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, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that affluence may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So reads God's precious word, and he will bless that reading to us. So our last study together, we came to the end of Paul's list of the items that he considered made up the spiritual armor of the believer. I suppose if we were to study those items in reality, we would perhaps reflect upon them as being, putting into our minds the thought of action, of combat. Swords drawn from scabbards, crashing on steel in awful combat. every piece of that armour speaking of pounding and desperate life and death action. We've all perhaps been into an armoury of some sort or another or into a museum and seen these weapons and seen the armour and it's not difficult for us to imagine what they were used for and what they suffered in the battle. Paul says these are the things that I want you to put on. And that same surely is true when we reflect on the whole armor of God. For every part that we thought about in our studies together speaks of action. The necessity of the war belt girding up the loins as it's put here. We thought of how that it was used to hitch up the tunic and the garment that the soldier would have been wearing so that It didn't get in the way when he was going into battle. And how that it pulled everything together, bound him tight together, his belt. How that underneath that breastplate that we thought of, we thought of the faithful beating heart of the soldier underneath that breastplate, secure from frontal attack. We thought about the nail-studded boots. those boots that were ready to gain traction so that there was no slipping of the feet as the soldier would advance. We thought how that Paul instructed us that we needed to be those who could gain traction, who didn't have feet that slipped when we were fighting for the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we thought about those fiery barrages repelled by the shield of faith, how that the evil one would seek to bring us down with so many fiery darts fired at us. And finally, the helmet of salvation and the sharp sword of the spirit. that helmet that spoke of protection for not only the head, but it came down to the sides and the back of the head and the neck. That protection that we thought about spoke of the protection that we have through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, through that salvation that was procured for us on the cross at Calvary. And then that sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which enables us to attack and to defend as we seek to share this wonderful gospel and our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ with those with whom we meet. And so into battle, as it were, God's warrior. We're equipped to go forward into this battle if And we said it was a big if, if we're prepared to put on and to wear this armour. But first, verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Prayer first. This, Paul is enjoining us, before ever we go into any sort of situation that's going to require the use of this armour that he's encouraged us to put on. Before we do, we must fall to our knees in deep, profound prayer. Everything, it seems, is girded by this prayer. Prayer should No, it must, mustn't it? It must precede any spiritual battle that we go into. If we ever try to go into any sort of spiritual battle, if we try to go into any work for God, any spiritual work for God, and we do it without prayer, then we are almost certain to fail. So verse 18 says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Verse 18 tells us that regardless of how well is worn that girdle of truth, that breastplate of righteousness, those boots of faith and salvation. It doesn't matter how well grounded we are in peace and how good we are at wielding the truth of the Word of God, prayer must come first. It's absolutely vital. One has said this, that the Christian soldier fights on his knees. He fights on his knees. He's always full of prayer. And we should see as we go through this verse 18 together, that there are five things that Paul enjoins upon us in respect of prayer. Prayer is the seventh item of this armour. And how apposite that is, isn't it? Because, as you well know, Seven is the number of perfection in the Bible. And so this seventh item, which brings perfection to the whole armour of God, is simply prayer. Verse 12 says, 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. Five aspects of prayer then that are going to help us to be the foundation of our battle with the wiles of the evil one and the devil. Donning, as it were, the word of God. So first of all, Paul would say to us that we need to be those who are praying at all times in the spirit. He says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Spirit-directed prayer. Why? Let me just read you Romans 8, a verse or two from Romans 8, and verses 26 and 27. Paul writing here says, 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. And he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. What is Paul saying here? Paul is simply saying this, that the Holy Spirit is vital to our prayer life. Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit not only prays with us, but he prays for us as well. It's the Holy Spirit, first and foremost, that instructs us in what we should pray. I remember, as I was thinking about this earlier this week, it reminded me of a young Christian who was terrified of having to pray in public. He was a youngish man, quite extrovert and outgoing, but terrified to pray. And he said, you know, he said, I realized, Robin, in the end, that I didn't need to worry about that. Because he said, provided I was praying in the Spirit, the words just came to me. It seemed as if there was a supernatural being imparting the words to me and I was able to pray, he said. This is what Paul's thinking about here. The Holy Spirit, he says, instructs us in what we should pray. If you think about it, it makes some sense, doesn't it? Because if the Holy Spirit wasn't instructing us in what to pray and how to pray, our prayers would be limited. Because they'd be limited by our own reasoning. They would be limited by our own intuition. And we all readily admit how often that fails us. How trying to do things in our own strength ends in disaster. how much better we are if we have a set of notes to read and to use to remind us when we're trying to preach for argument's sake. But the Holy Spirit is there and Paul says you need to harness that Holy Spirit in your prayer life. Praying in the Spirit because that Holy Spirit will instruct you in what you should pray for and how you should pray. So the Holy Spirit encourages us to pray but cannot be that which is, can only be that which is the very will of God. Because one part of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not going to involve us in anything other than the things that are the mind of God. We pray in faith and we do it. in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is true that our prayers should be directed to God through the Lord Jesus Christ who presents them but in the power of the Holy Spirit. If you go through the Scriptures you find that again and again and again. Whenever God is working there are always the three beings of the Trinity in action. And prayer is no different. The Lord Jesus Christ presents our prayers, but the Holy Spirit takes them and presents them to the Lord Jesus Christ, is instructing us and helping us to pray. And then secondly, the Holy Spirit energises our prayers. our prayers in a way which tired, infirm bodies never could, never can. That's what the Holy Spirit does. Gives us that strength in our prayers. Gives us that vision of what God would have us to pray for if we're praying in the Spirit and not just relying on our own strength, on our own thoughts, our own intuition, our own reasoning. If we're praying in the Spirit, then the Spirit will aid us in our prayers. I don't know about you, but I suppose perhaps all of us have prayer lists. We like prayer lists. And I wonder who's on the top of your prayer list. Paul says, I want you to put praying in the Spirit on the top of your prayer list, and then go down the items that you're going to pray for. Pray first of all that you might be in the Spirit and praying in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then start your prayers. I was going to read the verse of a hymn here, number five in our books, verses three and four, because it seems to back that up nicely. Let me just read them. Oh, how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear, and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated being? There is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice, a Holy Spirit's energies, and advocate with God. That's what Paul is enjoining upon us here, it seems to me. that we should be those who are praying in the Spirit. We need to be open to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit. We need to be energised and to feel that energy of the Holy Spirit when we pray. We need to practise and engage in learning to pray in the Holy Spirit. So first of all then, praying at all times in the Spirit. Spirit-directed prayer. Secondly, continual prayer. Always, he says. At all times, it means. It means in the original text that you've got to be praying at all times. Let me read a verse or two from Acts 1, verse 14, which just shows us how vital the prayer life was to the early church, the early believers. Acts chapter 114. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brethren. This was the early church. These were the people who'd been saved at the very beginning of the church age. These folks continued, it says, with one accord in prayer and supplication. Tall order, isn't it? Is it possible? Well, yes, of course it is. Not so much the speaking of the words, but it's all about the posture of the heart. You know, when you stand to pray amongst a congregation of people, you can often be conscious that the folks in front of you are praying with you. because there's a feeling of the Spirit working in that particular room. Sometimes you don't feel that, and you wonder if folks are praying with you. Not just listening to the words, because so often we repeat ourselves, it's very easy to come out with the same little sayings and that sort of thing, and I'm not downgrading that at all, not at all. What I'm saying is that when we're all together, Paul says, we want to be praying together, even though you are not perhaps the person on your feet leading the prayer, but you should be praying with the person who is praying, and not just listening to the words, or perhaps not even listening to the words. It goes over into our everyday life, Paul says here, in effect. Because he says whilst you're taken up with life in general, we're doing all the things that we have to do in our daily lives, he says it is possible that you can have this profound deeper level of prayer life as you're working away or whatever you're doing, driving or anything else. And you should be full of worship and song. It should just come to you as you're working, whatever you're doing. It should be part of our subconscious almost, being that the Holy Spirit is instructing us to pray and helping us to pray. I don't know about you, but I drive down here, I do 25 miles, and I think about all sorts of things. You know, sometimes it worries me because I don't concentrate perhaps as I should. But, you know, Paul says, instead of thinking about that sort of thing, why don't you try a bit of, you know, just worship, praying. I mean, yes, we do. We find ourselves singing hymns and things like that and thinking about the scriptures. But Paul says it's got to be spirit-led and spirit in part of your being every day of your life as you live it out. Paul challenges us to cultivate continual prayer, not just praying in the Spirit, but continually praying in the Spirit. Paul says it's God's will for us, and there's no exceptions. You know, there is no a la carte Christianity, is there? We have to take on every facet of this wonderful book and apply it to our own lives, each one individually. We can't strike parts out. It all has to be lived out and Paul is saying here, this is how you should be living your life. And Paul would say to you and he would say to me, he would say, I can do it. He would say, you can do it. Everyone can do it, all can do it. It's not beyond our capabilities because if we believe as we do, I trust, that the Holy Spirit is placed within us the moment we're saved and converted, the moment we become a child of God, the Holy Spirit is placed within us. There He is all the time. And He wants to energize us in prayer and worship and song to God, in prayer. We can all have that secret dialogue, it seems, with God. We can always be looking upward to Him. It's a tall order. It's not easy, but it can be done. Praying then at all times in the Spirit, but being continually in prayer. And then thirdly, we have varied prayer here. He says with all, with all prayer and supplication. If we pray continually, it will be naturally varied, won't it? it won't be the same phrases trotted out. If we're praying all the time, we're working, moving around, driving as I say, lying in our beds, whatever. If we're praying, if the Spirit is energizing us, it will be a very wide and varied prayer. Paul said to, he encourages Timothy, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people. This is what he wants. So if you're going to pray for all people, it's necessarily going to be a varied prayer, isn't it? I know there are folks who take the church directory and they go through that every day, perhaps some of them even twice a day, and they pray for everyone on that list. It's going to be a varied prayer, isn't it? Because we're all different and we have all different needs and circumstances in our lives at any particular time. Paul says that's the sort of prayer you want. All prayer and supplication. Varied prayer, supplication. There's an untold variety of situations and circumstances that come into our lives and the lives of those who we would pray for. Paul says that should, by the power of the Holy Spirit, encourage varied prayer. He says, in effect, that we should be skilled in all types of prayer, because if the prayer is varied, then we need to be able to pray productively for every situation, every circumstance, and to be constantly engaged in them. Just think of the number of people we interact with every day of our lives. I haven't been out today, I've been in the house all the time. But I must have interacted either on the telephone or people who've come to the door with perhaps twenty people in the day. All those people needing prayer. Every single one of them different in almost every respect. from the postman down to my daughter as I phoned her on the... Paul says when you meet these people and you're engaging with them, we need to be those who are praying for them as we meet them, as we react with them. Prayer then, to be made for all people. Praying in the Spirit, continually. and the prayers should be varied. Fourthly, he says it's got to be persistent prayer, no flagging, no having days off, no holidays from prayer, he says. He says here that we should be prayer and supplication, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication. It's got to be persistent prayer, thereunto with all perseverance, he says. Not that by our perseverance we can gain brownie points, if you like, and when we've got enough points God will answer our prayers. That's not the thought here. God doesn't want us just to keep repeating our prayers so that he might be energized to do something about them. That's not the thought at all. The fact is that God sovereignly chooses to require you and I as believers to be in persistent prayer. And the only objective of God in asking us to do that is that at the end of it all He might have everlasting glory from it. That's the thought here. Jesus often enjoined persistent prayer, didn't he? You go to the parable in Luke 18 verses 2 to 5 and there you find that the Lord Jesus tells a parable about a woman who consistently appealed to a judge that he might hear her case and settle it. And she kept going back and back again and again and again until eventually until eventually the judge gave in and said the only way I'm going to get rid of this woman is to do what she's asking me to do. That's the sort of persistence in prayer that Paul wants us to have. I was reading a commentary recently and the chap writing the commentary said that for, I think it was some 50 years, He prayed every day that his brother might be converted, might be saved. And it was 50 years before that prayer was answered. Suddenly, on an occasion, they came together. They were on holiday together, I believe, their families. And his brother said, I really should have a chat to you about this business of Christianity and salvation. You know, we have to be persistent, don't we, in our prayers. I can remember a time when we had a group of some 30 young people at Hayward's Heath and before the Gospel service every evening the young fellows would come into the back room with us to pray. They'd only been recently saved, most of them. They didn't come from Christian backgrounds. But they wanted their friends to be saved. They wanted their friends to find the Lord Jesus Christ as the saviour that they had and that they enjoyed. And they would come into the back room with us. And you couldn't get a word in edgeways for a quarter of an hour because these young lads, and I'm talking about people in their late teens, praying fervently that their friends might be saved and many of them were unbaptised. It was a wonderful, wonderful time, a wonderful experience of Holy Spirit led prayers that brought these boys and girls to salvation. Persistent prayer then. Mark 7 verse 7 says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Ask is requesting assistance. Seeking is asking, but it's with action. We're now doing something. Knocking, and the word in that context there is knocking with perseverance. Keep on knocking. Don't give up on people. Don't give up on circumstances. Keep on praying. We have this thought here once again in that favourite of mine, the present continuing tense. Keep on asking. Keep on praying. Keep on seeking. Keep on without stopping. Keep on knocking. present continuing tether. Praying for unbelieving family and friends. Never give up on them. Praying for the sick. Praying for the gospel, etc, etc, etc. Keep on praying. We need just to be certain that we don't become objectionable in that. It is possible for us to become a problem, perhaps, to people if we keep on at them verbally. But, you know, they can't stop us praying, can they? And they're not going to get upset about us praying for them if they don't know we're praying for them. Pray, then, persistently. Spirit-led prayers. Continual prayers. prayers that are varied prayers, prayers that are persistent, and then finally intercessory prayer. What does he say here at the end of this verse? He says, and supplication for all saints, supplication for all saints. You'll know as you go to prayer that there are many, many worthy things to pray for. But Paul seems to be saying here that first and foremost, top of your list should be other believers. They should be high on our list in those prayers. Preaching the Word by Kent Hughes says this. I'd like to read it to you because it touched me when I read it. It says it so much better than I ever could. Imagine with me for a moment the aged Apostle Paul with grey flowing beard and a thinning grey mane falling askew around his weathered face. His sinewy old body bears the marks of war. The bow of his legs has increased because of his repeated marches across the Roman Empire. Scar tissue covers his torso as he has five times received 39 stripes. 195 lashes. He is bent by the gravity not only of time, but of the cosmic burdens of apostleship. Who is weak, he says. I am not weak. Who is made to fall? And I am not indignant. You'll know that lovely passage in 2 Corinthians. Can you see him? Now imagine him in his well-worn armor. He has worn the ball belt so long that it is sweated through and salt-stained and comfortable like an old horse's bridle. And it holds everything in place perfectly. The belt of truth. God's truth has girt him tight for years so that it has permeated his life and reigns within. He is armed with the clear eyes of a clean conscience. He can face anything. His torso is sheathed with a battle-tarnished breastplate. It is crisscrossed with great lateral grooves from slicing sword blows and dented from the enemy artillery. The breastplate of righteousness has preserved his vitals intact. His holy life has rendered his heart impervious to the spiritual assaults of Satan. His gnarled legs are comfortable in his ancient war boots. He has stood his ground on several continents. The boots are the gospel of peace, the peace with God that comes through faith in him, and the resultant peace of God, the sense of well-being and wholeness. He stands in peace, and being rooted in peace, he cannot be moved. Paul's great shield terrifies the eyes, for the broken shafts and the many charred holes reveal him to be the victor of many fierce battles. The shield of faith, held up as he has repeatedly believed God's word, has caught and extinguished every fiery dart of doubt and sensuality and materialism. None has as much as touched him. On his old grey head he wears a helmet that has seen better days. Great dents mar its symmetry, reminders of furtive blows dealt him by the enemy. Because the helmet of salvation, the confidence of knowing that he is saved and will be saved, has allowed him to stand tall against the most vicious assaults. His imperial confidence gives him a regal bearing. And then there is his sword. He was equal to a hundred when his sword flashed. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, the ultimate offensive weapon, cut through everything, armour, flesh, glistening bone and running marrow, even the soul. What an awesome figure the Apostle Paul was. He had stood before Felix and Agrippa, the legates and officials of Rome, and had not given an inch. He was the consummate warrior. That was Paul. He embodies the whole of those verses of the whole armour of God, and the praying as well. And then he comes down, and what does he say in verse 19? The very next phrase, and for me. He needed to be prayed for, even the great Apostle Paul. We might think that, why would he need prayers? He was such a great man of God, such a wonderful, wonderful warrior. And yet he says, pray for me as well. I'm one of the saints, I'm one of you. I want you to intercede on behalf of me. Why would he pray like that? Why? The next verses tell us that he would do that, he wants that prayer, that he might proclaim the Gospel. Pray that I might have the courage, he says, under the stress to preach the gospel fearlessly. Paul challenges us in these verses, surely, to offer spirit-directed prayers continually for all things and all folks without ceasing, but with particular attention to our fellow believers, those who we call our brothers and our sisters in the Lord. Struck me again as I read through these verses again this week, that verse 18. It's all about all, isn't it? It's always. It's all prayer. It's all perseverance. And it's all the saints. Nothing and nobody left out. And then just finally, what about prayer planning? I guess perhaps we don't think about that very much. We perhaps all admit that prayer, our prayer life, is the hardest part of the Christian life. It's the most difficult thing, perhaps, for us to deal with in our Christian lives. And if it is that difficult, what we need is a plan, like we do for anything else in life. You and I don't go off on holiday without making a plan of where we're going to go and what time we're going to leave and what time we're going to get there, where we're going to stop for this and that and the other. We have a plan. But you know, so often we go into prayer, don't we, and we have no plan at all. We perhaps come to a prayer meeting, we haven't given a thought about it during the day or even the half hour before we get here. And yet we need, it seems, from these verses, we need a plan. Prayer is hard, not because we don't want to, We all want to pray, don't we? We want to have a prayer life. We know how vital it is. We know how it changes things, how it keeps us close to God. But we don't pray because we don't want to, but because we don't plan to pray. We just don't plan it at all. Nothing is planned. Place, time, the procedure, The opposite of planning is to be in a rut. And that's so easy in our Christian lives regarding prayer, isn't it? Get in a rut. Get up in the morning, quick look at the Bible passage, quick few lines of prayer, this, that and the other. Looking at our watch, must get going, got to get to work, got to do this, got to do the other. And we come to the end of the day and perhaps we think, well, I haven't done a lot of praying today, better have a prayer. And we start praying and the next thing we know, well, you do if you're my age, you're asleep. You can't keep your eyes open, it's not the time of night perhaps to be doing it. Planning for prayer, Paul says, is what we really need to do. An unplanned prayer spiritual life sinks, one has said, to a non-existent level of mediocrity at its lowest ebb. It's easy to do that in prayer, isn't it? for it to sink into the mediocrity of its lowest ebb. The antidote? Simply plan for prayer. Set a time, set a place, have a list. Pray in the Spirit at the top of that list. Then we won't get bored of prayer and we won't, because the Holy Spirit will take over and remind us of the things that we should be praying for, that God would have us to pray for. And if we pray like that, if we have a prayer life like that, God will ultimately be glorified in our prayers. And we will benefit enormously because of the experience of the fullness of joy of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit encouraging us through our prayer life. Amen. 3-8-1, please. 3-8-1. Come, my soul, thy suit prepare. Jesus loves to answer prayer. He himself has bitterly prayed. Therefore will not say thee nay. Show me what I have to do. Every hour my strength renew. Let me live a life of faith. Let me die thy people's death.