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Scripture Reading: Eph. 6:11-20
Ephesians 6 ends with the crucial point of prayer. This is not general prayer; rather, it is prayer that appropriates the word of God (vv. 17-18). It is amazing that an Epistle concerning the church concludes with the prayer that appropriates the word of God. This shows that in order to have the proper church life, we must appropriate the word of God by means of all prayer and petition.
Chapters 3 through 5 of Ephesians cover the secrets to experiencing Christ for the church life. We must let Christ make His home in our hearts, be mingled with the Triune God, allow Christ to increase in us for our growth in life, and take Christ as our person for our renewing. These are the secrets to experiencing Christ for the church life. In order to apply these secrets, we must appropriate the Lord’s word.
If we have the word of God, we have Christ, the riches of Christ, the increase of God, and the reality of the Triune God. Christ’s person and His work are in the word of God. Therefore, if we are to experience Christ, we must enter into the word of God; that is, we must allow the word of God to enter into us so that it can nourish us. The nutrients in the word of God wash and cleanse us from our old elements and bring in a new element so that we can grow, be renewed, experience the Triune God, and let Christ make His home in our hearts. This is the issue of our appropriating the word of God.
Even though it seems that Ephesians could end with chapter 5, we need chapter 6 to tell us how to appropriate the word of God. Paul begins verse 10 with the word finally, implying that the book is not yet complete. The last section of this book presents the final secret for the church life. This secret is the whole armor of God, which is our weapon to fight against Satan. The armor of God includes girding our loins with truth, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, having our feet shod with the firm foundation of the gospel of peace, taking up the shield of faith, and receiving the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God; we receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit by means of all prayer and petition (vv. 13-17). Prayer is the secret to putting on and using the whole armor of God. We should not pray for prosperity or security, but we should appropriate the word of God through prayer.
Some Christians pray every day, but they usually pray for blessings, security, prosperity, and healing. Very few Christians appropriate the word of the Lord through prayer. Verses 17 and 18 say, “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition.” This indicates that in order to appropriate the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, we must pray. The word of God is not mere letters but the Spirit. To appropriate the sword of the Spirit is to appropriate the word, which is the Spirit.
The Lord has given us the Bible, and His words are spirit (John 6:63). Hence, Paul says that we should appropriate the word of God, which is the Spirit, by means of all prayer and petition. By means of all prayer does not refer to one prayer, a few prayers, or even many prayers, but to all kinds of prayers. There is prayer and also petition. Prayer is general, but petitions are particular. We need general prayers and also particular petitions. This means that we must pray many times and in many ways in order to appropriate the word of God. We receive the word of God by means of all prayer, not by merely reading or understanding. Therefore, we must pray-read the Bible. Every word in the Bible must become our prayer. We must convert the words of the Bible into prayer.
The book ‘Lord, Thou Saidst’ is a testimony of the saints’ experiences of pray-reading over the past centuries. One section of this book is on George Whitefield. George Whitefield lived around the same time as John Wesley, who was a powerful gospel preacher; both were English. George Whitefield pray-read every word of the New Testament in Greek, not in English. Prayer is the best way to appropriate the Lord’s word. Pray-reading is the way to be filled with Christ, to live Christ, to flow out Christ, and to express Him in a prevailing way. Many saints throughout the ages have pray-read the Bible. We should pray-read in such a way as well.
We do not need to kneel before the Lord and pray in a feeble way. We often pray for our weaknesses, poverty, troubles, and problems with our children, school, and work. When we pray for the church, we often complain about the problems in our coordination and even accuse the saints of rebelling against the Lord, of falling away, and of not loving the Lord. These are pitiful and feeble prayers. Nevertheless, most Christians pray in such a way.
When we pray, we should forget everything and pray according to Ephesians 6. The primary purpose of prayer is to appropriate the word of God. We must practice this until it becomes our habit. The first thing we should do every day is to appropriate the word of God by prayer. As we appropriate the word of God, it will feed, water, refresh, empower, strengthen, saturate, and enlighten us. It will also adjust, reprove, and cleanse us. Then we will be filled with the Lord inwardly.
Verse 18 says, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” The phrase praying at every time in spirit means praying all day long in our spirit, not in our mind. We need to watch unto prayer in all perseverance and petition concerning the saints. We need to pray in order to appropriate the word of God, and we also need to pray unceasingly. We should pray and petition concerning the saints. Many of us pray for other saints, but our prayer is low, not high. We pray concerning their sicknesses, family problems, marriages, and jobs. In Matthew 6 the Lord said, “Do not be anxious for your life, what you should eat or what you should drink; nor for your body, what you should put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing?...Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For all these things the Gentiles are anxiously seeking. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (vv. 25, 31-32). The Father knows all the needs of our daily life. He knows that we need a job, a house, and a spouse, and He takes care of these things according to His will. The Lord does not want us to pray for these things, because the Father knows about these problems better than we do. He knows what we need. Therefore, we do not need to waste our time by praying for these things. However, we often foolishly waste our time and the Lord’s time.
The Lord also said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (v. 33). This can be compared to receiving a free gift from a department store because we purchased something. The Lord knows that we need a spouse and a job. If we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, He will make us joyful by giving us His kingdom and His righteousness. In addition, He will give us a spouse and a job as a gift. Therefore, we do not need to pray concerning our marriage or job, because the Lord will give these to us as a free gift. I can testify that the Lord has given me many free gifts, for which I never prayed. I only sought His kingdom and His righteousness, but He gave me many things for which I did not pray.
The kingdom of God today is the church. Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” In the present age the church life is the kingdom of God. To seek the kingdom of God is to pray for the church life. We must pray for the kingdom of God in the church life. We should forget about our needs and simply pray for the church life, because the kingdom of God is the daily church life. We should care only for righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and forget about eating and drinking, because the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. We should care only for the kingdom of God and pray for the kingdom of God.
We should pray concerning the saints in the morning, during the day, in the evening, and at night. We should pray, “Lord, remember the saints in Tokyo. Lead them in the proper church life and to experience You day by day so that You may make Your home in their hearts. Lord, grant the saints in Japan to realize that the church is the Triune God mingled with man and enlighten them to see that the Holy Spirit is in Your Body. Lord, enable the saints to see that You are joined with them organically. Our Father is over all, through all, and in all. Grant the saints to see that the Triune God is in the church.” Such prayer and petition concerning the saints is high.
In the New Testament Paul prayed twice concerning the saints; both prayers are in the book of Ephesians. In chapter 1 he prays, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (vv. 17-23). We need to pray on such a high level concerning the saints. We should not pray for healing, blessings, health, security, school, work, marriage, or a happy family, because such prayers are low and feeble. In the Lord’s recovery our petitions need to be high and uplifted. Our prayers need to be uplifted by our asking concerning heavenly things.
In chapter 3 Paul prays, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (vv. 16-19). What a high prayer! We should pray concerning the saints in this way.
Concerning prayer, Paul also says, “And for me, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known in boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in a chain, that in it I would speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (6:19-20). We should also petition on behalf of the apostles so that they may be bold to make known the mystery of the gospel. Today most preachers preach the gospel of God in a low and narrow way. They say, “You are a sinner, and you will perish forever. But God so loved the world that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you on the cross. After dying, He rose from the dead and ascended to the heavens. If you believe in Him, your sins will be forgiven, and you will receive peace, joy, and blessings.” Such a gospel is not wrong, but it is narrow, low, and shallow. Such a gospel does not contain the mystery. Nevertheless, this is the gospel that is preached today.
The gospel that Paul preached is much deeper. He preached Christ and His unsearchable riches, the mystery of God, the economy of God, His eternal intention, His purpose, and the mystery of Christ. These items are deep, hidden, and mysterious. We need utterance in order to preach these hidden and mysterious items. Human language is not adequate to speak about these items in a thorough way. We need an enriched utterance given by God. We need special utterance in order to make known the mystery of God and the mystery of Christ, conveying to people how Christ is the mystery of God, how the church is the mystery of Christ, and the meaning of God’s economy, His purpose, and His heart’s desire.
We need high prayers so that the Lord will have a way to answer our prayers and bring in the proper church life. The church has existed on the earth for nearly two thousand years, but the pitiful condition among Christians cannot satisfy God’s heart. Most Christians do not understand the economy of God, the purpose of God, the mystery of God, and the mystery of Christ. These things are foreign to them. The Lord Jesus cannot return, because there is nothing on the earth that is ready for Him.
For this reason, He needs His recovery. He needs the local churches to carry out His eternal purpose. He needs a corporate man who knows the mystery of God and the mystery of Christ and who experiences Christ in a thorough way. This gathering together is for the expression of Christ, His organic Body, and His divine fullness. Christ needs such a recovery and such a corporate man. It is my earnest expectation that we will all be part of this corporate man. This is the Lord’s recovery, and this is the revelation of the vision in God’s economy. This is His divine revelation and our vision.
