The Spirit’s sword of rhema words also comes BY the means of the Spirit through prayer

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In Ephesians 6:10-20 Paul talks about putting on the “whole armor of God” and part of this in verses 17-18 is “taking . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the directly-spoken rhema word (a) of God . . . dia through-the-realizing-channel-of of all (b) proseuche conversational-prayer (c) and/coupled deesis supplication (d), at every [single] time, habitually proseuchomai conversationally-praying BY the means/instrument of the Spirit.”  Paul isn’t saying to go into battle using any graphe scripture consisting of OT gramma letters or even NT gramma writings or even about the preached logos gospel message as “the sword of the Spirit,” despite all the preaching that has come from pulpits!  No, “the sword” is clearly the prophetic rhema-words that God reveals directly to you through habitual, devoted, patiently-waiting, watching, listening, worshipful, proseuche conversational prayer, which we know is distinct but often is done alongside deesis supplication, as is here.  <Notes> a) rhema: directly-spoken prophetic word, never written, b) pas in singular: the whole of or more likely, every of a kind of c) proseuche: devoted, patiently-waiting, watching, listening, worshipful, conversational prayer, d) deesis: expression of personal petitions of need.

Sadly, most of us think that this conversational prayer is the same as deesis supplication, when the latter is supposed to only be a small part of the practice of prayer.  Proseuche is much more about alertly watching and listening (a) for God to reveal Himself than for us to talk to God!  Proseuche prayer is supposed to be a dialogue, not the monologue of deesis supplication of telling God what we want.  This is in keeping with the reliance we will see that Paul has on proseuche conversational-prayer for everything else in Christianity (b).  <Notes> a) not falling asleep – Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 22:46, b) Ephesians 1:15-16, 3:14, 6:18; Romans 1:10, 8:26, 10:1, 12:12, 15:30; 1 Corinthians 7:5, 11:4-5, 13, 14:13-15; 2 Corinthians 1:11, 9:14, 13:7-9; Philippians 1:3, 4, 9, 1:19, 4:2, 6; Colossians 1:3, 9, 4:2-3, 12; 1 Thessalonians 1:2, 3:10, 5:17, 25; 2 Thessalonians 1:11, 3:1; 1 Timothy 2:1, 8, 4:5, 5:5; 2 Timothy 1:3; Philemon 1:4, 6, 22.

As Christian musicians, are we believing the erroneous preaching that the bible is “the sword of the Spirit” to do battle against Satan with, when it’s actually the prophetic rhema words of God directly revealed to you by the means/instrument of the Spirit through the habitual proseuche dialogue of conversational prayer along with the monologue of deesis supplication?

Such habitual prayer is the ONLY key I could find in the New Testament to starting the whole “personal holiness” ball rolling.  Isn’t it strange that although you find this practice of seeking, conversational-prayer to be a dominant reason for revivals and actually the dominant practice during revivals (see Cure of All Ills by Dr. Mary Stewart Relfe), you see very little of it in the modern Church today?  If you do see any prayer, it’s usually a ritualistic reciting of the Lord’s Prayer (I listened to this for a year while playing for a United Methodist church) or by using Rosary Beads when I was a Catholic as a kid!  And you sure don’t see that many books on conversational-prayer either!  However, I do highly recommend 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice by Mark & Patti Virkler!

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