11/05/2024
Praying for others, and receiving prayers from them as well. In Ephesians 6, Paul is giving us a lesson on how to live our lives. Then, in verse 18 he speaks of prayer, and specifically praying in the spirit for all the saints... for others.
“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,”
Ephesians 6:18 ESV
When our own strength is about gone, and we are unable to muster the energy to go on, the prayers of others can lift us up. Have you ever been prayed for when sick or struggling? Did it give you added strength and the ability to keep going? Did God answer or heal you?
On this day in 2015 I wrote an email to my wife’s cousin, Mike Hardwick. We had been emailing back and forth during my cancer treatment and on this day I was to hear the results from the pathologist and the additional scans and tests done after my surgery. Mike, along with many others, were praying for me and as I wrote him I spoke of an email I had received from a mutual friend who was visiting the Holy Land and had just received an email from home about my condition. This is what wrote me…
"When I finally did get this was just before our trip to the Western Wall of the temple. I was able to pray there for you and even put one of the little notes in between the stone blocks. Maybe being closer to where Jesus will return will add significance to the message."
I told Mike that I don't believe in happenstance, so I feel that he was put there for a purpose and that his prayer was directed by the will of God. "
I learned of my results later that day, and although my cancer was determined to be a nasty variety, the news was good... it had not broken containment and the plan was to perform quarterly tests and just watch it closely. To this day I have been cancer free by every test. Have faith in prayer my friends; the prayers we offer in the spirit, and that are lifted by others will strengthen us beyond our ability to understand.
When someone is in need of prayer, never doubt the importance of your prayers on their behalf. There is a wonderful verse in James that I quote often, but it is worth repeating over and over again...
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
James 5:16 KJV
Our prayers for one another turn the air surrounding us into the breath of life. They take a simple act of speaking and transform it into something spiritual, and holy beyond measure... they carry within them the love we have for one for another, and they are the embodiment of the second great commandment as Jesus described it...
“And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:31 KJV
Supplication means to plead humbly, and in the act of pleading comes the realization of caring. Paul used this word twice in Ephesians 6:18. This emphasis tells us that our prayer for another saint should be pleading in nature and that implies a deep caring or concern. Praying in the Spirit displaces any notion of a rote prayer, or one that means little. It is impossible to mouth a meaningless prayer while praying in the Spirit.
So, we are to pray for each other and we are to do so in supplication, and in the Spirit. By doing this we give strength to the weak, health to the sick, encourage the faith of the faint hearted, and turn air into the breath of life.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Genesis 2:7 KJV
Prayer:
Thank you Father for the prayers we pray, and for letting us know that you are with us and that your breath of life is in us, and surrounds us. Father, give us each the heart and love that is required to pray in supplication for those around us. Hear not just our words but feel our spirits pleading. Lord, let your Holy Spirit touch our tongues and as we breathe in the air of this world, and then let it return in prayer to you as the breath of life... that self-same breath you graced us with when we were born. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who breathes life into us, and the Spirit onto us. Holy are you who allows our spirits to pray living prayers as we breathe them, and your Holy Spirit within us to pray for us in breath through his moans and utterances. Praised be your name Father, and praised be the name of your Son Jesus who spoke forgiveness over us on Calvary, and pleads for us now before you. Hear our every breath and know each one by the life you have given us. Some say that we are living and breathing creatures, but in you we live by your breath… our living and breathing being one and the same. Help us to understand and live in this way according to your breath… it is your breath that we breathe in, and your breath that we breathe out… mingled with the life you have mercifully given us. Hear our praise, our worship, our joy, and all things that are carried in our prayers, and which are blessed by the life you have given us, and that we seek to live in ways that please you. In all these things, and through the blood of Jesus Christ, give us eternal breath… eternal life.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
Job 33:4 ESV
“as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,”
Job 27:3 ESV
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
John 6:63 ESV
Rich Forbes