Pray At All Times

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:18-20 NASB1995)

What is prayer? It is talking to God, yes, but it is also listening to God. Prayer is not a one-way but a two-way conversation with our Lord. And the Scriptures teach that we are to pray without ceasing, not only meaning being regular and consistent in our prayers with God, but in having open communication with our Lord 24/7 to where he can speak to us at any time of day or night, and we can speak to him at any time of day or night, no matter what else is going on around us. For prayer is communion with God.

And what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? It means if we are praying for our fellow believers in Christ, our prayers should be being led of the Spirit. And if we are not certain of God’s will in any given situation, I believe we should pray, along with our requests, “Yet not my will but Thine be done,” as Jesus prayed to God the Father in the garden. The Scriptures teach us the will of God, so according to the teachings of the Scriptures we can pray in the will of God, but where his will is not defined we may not know his will. 

Now who are the saints? They are not all those designated as such by a particular religious organization, according to their criteria. But they are all who by God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as servants of our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands. They are all who are now walking according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh.

So, if we are to be praying for the saints, we are to be praying for our fellow believers in Jesus Christ who in God’s power have denied self, died to sin, and who are walking in obedience to his commands. And this doesn’t necessitate that they are all presently walking with the Lord as they ought. So, for some of them we may be praying that God will increase their faith and bless their ministry, while others we may pray for them to come to their senses and to forsake their sins and to return to fellowship with Jesus Christ.

And if we are praying for those we know who are sharing the message of the gospel with the people of the world (and this is not limited to just pastors and missionaries, but to all believers in Jesus Christ who are sharing the gospel), first we should make certain that “the gospel” message they are sharing is the same as what Jesus and his New Testament apostles taught, and not these watered down “gospel” messages so many are teaching which are leading people to hell on the promise of heaven, because they teach lies.

For just because someone claims they are a “Christian” or that they “believe in Jesus,” or that what they are sharing is “the gospel of Christ,” it does not mean necessarily that they are that or that they are doing that, in truth. For it is very popular these days to say, “I believe in Jesus,” and then to expect forgiveness of sins and a guarantee of heaven, and then for those who “believe” to never surrender their lives to Christ, to never make God the Lord of their lives, to never depart from theirs sins, and to never obey God.

So when you pray for others, test the spirits to make certain that they are truly of God. Test them against the Scriptures taught in their correct biblical context. For many liars and deceivers are pulling Scriptures out of context and are teaching them in ways which are antibiblical and anti-God. And people by the masses are listening to these liars and they are following the lies, and many have convinced themselves that they are secured for entry into heaven even if they continue living like hell and never obey God. 

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Acts 26:18] 

An Original Work / January 27, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love