Ephesians 6:18 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 expression by means of all prayer and petition modifies the word receive in verse 17. By prayer we receive both the helmet of salvation and the word of God. This indicates that we need to receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition. We need to pray as we are receiving the word of God. We have seen that the whole armor of God is composed of six items. Prayer may be considered the seventh. It is the means by which we apply the other items.
The modifier by means of all prayer and petition in verse 18 is related to all six items of the armor covered in verses 14 through 17. It is by means of all prayer and petition that we gird our loins with the truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, and have our feet shod with the firm foundation of the gospel of peace. Furthermore, it is by prayer that we take up the shield of faith and receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Whenever we are about to put on the armor or take up any item of the armor, we need to pray. We cannot and we should not attempt to use any part of God’s armor without prayer. Prayer is the unique way to apply the armor of God. It is prayer that makes the armor available to us in a practical way. Therefore, prayer is crucial and vital.
Verse 10 says, “Be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength.” The Greek word here rendered empowered has the same root as the word for power in 1:19. To deal with God’s enemy, to fight against the evil force of darkness, we need to be empowered with the greatness of the power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the heavens, far above all the evil spirits in the air. The fact that we are to be empowered in the Lord indicates that in the spiritual warfare against Satan and his evil kingdom, we can fight only in the Lord, not in ourselves. Whenever we are in ourselves, we are defeated. Therefore, we need to be empowered in the Lord; that is, we need to experience Christ as our power who strengthens us inwardly, saturating every part of our being. When Christ empowers us as the heavenly dynamo and energizes us from within, He saturates us and invigorates us.
We cannot fight the spiritual warfare in ourselves; we can fight only in the Lord and in the might of His strength. In 6:10 Paul refers to power, might, and strength. First, we are empowered by the power that raised Christ from among the dead and made Him to be the Head over all things. Then we know God’s might and strength.
The charge to be empowered implies the need to exercise our will. If we would be empowered for spiritual warfare, our will must be strong and exercised. We should not be weak-willed and vacillating. To be empowered involves our will. In Paul’s command to be empowered, an active element—be—is combined with a passive element—empowered. We need to exercise our will to be empowered in the Lord.
In summary, the armor of God that covers us is Christ realized by us as our truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. Truth as the girdle, righteousness as the breastplate, the gospel of peace as the firm foundation, faith as the shield, salvation as the helmet, the Spirit, the word of God, as the sword—all these are the various aspects of Christ in our experience. We should experience Christ as our girdle of truth; we should experience Christ as righteousness that covers our conscience; we should experience Christ as the gospel of peace to strengthen our stand to fight the spiritual warfare; we should experience Christ as the faith to shield our entire being from the attacks of the enemy; we should experience Christ as salvation to cover our mind against the negative thoughts Satan seeks to inject into our mind; and we should experience Christ as the sword of the Spirit to slay the enemy. All these aspects of Christ are applied to us by prayer. In order to fight the spiritual warfare, we should experience Christ as the constituents of the divine armor and be empowered in Christ and in the might of His strength. As the corporate warrior we should be inwardly empowered with Christ as the heavenly dynamo and outwardly clothed with Christ as the constituents of God’s armor; in other words, we should be mingled with Christ. May we endeavor to experience and enjoy Him as the constituents of God’s armor in order to fight the spiritual warfare and defeat God’s enemy.