The armour of God

Prayer: How the Whole Armour Is Worn

Ephesians 6:18 · The whole armour of God · Ephesians 6:10-18

Prayer, in Ephesians 6:18, is not a seventh piece of armour laid beside the others but the way the whole armour is worn. Paul tells us to be praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching, persevering, and interceding for all the saints. The belt, breastplate, sandals, shield, helmet, and sword are all put on and used in dependence on God, and that dependence is prayer. It is how we stay joined to Christ, in whose strength alone we stand.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;Ephesians 6:18 (KJV)

Not a piece, but the way the armour is worn

Readers sometimes count prayer as the seventh item in the list, but Paul's own grammar tells against it. He does not say, take the weapon of prayer, as he said take the shield and take the helmet. He moves instead into a sweeping command that gathers up everything before it: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Prayer is not one more thing to strap on; it is the spirit in which every other piece is taken up and used.

This is why it comes last, as the crowning instruction. A soldier fully armed but cut off from his commander, fighting in his own strength, is still a soldier alone. Prayer is the believer's living connection to the God whose armour this is. The whole passage began with the call to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, and prayer is how we actually draw on that power rather than our own. Every piece of the armour is put on kneeling.

What praying in the Spirit represents

Paul does not say simply pray, but pray in the Spirit, and the phrase is important. It means praying in dependence on the Holy Spirit, in step with him, asking not merely for what we want but for what God wills, carried along by the same Spirit who inspired the word we wield. It is prayer that is not a performance we generate but a communion we are drawn into.

And it is prayer of a certain shape: always, with all prayer and supplication, watching thereunto with all perseverance, and for all saints. It is constant, not reserved for emergencies. It is varied, ranging over every kind of asking. It is watchful, alert to need and danger. It is persevering, refusing to give up when the answer is slow. And it looks outward, praying not only for oneself but for all the saints, the whole embattled family of God. This is what it looks like to wear the armour in the Spirit rather than in the flesh.

The qualities Paul piles up here, always, all prayer, watching, all perseverance, all saints, are not so many separate duties but one posture described from several sides. Together they paint a life that is turned Godward as a matter of course, not a religious task performed and then set down. This is why prayerlessness is more serious than we usually feel it to be. It is not the neglect of a single item on a list; it is fighting the whole war in our own strength, armour on but unconnected to the only power that makes it hold.

Why we need it: armour is worn in a war we cannot win alone

Paul has already told us why prayer is not optional: our fight is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, spiritual forces beyond our strength. This is not a battle that resolve or technique can win. Against such an enemy, a believer trusting his own strength is certain to fall, however good his armour looks. We need power that is not ours, and prayer is how we lay hold of it.

There is a further mercy here. Paul says that we often do not even know what we ought to pray for, and that in our weakness the Spirit himself comes alongside us and intercedes on our behalf.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.Romans 8:26 (KJV)

So prayer in the Spirit is not one more burden laid on the weary soldier; it is the place where our weakness is met by God's own help. We pray because we cannot stand alone, and the Spirit prays in and for us because, left to ourselves, we cannot even pray as we should.

There is enormous comfort in this for the weary and the inarticulate. Prayer in the Spirit does not require eloquence, or even clarity. On the days when you do not know what to ask, when grief or exhaustion has taken your words, the Spirit is not waiting for you to compose yourself; he is already carrying to the Father what you cannot express. The armour, then, is never held up by the quality of your prayers, but by the faithfulness of the God who hears them, and by the Spirit who prays underneath your praying.

How to put it on and use it

Praying always does not mean muttering without pause, but living in unbroken awareness of God, turning to him through the whole day, at the desk and the sink and the crossroads, so that prayer becomes the running background of your life rather than a scheduled event. Paul's charge to another church was as short as it was total.

Pray without ceasing.1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)

You cultivate it by beginning the day in deliberate prayer, putting on each piece of the armour consciously before God, asking for truth, for a clean conscience, for firm footing, for faith, for hope, for a ready word. Then you keep the line open, praying in the moment as each attack comes, watching for the enemy's approach in your own heart and in the lives of those you love. And you widen it beyond yourself, standing in prayer for all the saints, for this is a family war, and no soldier is meant to fight only for his own patch of the line. Persevere when heaven seems silent; watchfulness and endurance are named as part of it for a reason.

It helps to make the connection to the armour explicit and habitual. Many believers have found it steadying to pray through the pieces one by one at the start of the day: Lord, gird me with truth, cover my heart with your righteousness, steady my feet on the gospel, give me faith to raise against every dart, set the hope of salvation over my mind, and put your word in my mouth. To pray the armour on is simply to admit, first thing, that you cannot wear it in your own strength, and to ask the one whose armour it is to clothe you.

How it is found in Christ

Prayer in the Spirit is, at last, the way we stay joined to Christ, in whose strength the whole armour holds. Jude gives the same counsel, urging believers to keep themselves in the love of God by building up their faith and praying in the Spirit.

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,Jude 1:20 (KJV)

That is the aim of it all. The armour is his, the strength is his, the victory is his, and prayer is how the branch abides in the vine, drawing everything it needs from him. When we pray in the Spirit, we are not working up power in ourselves but leaning wholly on Christ, who ever lives to intercede for us and who is himself our strength. So the passage that began with the call to be strong in the Lord ends here, on our knees, joined to him. To wear the whole armour of God is, from first to last, to depend on Jesus.

A note for all traditions: the armour of God is not a magic ritual or a formula of words, and the battle is not a spectacle. Paul writes soberly to ordinary believers about standing firm in Christ against real temptation, deception, and discouragement. Every piece is his gift and points back to him. The one Lord of the whole armour is Jesus Christ, and the strength to stand is his, not ours.

Related: The sword of the Spirit · The belt of truth · The whole armour of God · Spiritual warfare · Who is Jesus?