The Prayers Of Paul: Part 1 – Lawson Perdue

Prayers of Paul Part 1

In Prayers of Paul – Part 1, Pastor Lawson Perdue reveals some of the most powerful prayers in Scripture. These prayers are especially valuable to Christians today because these prayers are prayed in light of redemptions. In the New Covenant, it’s important that we pray from a position of knowing who Jesus is and what His will is for us.

Prayers of Paul Transcript

Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you tuned in today. This week, we’re gonna be talking about some of the most powerful prayers in the Bible. In fact, I believe they are the most powerful prayers in the Bible. And I believe these are prayers that you can pray. They’re the prayers of Paul and they’re found in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Philippians 1, in Colossians 1.

What’s so powerful, Pastor Lawson? You may ask about these prayers. I believe what makes these prayers powerful is the fact that Paul is praying in light of redemption. He’s praying in light of what Jesus did for us in His death, burial and resurrection. And so in Paul’s prayers, there’s no sense of lack, no sense of weakness, no sense of need. There’s only a sense of this is who God is, this is who Christ is, this is what God’s called us to do, and this is what God has given us so that we can accomplish what He’s called us to do. So open your heart, receive the word of God. I believe you’re gonna get some great things as we share these teaching. And it comes from my series, “The Prayers of Paul.” Actually, I have a special that I’m making on two series, “Praying With Power” and “The Prayers of Paul.” But you get this series, “The Prayers of Paul,” you begin to understand these things.. And I believe it will give you revolutionary revelation. And that’s actually what Paul is talking about in this very first prayer that he prays for the church at Ephesus.

Prayer in Ephesians Chapter 1

Ephesians 1, we’ll begin in verse 15 and we’ll go through verse 23. He says “where for I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened. That you may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of His glory, of the inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to those of us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, all might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in the world which is to come and has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body. The fullness of Him that carries out all things.” Now, this is a marvelous portion of scripture, marvelous, prayer that Paul prays.

First of all, he says, I am praying for you that you’ll be filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I want you to get a revelation of who Jesus is, and I want you to get a revelation of what He’s called you to do that. That’s what he’s praying. And so he says, a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. You know, wisdom and spiritual understanding. It flows from your spirit, flows from the inside, right through your soul, to your body. So I want you to get this revelation. Now, when you begin to get a revelation of who Jesus is, when you get a revelation, not only of who Jesus is, but who you are, it changes the way that you pray. Amen, and so we need to get this revelation. The revelation of who Jesus is, and we get it from the scripture. And as we look at the scripture, there are just a number of things that we find as we study this out. But in Ephesians 1:13-23, he prays these prayers. And these are powerful, powerful prayers.

Now we get this revelation, the revelation of who He is, it changes how we pray. And the first thing he says is, I want you to know Him Now, in Philippians 3:10, Paul says this very same thing, which I believe is the ultimate goal of the gospel. And that is that we know Him. And he says, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable to His death. If by any means, I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.” In other words, Paul says, I wanna know Him. And the only way that you’re gonna really know Him is get a revelation.

In Colossians 2:3, Paul says this, “I want you to be filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” All these treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, they’re hidden in Christ.

Andrew Wommack – Do you know where wisdom is?

I remember one time, years, and years ago, Andrew Wommack came to my church. I was pastoring in Kit Carson, Colorado. This is over 25 years ago. And he asked me if there’s anything I needed. I said, yes, you could pray for me to have wisdom, which if you asked me if I need prayer, I’ll ask you to pray for me to have wisdom. And I remember when I was a young child, I would spend a lot of time with my grandparents on my dad’s side. And my grandfather prayed nearly every day for God to give us wisdom. And I believe my granddad had wisdom that came from God. And he was very blessed in business and had a lot of good things happening. Now, as my granddad did that… I just told Andrew, hey, I need wisdom. And Andrew asked me this question. He said, do you know where wisdom is? And you know what, I’m a smart person. Somebody’s smarter than me, they ask me a question, I say no. And so he said, it’s in Christ. And he said, Christ is in you. So you have the wisdom of God in you. And you need to learn how to draw that wisdom of Christ that’s in Christ and that’s in you. You need to learn how to draw on that your spirit.

And so it says, “In Him or hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” And then it says, “In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Colossians 2:9-10. “And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” So if you need wisdom, you get wisdom from Jesus. And as a believer, if you’re born again, Jesus is living on the inside of you. So you learn to draw on the wisdom of Jesus in your spirit, and you can begin to get revelation knowledge. And that’s what he’s praying, that you would know Him. Again, this is the ultimately goal of the gospel that we would know Him.

Prayers of Paul for Wisdom

The second thing that Paul prays in Ephesians chapter one, number one, he prays that we’d be filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him. So get to know Jesus and get wisdom from Him. The second thing he prays is that “the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened or the eyes of your thinking would be opened, that you would know the hope of His calling. Now, when you study this word, hope out, it’s talking about joy and confident expectation of good. So when you know His calling, His calling, there’s an expectation of good, and there’s a joy that goes with that. He says, “The hope of His calling, the riches of glory, His inheritance in the Saint is. So secondly, he says, “I want the eyes of your understanding to be enlightened.”

Now, the Bible actually tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:4-7, “that the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them.” And that light has shone in our heart. We’re gonna go there and read those scriptures. In 2 Corinthians 4:4-7, 2 Corinthians 4:4-7, And I’m gonna have to get that scripture here really quickly. 2 Corinthians 4:4-7, says this I’m gonna read it verbatim. “It says, if our gospel is hidden,” in verse three, “it’s hidden to those that are lost. in lost people, the God of this world has blinded the minds of them who believe not less the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine to them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord and ourselves, your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, to shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”

So when Paul is talking about the eyes of our understanding being lightened, he says, the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not. So people who have not believed on Jesus, their mind is blinded to the truth of Jesus. And he says that he’s praying that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened in Ephesians 1:18, he’s praying that your mind, your thoughts, your imagination might be illuminated, might be given light, and it might become plain or evident. I want the calling of God in my life to be plain and evident. And you know what, that’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. But if you spend time with Jesus, you know, He said in my sheep know my voice and another they will not follow. So you can know His voice and you can follow Him. And did you know what? You follow Jesus one day at a time and He will lead you into the will of God for your life. And the will of God for your life is good.

Prayer to Know Jesus

So he says, “I want you to know Him, I want the eyes of your understanding to be enlightened. And then he said, “I want you to know the hope of His calling, right? The hope of His calling.” When he talks about knowing the hope of His calling, having a confident expectation of good in the calling that God has for us. He says, ” and the riches, the glory of His inheritance and the saints.” So know what God’s called us to do. Now, there’s one thing that every person in the body of Christ has been called to. We’ve all been called to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And the Bible talks about that in Romans 8:29, we’ve been called to be conformed to the image of Jesus. So if you wanna be like somebody, be like Jesus. We’ve also been called the Bible talks about this, to freedom and called to love and serve in the freedom that we’ve been called to. We are called to love and to serve. The Bible talks about that in Galatians 5:13.

Let’s go over there really quickly and look at Galatians 5:13. And it says this in Galatians 5:13, he’s talking about before that, that we’re called to freedom. He says, “brethren, you’re called in verse 13 to liberty or to freedom. Only do not use this liberty, this freedom for occasion to serve the flesh. But by love serve one another. For all the laws fulfilled in this one word that you will love your neighbor, even as you love yourself. So we’ve been called to freedom, but in the freedom that we’ve been called to, we’ve been called to love one another. Do you know what? Love is a law? And if you wanna fulfill God’s law, when we talked about this last week, but the first of God’s laws is to believe on Lord Jesus in the New Testament, The Bible talks about this in 1 John chapter 3, the very end of the chapter, verse 22 to verse 24 talks about.

The first commandment is believe on Jesus. The second one is, love your neighbor as yourself. Now, when you believe on Jesus, the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost will lead you in that love. So when Paul prays for the church know Him, know who Jesus is, then the eyes of your understanding get enlightened and then begin to know the hope of His calling. And what’s He called you to do? He called you to be conformed to the image of Jesus. And then you’ve been called in into liberty and you’re to use that liberty to walk in love and serve one another Galatians 5:13.

The third thing it talks about we’re called to do in the New Testament. It says we’re all called to be saints. And I love this in 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul writes the church in Corinthians. Now, if there’s any church that’s being challenged, it’s the church at Corinth. And they’re being challenged with all kinds of ugly sin. And Paul said, you’re called to be a saint. Then he says, be a saint, be a saint, be a saint. He says, don’t, you know who you are, praise God. So if you know Him, your eyes get open, to what He’s called you to do. And He begins to give light to you and then you begin to know what He’s called you to do and what he’s invested in you, you can begin to walk in the light as He is in the light. You’re called to be saints, right? We’re called to His purpose and grace. Now let’s talk about this for just a little bit.

Prayer for Purpose and Grace

I wanna go to 2 Timothy 1 and talk about being called to God’s purpose and grace. There’s a grace on your life. You know, we have a ministry in our church and very lovely couple, and they have a ministry to married people and they say, there’s a grace on our life to do this. Did you know, you need to understand the grace of God on your life. I don’t believe that we can do ultimately what God’s called to us to do without His grace on our life. Now, in 2 Timothy 1, Paul has been put in prison and he’s been put in prison for preaching. The gospel. Timothy is kinda taking a back step. In other words, he’s being intimidated somewhat because Paul’s been put in prison for the gospel. And Paul goes to him and says, listen, in verse seven, “God has not given us a spirit of intimidation or fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. You need a mind self-controlled, a mind that’s in moderation, a disciplined mind. that’s taught from the word of God. And this is this, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.” Don’t be ashamed of Jesus nor of me, his prisoner, but be partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with the holy calling.”

We have been called with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, right? We’ve been called according to His purpose in grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Before the world began, God had a plan for our life. Isn’t that amazing? We serve an amazing God. And so he says, listen, you need to know what God called you to, amen. And God has this ultimate plan for your life. God has a general overall plan for everybody to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. But then God has a very specific will for your life. And he’s praying, I want you to know the very specific will of God for your life, to know the hope of your calling.

Now, as we look at this, you know what? We are called to be conformed to the image of Jesus, we’re called to freedom, to love and to serve. We’re called to be saints, we’re called to His purpose and grace. The Bible also talks about this in Ephesians 5 And we’re gonna jump over here to Ephesians 5:15-17. He says, “see that you walk not circumspectly, not as fools but wise.” In other words, keep yourself under control. “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Buy up the time. If you don’t buy up the time in the days that we live in and live for the purpose of God, you’ll get caught up in stuff that’s not the purpose of God. You’ll get caught up in evil because there’s a lot of evil.

You know, the Bible talks about in the last days that there is gonna be evil. And because this evil prevails, some people are gonna get caught up. The love of many will wax cold. It talks about this in Matthew 24. So you get caught up doing the will of God and you’ll stay outta some of things that are not the will of God. And he says, “do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” So you need to know the will of God for your life. You need to know the very specific, perfect, direct, accurate will of God for your life. And as you know, doing what’s right actually keeps you out of doing what’s wrong. And the cure actually, for some people, when they’ve been doing what’s wrong is just get involved in doing what’s right. Walk in the light, right? And the Bible actually says this Ephesians 5 earlier in the chapter, verse eight, “you were darkness, but now you are children of the light. Walk as children of the light.” Live as who you are. You were darkness, but now you’re light. So walk as children of the light.

When you walk in the light, the darkness dispels, the darkness leaves. So we’re called praise God, to God’s purpose of grace. We’re called to walk in light. We’re called to be holy. The Bible talks about this in 1 Peter 1:15 and verse 16. It says, “as he who is called you is holy, so be you holy.” So we need to know the calling of God for our life. We’re called to be conformed to the image of Jesus, we’re called to freedom, to love and to serve, we’re called to be saints. We’re called to His purpose in grace, and we’re called to be holy, thank God.

Prayer of Paul – Knowing What To Do

Now, not only are we called to that, but we need to know what God’s called us to do, but we need to know what He’s given us, right? We need to know what He’s invested in us so we can do what He’s called us to do. I often say this, if you’re around my church very much, you’re gonna hear me say this. If you’re around here six months, you’d probably hear me say it several times. I go and you know, times where I say it more. But I say I have everything I need to do everything God’s called me to do. I have no lack in any area of my life. I am blessed and highly favored of the Lord. So thank God we have everything we need to do everything God called us to do. We have no lack in any area of life. We’re blessed and highly favored of the Lord. So we know Jesus, right? The eyes of our understanding are being enlightened. They’re being open, they’re being directed. We’re seeing what God wants us to see. We know the hope of His calling and the riches of His glory. That’s what Paul is praying for this church. I’m praying that you know him, that I’m praying that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, I’m praying that you know the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. I want you to know what God has invested in you so that you can get the job done, amen.

I love 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1 says this in verse three, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to glory and virtue. Again, I have everything I need to do everything God called me to do. I have no lack in any area of my life. His divine power has given to us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge, through our relationship with Jesus who called us to glory and virtue.” I love verse four it goes right along with it, whereby or through our relationship with Jesus, are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these, you might partake of the divine nature. You might partake of the life of God and escape the corruption or the principle of death that’s in the world through lust or through Adam’s transgression.

You see there’s a principle of death in the world because of Adam’s transgression, it’s working on the general population, but when you’re born again, you are born of God. You are born from above, amen. Jesus has taken up residence in you, and you begin to turn around. And the path of the just the Bible says gets lighter and lighter, brighter and brighter till the dawning of the perfect day, amen. So what’s Paul praying in Ephesians chapter one? I’m praying that, you know, Jesus, I want you to get a revelation of who He is. Get a revelation, a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I’m praying that you would know His will, and I’m praying that you would know what He’s invested in you so you can get it done.

Prayer to Operate In Power

And then he finally says, I’m praying this. I am praying that you would know the exceeding greatness in verse 19 of His power, to those of us who believe. According to the working of His mighty power when he raised Him from the dead and set Him at his own right hand, in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power.

Now, when we read this word power, we read power. But in the Greek, there are three different words. The first word that he uses for power, when he says, I want you to know the exceeding greatness of His power that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead? The word power there is the word dunamis, the Greek word dunamis. It means ability, special, wonderful miracle working power, the same power Jesus had. I want you to know the exceeding greatness of God’s power, God’s ability that was released when He raised Jesus from the dead. The same power that He worked in Christ. Special, wonderful miracle working power. He says, according to the working of His mighty power, now that word is the word Kratos. and it means power, dominion, or strength, might. For strength or mighty power. Power manifested in a reigning authority. Praise God.

So he says, I want you to know the ability God’s given you that’s according to the authority God’s given you when He raised Jesus from the dead And when you came into Christ, then the next word for power he uses in verse 21. And he says, when He set Christ, I want you to know the ability that was released in the resurrection of Christ. When He set Him at His own right hand, far above all principality, all power, all might, all dominion. Jesus is a name higher than any other. And we have authority in the name of Jesus. Think about this, Jesus Christ is a resurrected Lord of eternity, and He’s taken up residence on the inside of you. And He’s far above all principality, all power.

That means the devil is no problem to you today as a believer, when you understand what God gave you in Christ, amen. And so this word for power, when he says far above all power, that word is exousia, and it means right, or jurisdiction, privilege, delegated, influence, or authority. Jesus is the highest. And He gives us the highest delegated influence and authority, privilege, praise God, authority, praise God. And we walk in His authority. Now he says, when He raised Him from the dead, He set Him at His own right hand, far above all principality, power, might and dominion, every name that is name. So the name of Jesus is above the name of any name that is name that is named. It’s above the name of poverty, it’s above the name of cancer, it’s above the name of any disease.

Jesus is the Highest Name

The name of Jesus is the highest name of every name. And he says, I want you to understand what God gave you when He invested the power of the Holy Spirit in you in Christ and gave you authority in the name of Jesus, over all these things. And he put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body. The church is the body of Jesus Christ. The fullness of Him that carries out all things. Jesus carries out all things. I want you to know the exceeding greatness of this power, power exercised in a reigning authority using our God-given authority to release God’s ability, amen.

Ephesians 6:10, you know, Ephesians is written, first of all, he begins that we’re seated in heavenly places in Christ, the first three chapters of Ephesians. And Paul’s praying in light of that, right? The next time we study tomorrow’s lesson. we’ll study, Paul’s prayer in Ephesians chapter three. It’s talking about getting a revelation of His love. But it’s still from this context that we’re seated in heavenly places. Then in chapter four and chapter five, he talks about walking this Christ life out in this world.

Prayers of Paul Conclusion

Finally, in chapter six, he says, you have authority over the devil. Now, he says this, and I wanna go there really quickly and show you this. So it begins that we’re seated in heaven places, right? Then we walk it out. And then finally we stand against the devil. And Ephesians 6:10, he says this, I gotta get there, man. Hope I didn’t lose that page. Oh, I gotta get in the right book. That would help Ephesians 6:10. He says, “finally, brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you might stand against all the wilds, the deceits of the devil. And he says for, we wrestle not, there is a battle going on against flesh and blood, but against principalities’ powers, the rules of the darkness, this world against spiritual weakness and high places. But he says, you take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand. So you’ve been equipped for victory, praise God.

And Paul says, listen, I want you to know who He is, I want you to know what He called you to do, I want you to know what He invested in you to get the job done. And I want you to know the exceeding greatness of His power that’s given to you as a believer. The same power that he worked in Jesus when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, far above all principality, all power, all name, every name that is named in this world and the world to come and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body. The fullness of Him that carries out all things. When you begin to understand who He is and who you are, what He’s called you to do and what he’s given you and the power he released in Christ that he gave to you, your authority in Jesus name, you can enforce the victory Jesus won in His death and resurrection. Blessings, have a good day.