“Pray at all times in the Spirit.”
Ephesians 6:18. Read Ephesians 6:10-19
Those words in Ephesians 6:18 can immediately make us ask, How do I do that?
But Scripture begins somewhere else in 6:10
“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.”
Before we are told how to stand, we are told where the strength to stand comes from.
His strength. His might.
The battle is beyond what we see, and the strength required is beyond what we possess.
So prayer cannot simply be my assessment of circumstances brought before God: Change this. Remove that. Give me this outcome.
What if I cannot see the whole battle?
What if I do not even know what should be prayed?
Romans 8 tells us plainly: “we do not know what to pray for as we should.”
But the Spirit helps our weakness.
Perhaps that begins to open Ephesians 6:18:
Praying in the Spirit is not trying to persuade God to accomplish what is on my mind, but depending upon the Spirit to bring my praying increasingly into agreement with what is on God’s mind.
This is not passivity.
Ephesians says: stand, take up, pray, watch, persevere.
It is dependent participation.
Remain
Jesus said:
“Remain in Me… for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
Then:
“If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask…” John 15:7
Notice the movement.
Remain.
His words remain.
Ask.
Prayer arises within fellowship.
We remain because we cannot see, understand, pray or stand independently of Him.
The branch does not manufacture life.
The Vine supplies.
And Psalm 37 takes us deeper:
“Delight yourself in the LORD.”
Before the desires comes delight.
Fellowship does not merely change what we ask.
Fellowship transforms the heart from which the asking comes.
As we remain, we know Him.
As we know Him, we delight in Him.
As we delight in Him, our desires increasingly come under His Word and His will.
As desire is shaped in fellowship, asking is shaped too.
This is not a formula.
It is relationship.
Not Performance, but Dependence
“Pray at all times” can sound like an impossible demand for continuous religious activity.
But perhaps we have missed its heart.
“Pray at all times in the Spirit” is not a summons to continuous religious performance. It is a summons to continuous dependence upon God, expressed through prayer in fellowship with Him.
Prayer is not merely something we do in His presence.
Prayer flows from living in His presence.
Through the Son.
In the Spirit.
To the Father.
And that fellowship does not turn inward and stop with us.
Ephesians continues:
“with all perseverance and every request for all the saints.”
Prayer in the Spirit is not merely an inward spiritual experience.
The Spirit turns us toward the concerns of God, and God’s concern includes His people.
We are not standing alone.
Our brothers and sisters need His strength too.
So dependence becomes fellowship, fellowship bears love, and love expresses itself in intercession.
The Pursuit
There is another danger.
We could understand all this correctly and turn it into a new technique:
Here are five things to do so that you can pray in the Spirit.
But that would contradict the journey.
Even transformation must not become the pursuit.
Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into His image by the Spirit.
We behold.
He transforms.
Transformation is consequence.
Christ is central.
The branch does not stare at its fruit.
It remains in the Vine.
Christ is the pursuit.
Everything else is fruit.
The Treasure
Jesus said:
“where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
And perhaps here we reach the heart of it all.
God Himself is the Treasure.
Not merely answered prayer.
Not spiritual strength.
Not discernment.
Not even transformation.
Him.
If He is our Treasure, our hearts are drawn toward Him.
We commune with Him.
Delight in Him.
Depend upon Him.
Pray in fellowship with Him.
Then Psalm 139 opens a beautiful window in verse 18:
“When I awake, I am still with You.”
I sleep.
I awake.
And I am still with You.
Not awakening first to religious duty.
Not awakening to technique.
Awakening in the consciousness of fellowship with God.
The heart awakens to its Treasure.
Face to Face
But we do not yet see Him face to face.
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”
1 Corinthians 13:12-13
Now we live by faith.
Now we hope.
Now we love the One we cannot yet see face to face.
Faith trusts Him.
Hope looks toward Him.
Love delights in Him.
And one day:
The Treasure we have loved by faith and hoped for is before us, face to face.
Faith has done its work.
Hope has reached fulfilment.
Love remains.
All through Ephesians 6 we were told to stand.
Stand in His strength.
Stand in His armour.
Stand in the evil day.
But standing is not the destination.
In this age, in His strength, we stand.
An age is coming when the struggle is over and the Treasure is before us.
Then the posture changes.
In this age, in His strength, we stand.
In the age to come, in His presence, we fall.
Not in defeat.
In worship.
“Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Revelation 7:12, NASB 2020
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