“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:17-18)
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude, verses 20-21)
Our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself our example for prevailing in prayer. Immediately after being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Jesus prayed to the Father and was “filled with the Holy Spirit.” “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness....” (Luke 4:1) Before facing the temptations of Satan, He spent many days in prayer in that wilderness alone with His Heavenly Father.
Now Jesus’ baptism was not for Him to get saved by confessing His sins, as it was with the others who were being baptized. Jesus Christ was the eternal Son of God who had become the Son of Man—He was not born with the sin virus. God the Holy Spirit had breathed into the womb of the Virgin Mary, and Jesus was born as the Savior of anyone who would believe in Him.
Before He faced the temptations of Satan to be the Overcomer, before He performed miracles, and before He suffered and died on Calvary’s cross to atone for the sins of those who would believe in Him, He became a Man of prayer. And He prayed in the power of the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke 11:1: “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’”
If American Christians would take prayer as seriously as Jesus and His disciples did, neither the churches nor our nation would be in its present darkness. At this late hour, there is no greater or more urgent command in the Bible for American believers than that found in Ephesians 5:18: “. . . be filled with the Spirit.” For prayer warriors to come against the advancing evil of our day we must be clothed with more than a good education, sound theology, and a convincing personality. The apostle Paul warns us to “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:11-12)
I regret reporting that many of the Christians I have met throughout my 70 years of preaching the Gospel have not been Spirit-filled Christians. I am glad to report that I have seen a good number of believers become filled with the Holy Spirit. I have been privileged across the years to pray with many of them and realize the increase of joy and power in their praying. Many of them have encouraged special prayer meetings to pray for revivals and have been used by the Holy Spirit to fast and pray for spiritual awakenings in the churches where they worship.
To be filled with the Spirit, believers must first be certain about their new birth in Christ—call it either “getting saved,” “being born again,” or “becoming a Christian.” Before most believers are filled with the Spirit they realize their need for more power to pray, more power to resist temptation, more power to understand the Bible, and more power to share their faith and win others to Christ. In praying about their weaknesses and needs, they must ask for the fullness of the Spirit. Hunger to get closer to God should bring a determination to surrender their lives to the Lord. Hungering, seeking, asking, and believing will eventually bring the fullness of the Holy Spirit! What a difference it will make in living the life the Lord has planned for every one of His redeemed children!
I would like to share a few thoughts about maintaining the fullness of the Spirit. It so happens that when the Spirit comes to live within us when we find Christ as Savior, He is sensitive to our needs. He wants to comfort, enlighten, encourage, cleanse, strengthen, and empower us for living. But still being human, we can get careless, selfish, and sometimes fail to obey the Lord. The Holy Spirit can be grieved, quenched, or ignored. When these unfortunate conditions occur, He does not leave us, but almost immediately cautions or convicts us. If we want to continue in power, we must seek His forgiveness by repenting.
Most of us find there are times when we feel the need for refillings of the Holy Spirit, fresh kindlings of holy fire, more faith, more joy, and a greater anointing for prayer. It happened in the lives and ministries of those early apostles who had been filled with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. They had been preaching the Gospel, enduring persecution, and even imprisoned and beaten. Being worn down, they came together and felt the need of a fresh filling: “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)
The experiences of prayer and the renewings of the Holy Spirit are so interrelated that sometimes we are confused about the cause and the effects. The truth is that only hungry praying hearts will be filled with the Spirit. And it is also true that only Spirit-filled hearts can prevail in prayer. It is the fullness of the Spirit that sets our hearts on fire to pray.
Churches do not stay alive in the Spirit on preaching alone. Only those churches that are blessed with a good number of Spirit-filled prayer warriors see great outpourings of the Holy Spirit. The results of prevailing prayer bring forth new people finding Christ as Savior, the healing of the sick, and other miracles.
Closing Prayer: Our Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, I pray that millions more lost human souls will come to understand that the one and only VIRGIN BIRTH was your provision for the only plan of salvation for anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. But, please, Lord, help those who do believe to go on to realize that there is more to the Christian life than repentance of sin and faith in Jesus; there is a life of prayer and power to be experienced for keeping the church alive and the people of God reaching out to a lost world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You have called us to a life of holiness and power in order that we might prevail in prayer and fulfill your plan for every Christian believer. Help us respond with obedience and faith. Amen!
Note: All scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.
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