The Whole Armor Of God - "Supplication"

"Above All; Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit;" Eph 6:18a. Let me start today, by reinforcing a point I made yesterday; Prayer is the substance of our faith. I have to be honest with you, this statement is rather deep, and really deserves some further explaining in order to understand the importance of 'Supplication'. First off, remember the theme of this whole discussion; Application; Application; Application; and that we understand the meaning of 'substance' as it relates to prayer and our faith; is demonstration. Okay then; faith is a demonstration of hope, and hope is a demonstration of faith; likewise, faith is a demonstration of prayer, and prayer is a demonstration of faith. Please, please, do not misunderstand what I am saying; for we know that in Jesus is where we have our faith; in Him and Him alone; for by no other name (person, place or thing), are we saved. Remember also that we are seated in Christ, first and foremost; but what we are talking about here is application; How do we apply prayer in, to and through our lives. This may be the reason Paul saved prayer for the end of his epistle. So that we would realize how important prayer is, but would keep our focus on Jesus Christ, and the fact that we are seated in Him, walk in Him, stand in Him, and we are able to pray in Him, or actually through Him. Let me give you another definition of the word 'substance'; it is the word necessity. Hope is the necessity of faith, and faith is the necessity of hope; but our faith is not in hope, and our hope is not in faith; our hope and our faith are in Christ. So likewise, our faith is the necessity of our prayer, and our prayer is the necessity of our faith; it is because of Christ that we have access to the Father through prayer. When we are praying, we are praying to a Living, Powerful and Mighty God, who wants our fellowship; He wants us to draw close to Him, as close as we can possibly be. Now, just maybe, we are able to look at "Supplication", and how this applies to our prayer life. What happens when we pray? When we pray, we are first demonstrating our belief in a Living God; secondly we are demonstrating our belief that God hears our prayers, and thirdly we are demonstrating our belief that God answers our prayers; thus prayer is a demonstration of our faith in Him. Now lets take prayer up a couple levels, and look at supplication. Prayer is the vehicle in which we approach God; supplication is prayer with intent and with purpose. This type of prayer opens up all kinds of doors, and brings to light the specific things that need to be prayed for. You might notice that Paul adds, "In the Spirit" after the word "supplication"; this is very important to what supplication is, because the Holy Spirit will bring those things to light. Sometimes we may not know what to pray for (or need to know); then the Spirit will make utterance on our behalf, which a specific prayer language; a language that we do not really understand, but that after it has been spoken, we know whatever we prayed for, was dealt with. Okay; supplication, and how to apply it in our prayer; a good place for me to start, would be praying for myself. I could pray for God to make me a better person; "Lord, please make me a better person; Amen."; that seemed pretty general, didn't it? Now lets pump it up a notch or two; "Lord, please help me to see how much you love me, so that I might learn how to love others. Let me know how much you forgive me, so that I might be able to forgive others; etc..". Here I am now praying with intent and with purpose; do you see the difference? While I am praying this type of a prayer, the Holy Spirit will bring those things to light in my life that I need to pray for; and more importantly, that I need forgiveness for. Something else takes place as I see those things I need forgiveness for; I am able to ask for that forgiveness; the more I ask forgiveness for, the closer I draw towards God; the closer I draw towards God, the more He reveals of Himself; the more He reveals of Himself, the more relevant He becomes in my life; and the more I realize just how substantial my praying is to my eternal soul; thus realizing how prayer is the substance of faith. "But now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph 2:13) "For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." (Eph 2:18) "In whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph 2:22) "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5: 1 & 2) Having done all to stand; therefore stand...(next, "watching")