How can I become a prayer warrior?

There is such an attainment as "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Eph. 6:18). When you read such a text you surely feel that it is a good and proper habit for you to acquire. But does it end with a vain wish? It should rather stimulate you to more frequent intercourse at the throne of grace. For it is only after long-continued exercise that you will offer that "effectual fervent" prayer prayer which "avails much." In other words, acceptable prayer is the result, of not only hearing the Lord's words, but of doing them.

The word here rendered "continue" is more accurately given by others as "persevere." The same word is found in connection with prayer in Acts 1:14 and Romans 12:12. (Compare also its use in Acts 2:42-46.) It means that we all are to apply ourselves diligently to, to persist in, prayer, whatever the difficulties or the obstacles in the way. There is a reason, as well as a needs-be, for the exhortation; for whenever a soul, in the realization of its dependence, desires to wait on God in prayer, hindrances to it, raised doubtless by Satan, will be sure to abound; and, on the other hand, such is our natural slothfulness that nothing but purpose of heart, inwrought by the Spirit of God, will overcome it. Epaphras, named later on in the chapter, may be well cited as an example of this spirit - one who, as the apostle says, was "always labouring fervently" ("combating earnestly") for the Colossian believers in prayer, that they might "stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." Would that many such intercessors for the saints might be raised up in these last days. To "watch in the same with thanksgiving" will mean that we are to be careful not to forget to praise as well as pray, not to allow the responses of God in His grace to our cries to pass by without the expression of our gratitude.

337 Now I can use the word of God offensively, as "the sword of the Spirit"; now I can fight. We ought to be able to confound every enemy, not with man's wisdom, intellect, and understanding, but in the power of the Spirit. Do others not believe in it? I am not going to give up the sword of the Spirit because you do not think it will cut. I know it will cut, and therefore use it. There is a power and authority felt by the person who uses it. There must be a sense of dependence for this; and therefore prayer, the sense of dependence expressed, is needed - "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Of one it was said that he laboured earnestly in prayer for the saints. This was because of the sense of the conflict from Satan going on with the saints; therefore labour needed watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. If other things come in, I have no power to turn every thing into prayer; therefore watching is needed. Give yourselves to prayer. You are in God's interests connected with all saints; therefore pray for all saints.

But I will not pursue the subject further. You will, however, permit me to urge upon you perseverance in prayer. Rules on such a subject — as to times and frequency — we have no right to make or impose. Still of one thing be very sure — you cannot be too much in prayer. And if you dwell in the presence of God, you will find both the heart and occasion for prayer. Our responsibility is to pray without ceasing, always maintaining uninterruptedly the consciousness of dependence, and our need of divine grace. Thus we shall be always cast upon God, always enjoy liberty of heart in His presence, and consequently be always finding, in the constant reception of mercies, grace and blessing, in answer to our cries, new themes for thanksgiving and praise.

For prayer to be effectual, however, there are certain conditions with which we must comply. These come before us in this great scene. First, effectual prayer demands that we withdraw from the hurry and press of this world into holy retirement with God. Like Elijah we must go up to the top of the hill. As the Lord Himself instructs us, "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father" (Matt. 6:6). How often our prayers are unavailing for the lack of the "shut door." To be consciously in the presence of God we need to compose our spirits, call in our wandering thoughts, and shut the door on the world. Holy separation and retirement is the first great requisite for effectual prayer.

In Romans 12: 12 we have the expression, "continuing instant in prayer." Persevering is the thought that is emphasised; not giving up till the answer comes. From the context of the verse we see that this prayerful attitude is a feature of the Christian life-style. In order to have time to pray we may need to give it priority over other things in our busy day. This takes effort, and interest and concern for others and for Christian things. This will be an opposite kind of life-style to that which marks the unbeliever. When we say we will pray for someone or something, do we? And for how long do we do so?

Deadness in the heart of a saint will damp his zeal, if not cleared by daily watchfulness. Look, therefore, narrowly whence thy cooling comes; perhaps thy heart is too much let out upon the world in the day, and at night thy spirits are spent, when thou shouldst be in prayer. If thou wilt be hotter in duty, thou must be colder towards the world. Now, there is no better way for this, than to set thy soul under the frequent meditation of Christ's love to thee, thy relation to Him, with the great and glorious things thou expectest from Him; but if you let your heart continue soaking in the thoughts of an inordinate love to the world, you will find when you come to pray, that your hearts will be as a wet log at the back of a fire, long in kindling, and soon out again. Perhaps the deadness of thy heart in prayer ariseth from not having a deep sense of thy wants, and the mercies thou art in need of. Couldst thou but pray feelingly, thou wouldst pray fervently. The hungry man needs no help to teach him how to beg.

In the next chapter our Lord gives us further teaching on the same subject. "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). We may connect with this another scripture: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5:14). Here it is according to the will of God, thereby excluding everything which is not of this character. But our Lord says, "What ye will"; and this brings before us a very important aspect of prayer. In this case it is conditional: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you"; that is, abiding in Christ, ever remembering our dependence upon Him for everything, that without Him we can do nothing; and His words abiding in us, moulding us after His own mind, forming Himself in us, we of necessity express His own thoughts and His own desires, and consequently "what we will" must, in such a case, be "according to His will." It will be seen, at the same time, that the power of our prayers depends upon our spiritual condition. This is an unfailing principle. It is stated by St. John: "If our heart condemn us not, [then] have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight" (1 John 3:21-22). St. James also tells us, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16). This is of all importance; for neglecting our spiritual state, and thereby losing present communion with God, our prayers become cold and lifeless, degenerate into a repetition of known truths or old phrases, and thus, losing all significance, pass over into dead forms. The words are uttered to satisfy conscience; but expressing no heart-felt needs, and no outgoings of soul after God, they find no response, and bring down no blessing. Beware of such a state, which is often the commencement of the backslider's path, and which, unless checked by the grace of God, will land the soul in open shame and dishonour, to the name of Christ.

In this warfare prayer is a distinct weapon, a part of the panoply of God enumerated in Eph. 6:18-19. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel." Epaphras illustrates prayer as a mode of spiritual conflict. The Auth. Vers. says, "Epaphras … saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers" (Col. 4:12). But the true rendering of the word "labouring" is "combating." It is the same word as, in John 18:36, is translated "fight" — "then would my servants fight." Prayer, the last-mentioned piece in the panoply, is the active expression of the essential principle of the conflict, namely, dependence. Man has no strength against Satan, and, in nature, is his willing slave; and the Christian's resource is to lay hold upon a strength which is divine, and which alone can cope with the power of Satan. Hence the entire subject of the armour, and the believer's conflict, is introduced by laying down the foundation principle, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his strength" (Eph. 6:10, New Trans.). Man must get back to God, and to the creature's condition of dependence, or he remains the slave of Satan. And the saint must be genuinely cast upon the Lord in the sense of his weakness and dependence if he is to be a victor in the battle.

The New Testament tells us precisely what had taken place prior to the moment of Elijah's public appearance. "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months" (James 5:17). That man knew God, and had gone to him earnestly in prayer. He realised the awful state of Israel. He saw how the Lord had been dishonoured; His temple slighted, and His worship set aside; for later on he says, "The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword" (1 Kings 19:10). This is what the apostle Paul calls his intercession against Israel.

Nothing could be worse than the state of Israel in that day. A person who was not really in nearness to God, and in the sense of His power, which alone could meet so serious a state of affairs, would have given all up as hopeless. But what is so exceedingly charming to learn is this, that before this man appears in public, he has been alone with God. If we are going to have much blessing, there will have to be more prayer. The men who have been really used of God, the mighty men in the field, have been always mighty men in the closet. They have been men of prayer. I find that Elijah prayed "earnestly." He was a wonderful man, but he was "a man subject to like passions as we are." He was exactly like you and me. What does he do? He goes to God in prayer, feeling that the only way in which Israel's declension could be arrested was by the intervention of God's hand. Then in answer to his prayer, God in His sovereignty is pleased to shut up the heavens for three years and a half. You know what terrible effects a drought of that nature would produce.