COMFORT IN TRIALS
Praying in the Body by Putting on the Whole Armor of God
Eph. 6:10-11 Finally, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil.
Acts 12:5 So then Peter was kept in the prison; but prayer was being made fervently by the church to God concerning him.
The Prayer of the Church Opening the Prison to Set Peter Free
Now we come to Acts chapter twelve, where Peter was imprisoned, and the church was praying. “Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (v. 5). The church prayed not only unceasingly; the word used here also means that they prayed fervently and earnestly. Here is a real picture of the service of the Christians in the early days. They did not try any other way to release Peter. Their unique way was to pray, to pray earnestly, fervently, unto the Lord. Then the angel came, the prison was opened, and Peter was freed. (CWWL, 1969, vol. 1,“To Serve in the Human Spirit,” msg. 5)
Praying in Spirit to Fight the Spiritual Warfare
Verses 10 and 11 of Ephesians 6 say, “Finally, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil.” Then verse 18 says, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” The last aspect in Ephesians is the spiritual warfare, and the key, the secret, of this warfare is the spirit. We need to know how to pray in spirit. If there is a problem among the saints, we should not deal with it directly. Rather, we must learn to pray in spirit to fight the battle. It is by means of all prayer and petition in spirit, not by talking and reasoning, that the problems are solved. (CWWL, 1965, vol. 1, “The Vision, Practice, and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ,” Ch. 9)
Taking Up the Whole Armor of God
to Be able to Withstand and to Stand
Verse 10 of chapter 6 says that the power for fighting is the Lord’s, not ours. Hence, we should not remain in ourselves or depend on our own strength. 11 says that the armor is God’s, not ours. Hence, we cannot rely on any of our own things but on the whole armor of God.
To put on the whole armor of God also indicates that the warrior is corporate, not individual. No individual Christian can wear the whole armor of God ;only the Body of Christ can. Spiritual warfare is not an individual matter but a corporate matter. A person cannot engage in spiritual warfare singlehandedly. If we are individualistic, we will lose the fighting position. Those with experience know that prayers related to spiritual warfare need more than one person. We need to gather a group of people to pray in the principle of the Body. Our enemy is not earthly blood and flesh but evil spirits in the air. Hence, we should take up the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 2, “Revelations in Ephesians: Seeing the Living and Responsibility of the Church in the Holy Spirit,” msg. 19)
Prayer:
Lord, praise You as the head of the Body. we are being empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength, cause us to see that the spiritual warfare is a corporate matter. In the body, we put on whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil. Lord Jesus, I am willing to live in the body and have the prayer of warfare.