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  PRAYING AT ALL TIMES IN THE SPIRIT
  by Tim Conway
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of praying in the Spirit
and being in step with the Spirit in our daily lives. It highlights the
power and access we have through the Spirit, the seal of God's
ownership, and the guarantee of our salvation. The sermon encourages a
devoted prayer life, unity in the church, and intercessory prayer for
one another.

Topics: "Praying in the Spirit", "Unity in the Church"
Scripture References: Ephesians 1:13, Ephesians 3:16, Ephesians 2:18, Romans 8:26, Galatians 5:25, Ephesians 4:30, Ephesians 2:22, Isaiah 62:6

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of praying in the Spirit and being
in step with the Spirit in our daily lives. It highlights the power and
access we have through the Spirit, the seal of God's ownership, and the
guarantee of our salvation. The sermon encourages a devoted prayer life,
unity in the church, and intercessory prayer for one another.

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CONTENT
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Ephesians chapter 6. Paul is really bringing the letter to completion
here. But this this portion of Scripture that deals with the armor of
God, there is a spiritual battle. The devil is real.

Pick up reading in verse 10. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be
able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Now if you don't know this, maybe you do, maybe you don't. This isn't
true everywhere, all the time.

But a lot of reformed folks are uncomfortable about speaking about
angels, about the devil, about demons. They just are. It's a matter of
fact.

We don't want to be. Now look, we don't want an unhealthy obsession, but
these truths are very much a reality in Scripture. We don't wrestle
against flesh and blood.

There are these rulers. And again, I want to just stress to you, we need
the army of God because we're up against fallen angels. And it doesn't
just say, you know, the lower level, lower tier, the demon that barely
passed his exam kind of devil.

It's not that. These are rulers. These are authorities.

These are cosmic powers over this present darkness. These are spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places. We're talking about strength of
darkness, strength of a demonic realm.

Therefore, that's why we take up the whole armor. There really is an
enemy. And it's not flesh and blood.

It's not men and women. And the reason we need to take this up is so
that we would be able to stand, be able to withstand in the evil day and
having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the
belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness as shoes
for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can
extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Take the helmet of
salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now,
here's the text we're dealing with today.

Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to
that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all
the saints. Now, this is the finale. This is the end of this portion of
Scripture that deals very specifically with our spiritual warfare.

And here he ends on this note. It's the note of prayer. Just this week
and next week, I want us to occupy our attention with this.

But I want you to see two things right off. Notice how verse 18 starts.
No matter what translation you have in your lap, they all start this
way.

Praying at all times in the spirit. So, or you've got that maybe the New
King James, some of you praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit. But here's the question.

When do we use a verb with ing? Anybody? When do it? What what is that?
It's, well, yeah, verbs. Verbs themselves bring out an action. But when
you put an ing, we call that a verb participle.

Verb participles modify something. Praying. I could call you a praying
man.

You recognize right away that is a verb that is actually being used as
an adjective. Praying man. When you put an ing on it, you can you can
make it into a modifier of a noun.

Praying man. But you can also make it into a modifier of another verb.
And that's what's happening here.

See, if I came up to you and I said, you pray all the time. Yep, that's
a good sentence. If I just simply came up to you out of the blue and I
said praying at all time, you'd look at me like, what are you talking
about? Because all by itself, it doesn't make any sense.

An ing, it means verb participle. What we have here is we have a
participial phrase. And praying at all times is that phrase.

And you know what? It modifies. Notice the text. You know what it
modifies? It's reaching backwards.

It's modifying the primary verbs that come before this. So basically
what you have is this. Stand, verse 14.

Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, praying at all
times in the Spirit. You see, it's modifying that. You stand with this
belt of truth, praying.

The breastplate of righteousness. Stand with the breastplate of
righteousness, praying. You see, it's what this is, is it reached back.

It modifies all these verbs. Take up the sword of the Spirit, praying.
That's the idea.

Every single piece of the armor, this modifies back. It's looking back
to all of these. Now here's the next thing I want you to notice.

Verse 18 does not bring in any of the soldier's armor. You know, there's
basically what we've had here, isn't it? We've had an illustration.
We've had Paul using the Roman soldier to basically be an analogy from
which he was drawing.

And so you've got a breastplate, you've got a helmet, and you've got a
sword. But you know, do you recognize in verse 18, you've got none of
that. He doesn't say, and lastly, put on the battle axe of prayer.

That's not what he says. Why am I stressing both of these realities? I'm
stressing this. My point is this.

Praying in the Spirit, it's not another part of the armor that you put
on. It's a participial phrase that modifies taking up every single
piece. It's basically a blanket statement that you, as you, remember
what the armor is.

It's truth. It's righteousness, like the doctrine of imputed
righteousness, the doctrine of practical righteousness, living it out,
versus Christ living a righteous life and imputing it to us. Both are
real.

We need to be very straight on both of these. Feet. Preparation of the
gospel of peace.

We've got a helmet of salvation. We've got a sword of the Spirit. We
looked at all this.

This is studying our Bibles. This is knowing truth. This is knowing who
our God is.

This is knowing what the gospel is. This is knowing the all-essential
doctrine of being made righteous by faith and then being practically
made righteous by sanctification. That's what we're looking at here.

And you know what he's saying? He is saying that in every piece of that
armor that you put on, you need to be praying. You need to be praying at
all times with all prayer and all supplication. That it's all times,
every circumstance.

We've got to be men and women of prayer. And then, brethren, our lives
in this life, we don't want to look past this. We've got to keep on
praying.

We've got to all the time. When we when we concern ourselves with truth,
be praying. When you go read scripture, be praying.

When we're trying to figure out the gospel and to be able to declare it,
be able to believe it, you want to be praying. Every one of these. It's
the sword.

It's the helmet. It's the breastplate. It's the shod.

Your feet shod for the preparation. It's every bit of this. The loins
girt about with truth.

At every step here, we need to be praying at all times in the Spirit.
Christian, put on the gospel armor. That's what we've been looking at.

But each piece put on with prayer. Our lives need to be bathed with it.
That's what praying at all times means.

That's all prayer. All of it. I mean, the heart and soul of prayer.

What is it? I mean, let's think here, brethren. You may remember some of
you that are attending the prayer meeting. Not this last Wednesday.

I think it was Wednesday before that. A suggestion came up to sing Sweet
Hour of Prayer. I kind of knocked that down.

I made a comment about it. What could possibly be wrong with the with
the song Sweet Hour of Prayer? I would just say this. I believe that the
focus is all wrong.

Think with me here. If I should talk to my wife and I came out of the
house and you recognize the song ends this way. It's like the person is
ascending to glory and he's looking back and he's saying farewell,
farewell, sweet hour of prayer.

Can you imagine if I was talking to my wife and you came to my house to
pick me up and I came out and I got in the car with you and all I kept
talking about, I spoke with my wife. Oh, sweet hour of speaking. That's
all I kept talking about over and over.

I keep saying sweet time of speaking. And as I'm going out the door,
it's like, oh, farewell, farewell, my time of speaking. You're going to
look at me like, what is wrong with him? I mean, why is he even talking
like that? You see, if what happens is when I'm talking to you about
talking to my wife, what's going to happen is the time frame, the hour
that I do it or the time that I do it is going to be quickly lost.

And I'm going to tell you about my wife. And that's right. That's that's
the object of my attention and my attraction.

My adoration is all going to it's going to go to her. And so it is with
prayer. You recognize prayer.

We want to think when it says praying all the time with all prayer and
supplication. Do you do recognize when we start talking about prayer,
the idea of prayer just disappears because what we're really talking
about is speaking to the Lord. We're talking about fellowship with the
Lord, communion with the Lord.

It's it's kind of like people using the verbiage saying a prayer. It's
like, oh, doesn't that grate at you saying a prayer? What are you
talking about? I mean, do I talk that way about talking to my wife? I'm
going to say whatever. I'm going to it's it all sounds so so mechanical.

It sounds so cold. It's artificial. Do you recognize this prayer is
about knowing God? Prayer is about talking to him, connecting with him.

It's walking with God. Do you recognize when Jesus came along and he's
wanting to teach us about prayer, like like in Matthew, like in the
Sermon on the Mount, he may use the term prayer. He said to them, this
is actually in Luke 11, not not in Matthew.

But when you pray, say and you see pray when you pray. But then what do
you do? Immediately prayer falls away. You didn't even get the word
again.

Jesus is saying when you pray, this is what you do. Father, hallowed be
your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. Give us each day our
daily bread, forgive us our sins as we forgive.

But you see, you see, the moment we actually engage in prayer, you know
what happens? Prayer disappears. We don't go on thinking about, you
know, saying the prayer or there's a formality in that. You recognize
that when you find the hypocrite in Scripture and when you find the
Gentile in Scripture, you know what they're concerned with? They're
concerned the fact that they pray, that they have their hour of prayer,
or they're concerned in how they pray.

There's vain repetition. Brethren, you want to get past that. The idea,
don't get into this thing about, oh, we have to say our prayers before
we eat.

That, I grew up as a kid. God is great. God is good.

Let us thank him for our food. By his hands we all are fed. He gives us
not our daily bread.

My brother and I could say that. We could say it fast. We, in fact, we
knew how fast we could say it before it would agitate our mother.

We would say it as fast as we possibly could without setting her off.
And we knew the speed because if you said it too fast, she was gonna let
us have it. But brethren, sometimes that's how we talk about prayer.

Don't talk that way. Don't think that way. You need to recognize this.

This isn't just some mechanical thing. This isn't like, oh, you know, I
have to say my prayers today. Oh, brethren, what we, eternal life is
knowing God and knowing his son.

And we don't ever want to forget about that. You can talk about prayer.
Yes, we know what prayer is.

But you, we have to recognize it for what it is. Prayer is talking to
the Lord. It is communing with him.

And that's where we want to go. That's, that's what Paul is saying. Paul
is saying, do you recognize what he's saying? He's saying you can't put
on a single piece of this armor and do this properly unless you're in
communion with God.

That's the real issue in all of this. What happens is when we go to true
prayer, suddenly, suddenly the aspect of prayer altogether disappears.
And we're speaking to God.

We're gripped by him. We're gripped by interaction with him. I mean,
listen to another song in prayer.

This is probably my favorite one. We, we've sung it once or twice since
we've been here, but this is John Newton. Listen, Newton does exactly
what needs to happen.

You talk about prayer, but then it disappears. And then your eyes are
just on the Lord. That's how, that's how.

Come my soul, thy suit prepare. Jesus loves to answer prayer. He himself
has bid thee pray.

So there you have it. But then it's lost. I mean, in other words, it
disappears.

And Newton rightly, therefore will not say thee nay, thou art coming to
a king. You see what happens? The eyes, he's no longer thinking about
the fact that I'm praying. It's not, oh, I'm praying, I'm praying, I'm
praying.

No. He says, yes, we use the term, but what happens is his eyes, they're
not looking back and saying, oh, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of
prayer. The eyes aren't even there.

Can you imagine that even happening? Can you imagine people being saved
and being caught up? And what they're doing is they're looking back and,
oh, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. Through here, we look
through a glass dimly. You're, nobody's talking that way.

As we're going up, we're thanking God. We no longer are going to be
dealing with God through a glass darkly. Now face to face, the beatific
vision.

That's what we want. That's what our hearts are after. And this, this is
exactly, in this life, Newton is capturing this.

The idea of prayer just disappears. Thou art coming to a king. You see
where the eyes are all of a sudden? You're enamored with him.

That's, this is, this is how true prayer is. And we could go on with
that song, but, so the connection with our text is this. It means that
every piece of the armor of God, none of it, you got to get this, none
of it can be effectually put on and used except to the degree that we
are in fellowship and communion with the Lord.

And that's what prayer is. It's striving to find our God. It's, doesn't
scripture say, draw near to him? Draw near to God and he will draw near
to you.

That's what prayer is. It's a drawing near to him. It's striving to
come.

It's, it's, it's a yearning. You recognize how the psalmist says that
his soul pants after God. It's, it's trying to answer to a desire within
us to find him, to come as close as possible to him.

That's, that's it. I don't, I can speak for myself. There are seasons
when my prayers are dry.

I don't like that. That, that is not what I want. I want to be able to
find him.

I want that prayer to be rich. I want prayer. Paul is saying each piece
of the armor, it must be put on in the presence of God.

That's the idea. With your spiritual eye gazing Christward, Godward.
Remember, it's a participial phrase, praying at all times with all
prayer and supplication.

It covers all of this. If you're going to do battle properly, if we're
going to fight the devil properly in this world, we've got to be a
church of prayer. You need to be individuals of prayer.

Listen, to think that you're really going to get anywhere in this
Christian life, that you're going to achieve any measurable degrees of
sanctification, that we're going to actually be soul winners in this
world, that we're going to really be dangerous to the devil. Prayerless
people are powerless people, and oftentimes they're lost people, just
plain and simple. All times, all prayer, all times, look to the Lord.

That's what's being said. Talk to the Lord, cry to the Lord, cling to
the Lord, commune with the Lord, sigh after the Lord, weep before the
Lord, even complain. You know, the psalmist, there's places where it
talks about him bringing his complaint before the Lord.

You know what? You don't want to complain in front of other people, but
there is a place to complain before the Lord. And then oftentimes you
see it in scripture. Listen, talk to him, get familiar, say, oh, I could
never do that.

Well, you're doing something. If you say you can never complain to the
Lord, you can never bring the difficulties in your life to him and
actually complain to him. You're doing, you're taking a position that
others, that our forefathers have gone before us didn't take.

Now, look, you want to speak to the Lord with reverence, but you know,
there are times things come in our life that we don't like. And you
know, there are, look, I'm just, I think we need to shoot straight with
the Lord. If I see something that looks like it's not according to one
of his promises, I want to, I'm going to tell him why, because he wants
us to plead his promises.

If you see something in your life that does not look to be in accord
with one of God's promises, then take it to him and you tell him about
it, tell him over and over and over. Why would you not? That's not
disrespectful. That's faith because he gives us promises to be believed.

That's the reality. All the armor without this prayer, it's no good.
Notice the terminology.

Look at this all prayer. That means every type of prayer. That means
every facet of prayer.

What does that mean? It means this. You know what? Do you know that it's
very common for people in this world, you know about the, I mean, we
know that I was this way. We pray when we're in trouble.

There's the foxhole mentality, right? The bombs are coming in. You know,
many soldiers, Lord, I'll do this, that, and the other thing. Lots of
people, when they get into dire situations, they make all sorts of
promises to God.

They talk to God. Brethren, we don't want to be people that just pray
when they're in trouble. You know what all prayer is? You know what?
Praying all the time with all prayer and supplication, it's the idea
that you pray when you're in trouble and you pray when the sun's
shining.

It means that you pray when the bank account's full and you pray when
the bank account's empty. You pray when you're sick. You pray when
you're well.

You pray in public. You pray in private. All prayer.

That's what it says. Every kind of prayer. It means you pray out loud.

It means you pray in singing. You pray in fast. You pray silently.

You pray early. You pray late. You come to the prayer meeting and you
pray.

It's church. When we gather together as a church and we're praying,
we're praying then. It means in your closet, you're praying there.

When you're out walking the fields, you pray there. You pray yourself.
You pray for yourself.

You pray for others. You pray in the crowd. You pray at work.

You pray in bed. You pray in just endless ways. You pray.

There are times we're careful. We're strategic in how we pray. We're
like order and argument in prayer.

We're trying to think, what promises should I plead before God? There's
other times we just, you need to burst out. That ejaculatory prayer
where it's just, bang, you fire your arrow off at God and it's over and
it's done. There's outcries like that.

There's more premeditated. You may pray at times that are designated,
like when you've got a prayer meeting at seven, or there's other times
you're not praying when anything is designated. It's all happening as it
happens, as the need arises.

You recognize that when we pray, we can pray for ourselves. When we
pray, we can intercede for others. When we pray, there can be worship.

When we pray, there can be praise. When we pray, there can be
confession. There's all prayer.

That's what's being said here. All. You pray in general.

You pray for particulars. You just keep going hard after the Lord. You
seek him early.

You ask. Isn't that what Christ said? Teach us to pray. Ask.

Seek. Knock. It's all those.

Every time. You keep on doing it. Give him no rest.

That's what Isaiah says. Give him no rest. Pray now with all prayer.

That's what Paul's saying. Now, brethren, we've got to see this for what
it is. As excellent, as important, as truth may be, as the gospel may
be, as righteousness may be, all these all these different single pieces
of the armor is important as it all is.

It's no good unless you're in this vital living communication with God
himself. I'll tell you this. The devil takes the battlefield against
you.

It is not. Do you recognize? Think about truth and the word of God. What
do we associate with that doctrine, theology? Those things are
absolutely necessary.

But, you know, there is such a thing as dead orthodoxy. We can have. Oh,
there is dead Calvinism.

Believe me, it's no good unless you've got this. The devil takes the
battlefield against us. It's absolutely essential.

One of the reasons that I had Para read from Second Corinthians chapter
three is just this. Do you know what Second Corinthians three is about?
It's about Moses having his face veiled. Do you know why his face was
veiled? Because his face was shining.

Why was his face shining? Because he had been in the presence of God.
And when he would come out of that tabernacle after having been face to
face with God, his face shown. And so he would put a veil over it.

Do you recognize what Second Corinthians is saying? Listen to this. We
all, we Christians with unveiled face, we're not like the Jews whose
faces are veiled like Moses's was. It's covering the glory.

But when we come to Christ, the veil comes off. And what happens is we
are face to face with God. And with unveiled face, we behold the glory
of the Lord.

And what happens? We take on the shine. Glory to glory. The glory comes
on us.

And you see, it's the same truth. And I'm telling you this, when you
take the battlefield, the glory better be on your face. The glory of
those who have spent time in secret with their God, who have dwelt in
his presence, because if that is lacking, it doesn't matter how much
truth you put on.

It doesn't matter how much you take up that sword. It is going to be
ineffectual. And you will not be fruitful and you will not be
victorious.

That is what Paul is saying here at the end. I mean, look, let's just
speak plainly. Orthodoxy is not enough.

You can't fight the devil with dead orthodoxy. It doesn't work. You
cannot fight the devil effectively just because you can spit out certain
doctrines and you can correct other people who may be wrong.

That isn't it. It's this. Praying always with all prayer and
supplication.

Oh, I can tell you this. I have pastored long enough and I've run around
in different circles of churches. I know this.

There are many churches in the reformed Baptist circles, in reformed
circles. They may put a high premium on theology, systematic theology,
the Puritans, their Calvinism. But I'll tell you this.

There is a sad, sad neglect. Now I know there are exceptions. So I'm not
going to stereotype.

But I've seen this. There are many reformed churches. They do not put
high priority on the prayer meeting.

I remember my fellow elder John Zeitzman. He was traveling to Nicaragua.
There was a reformed group down there that had gone down to Nicaragua
and they were working with people.

We were working with a group. There was another group down there. They
were working with a group.

They'd been down there for years. Do you know in all the years that
they've been down there, they've been teaching these Nicaraguans lots of
truth, no prayer meeting. And John came back and he recognized, here's
this group.

It's working. Do you know that is not uncommon? That is not uncommon. Do
you know a lot of reformed churches, what they'll do midweek? Bible
study.

No prayer meeting or they'll tack five minutes of prayer onto it.
Brethren, that is not what Paul's talking about here. Tacking five
minutes of prayer onto a Bible study.

Spurgeon had it right. I totally believe. He said, do not have a midweek
Bible study and try to tack a prayer meeting on to it.

He said, you will do neither well. And I'm all about that. I mean, the
reality is we sadly find certain people, oftentimes who are the most
orthodox and often they're the very people who seem to least realize the
importance of prayer.

Brethren, I'll tell you, prayer is for desperate people. Prayer is for
people who want to find their God, not just find the truth. Brethren,
that truth, that orthodoxy that we lay hold of, that ought to drive us
to want to be in God's presence and to talk to him in communion.

Why? I mean, this is like finding the doctrine that's really the
teaching of the description of a person of the opposite sex. You're
single. This is describing the perfect mate, everything about it.

But in the end, you don't want to run off and find that person. That's
crazy. You just stick there.

You're so happy and content and smug in your understanding about what
you're intellectually achieving through understanding what this person
looks like and their beauty that you're content to stop there. Look,
that's to be ineffectual on the battlefield here. You don't want to stop
there.

What's going on in a church and in people's minds who hear this kind of
preaching and this kind of reformed doctrine, but they don't come to the
prayer meeting. It's craziness. What does that say? And I recognize you
could say, well, you know, prayer meeting.

No, no, no, no. Don't run. You say, I pray at home.

I pray in my closet. Well, listen to Paul. Paul doesn't say, yes, that's
good.

I hope you do. But what he's saying is praying all the time and all
prayer. And undoubtedly, you find in the New Testament that in the book
of Acts that they came together and they prayed corporately.

And I'll tell you this, there's something about corporate worship when
we gather together and we're united and we can pray with a unified
voice. There's something to that, which that's not my agenda right now
to prove that from scripture. But I think you can prove that.

In fact, I'll tell you this. If there's something you really want God to
answer in your life, you ought to be asking as many people as possible
to pray for it in as many different places as possible. If you really
want something, there's something to that.

Now, brethren, as excellent and necessary as each one of these pieces
is, you see what's being said. As essential as the truth is, as
essential as all of this is, you can have the sword of the spirit in
your hand. You can quote scripture all day long.

You can quote the Puritans. It's all good. It's all orthodox.

But as you take up these pieces, you need to be a people that are
praying all the time with all prayer and supplication. Brethren, we are
utterly, utterly dependent on the Lord. And look, I can only speak for
myself.

I can't speak for every one of you. I don't know where all of you are
at. I don't know where some of you are saved.

Some of you are not. Some of you are in different places in your
Christianity. I want miracles.

And I'm not talking about a lot of this garbage in the charismatic
circles. I'm talking about people being born again. That's a miracle.

I'm talking about God doing things that really amaze us. I'm talking
about God showing us that he's our God. I have come here.

I was just as I was just as impotent over there. And I've come over here
and I can't do this. You can't do this.

We can't do this. We have to have the Lord. If we're going to take the
battlefield against against fallen angels, and he's basically got, oh,
we saw it.

Any of you that went out yesterday, you see it. You recognize we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood. Do you recognize? I've seen it several
weeks now.

Somebody takes a track. The ticket, I think, I think Gaynor was over,
and last week it was Thomas, over away. And I would see people who
already had received tracks moving through the area where Sonny was
preaching, and they'd just be shredding the track.

You remember this. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. These
people are held captive by the evil one.

That's what Scripture says. He's got them bound. They're his.

He owns them. And you need one stronger than the strong man to come and
take those goods away. You see, we need him.

We need it desperately. For one of you to grow from one degree of glory
to the next, sanctification, it's by the Spirit. We need him.

Sanctification isn't, nobody's going to grow. We may have some people
that have been sitting under the truth here for some time. You're
beginning to recognize, ooh, I don't know if it's well with my soul.

What's going to help that? What's going to fix that? I can't fix that. I
can try to tell you the truth, but I can't fix it, and I can't make your
eyes see. We desperately need him.

Empty prayer meetings and reformed circles is, what is that? That is not
people that are taking the battle seriously. And I know we can get
lifted up with pride and having all of our teaching and all of our deep
theological, and we need that. We need that.

We need to know our Bibles. We need to know truth. We need to know
doctrine.

Doctrine is teaching. Teaching comes from the Bible. We don't want it.

We don't despise that at all. But the fact is, we're so utterly
dependent. We've got to realize that if we don't remain in constant
communion, constant fellowship with God the Father and the Son, his Son
Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, whatever we might have done by way of
putting on the armor of God, what do you think it's going to avail you?
What do you think prayerless armor is really going to avail for us? I'll
tell you this, prayerlessness, you take the battlefield, you are already
defeated.

That's what's going to happen. Brother, sister, you've got to ever
maintain this reality, this essential intimate relationship with God.
We've got to have it.

Always pray or be defeated. Be ineffectual. You do recognize, look, if
we've got people and you basically look at their life and it's not
fruitful, it's not effectual, you can typically trace that back to
they're not really, they're a stagnation.

It's to no avail. Okay, now I'm going to just finish this with this. He
says praying at all times in the Spirit.

Now I do not want to just pass over that little prepositional phrase
because that jumps out at me as much as anything here. Praying at all
times in the Spirit. What is that? I mean, listen, I hope you ask
questions when you read Scripture.

I'm afraid of this. I'm afraid we casually read Scripture, we hardly
know what we're reading, we read across statements like that. A
prepositional phrase just stuck in, in the Spirit.

I hope you are wired to stop and at least pray at all times, in all
prayer, and say as I'm trying to handle the Word, because remember
that's, this is the sword, and I'm reading it, and things like that, in
the Spirit, it's found. If I'm gonna handle this sword, praying at all
times. So I need to stop and ask, what does that mean and why is it
there and why does Paul use, is that just some religious jargon that
just gets, yeah, it doesn't, not really all that important, it's just
kind of, if you're gonna write to a church and you're gonna say
religious things, you need to throw little prepositional phrases like,
don't, that's not true at all.

Anything that we find in the Word of God is there on purpose and God
gives it to us and it means something and you don't want to, you don't
want to just go past it. In the Spirit. Oh, so often, there's so many
things in Scripture that just raise questions in my mind.

We ought to be asking, what is that? In fact, the question that I would
ask is this, okay, Paul tells me, praying at all times in the Spirit,
all prayer, all supplication, what I'm gonna ask is this, Paul, if I'm a
Christian, is that automatic? I mean, why are you saying it? If it's
automatic, why even say it? Are you just saying it to describe what
happens when I pray? The thing is, you're telling me to do something
here. Am I passive in this or is my will involved? Can I, as a
Christian, not pray in the Spirit? I mean, those are the kind of
questions that I, don't ever fear questions because questions will cause
you to dig, it costs you to ask more and more questions and seek to dig
them up and find out what's going on. Paul, tell me, is there a
responsibility on my part in this? I mean, this is not just a random
prepositional phrase.

So, I want Paul to teach me the significance. And so, what I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna just take you right here at the end of this message, I'm
gonna take you through kind of a running overview of Ephesians and the
places where he talks about the Spirit. Because I'm thinking, you want
to interpret Scripture? You interpret Scripture with Scripture.

And if Paul's telling me about the Spirit here, what else has Paul said
about the Spirit in this letter? Maybe it'll help me to understand
exactly what's going on here. So, Ephesians 1, look at verse 13 and 14.
Let's move through this rapidly.

We could spend a month of Sundays on verses like this, but Ephesians 1,
13 and 14. Because what Paul's done here is he's brought us face-to-face
with the third person of the Godhead. I mean, we're supposed to be
putting on this armor and all the time be praying, praying at all times,
all prayer, all supplication, and we're supposed to be doing it in the
Spirit.

So, what's the deal with the Spirit here? Okay, in him, that's verse 13,
chapter 1, verse 13, in Christ, you also, now notice the order. You
heard the word of truth. This is glorious as to how somebody, what
happens in somebody's life.

Tremendous that we have the chronology here. You hear the word of truth,
the gospel, that's what that is, of your salvation, and then what
happens? You heard it, and then from hearing the truth, from hearing the
gospel, you believe in the Christ of the gospel. And then, you see,
sealing with the Spirit flows out of faith.

That's what it says here. You hear, you believe, and then you're sealed
with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Now,
there's three words here that I think we ought to sit up and take
notice.

Sealed, promised, and guarantee. They're the ones that jump out at me.
Okay, promised Holy Spirit.

What was promised? Let me tell you, the new covenant promised the
Spirit. Let me just tell you that promise. Ezekiel 36, don't turn there,
but listen to it.

I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and
be careful to obey my rules. Now, notice that. You know, when you come
over to the New Testament, you go to Galatians chapter 5, you find the
fruit of the Spirit.

What's the fruit of the Spirit? Anybody tell me? Love, joy, peace,
patience. There's gentleness and faithfulness and goodness and self-
control. That's not exactly the right order, but those are all in there.

Now, here's the thing. What is love? If you love, what is that? That's a
fulfilling of what? The law. You love, you fulfill the law.

You see what the fruit of the Spirit is love. He says he's going to get,
he's going to put his Spirit within us, and he's going to cause us to
keep his statutes. That's love.

Okay, that's promised. Now, you know the other place I think of the
promise is when Jesus said this. He said right at the end of Luke's
Gospel, behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.

Stay in the city, Jerusalem, until you are clothed with power from on
high. You know what? When I think of the Spirit, what's promised?
Righteousness in our lives, love, being true law keepers. That's not
legalism.

That's spirit life, spirit-empowered life. You know what I think of when
I think of the Spirit? What was promised? Power to be holy, power to
love, power to keep his commandments. You're going to be clothed with
power from on high.

That's the promise of the Spirit. Okay, let's keep going. This promised
divine person is called a seal.

Do you see that? Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. What is a seal?
You put a seal on an envelope. It shows identity.

It shows ownership. It makes something official. It shows authenticity.

So that's what happens. When you receive the Spirit, when you're sealed,
that means you're shown to be God's. Now, notice this.

Then there's a term guarantee. How can I be guaranteed that I'm real?
How can I be guaranteed that my Christianity is real? Well, just this
way. The Spirit.

Look for the seal. You know, I receive an envelope. How can I know that
it's really from your government or from the council? Well, look for the
identification on there.

You see, the seal tells you if it's actually official. Do you want to
know? This is the guarantee. Now, notice this.

Nothing is a guarantee unless I can see it or feel it or sense that it's
there. You recognize that. If I've got some kind of seal on me but I'm
unaware of it, then that's no guarantee.

You see what he's saying here is the Spirit of God gets given to
somebody. Well, what happens? I was living my life not concerned about
God's law at all, basically doing my own thing, not loving others,
selfish. And then what happened? The Spirit of God came in and then what
happens? He causes us to keep his... See, my life totally changed in a
Godward direction.

And I heard his word. Suddenly his word mattered in my life. I mean, the
power of God, that is powerful.

Suddenly I'm loving God's people and there's joy. Remember the fruit?
Love, joy. Oh, and I had a peace.

I was not at peace. Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden.
I'll give you rest.

See, lots of people don't have rest. Well, they may have pleasure but
they don't have rest. You see, something supernatural happens.

We get clothed with power that produces all sorts of things in our life.
And you know what? If I want to know if I'm real, I want a guarantee of
that, then I look at my life and I look for evidences that the Spirit
there, the seal of God's ownership, that's what this is. It
authenticates that I'm a Christian.

The very fact we possess the Spirit of God, that's God's testimony to us
that we're his. The Spirit is the seal. And notice sealing is something
that it follows faith in Jesus Christ.

That's important. Some people might be looking for evidences of the
Spirit within. That's, you know where your eyes always need to go first.

You trust Christ. You trust what he did on that cross. That's where this
thing begins.

The Spirit is a guarantee because if you've been sealed with the Spirit,
the Spirit operates on you in ways that are powerful. And so it's
tangible. That means it's real.

It's manifest. That means it's experiential. You actually can see it.

You can appreciate it. You can detect it. It's something that is, you
have conscious expressions of a transformation in your life.

That's a reality. Brethren, one of the things is the Spirit of God came
to glorify Christ. And I'll tell you one thing that happens.

All I have to do is ask somebody, what do you think of Christ? I can
tell if the Spirit of God's in there. Why? Because if you have the
Spirit, you know what? You can tell me there was a time when, oh, it's
just like we heard in the testimony this morning. I can say the same
thing.

Christ. Well, there was God, but then there was Christ. Who was he?
Well, he was rather unimportant and I could use his name in vain.

That didn't really matter. You don't use God's name in vain. Cry like
he's the Son of God.

He's just somehow some lesser thing and unimportant. Do you recognize
that when the Spirit of God comes and begins to shine the light of truth
into a person's soul, suddenly they see Christ altogether as glorious as
the Father. They see him as wonderful, as beautiful, and altogether
necessary.

See, now what we're talking about is the Spirit. Because remember, we're
supposed to pray in the Spirit. Now, look at chapter 3, verse 16.

Ephesians 3, 16. For the sake of flow here, you might actually want to
look at 14. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.

So Paul's saying, for this reason, I'm praying to the Father, from whom
the whole family in heaven and on earth is named. Notice this, according
to the riches of God's glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with
power through his Spirit. When we talk about the Spirit, we talk about
power.

But notice what it is. Power in your inner being, your inner man, so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Notice this, that
you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

Do you recognize what it is that the Spirit does as he empowers you? Do
you recognize it takes nothing less than the riches of God's glory to
strengthen you with power by his Spirit, just so that you can begin to
understand the dimensions of Christ's love? Don't ever think that's an
easy thing to comprehend. What he is saying is you have to be...and that
is one of the things that happens to us, does it not? When we get saved,
suddenly we begin to realize what Christ did for us, how he loved us,
what he sacrificed for us. That is an indication of the Spirit's power
working upon you.

The light gets turned on. We were talking to a homosexual yesterday, and
we're telling him, because he's kind of doubting. He's got legitimate
questions, and we're telling him about things, but he's just saying, I
don't believe that.

We're saying, we recognize you don't. There was a day when we didn't
believe it either. But suddenly, what happens? The scales, it's like the
blinder comes off, the veil comes off.

And when you come to Christ, the veil comes off, and suddenly you can
see what you couldn't see before. And if we would have had Para read on
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, there it is, the God who said, let there be
light. He does that very thing in our hearts.

Let there be light. And suddenly we behold this glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, and it's like the lights come on. Do you recognize
that? It's all together a phenomenal demonstration of the power of the
Spirit of God.

That's what we're talking about. We're empowered to know things. In
Ephesians 1.17, it calls the Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and of
revelation and the knowledge of him.

What the Spirit does is he gives us a revelation of God. But then get
this, look at Ephesians 2.18. Ephesians 2.18, this is one of the most
important verses that I think Paul gives to us concerning the Spirit in
Ephesians. Ephesians 2.18, through him, that's through Christ, we both
have access.

That's Jew and Gentile. We both have access in one Spirit to the Father,
praying in the Spirit. You see, in one Spirit we have access.

Pray in the Spirit. There's access there. We're told in Romans that the
Spirit causes us to cry, Abba, Father.

You see, it's the Spirit of adoption, not the Spirit of slavery. And the
Spirit comes into us. You know what happens? The Spirit comes into us
and we cry, Abba, Father, because suddenly we realize this isn't Allah.

This isn't the deist God. He's not far and removed and distant and
impersonal. The Spirit leads us to believe that there's no longer a
quarrel between us and the true God.

The Spirit of God allows us to feel the sense that this is a smile of
our God upon, not just any smile. This is the smile of our heavenly
Father, a Father's smile, and that we are children of God. This is, I
mean, we suddenly, with the Spirit, we have a boldness that we can draw
near to God in prayer.

We can speak to Him. There's access. He hears us.

He's gracious to us. These are the blessed seals of salvation. This is
the seal of God's smile upon us, praying in the Spirit.

If there's something for us to do, it's this. I would say this. We
conspire with the Spirit.

You want to talk about praying in the Spirit? What does that mean? What
is there possibly for you to do? Let me mention several things. One is
conspire with the Spirit. You say, what is that? Conspire means you
concur with Him.

You agree with Him. Now listen to this. Paul says this, if we live by
the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

You ever read that? That's in Galatians chapter three. You know what
that means? If I'm going to live in the Spirit, I want to be in step
with Him. I want to concur with Him.

I want to conspire with Him. That means, brethren, if we know that the
Spirit of God is all about causing men and women to be born again, let's
get the gospel out there so that men and women will be born again. If
the Spirit is all about exalting Christ, then let's do that.

Let's exalt Christ. You see, if the Spirit of God is all about telling
us who God is, then let us pray knowing who God is. Let's go to
Scripture and find out.

Let that Spirit of revelation of the knowledge of Him fill us with an
idea about the God we pray to. Do you recognize? You can go, you know,
in the Spirit. In the Spirit is the idea of pray with power, pray with
life, pray with vitality.

You do recognize that there's so often there's a deadness in prayer.
God, we don't want to pray just mechanical. We don't want to just say
our prayers.

Do you remember what was said? Do we worship here on this mountain or is
it over in Jerusalem that we worship? Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. It
is not on this mountain and it is not in Jerusalem. You know what God's
looking for? He's looking for those who worship Him in spirit and in
truth.

That's what He's looking for. You remember what Paul said? We are the
true circumcision. Who do what? Worship God in the Spirit.

We are those who worship by the Spirit of God. We glory in Christ. We
put no confidence in the flesh.

Brethren, we don't say our prayers. This isn't about just basically some
sweet hour of prayer. It's not form.

It's not the place. It's not on that mountain. It's not over in that
city.

It's not the posture. It's not the liturgy. It's not mechanical.

That's not praying in the Spirit. It's being in step with the Spirit.
It's being in step with the promises of God.

It's being in step with the person of God. It's being in step with what
the Spirit of God is doing. It's not formal.

It's not necessarily eloquent. It's not just saying the right eloquent
words. It's not that certain time.

It doesn't need to be that specific prayer meeting. We are praying at
all times in the Spirit, all prayer. We're looking for and longing for
that communion that comes, that Spirit is giving us access.

We want to pray in the Spirit with access to the Father. You want to
pray as though you really recognize, I'm coming into the presence of a
God who's smiling upon me. This is the God who did not spare His only
begotten Son.

That is the kind of God you are praying to. And if He didn't hold back
His Son, what? He's not going to withhold any other good thing. You see,
you want to, this is how we want to pray.

And it's not just, it's not this doldrum thing. It's, it's, it's
personal. It's fellowship.

It's access. Do you know another thing that's said in Ephesians? It says
that this Spirit of God is doing something. In Him, in Christ, we also
are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

You want to recognize that. You're praying in the Spirit. You recognize
this.

It's not just you have access to Him. It is that the Spirit of God is
building us together into this dwelling place for God. And so I'll tell
you this, you want to pray in the Spirit? He specifically says, do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you have been sealed for the day
of redemption.

That is critical. And I'll tell you this, you know, there's only one
thing that grieves the Spirit. And what I find is it's not so much just
sin, because scripture, we get a picture of David.

He's confessing his sin. We get a picture in 1 John chapter one, that if
we confess our sins, he's faithful and just, be confessing. But if you
look at the context there in Ephesians chapter four, you know what you
find where it says not to grieve the Spirit? What it specifically is
talking about is our life.

There's a unity of the Spirit and it's talking about the way we talk.
Let it be for building each other up. When it tells us about the thief,
don't steal, but make money, work with your hands so that you can give
to each other to meet needs.

You see, if you look there, it's about how we live with each other. Are
we loving each other? Is the church knit with love? If there's something
to grieve the Spirit, it's when we don't get along. It's when we fight.

It's when we have bitterness, we have jealousy, we have envy, we have
hatred. If there's anything we need to cultivate in this church, it is a
love for one another. You want to grieve the Spirit? Just live life
selfishly and don't care about anybody.

That'll grieve the Spirit. Your prayers will be powerless. I'll tell you
one of the... Brethren, if you just look at those... I know we've gone
long, but maybe I'll end with this.

I just ask this question. What is prayer in your life? I mean, look, not
to answer me, but if we're going to fight this battle, praying at all
times in the Spirit, all prayer and supplication, or you know what it
says there in Romans 12? It's basically be devoted to prayer. And I
would just ask you this.

Does your life look like that? Does your life look like devotion to
prayer? Be constant in prayer. Does your life like... Men always pray
and not think. That's what Jesus said.

Does that characterize your life? We need to be honest about this. We
need to be a praying church. And my desire is not... I don't want people
to be overwhelmed.

I just... I want us, when we hear the Word of God, if things aren't
right, to turn and make prayer come alive. Cause it to burst into flame.
Be devoted to it.

Give yourself... Get in step with the Spirit, just like Scripture says.
Be afraid of quenching Him. Be afraid of grieving Him.

Our ultimate position as Christians can basically be... We can weigh out
who we are, what we are, and where we're at, by the character of our
prayer life. You can't get away from that. That can be proven all over
Scripture.

Isaiah said this. Give Him no rest. And it goes on to talk about until
He makes Jerusalem perfect.

Brethren, we are the heavenly Jerusalem. The church is the bride of
Christ. We are the true circumcision.

Remember what Scripture says. And you want to give Him no rest until He
perfects this whole thing. Give Him no rest.

That's what He says. He wants you not to give Him rest. Don't give Him
rest.

That means bothering all the time. For what? For your lost children. For
your lost parents.

For lost Manchester. For the fact that you're not like Christ yet. And
I'm not like Christ.

Pray for me. You see, that's where we're going next with this. It's for
all the saints.

We need to be lifting up our voice. We need to be praying for each
other. Brethren, one of the things is just getting people to pray and
pray for themselves.

But oh, the sacrifice of praying for each other. Intercessory prayer.
That's really the target.

We're not just praying all the time about our own needs. But we're
actually learning how to worship, praise, confession, adoring Him,
hallelujahs, yes, supplication, making requests for what I need. And
also you making requests for me and me making requests for you.

We really need... Brethren, I hope you know all the people in the
church. I hope you're praying for one another. We've got to do this.

I'll tell you what, there are victories to be had. And I trust we're
moving in that direction. And I trust the days are coming when we will
see such victories.

But we got to fight. We got to fight by the book. We got to fight the
way that we're being bidden.

To fight. Father, I pray that you'd help us to do just this thing. I
pray, Lord, that you would help each one of us to more fully understand
and recognize, come to that reality in our own lives where we're praying
in the Spirit and really coming to recognize what that is and embrace
that, know that reality, to know what it is to pray in step with the
Spirit, to not grieve the Spirit.

But to have access by way of the Spirit, to be made into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit, that guarantee, the promised Holy Spirit.
Lord, we want every bit of what was promised, all the power. We want to
be clothed with power from on high.

We want that power, that strength to be able to recognize and embrace
and grasp all the full dimensions of the love of Christ, that we might
be filled with all the fullness of God. We want that, the love of Christ
that cannot be, it's beyond knowledge. And yet there are dimensions to
it that we might have the strength to be able to comprehend.

Lord, I pray for the joy of this church. Unleash your Spirit so that we
could comprehend more of the glories and the depths of the love of
Christ for us. Oh, help us.

We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/pgWnqYwa3H0.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/tim-conway/praying-at-all-times-in-the-spirit/
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