Michael Youssef - Pray in The Spirit
I want you to imagine, okay? This is an imagining time, okay? That a Roman soldier has got all the equipment, everything he needs to be in that battle, and he finds himself in the battlefield, in a very smoke-filled environment. I’m talking about thick smoke all around him, smoke that makes it difficult for him even to breathe. He’s well-equipped. All the equipments are in the right place, but he’s constantly coughing and clearing his throat because the smoke is just so thick. He’s equipped, but he has blurry eyes from the smoke. You say, «Where are you going with this, Michael»? I’m glad you asked. It would be a good question, because after explaining the amazing provision of God of these six pieces of the whole armor of God, these six pieces of equipment, the apostle Paul does not stop there, he cannot stop there.
Now I’m talking about the urgent appeal by the apostle Paul for the importance of prayerfulness in the battle, prayerfulness in the battle. Now, I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve never met anybody, any Christian believer, who is very satisfied with their prayer life. And that is why, when the subject of prayer comes up, people feel guilty. And I pray that whatever stage you’re in, in your prayer life, and whether you’re discontented and unhappy with it or you are or you’re not, it doesn’t matter. I am praying to the Lord right now that after this message your prayer life will be absolutely revolutionized. Can I get an amen?
The reason Paul closes Ephesians, the whole epistle to the Ephesians, the whole reason why he closes with the important of prayerful life is of absolute significance for everyone at the sound of my voice. Here’s the reason why Paul does not include prayer as the number seven in the equipment of the armor of God. He could have said, «Well, here’s another equipment». He did not include it as part of the equipment for the whole armor of God, the full armor of God. While prayer is closely, very, very closely associated with the full armor of God, it is much more than that. Why? Because prayer is not, is not, is not, is not just another spiritual weapon. As vital as those six pieces of equipment that we’ve been seeing are, as absolutely necessary these six pieces of the full armor of God are, yet prayer is as important and necessary as the very air you breathe. Are you with me?
And that is why I started by saying you can have all of the equipment, but if the environment is smoke-filled, if you can’t breathe, then you’re going to absolutely fall in the battlefield. You will be discouraged and you feel weak. You could be equipped, but if there’s a thick smoke all around you, and that is prayerlessness. And that is why Jesus in Luke 18, when he said to the disciples, he said, «Look, you could always pray». That is «always,» meaning every moment of every day. Listen to me, our Lord knows that when the battle gets harder, and my goodness, it’s getting harder now. If the lungs are not filled with fresh air of prayer, the soldier’s gonna get tired, he’s gonna get weak, and he’s gonna get discouraged.
Someone might still ask, «But with that breathtaking blessings that are in the first five chapters of Ephesians, these breathtaking blessings that you have been blessed in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and he goes in and enumerates them, with this impressive six-piece equipment for the whole armor of God, with all of that, why prayer is the most important of all»? Ah, great question, listen to me. With all of these blessings in the first five chapters of Ephesians, with all of this powerful armor of God, we can be… with all of that, you with me? We can become vulnerable to the temptation of thinking, «I must be a super duper». Do they use that kind of language now?
That’s my old, «I must be so important to be blessed this way, to have all these resources. I must be the best thing since sliced bread. I must be the best thing that’s ever come down the pipe». What is that? Do you know what that is? Spiritual pride. You see, that is the vulnerability with all of the blessings and with all the equipment is to have spiritual pride, spiritual arrogance, self-smugness. In fact, Satan can use all of these blessings, all of that equipment for the battlefield, all the armor, everything else, he can use them to turn our spiritual heads. How can he do that? How can he turn our spiritual heads? We lose the sense of absolutely, totally, moment by moment, humbly dependent on God in prayer. And that is why praying in the Spirit is the most humbling position to be in.
In fact, the whole letter of Ephesians, it begins, if you remember, it begins, «You have been blessed in all heavens, spiritual, heavenly, from the heavenly places and all the blessings». It begins by literally taking us all the way to the very portals of heaven. But then it closes, it closes by pulling us down on our knees of prayer. Pulls us all the way to heaven, but it closes. It says, «Without this, you can’t win». Question, what is the Holy Spirit saying to us through the apostle Paul? Listen carefully, please. Do not think for a moment that because you have all of these blessings, because you have all of these resources, because you have all of these equipments, because you have all of the head knowledge that you can even take a breath, just one breath, one, without humbly dependent on your Heavenly Father.
Please hear me right. The full armor of God are neither mechanical nor magical. Did you get that? The whole armor of God, there’s some people who just think of it as mechanical, you just put the whole armor of God and now you’ve… no, no, no, they’re not mechanical nor magical. Someone said many, many, many years ago, «The gift without the giver is bare». Now if you haven’t already turned to Ephesians chapter 6 beginning at verse 18, please do so now as I conclude this very short series of messages on the whole armor of God.
Now, here the apostle Paul is emphasizing what Jesus taught. He’s really what? He’s amplifying what Jesus taught, namely the absolute necessity of being watchful in prayer all of the time. The frequency of «all» here is very important, it really is. Underline it in your Bible, there are four times, at least. Praying at all times with all persevering. That’s very important, it’s very important. The Word of God forever calls us to pray always, always. That is not to undermine or take away from the time that you should spend daily in intimacy with the Lord, that’s not.
This is in addition to that. In a variety of ways, the Bible tells us to pray, whether publicly or privately, loud cries or soft whisper, whether deliberately or spontaneously, whether sitting or standing or kneeling or even lying down at home, at church, in the car, jogging, exercising, wherever you are, wherever you may be, at work, on the road, with hands raised up or folded, with eyes open or closed, with heads bowed down or raised up, whatever and wherever you are and in every situation and in every circumstances. Beloved, we worship an omnipotent God, an omnipresent God, an omniscient God. He hears and answers prayers at all times and everywhere. Even in the Old Testament they prayed three times; in the morning, noon, and evening. But in the New Testament we are encouraged, oh, dozens of times, to pray always, always.
Why, what does it mean to pray all the time? Continuously, God-conscious. Whatever you see or hear or you experience becomes a subject of prayer. Praying always means to be in deep awareness of constantly surrendered to the Heavenly Father. When we hear of a need, immediately we stop and pray. When you experience a blessing, stop immediately and say, «Praise you, Lord, thank you, Lord».
When you wait until you go to a prayer time, when you see how some evil is being perpetrated, we cry out to God on the spot. When you run into some non-believing neighbor or friend or coworker, you immediately pray for their salvation, not loud. And then I pray for the opportunity that I might be able to witness to them. When you encounter a challenge, you immediately turn to God, talk to God. Oh beloved, listen, the ultimate purpose of our salvation is the glory of God. And that leads us to constant intimacy in his presence, not just for the moment that we spend praying and reading the scripture every day. I’m talking about moment by moment by moment.
Romans 8:26 and 27 has been a huge comfort to me through the years. When I heard that expounded one year back in 1973, it’s been absolutely huge comfort in my prayer life. «The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words». I cannot tell you how many times I groaned in prayer. To pray in the Spirit is to be in harmony with the Holy Spirit. Let me repeat this. To pray in the Spirit, it means that you are in harmony with the Holy Spirit. That’s why we are praying in subjection and in submission to the Holy Spirit. Not my whims, not what I think is right, not what I think is important, but what the Holy Spirit says is important. And don’t ever forget, please, please, please don’t ever forget that the context of Paul asking us to pray in the Spirit is the spiritual warfare. Are you with me?
It is in the context of being continuously alert, continuously ready for battle. You see, when you are praying in the Spirit all the time, you are in a state of watchfulness, you are in a state of alertness of Satan’s scheme all the time. You know the fascinating part about the next two verses in Ephesians 6, fascinating to me anyway, Paul doesn’t pray for himself. He doesn’t pray for himself. He asks them to pray for him. Look at verses 19 and 20. The healthiest prayer life is when we pray for one another. The most powerful prayer is when we are constantly praying for each other. Listen, I get more blessed when I pray for others than you can imagine. Prayer is not being self-absorbed. My needs, my wants, my agenda, I’ve become so overly occupied with self.
When Jesus said, «Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,» that’s in prayer. Since you are continuously praying, you’re continuously seeking his kingdom and his righteousness first. Then watch out, all of your needs are going to be met. Things will be added to you. As I pray for you and you pray for me, that is the highest form of praying in the Spirit. Verse 19: «Pray on my behalf, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel». Don’t miss this, please. I plead with you, don’t miss this, don’t miss this. He did not ask them to pray for his sore ankles because they have been in shackles and they’re probably swollen, and he was in pain. I promise you, I would have prayed for that, asked you to pray for that.
That would be me. «Hey, pray for my sore ankles». He didn’t even ask them to pray that he may be set free from the prison, from that miserable dungeon. I would have done that. Oh my goodness, I would have made that my foremost in my mind. But no, not the great apostle Paul. His priorities were far from self-occupation. His primary concern was the gospel proclamation. For his passion, his first passion is for the lost people to be saved. His plea for prayer is that the kingdom of God would expand. The fact that he is in that miserable place, the fact that he is in chains, the fact that he is in solitary confinement, these were incidental as far as Paul was concerned. They were incidental.
Listen to me, he would rather have them pray for spiritual victory, not even for his physical freedom. Why did Paul ask for prayer? Listen to me, beloved, and you know you see that every day in the news, because he knew that Satan would go after spiritual leaders and pastors with vengeance, as he’s doing right now, in order to discourage the sheep. Even in prison, he asked them to pray for the impact of the gospel, the impact of the gospel. But there’s some irony here that I cannot conclude without drawing attention to it. Paul saw himself as an accredited ambassador of Jesus to the courts of Rome. Paul was proud in good sense, good pride, to be an ambassador of Christ. But look at the anomaly here, it’s an incredible anomaly. He is an ambassador in what? Chains, ambassador in chains.
Oh, but Paul knows that he is an ambassador of Christ crucified. He knows that he’s a soldier in chains, and yet his biggest concern is the gospel, it’s the gospel of Jesus. That’s his biggest concern. I want to ask you this as I conclude here, but I’ll plead with you before God. I’ll plead with every one of you here, and those who are watching around the world. When I ask you a question, please do not fudge, do not try to get out of it. You may not answer it in this moment, but you’ve got to answer it to yourself at some moment, at some time. And here’s that question: what does your concern for the gospel, what does your concern for the gospel fit in in your life’s priority? Where does it fit in? Where does it fit in? I plead with you, don’t shrug it off. Don’t rest until you answer it for yourself.