Ephesians 6 v 14
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then,
Ephesians 6 v 19
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people
Paul bookends the Armour of God with the phrases, ‘Stand firm’ and ‘Pray in the Spirit on all occasions’. These both set out how we practically participate in the Armour of God.
But what do we stand firm against and pray about?
Hierarchy and Principalities
Paul tells us what we need to stand against in verse 12:
Ephesians 6 v 12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
It seems jarring to find evil powers in the heavenlies. Our Western culture has passed down the idea that Heaven is the place of goodness and Hell is the place of evil. This is not Biblically accurate.
The heavenly realms are the spiritual dimensions. They contain all the spiritual activity, apart from that in Hell. This is where the majority of the demons are imprisoned and where the faithless dead exist. There is a hierarchy in the heavenlies, where we see the highest heaven is occupied by God and His angels, and the lower heavens are the abode of the other spirits, those of spiritual rulers, authorities and evil powers.
These ‘principalities’ are the spiritual entities who rule over cities, nations and other people groups.
We see a principality mentioned in the Book of Daniel.
Daniel 10 v 13
However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia was opposing an angel, who was trying to get to Daniel.
This is whom Christians must stand firm and pray against. Not the human leaders in a tyrannical government, but the spiritual powers above them. These leaders can be as much a prisoner of the demonic principality as the people who live in the nation.
This isn’t just about countries and cities, but also work places and families too. Wherever people come together and ultimate authority is directed away from God, spiritual problems can arise.
God’s Wants Us Involved
Wisdom of Solomon 5 v 17
The Lord will take his zeal as his whole armor, and will arm all creation to repel his enemies;
The Wisdom of Solomon is part of the Greek Orthodox Bible. It was not written by Solomon, but actually in the 1st BC. Out of all the Apocryphal books, it is the most quoted by the early Church.
This verse tells us that God will arm all Creation to fight His enemies. He wants us involved and be part of His plan to renew Creation.
Pray in the Spirit
Some Christians believe this verse refers to ‘speaking in tongues’ or also called glossolalia. Proponents of this view say St Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians as one of the spiritual gifts.
Though traditionally, it has been interpreted to mean praying with the Holy Spirit within you.
Whether praying in the Spirit involves speaking in tongues or not, it should be no excuse not to pray. All Christians must pick up the Sword of the Spirit and speak Christ into every difficult moment of their lives.
Conclusion
The Armour of God is gift we are given to fight the powers of darkness. When we encounter a problem, we should use the Sword of the Spirit to discern the truth of a situation. We should pray and then stand firm, and call on the name of Lord, the Saviour, Jesus Christ.
The discussion of principalities is extremely potent. I’ve observed that places feel like they have angels, it never occurred to me that they could have powerful angels in some sort of command. It makes sense that a people should pray for their realm to protect their angels and princes from the traps and snares of the evil one. Absolutely fascinating.
This has been a deeply interesting and spiritually edifying series, thank you!
Great series, Brother Alexander. (I "found" you via The Abbey of Misrule.)
Father God is convicting me more often re: praying for my enemies. For they are held captive by the adversary and his minions, those St. Paul mentions in 6:12. It's so easy to focus on our fellow humans as our enemies (just read Twitter threads...yikes!). However, St Jude has powerful words to say about them:
"22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh." (ESV)
Due to my dabbling in the occult decades ago, prior to the Lord redeeming me, the spiritual realm is very real to me. Prayer and praying in community sustain me.