The Armor of GodSample

The most troubling things in your life—things you perceive with your five physical senses—are not your real issue. Everything that occurs in the visible, physical world is directly connected to the wrestling match being waged in the invisible, spiritual world. Your real enemy—the devil—wants you to ignore the spiritual reality behind the physical one. Because as long as you’re focused on what you can see with your physical eyes, he can continue to run rampant underneath the surface. The more you disregard him, the more damage he is free to do. The enemy may be invisible, but he is not fictional. He is very real, and very persistent, waging war against us constantly.

Being a believer doesn’t give you immunity from the assaults of the enemy, but it does give you access to the power of the Father—His power to defend you as well as reverse what’s been done to you. If you want to win the fight—if you want to join me in flipping the script, pinning down the enemy, and crippling his impact in your life—the key is realizing you’re connected to more spiritual brawn than is coming against you.

Paul wrote Ephesians not only to draw attention to the spiritual battle that exists in the invisible, unseen realm, but largely for the purpose of unveiling the strength inherent in every person who is in relationship with God through Christ. In Ephesians, Paul highlights one of the most important yet overlooked aspects of our spiritual armor: prayer.

Paul deemed prayer so critical in gaining victory over Satan’s power in our lives that, as one scholar observed, “Ephesians has proportionately more than 55% as many verses directly related to prayer” as Romans, Paul’s longest letter.1 He even burst right out praying several times while he was writing. And when he prays … man, is he strategic, being sure to tell his readers exactly what he is praying for. He knew prayer was able to change the trajectory of their whole lives. Victory in spiritual warfare is inseparable from prayer.

Read Ephesians 1:18-21 and 3:14-19. Of all of the things Paul prays, which do you most need to ask of God today? 

Work Cited

1. James E. Rosscup, “The Importance of Prayer in Ephesians,” The Master’s Seminary Journal, Volume 6, Number 1 (Spring 1995), 58.