable us to participate in the triumph of the Lion of Judah? Isn't it when
we worship God and delight in Him as our supreme joy and delight? And isn't
that the very essence of our victory in our spiritual battle? What is it that
Satan is trying to accomplish in his onslaught against us? Is it not to
separate us from the love of God? Is it not to lead us and lead our focus away
from God? Is it not to displace God from the throne of our heart and replace
him with anything but God? God is not just a method. God is not just a means. God
is the answer to all. God is all in all. There is no method to resist the
temptations that will assail our soul except to consecrate Christ as Lord in our
heart, to affirm again and again that God is our Lord, God is our God, God is our chief delight. Do we not sin, yield to temptation
when we lose that fact and chase after other things, when we replace God with
other things?
What does Paul say what we should pray for? “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.” In
these words, Paul tells us what our life's ultimate goal is and therefore what
we ought to pray for--to proclaim the mystery of the gospel in all that we do,
say, and think, because God is not just a means of getting of our chains, but
he is worthy of getting imprisoned and persecuted for. God has given us Himself
as our greatest inheritance. The greatest life that we could ever have is to
exalt his wonderful, marvelous name, the marvelous God. We are here in this
world, despite the fact it is so much better for us to be with Christ in
Heaven, because God desires us to declare his supreme glory, to declare the mystery
of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
So I would like to ask you to pray for me so that I won't be muzzled by
anything from speaking only the word of Christ as I ought. There are many
things that will hinder me from doing so; the cares of the world, the
challenges and problems that demand my attention, and I want to tell you that there
are many of them. They can, and they do, make it very, very difficult for me to
proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully by keeping my heart distracted and
preoccupied. They make it difficult for me to wholly dedicate myself to the
preparation and the preaching of the Word of God. I also would like to share
with you that I have no intention of shutting up because there is nothing more
glorious and fulfilling than to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact,
I'm very excited that the enemy may be working overtime to shut up the ministry
of this church. I would like to plead with you, as I share these struggles with
you, that you stay with me in prayer as royal priests so that the Lord would be
pleased to use this ministry to declare His greatness. I am not asking you to
pray that the challenges and difficulties I face will go away so I can just
focus on preaching and teaching. As Paul continued to preaching the gospel even
when he was in chains, I too must learn to do so in the midst of ministerial,
personal challenges. They are given to me by God and I want to bear them
faithfully. What I am asking you to pray is that these things would only excite
and motivate me more to proclaim the gospel rather than put me down.
Let us also pray for one another, so that our life would be ordered in such a
way that we may declare the mystery of the gospel, that how we live would not
muzzle our testimony, that our life would be joyful evidence of the power of the
gospel, evidence of our, where our heart lies! May God be pleased to use us, as
He has called us as royal warriors equipped with the full armor of God, as God
has privileged us as royal priests, ministering in the holy temple of God in
the heavenly places to pray for all times! And as we do so, may God also use us
as his royal prophets, declaring the mystery of the gospel in all that we do to
the praise and glory of our God! Until that day when Christ shall return, when
we shall be glorified and perfectly restored in the image of God as royal prophet,
priest, and king and through our glorious redemption declare the glory of God to
all the world, let us look forward to that day and let us live the life that
God has granted to us! There is no greater or nobler purpose in our life than
to exalt the glory of our Savior.
© Copyright 2008 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.