THREE WHYS IN PRAYER

BIBLE PASSAGE: EPHESIANS 6:11-18

• Picture taken from Google
• Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
• Lesson ideas taken from: https://becomingchristians.com/

SEPTEMBER 11, 2022

 

MEMORY VERSE

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

EPEHSIANS 6:18

 

INTRODUCTION:

We always hear that we have battle to face in this life; the verses in Ephesians 6:12 & 13 are always mention on this kind of battle. Let’s read these verses.

 

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 

From these, we see that the battle is in spiritual.  If it’s spiritual how can we fight it? It’s because it’s in spiritual realm, that’s where our fight must be. It means fight it in spiritual too. Thinking the fight in spiritual, it’s hard, right? But good news God tells us to stand firm because Jesus has gotten already the victory. Let’s take the note that whatever we’re going through in physical realm, in spiritual unseen realm, Jesus Christ has gotten the victory.

 

Have you thought that we are victorious in spiritual realm because of Jesus? We are victorious in the invisible even you may thoroughly have defeated in visible. What do I mean? Victorious tayo kung tutuusin sa spiritual pero bakit talunan pa rin tayo dito sa mundo? If we want to be victorious in physical like we are in spiritual, we must address the physical a spiritual lead. The toughest thing God wants to get people to do is to look life and live life from the spiritual frame of reference and not from the reference point of the five senses.

 

God has given us equipment to which to do the fight. In Ephesians 6:13 says,

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

How do we put on the armor? How do we wear the armor? Again, because the battle is in spiritual, we need to fight in spiritual too. Bible says in Ephesians 6:18,

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

The answer is PRAY!

 

If we understand prayer, it changes on how you pray and whether you pray. For some, prayer is like the national anthem before an event. It’s actually no reverence; it’s an exercise of habit. Most of us, for example when we pray before we eat, it really doesn’t need our minds to do that because it’s the same thing we do every day.

“Lord bless this food and make this as nourishment to our bodies in Jesus name amen.”

Also most of us really don’t need our minds when we go to bed; we’re tired.

“Bless me, my family, give me a good night sleep. Protect us through the night. Wake us up tomorrow. In Jesus name amen.”

 

Some of us, prayer is like a spare time; we want it there in case we really need. If we don’t need it; it is back in there somewhere. Honestly, I have personally questions regarding prayer that’s why I titled my lesson “THREE WHYS IN PRAYER.”

LESSON OUTLINE:

1.  WHY I NEED TO PRAY IF GOD ALREADY KNOWS MY PRAYER?

 

Besides the fact it’s God’s command, what else is the reason of saying my needs in prayer? Let’s read James 5:16-18

¹⁶ Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ¹⁷ Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

In verse 16 we can see that praying one another makes the condition of the healing. Then there’s statement says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  In verse 17 explains that Elijah, just like an ordinary man, like you and me but he was righteous man and he prayed earnestly. This ordinary man got the heaven moved by pouring rain. Before we proceed to this, let’s take a look where the source of this verse in Old Testament. Let’s open in 1 Kings 18:1

“And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.”

In verses 41 and 42,

⁴¹ And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. ⁴² So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,

 

If we compare these passages, we can see that in the book of James, Elijah prayed not to rain and it did and again he prayed for rain to pour and it happened. In 1 Kings we can see that what Elijah had prayed for was the command of the Lord to him in the first place. It means HE ONLY PRAYED WHAT GOD HAS SAID. Though Elijah knew that God would send rain, still, he prayed for it.

⁴³ And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. ⁴⁴ And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not. ⁴⁵ And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.

If you notice that Elijah prayed, then the rain came. We can say that what God had said didn’t come true until he prayed even though God declared it. Prayer is not making God to do something He never planned to do. The result was brought it down on earth by PRAYER.  Prayer is the human means of entering in to the supernatural realm in order to utilize the physical. Prayer is an earthly permission for heavenly interference. Though God can do everything He wants without any man’s permission but in this case is different. Let me ask this, how God organized the world to work? It is through people, if we remember Adam and Eve were given the rulership, “Let them rule.” God does not intervene unless requested; He has given us the right. He wants to know, you want Him, you need Him, desire Him and expectations of Him.

 

Elijah prayed what God has said. The bible says we need to use the SWORD of the Spirit which is the Word of God. In our present position, the problem is what if we don’t know what God has said; we don’t know the SWORD. If that so, we have empty prayers and the armor won’t seem to work because we are not connecting it with the spiritual realm.

 

In praying, you’re not making God do something; you’re simply receiving by faith what He’s already planned to do. Let’s make an example: In our place, we’ve got radio and tv signals all around us but we’re not seeing anything on TV today, Why? We don’t have anything now to pull it down the signal. If we turn the TV on, what’s invisible become visible.  We need something in the physical to receive the waves in the invisible. If we don’t have the radio or the television, the waves are still operating; it’s all over the place. What’s the point? God is moving; He is over the place. The spiritual realm is totally surrounds us but we can’t see and feel it (angels and demons are here around us). PRAYER means contacting the invisible spiritual realm and bring it down to the visible physical realm and that’s the way we engage the armor and put the armor to work.

 

2.  WHY I NEED TO PRAY IN SPIRIT?

In Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;” This verse mentioned “always” which means not just the specific time but every opportune time we have. Why we need to do that?  Let’s see in verse 13.

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” There are some days we are fine and good but we know in ourselves that not all of our days are good. In here it’s talking about the “evil day.” That’s the day when you feel like you lose your mind. That’s the day when nothing’s going right. That’s the day you might not make it. That’s the day you wonder how you’ll make it through another day because you are under attack. Some days it looks like the devil’s riding your back and it looks like everywhere you turn something is going wrong. It looks like every direction you look in, God is invisible and nowhere to be found; that’s the evil day.

On that day, at that time, when you are at that kind of attack, you need that kind of prayer. That day demands the armor of God be worn by you in all of God’s power brought to bear on your circumstances.

 In this kind of times, we need to call on God in spirit; we need to call on Him spiritually. The opposite of spirit is flesh. So maybe if we say how to pray in the flesh we can define pray in the spirit. Pray in the flesh is simply mouth words coming out of our humanity with no spiritual attachment.  Most prayers or many prayers are just that routine things and no spiritual connection to it.

To pray in the spirit means that you’re making a spiritual connection to the communication that you want to take place with God. We can do that in number of ways: we can quote scripture in prayer or take a principle of scripture and mention that in prayer. Because God’s word is spiritual, we can include that in our conversation with God (mention an example of prayer in spirit).

What happens when we pray spiritually? Let’s look at Romans 8:22, 26

^“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

There are times we groan; life is hurting us.  When we groan and don’t know what to say, the Spirit is there.  So what this says that when you bring what you know the will of God into His presence and you are groaning, the Holy Ghost draws with you and because He knows how deep the problem is, how deep the need is, how bad the attack is, He comes alongside and helps in our weak moment.

So now we see how important to pray in Spirit. It’s not just saying mouth words but in connection or conversation to God.

3.  WHY I NEED TO KEEP ON PRAYING? (DANIEL 9:2-3, 20-23; 10:10-14)

Sometimes our prayer is boring and we don’t see the urgency of it and there are times we have a day ended without prayer. If we only could see what is happening in the invisible, it wouldn’t be boring anymore. Let’s read the passage we have here.

² In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Daniel was reading the Bible and he observed something; he observed what the scripture said. In verse 3,

 ³ And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

Daniel read what God said then he talked to God about it. Why we study the Bible? To know more about God and also for you to remember what God had said and put that in remembrance and throw back it to God in prayer.

²⁰ And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; ²¹ Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. ²² And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

Daniel read the word then he talked to God about the word he read then God sent an angel to help him understand the word. Notice he didn’t send the angel to give him understanding about his situation until he prayed. Daniel didn’t pray until he found out what God had to say. He found out what God had to say and prayed then God sent a messenger to give him understanding. Let’s look at verse 23.

²³ At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

He said that when he prayed the command was given for the angel to come. Now let’s go to chapter 10 verses 10-14.

¹⁰ And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. ¹¹ And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. ¹² Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. ¹³ But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. ¹⁴ Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.

Daniel read the word and something bothered him then he talked to God about what he just read.  If you notice twice it mentioned “On the day you prayed, God sent the answer.” In line with this, we might ask, why my prayers are taking so long for God to answer? In Daniel’s case, he told Daniel that your prayer was answered in the very day you prayed. Why his prayed answered? He is highly-esteemed, a righteous man and he’s praying according to the word. But you notice that there was a three-week delay. It took the angel 21 days to deliver it to Daniel. There was a three-week delay because the enemy showed up. He says the prince of Persia blocked the angel while he was trying to deliver it on the same day. So you see, unless you see what’s happening in the invisible world you wouldn’t understand the importance of talking to God with the Word. All we see is “God is not answering my prayers” in the visible world. We should understand that there’s enemy and he’s living where we’re living.

In verse 13, we see that God sent Michael came to help angel Gabriel. There’s a battle in the heavenlies which we don’t see; there’s a warfare in the spiritual realm. That’s why WE NEED TO KEEP ON PRAYING. Now, we keep on praying because we are trying to break through the delivery that was already granted. Pray for God to intervene. AGAIN, KEEP ON PRAYING!

CONCLUSION:

EPHESIANS 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

TAGALOG: Manalangin kayo sa lahat ng pagkakataon, humiling at sumamo sa patnubay ng Espiritu. Lagi kayong maging handa, at patuloy na ipanalangin ang lahat ng hinirang ng Diyos. 

 

Ephesians 6:18 warned us to watch which means be on alert. When you watch, it means your eyes are open. When we pray we close our eyes for distractions and reverence but do we know that there are prayers in the Bible are not with eyes closed – “And they lifted their eyes.” Why we need to watch or what keeping your eyes open for? Let’s look 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

The enemy is trying to eat us up like a roaring lion. Do we know when lion roars? Lions don’t roar when they’re coming up on their prey. They roar after they get prey; it means their declaration of victory. So let’s keep our eyes open (spiritually open) when we pray because there is enemy blocking your prayers. Let’s keep our eyes open, spiritually open, to see what’s going on around you because of the enemy. That’s why so many times when we are trying to pray, distractions show up, sometimes you’re sleepy, or something pops up. Have you realized the spiritual battle? We can’t fight it with the physical, fight it spiritually. The enemy wants to block us. Therefore, let’s keep on praying and keep our eyes open.