This is the last passage of our study through Ephesians. We have focused on our wealth (who we are and what we have) in Christ and our walk (the practical daily life) in Christ. The book of Ephesians is one that could be studied and restudied continuously. Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is filled with doctrine that demands our daily walk of devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians is normally categorized into two sections, the doctrinal and the practical. We must see that the doctrinal is practical and that the book of Ephesians has a main purpose of giving us an exposition of our wealth in Christ (Ep. 1-3), exhortation to walk accordingly (Eph. 4-6), and all of this is for the encouragement of the believer as seen throughout the book and prayed for by Paul in Eph. 6:22. The book of Ephesians begins with the believer’s position in heavenly places. We are already and not yet there. We see that our wealth in Christ is “in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3) and then the believer is seated “in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6-7). Ephesians ends however focusing not on the believer’s position in heavenly places in Christ, but rather on the believer’s practical walk that is lived on their knees in prayer. Prayer is our wealth because of the privilege of the relationship that we have with the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Prayer is our walk because it is by the communion that we have with God through prayer that we are able to walk according to our wealth in Christ. Prayer is the key that unlocks the wealth of riches of His grace to be seen throughout our daily life. Prayer in many ways is to be the lifestyle of the Christian. In the immediate context of today’s final passage, we are coming in after Paul has expounded on the armor of God that is to be taken on by the believer for the day of battle so that we may stand in the evil day. After seeing all of the resources of the believer, not just His strength and armor as seen in Eph. 6, but throughout the whole book, we must make an application of these resources lest they be wasted in our life. How do we apply what is available to us?
The wealth that is available to us in Christ is available by His grace. Now, in faith we see this wealth of resources appropriated or applied to our daily practical living. Praying doesn’t make His resources available. Prayer applies the resources that are available. You don’t need more resources available to you to walk in your wealth in Christ, you must simply apply what has already been given. All that He has given is in Christ, therefore, all that you are, and need are in Him. It is by prayer that we live, stand, and walk in Christ. It is our communion of fellowship with Him based upon our unending union with Christ and His Church. Prayer should be the most natural work, duty, and enjoyment of the Christian. Praying should be as natural as taking in a breath. Prayer is in its essence the breath of the Christian. It is how we breathe in and out in order to live, stand, and walk in Christ. Prayer breathes in grace and breathes out faith. Faithful praying applies the available resources of His grace. God’s grace is our oxygen, and it never runs out, runs stale, or becomes polluted. Let me ask you, how often do you breathe? It is said that we breathe about 20,000 times a day. I hazard to guess that you don’t pray 20,000 times per day. If it makes you feel better, neither do I. However, just like breathing, those who are in Christ should be both consciously and subconsciously pray. Prayer is how we live. It is how we stand in the day of battle. It is how we walk in our wealth in Christ. Sadly, many Christians take about three to five deep breathes per day. They pray in the morning when they wake up, over breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then perhaps a bedtime prayer. Just as we need to breathe throughout our entire day to survive, so do we need to pray throughout our day to survive.
Praying is the fruit and mark of a faithful walk in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. Prayer is what binds the whole book of Ephesians together. In prayer we experience our wealth in Christ and express that through our experiential walk in Him. You don’t know your wealth in Christ if you aren’t prayerful. You can’t walk according to your wealth in Christ if you aren’t prayerful. Praying, like all of the life of the Christian is by His grace through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we bring this study to a close, we will study Eph. 6:18-24 to see that the purpose of walking in our wealth in Christ is that we stay connected and comforted in Him. Ephesians is written so that we would see our connection to Christ and His Church (union), our continual connection experienced through walking in the Spirit (communion) and be comforted in our walk by our infinite wealth in Christ.
Eph. 6:18-24 says,
“18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; 19And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 21 But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things: 22Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts. 23Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.”
Let’s first look at the need of prayer to be connected to Christ in Eph. 6:18-20. Remember, we are eternally positionally connected with Christ in our union with Him through the new birth, but now we must be experientially and practically connected with Him and His Church through daily communion through prayer. The root and fruit of the walk of the Christian is our relationship with Him. As we grow deeper in communion, we grow higher and wider in our worship and works. I believe that few Christians know what it means to be united to Christ and His Church, therefore, in return, they don’t know what true communion with Christ and His Church looks like. Then, they are driven into a performance-based relationship with Christ that always keeps them unsettled, discouraged, or even ignorant of who they are and what they have in Christ. What is the cause of this? I believe as we look at this passage, we first see that prayerlessness keeps us from living in connection to Christ so that we might enjoy the relationship we have in Him and employ the resources that we have in Him. The cause of prayerlessness is self, the flesh, our own pride. Prayerlessness is sinfulness and it stems from the desires of the flesh or as Paul called it, “the old man” in Eph. 4:22. The old man thinks himself to be spiritual, wise, and righteous. However, the old man is corrupt and will never seek to obey God, glorify Him, or depend upon Him. Our flesh loves idolatry, immorality, idleness, and ignorance through unbelief. Ultimately, prayerlessness is unbelief and an unwillingness to cast yourself upon the strength of Christ. Prayerlessness is the declaration of the heart that it is self-sufficient. We deprive ourselves of strength to stand, walk, and live in Christ when we are prayerless. When we walk in our own strength, ability, or resources we will quickly grow weak. E.M. Bounds writes, “Prayer honors, God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid.” Therefore, prayerlessness dishonors God, doesn’t acknowledge Him, exalts the flesh, adores oneself, and rejects the aid of God. Prayerless Christians should be an oxymoron. You have to be a moron to be prayerless. Prayerless Christians will be powerless Christians as they do battle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
The cure of prayerlessness is the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables, empowers, and equips us to stay connected to Christ through prayer. Simply, the cure of prayerlessness is prayerfulness. You only learn to pray by praying. You only live in prayer by praying. When praying is so natural as our body breathing then we will continuously commune with Christ drawing in His resources of grace and breathing out faith. There are several things that are addressed in these verses that deal with walking and praying in the Spirit, which is to be our very way of life.
First, the cure of prayerfulness is found in “praying always.” This shows us that prayer is to be continual. So many view prayer as something to be started and stopped like a car while out doing errands. Prayer is to continually run. It is open ended. Just as we breathe continuously, even without thinking about it or forcing ourselves to, we should be praying continually. It is our identity, our breath, our strength, and sustenance to live in Christ. Praying always means that everything is done in and by prayer. Whatever we believe we don’t need to pray for, in, and through means that we don’t believe that we need God for it or in it. It would be an act of total self-reliance which never works. Praying always means that we talk to and with God throughout all the mundane daily duties of life in total reliance upon His resources given to us through our relationship with Christ. Because of this relationship and the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have the privilege and power to pray because of His continual abiding presence in our life. His continually abiding presence in the life of every believer gives each believer continual access to the Father through the Son by the Spirit to have a continual flow of communication. After dealing with the believer’s armor and warfare in the previous passage, we come back momentarily to spiritual warfare. Just as soldiers need to have the communication lines open with their officers and fellow soldiers, so we too need the same. Continually praying enables us to continually draw from His strength and all of the resources of grace available to us in Christ. If this supply line of communication breaks down, it will impact the whole battle space. I believe that it is good to have a set time that you schedule for prayer as an individual, couple, family or even in the local church. However, if we only pray when scheduled then we miss out on the moment-by-moment communion with God that we are privileged to have by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Talk to God about it all. Tell Him everything. Speak freely, openly, honestly, and directly (Heb. 4:14-16).
Second, the cure of prayerlessness is found in “praying always with all prayer and supplication.” Praying is to be concentrated. Do you ever have a hard time concentrating while praying? We all do. We have to understand that concentrated prayer is not just that your mind doesn’t wander, but rather that it is concentrated in praying specifically for different needs. The word prayer is a generic one, but it shows that prayer is to be for all things. The word supplication then is used for specific times. Prayer should be at all times for all things, especially when specific needs arise. Everything depends upon prayer. Every situation and circumstance hinges on the prayer of the saints. Prayer is for all occasions. It is appropriate in all things, times, and places. This includes loud prayers, soft prayers, silent prayers, private prayers, public prayers, prayers without words, and even merely just the acceptance of relying on praying. We have so formalized praying that we have lost its function in our daily life. Prayer is to be at all times and in all things because we need constant open communication filled with repentance (as necessary), requests (as necessary), and rejoicing (incessantly). Concentrated praying means that you will not toss up a general list of requests, but will be praying concentrated, perhaps even small, short prayers while expecting concentrated or specific answers.
Third, the cure of prayerlessness is “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” Prayer is not just to be continual and concentrated, but it is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Just as we are to be filed with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) so that we are controlled by His power and provision in our life, so too is our praying. Praying in the Spirit doesn’t mean speaking in tongues, ecstatic utterances, or some other unbiblical nonsense. It means that we are reliant upon the Spirit’s presence, prompting, and power to pray. You can’t pray to God without God’s presence, prompting, and power in your life. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers and enables us to pray. If you don’t put off the old man and put on Christ, then you’ll never be able to pray in the Spirit. We aren’t to be controlled by our flesh, but rather to be controlled by the Spirit’s prompting and power in our life. Have you ever been praying or perhaps not praying, and suddenly the Lord seems to plant a name or request on your heart? This is the prompting of the Holy Spirit and when we are Spirit filled, we are Spirit controlled. This means that He will prompt us, and we must instantly heed His voice. To walk in Christ is to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26). Any effective praying is empowered by the Holy Spirit because it will be according to God’s word, work and will (1 Cor. 2:11). Jonathan Edwards says, “The true spirit of prayer is no other than God’s own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints.” As we learn to depend upon His presence, we will begin to live in prayer through His prompting and power in our life.
Fourth, the cure of prayerlessness is “watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Prayer is to be considerate knowing that we aren’t just praying for ourselves but for others. Praying causes our hearts to consider Christ and others while prayerlessness is only self-focused. To be watchful means that we are on the alert. Jesus even talked about this while praying in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46). Praying protects us in and through temptations, battles, and the struggles of life. If you are busy praying it makes it much harder to find time to complain, gossip, lust etc. In many ways, praying is what puts all of the armor of God together and is our ultimate protection from the enemy as illustrated in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. There, Christian (the main character and picture of each believer) is given the mightiest weapon of all called “all prayer” which is the key to his victories on his way to the Celestial City. It is prayer that not only protects the believer’s walk, but it is our protection of our unity within the church. A Church that prays together and for one another grows in maturity and unity. Imagine what God would do in our church if we began to faithfully and fervently pray for one another? By the way, you should be praying for one another. Think about how encouraging you’d be to someone by praying for them, with them, or letting them know that Lord placed on your heart to pray for them.
There are also concerns of prayerfulness that are seen in Eph. 6:19-20 which says, “19And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Paul is asking for prayer so that he may be courageous and clear in his proclamation of the gospel of Christ. He is an ambassador of Christ while in prison, and for that matter everywhere that he goes. Paul knows his need for prayer. His ministry is dependent upon his praying and the prayers of all the churches. We should be concerned about praying but one of the forgotten concerns of praying is to pray for courage and clarity for those who are preaching the word. We all need courage and clarity in our daily life which only comes by prayer, but here are reminded to pray for pastors, evangelists, and missionaries to have courage and clarity so that others may come to Christ. As a pastor, there is nothing I covet more from the congregation than prayers. If they want a preacher who is courageous then they must pray for him. If they want a preacher who is clear when he preaches the Bible, then they must pray. Paul knows that it is by prayer that he will have boldness while in bonds and bravery in the battle. If Paul needed it, then how much more do you or your pastor? We would be less concerned with our problems and preferences in the local church if we’d be more concerned with prayer.
Grow with me as we study the believer’s wealth and walk in Christ.
Grow deeper.
Grow higher.
Grow wider.
Grow With Pastor Joe 
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