Scripture Reading: Eph. 6:10-18
In Eph. 1 we have a general view of what the church is and how the church comes into being. Then in chapter two we see that the church is the new man created by Christ in Himself. In chapter three we have a clear vision of Christ making His home in the hearts of those in the church. For Christ to make His home in the heart of the church means that He is transfused into the center of the church’s inner being. Through such a transfusion, the church is filled unto all the fullness of God. In this way the church is mingled with divinity and saturated with it. Therefore, the church is humanity mingled, saturated, and permeated with divinity.
In Eph. 4 we see the church as the new man. The new man in chapter two is organically complete, but not functionally perfect. In order to be functionally perfect, the church as the new man must grow in life. The more the new man grows, the more he will be able to function. In Ephesians 4 we also see the daily walk of the new man. As we have pointed out, fallen mankind walks according to the vanity of the mind, but the walk of the church as the new man is in the spirit of the mind.
In Eph. 5 we see another aspect of the church — the church as the Bride prepared for Christ. In one sense, the church is the new man who needs growth, function, and a proper daily living. In another sense, the church is the Bride who must be beautified in order to be presented to Christ at His coming. With the church as the Bride, the problem is not with ordinances, doctrine, or the old man. The problem is with the spots and wrinkles, defects that are organic and that ruin the beauty of the church. In order to be free from such defects, the church must be sanctified, purified, nourished, and cherished by having the element of Christ wrought into her metabolically. This element will cause the spots and wrinkles to disappear, and it will beautify the Bride for her presentation to Christ. Eventually, through this process of metabolic transformation the church will become glorious.
In Eph. 6 we see still another aspect of the church. In this chapter the church is not the Body, the building, the family, the kingdom, the new man, or the Bride. Here the church is God’s warrior. The church should be not only the Body to express Christ, the dwelling place for God’s habitation, and the new man for the fulfillment of God’s economy; the church must also be a warrior, a soldier, to defeat God’s enemy.
According to Rev. 19, the church is both the Bride who is presented to Christ and the warrior who fights with Him against God’s enemy. At His coming again, the Lord Jesus firstly will meet His Bride. After receiving the Bride, Christ and the overcomers will enter into battle against the enemy. According to Revelation 19:11, the Lord will ride on a white horse, and the armies which are in heaven will follow Him on white horses, dressed in fine linen, white and pure (v. 14). Revelation 17:14 also refers to this: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and they who are with Him are called and chosen and faithful.”
In Revelation 19:7 and 8 we see that the Bride is clothed in “fine linen, bright and pure.” Then in verse 14 we see that the armies which follow the Lord into battle are “dressed in fine linen, white and pure.” These verses indicate that the Bride’s wedding garment will also be the uniform she wears as God’s army to fight against His enemy. Therefore, to have the wedding garment is also to have the uniform.
In Ephesians 5 and 6 we see the church as the Bride and as the warrior. In Revelation 19 we also have these two aspects of the church. As the church, we are not only the Body, the dwelling place of God, the kingdom of God, the family of God, and the new man; we are also the Bride and the warrior. As the Bride, we must be beautiful, without spot or wrinkle, and be clothed in fine linen. As the warrior, we must be equipped to fight against God’s enemy.
In God’s economy there is one army constituted of a corporate warrior. This means that the warrior in Ephesians 6 is a corporate entity. Only as a corporate entity, the Body, can we put on the whole armor of God. This is contrary to the concept held by many Christians that an individual believer is able to wear the entire armor. The armor in Ephesians 6 is not for Christians as individuals; it is for the church corporately as the Body. What this chapter reveals is not the believers fighting as individuals, but a corporate army fighting the battle for God’s interests on earth.
Spiritual warfare is not an individual matter; it is a matter of the Body, a corporate entity to fight the battle against God’s enemy. No soldier in a modern army would enter into battle by himself. Rather, he would fight as part of a well-trained and fully equipped army. After we have been formed corporately into an army, we shall be able to fight against God’s enemy. God’s strategy is to use the church as His army to fight against the enemy. Therefore, it is very dangerous to be isolated from the army. Only by remaining in the army will we have the necessary protection.
Years ago, the Lord’s people regarded spiritual warfare as an individual matter. But through the years we have seen that it is altogether a matter of the church as God’s corporate army. If you separate yourself from the church, you will be defeated. Satan’s strategy is simply to isolate you from the church as God’s army. It is crucial for us to realize that spiritual warfare is a Body matter. If we realize this and stay with the church, we shall be victorious. The battle is not for us as individual believers; it is for the church as God’s army.
As God’s warrior, the church does not fight by her own strength. Ephesians 6:10 says, “For the rest, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength.” This verse indicates clearly that we should not fight in our own strength. On the contrary, we must be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength. The Greek word rendered “empowered” has the same root as the word power in 1:19. To deal with God’s enemy, to fight against the evil forces of darkness, we need to be empowered with the greatness of the power that raised up Christ from the dead and seated Him in the heavens, far above all the evil spirits in the air. In the spiritual warfare against Satan and his evil kingdom, we can fight only in the Lord, not in ourselves. Whenever we are in ourselves, we are defeated.
According to Ephesians 6, the Lord with His might is the very armor that we put on for our protection. This means that we, as the Body, need to put on Christ Himself as our armor. In order to fight in the spiritual warfare, we must have Christ as the whole armor of God.
In 6:14-17 there are six aspects of Christ as armor: the girdle of truth, or reality; the breastplate of righteousness; the firm foundation of the gospel of peace (the shoes); the shield of faith; the helmet of salvation; and the sword of the Spirit. Therefore, the whole armor of God consists of the girdle, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, the helmet, and the sword. The shield is for defense, whereas the sword is for offense. In fact, the sword is the only item of the armor that is for offensive warfare.
According to verse 18, we receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit by means of all prayer and petition. Actually, prayer is the means by which we receive all the aspects of the whole armor of God. Do you know how to apply the girdle of reality? It is by praying in spirit. Prayer is also the way to apply the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, the helmet, and the sword.
In Greek, the antecedent of “which” in verse 17 is the Spirit, not the sword. This indicates that the Spirit is the word of God. Both the Spirit and the word are Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 19:13).
We need to receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition. According to verses 17 and 18, we are to take the word of God by means of all prayer. These verses indicate that we may take the word by pray-reading, that is, by praying with the words of Scripture and over them, using the words of the Bible as our prayer to God. The term pray-reading is not found in the Bible. However, the fact of pray-reading is according to the Scriptures. Just as the Bible reveals the fact that God is triune, even though the word Trinity is not found in the Scriptures, so the Bible contains the fact of pray-reading, even though this term is not actually used.
I can testify that to pray-read the word is better, higher, richer, and fuller than simply to read it. Day by day I am watered, filled, satisfied, enlivened, strengthened, nourished, and cherished through pray-reading the word of God. Furthermore, by pray-reading I am sanctified, purified, and transformed. Although I certainly would not impose pray-reading on others, I would never give it up. It is too sweet, too good. Simply by praying over John 1:1, for example, I am nourished, filled, and satisfied in the Lord.
As we receive the word by means of all prayer and petition, we should pray “at every time in spirit.” The spirit in verse 18 is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. Hence, this spirit is the mingled spirit, our spirit mingled with God’s Spirit. Whenever we pray as a means of taking in the word, we need to be in spirit. The spirit is the proper organ for prayer. As we have pointed out many times, we can be in spirit simply by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus from deep within. When we call “O Lord Jesus,” we turn from the vanity of the mind to the spirit of the mind. How sweet and enjoyable it is to call on the Lord Jesus in spirit!
By praying in spirit we apply Christ as the whole armor of God. As we take the word by praying in spirit, we spontaneously contact Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Immediately, our praying and reading become living, and we are empowered by Christ and covered with Him as our armor. Furthermore, we have the realization that we are in the Body and that Christ with all that He is and has is our portion. In this way we apply Him as the all-inclusive armor.
When we are in the Body, we actually do not carry on the spiritual warfare; we simply enjoy it. Instead of struggling in the battle, the battle becomes an enjoyment. Because we pray in spirit to apply all the aspects of Christ as the armor, spiritual fighting becomes an enjoyment. We enjoy Christ as the reality that girds us and as the righteousness that covers and protects our conscience. Furthermore, we enjoy Him as the firm foundation of the gospel of peace and as our shield of faith. Christ Himself is faith to us. As Hebrews 12:2 says, He is the Author and Perfecter of faith. With Christ as our shield, we are defended from the flaming darts of the evil one. Moreover, we enjoy Christ as the helmet of salvation that covers our head, and also as the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Psalm 23:5 says, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” This indicates that the battlefield is a place of feasting. We feast in the presence of the enemy, enjoying Christ as reality, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and as the living word of God. We enjoy Him and apply Him by praying in spirit.
We have pointed out that by pray-reading we take the word of God into us. Usually when we speak of taking the word of God into us, we think of the word as nourishment. However, in Ephesians 6 the emphasis is not on the nourishing word, but on the killing word. The nourishing word is for our building up, whereas the killing word deals with the enemy. In this context, we should pray-read the word not mainly to receive nourishment, but primarily to experience the sword as the killing instrument. The more we pray-read the word, the more we should experience the killing power of the word.
We have pointed out that the sword is the only aspect of the armor that is for offensive warfare; that is, it is the only item of God’s armor used for attacking the enemy. Perhaps you are wondering what this has to do with our subjective experience of the killing power of the word. If we would understand this, we must see that in spiritual warfare we must deal not only with the objective enemy, but even the more with the subjective adversary. Satan is not only the enemy outside us; he is also the adversary inside us. Today we face a greater problem with the inward adversary than with the outward enemy. The attacks of the enemy from without are not as serious as those of the adversary from within. To deal with this inward adversary we need to experience the killing power of the word. Yes, the enemy is outside us, but his elements are within our very being. Because the enemy’s elements are within us, we need the killing power of the word to be applied to our being subjectively. Since the enemy has injected himself into our being, what we need is for the killing power of the word to be applied to us to deal with the elements of the enemy within us.
If you consider your spiritual experience, you will realize that much of the enemy’s attack upon you comes from within. Most of the flaming darts come not from the enemy without, but from the adversary within. If you go into seclusion, you will discover that flaming darts will attack you inwardly. By this we see that we must face the adversary as well as the enemy. In our experience we eventually come to realize that the most difficult foe is the self. The self is our worst enemy. Many times we are tempted, not by an objective enemy, but by the self, our own inner being.
Because the self is the greatest enemy, we need to experience the killing power of God’s word. As we pray-read, we are nourished on the one hand, but certain elements are killed on the other hand. Perhaps you are troubled by doubts, hatred, jealousy, pride, or selfishness. Do you realize that these things can be killed through pray-reading the word? The more we take in the word with its killing power, the more our pride and all the negative elements within us are put to death. By pray-reading, the inward adversary is slain. After a time of pray-reading the word, we may discover that the adversary who was attacking us has disappeared. In a very practical sense, he has been slain by the word we have taken into us.
Do not think that the battlefield for the spiritual warfare is outside us. The battlefield is within us; in particular it is in our mind. All the elements of the adversary can be found in the mind. The way to slay them is to pray-read the word. As we pray-read God’s word, the elements of the adversary within our mind will be killed one by one. In this way we shall gain the victory.
Christians today are often very vague or general about matters. They may talk about such things as oneness, holiness, love, or the Lord’s coming. But much of the time they are not definite or specific. It is impossible to pin them down. The situation among us in the Lord’s recovery must be different. We need to be definite and specific in our experience with the Lord. Many of us can testify that when we pray-read the word, we are pinned down by the Lord. For instance, a brother who is having a problem with his wife may pray-read Paul’s word about husbands loving their wives. The more he pray-reads this verse, the more he senses that love for his wife is imparted into him in a practical way that swallows up the negative element of his problem.
As those who are in the Lord’s recovery, we need to be practical. We should not simply have a lot of theories, but we need a way to put theory into practice. Pray-reading is a practical way to kill the negative elements within us. The more we take the word of God by means of all prayer in spirit, the more the negative things within us will be put to death. Thus, pray-reading is not only feasting; it is also a way of fighting. As we pray-read the word, the battle is raging as the negative elements in our being are slain. Eventually, the self, the worst foe of all, will be put to death. When the negative things in us are killed through pray-reading, the Lord is victorious. Because He is victorious, we are victorious also.
My concern in this message is not to present Ephesians 6 in a mere objective way. Instead, it is to help you experience Christ subjectively as all the aspects of the armor, especially as the sword of the Spirit. We have pointed out again and again that pray-reading is the way to kill the adversary within us. Every day and in every kind of situation, you should pray-read. Whenever you are troubled by something negative within you, take the word of God by means of prayer in spirit. As you do this, the negative element will be killed.
In Ephesians 5 the word is for nourishment that leads to the beautifying of the Bride. But in Ephesians 6 the word is for killing that enables the church as the corporate warrior to engage in spiritual warfare. Through the killing word, the adversary within us is slain. Sometimes we gain the victory over the enemy objectively, but we are defeated by the adversary subjectively. Although we may rejoice that the enemy outwardly is fleeing, we are still troubled by the adversary within us who remains. For this reason, we should be more concerned for the hidden adversary within us. Let us kill the adversary by pray-reading the word.
As we consider all these messages on the book of Ephesians, we need to thank the Lord that we are in His recovery. What a blessing it is to be in the Lord’s recovery! Day by day, we enjoy inner satisfaction as we go forward under His blessing. The Lord will be victorious, He will gain all the ground within us, and He will prepare the way for His coming back.
