Ephesians 6:17-18 says, “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” Ephesians, a book on the church, ends with a particular kind of prayer by which we receive the word of God. This indicates that in order to have the proper church life, we must practice to receive the word of God by means of prayer.
Ephesians 3 through 5 reveals the secrets to enjoy Christ for the church life. We need to experience Christ making His home in our hearts (3:17). We also need to realize that the Triune God is mingled with the church (4:4-6), to grow in life by having Christ increase in us (vv. 11-16), and to be renewed by taking Christ as our person (vv. 17-24). Finally, we need to be cleansed by the washing of the water in the word (5:26-27). These are the secrets for us to experience Christ for the church life. To apply all these secrets to ourselves, we must receive the word of God.
In the word of God we find the riches of Christ and the reality of the Triune God. All that Christ is and all that He can do are in the word. Therefore, in order to experience Christ, we must get into the word. When the word enters into us, it nourishes us. This nourishing affords an inward metabolic washing, which discharges the old things and brings in the new element. The way to have Christ make His home in our hearts, experience the Triune God, grow, and be renewed and cleansed is to receive the word of God.
The last section of Ephesians 6, beginning with verse 10, reveals the last secret for us to have the proper church life. Verse 11 says that we need to put on the whole armor of God to stand against the devil. Verses 14 through 17 describe the items of this armor. We are told to gird our loins with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, shoe our feet with the gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one, and receive the helmet of salvation. The last item of God’s armor is the sword of the Spirit, which is the only item used to attack the enemy. Verse 18 reveals that the secret to apply all these items of armor is to pray.
The prayer mentioned in verse 18 is not for blessing, peace, or healing but to receive the word of God, which, according to verse 17, is not a book of letters but the Spirit. Verse 18 says that we can receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition. Prayer is general, and petition is specific. We need to pray in a general way and also in a particular way.
If someone gives us a glass of water, the unique means by which we can receive the water is to drink. The Lord has given us His word in the Bible. We receive the word, which is the Spirit, not by means of reading or understanding but by means of all prayer and petition. For this reason, we need to pray-read the Bible, turning the words of the Bible into the words of our prayer.
Many saints in the past centuries have practiced to mingle prayer with their reading of the Bible. George Whitefield, a contemporary of John Wesley, was a powerful evangelist. Whitefield wrote that it was his daily practice to kneel and pray as he read the New Testament. He found that the best means to receive the word of God was not merely by reading and understanding but by praying. Whitefield prayed through the entire New Testament in this way. If we practice to pray-read the word, we will be filled with Christ and with power. Then we will live Christ, minister Christ, and express Christ in a powerful way.
We all need to pray to receive the word of God. We should not pray in a pitiful way, complaining to the Lord about our weak condition or difficult situations, begging for mercy, or merely asking for blessing, health, and peace for ourselves or others. When we pray, we need to pray first to receive the word of God. We need to build up a habit to pray in this way. The first thing that we do each day should be to pray to receive the word of God. When we receive the word of God by prayer, the word nourishes, waters, refreshes, empowers, strengthens, saturates, washes, enlightens, corrects, and rebukes us. The result of our receiving the word of God by prayer is that we are inwardly cleared up and filled with the Lord. When we are in such a condition, nothing will be a problem to us.