Pray-reading: refs. include Witness Lee, Watchman Nee

Paul’s Instruction in Ephesians 6:17-18

Receiving the Word Of God

First, the Word of God must be received by the believer. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words indicates that the Greek word for receive in Ephesians 6:17 indicates “a welcoming or an appropriating reception” (510). To receive the Word is therefore not merely to read and understand the Bible, but to open our heart to God and “welcome” His Word. In Colossians 3:16, Paul again picks up this thought: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly….” The Greek word for dwell literally signifies “to be in a house, to indwell, to inhabit.” To let the Word dwell in our heart surely indicates an opening to and welcoming of the Lord’s Word. This cooperation provides God’s indwelling Word with adequate room to operate within the believer’s heart (Recovery Version, Colossians 3:16, note 2).

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By Means of All Prayer and Petition

Second, the Word should be received by means of all prayer and petition. “All prayer” means every kind of prayer: long and short, loud and soft, slow and quick, private and public. We should make use of every kind of prayer and petition to receive the Word of God (Living 76).

While prayer is general, petition is specific (Recovery Version, Ephesians 6:18, note 2). Thus, one’s prayer can be either a general thanks or praise to the Lord, or it can be a specific petition concerning oneself or others. Often out of our general prayer issues a particular “petition concerning all the saints.”

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Praying in Spirit

Finally, prayer must be in spirit. This spirit is the regenerated human spirit of the believers that is joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), and where the Lord, who is the Spirit, now dwells (2 Corinthians 3:17; 2 Timothy 4:22). The phrase “in spirit” indicates that the main faculty to be used in prayer is the human spirit (cf. John 4:24) (Recovery Version, Ephesians 6:18, note 3). The use of the spirit in prayer is crucial because only the human spirit corresponds to the Lord’s words, which are spirit (John 6:63). Paul explains that “a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God…because they are discerned spiritually” (1 Corinthians 2:14). This indicates that without the prayerful exercise of the human spirit, it is not possible to understand the Word of God.

Concerning the relation between prayer and the Word in Ephesians 6:17-18, Arno C. Gaebelein (AD 1861-1945) wrote in The Annotated Bible:

Prayer always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, is next to the sword of the Spirit the most powerful weapon against the devil and his wicked hosts. We must read the Word and pray. Prayer and the Word cannot be separated. The searching of the Word must be done with prayer and prayer will be effectual through knowing the Word. (Graver 31)

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Paul’s Instruction | Examples in the Bible