What is Spiritual Warfare?Sýnishorn

The Final Piece of Armor

The six pieces of armor we’ve talked about have a specific job to do. And they do it well when applied! You might think that’s enough to go into a battle, but there’s one final component of our armor that’s necessary.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests…
Ephesians 6:18 NIV

And pray. We’ve outfitted ourselves with the appropriate gear necessary for spiritual battles. But that gear won’t get us very far if we’re not continually praying for God’s strength to carry us in, during, and through the battle. All of our efforts are in vain if we do them in our own strength. When we pray throughout the battle, we’re deepening our relationship with God and our need for God. It’s what we do to grasp the power that God stands ready to give. 

An attitude of surrender must accompany our prayers. James 4:7 beautifully tells us what we must do first: submit to God. Submitting to God means fully abandoning our lives to Him. With our spiritual armor fully in place and prayer in our hearts, we’re yielding to the One who has the ultimate authority. We’re given the strength to resist the devil when we surrender our entire lives to God. And then guess what happens? The devil flees.

Yet, what we often try to do instead is resist the devil or rebuke him, first, when we have yet to really submit to God. Resisting the devil is hard when we haven’t submitted our will, our ways, and our wants and yielded to what God calls us to. It shouldn’t surprise us when we experience spiritual attack when we don’t submit to God. Submitting to God is not only the first step, but our submission to God is actually us resisting Satan at the same time. 

So, pray for yourselves, your friends, and the Church to unite and stand strong in the battle. Praying gives strength to the weary and hope to the downcast. Praying reminds us that our human power is insufficient and that moving forward in our battles is actually done in a surrendered stance. Prayer is a marvelous remedy for Satan’s sly tactics. 

The days ahead for you will be filled with hope, joy, and peace as a Christ follower, but that doesn’t mean the spiritual battles have stopped. They haven’t. There’s more peace and hope when we’re consistently praying to our great God. Pair that with standing on God’s truth that we’ve learned is most appropriately applied in situations that we understand the least.