Ephesians 6:18
Pray in The Spirit at all times,
with every kind of prayer and petition.
To this end, stay alert
with all perseverance in your prayers
for all the saints.
Jude 1:20-21
But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in The Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.
Romans 8:26
Likewise The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Galatians 4:4-7
But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent The Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.
To pray "in The Spirit" is to have the right desires within us, which can only be put there by The Spirit. It is to pray first for one's self, that the strength of The Lord would be given us to overcome what we are battling. Second, it is to pray--intercede, stand in the gap--for other Christians who are fighting their battles, that they would stand strong against the wiles--the sneakiness--of the enemy, maintain their witness, sharpen their testimony and in so doing overcome the enemy which they are fighting against.
Yes, the battle does indeed belong to The Lord, but we must be fully equipped nonetheless that we might disengage ourselves from worldly principles and embrace the spiritual foundation--Jesus Christ--upon which we have built our life. This passage in Ephesians 6:10-18 discusses the armor which the Christian, the born-again believer, must always have on. And praying in The Spirit is part of that armor.
It must be used not only daily, but wielded in the right way. When we pray for ourselves, it is that we pray for strength to endure, wisdom to persevere, knowledge and understanding to retain The Word within us. We pray for The Spirit of Excellence (Daniel 6:3) to fill us daily, as life is lived day by day and not all at once. Sometimes we just won't know how to pray for ourselves: it is then that The Spirit of God intervenes for us and speaks to God Himself.
When we pray for other Christians, we pray as The Spirit leads us. Sometimes He wakes us up to pray for each other because of some tumultuous battle the other is going through. So, we get up and pray. And when the battle's over, we usually fall back asleep. Sometimes, we pray for each other at the altar, where worship takes place and The Spirit moves freely among God's people, touching first one, then another, to go and pray for this man or that woman, this daughter or that son.
Random strangers will cross our paths: sometimes a child of God, most of the time someone seeking God: The Spirit will lead us to pray with that person, if they are so inclined. Some will even ask for prayer. Always be ready to pray.
Sometimes the call for urgent prayer lasts all night long, as in Daniel 2:17-23, when the need for both dream and interpretation needed to come from God. Another excellent example is found in John 17. Jesus praying in the night first, for Himself; then, for His disciples and third, for us who would believe what His disciples had to say concerning Himself.
Arm yourselves. The battle is coming and has even now commenced for many. Pray for yourselves. Pray for other Christians. Pray
*for your families (even the generations to come)
*for the strangers among you
*for your enemies: for the people who don't like you, who hate you and swear at you, who curse you, who make fun of you for being a Christian,
to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He is God's only begotten Son. Pray that they, too, would know the joy of The Lord and be filled with His Holy Spirit. Pray that they would be ready.
