Ephesians 6:10-20 draws a parallel between what Roman soldiers wore into battle with what we Christians need to prepare ourselves with for our daily battle against the things that would lead us away from God’s will for our lives.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
In today’s installment of “Meeting People Head On”, we will begin by talking about the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
Now, in the Greek language, there are a couple words that are used for the English “Word”. The particular one that Paul uses here in Ephesians is not the typical “Logos”, which means the full, encompassing being of God or Jesus Christ, but “Rehema”, or utterance of God to our hearts.
So, if we are supposed to take the “Rehema” of God into every day of our lives, we need to be memorizing Scripture so that the actual sentences, or utterances, of God’s word can be ours for the wielding!
What is most interesting about this part of the Full Armor of God, is that while all the other pieces we’ve discussed are defensive, this one – the sword of the Spirit – is the only one that is meant to be used for offense against Satan.
We need to use the Bible – the word or Rehema of God – in our own lives, as well as in sharing the Gospel of Christ with other people. It’s these individual truths that are all throughout Scripture that will help you with your daily decisions and attitudes. They give you guidance and insight on how to fight the good fight against Satan in this battle for you to be all that God wants you to be.
The next paragraph of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians talks about prayer:
18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Satan will often accuse each of us about not praying enough. I know, it sounds weird – why would he want you to pray more? It’s not that he wants you to pray more, but he knows what is important to you and will use whatever method he can, including accusations and lies, to distract you from drawing closer to God.
These verses show that the Spirit of God is the key to our moment-by-moment relationship with the Lord. So, “praying in the Spirit” is simply being a Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit, listening to what the Spirit has to say to you, so that you can pray according to the leading of God’s will.
It’s not necessarily that you have a “prayer language”, which the Bible lists as a giftedness in this area for some people, but simply sensing and yielding to the promptings of God’s Spirit in regards to what to be praying for. You will receive insights from God that can only come from Him. And best of all, you will see results from your prayer life!
I hope that you have many other Believers in your life who you are praying for. As we pray for one another, persevere with each other, and continually encourage one another through the tough times of life, that’s when we will regularly see God’s working in our lives and answering our prayers. Just as Paul asked the church in Ephesus to pray for him, we need to pray for other Christians today in the same way.
When you became a Christian, the Bible says that you were also made a minister of Christ. You are now a person who should spread the Word of God and be used by God because you know His Word. All of us have the same calling as Paul did: to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
Think about it – when you became a Christian and made the decision to follow Jesus, why did He leave you here on earth at that moment? Some might say that it is so that you can get to know Him better. But, if that’s the case, it would be better to die right away than to stay here on earth. Any of us would get to know Jesus better in heaven than here, right?
The truth is that God left us here to witness and share Jesus’ truths and to be someone He can use in the lives of other people. So, like Paul, we need to have the boldness – or freedom – to speak wherever we go about Jesus Christ. And, we need other Christians to be praying for us in this daily endeavor. To be bold, you don’t need to be an extrovert or charismatic, you simply need to have the freedom (from internal hurdles as well as external) to talk about and show the world who Jesus is.