With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, and on my behalf.
—Ephesians 6:18-19 RV
Paul had a deep sense of the divine unity of the whole body of Christ and of the need for unceasing prayer for all the members of the body by all who belong to it. It is evident from the words he used that he did not mean this to be an occasional thing, but the unceasing exercise of the life union in which they were bound together. “With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”
Paul expected believers to be so filled with the consciousness of living in Christ, and through Him being united so consciously to the whole body, that in their daily lives and activities, their highest aim would always be the welfare of the body of Christ of which they had become members. He counted on their being filled with the Spirit, so that it would be perfectly natural to them—not ever a burden or constraint to them—to pray for all who belong to the body of Jesus Christ. As natural as it is for each member of my body to be ready every moment to do what is necessary for the welfare of the whole, even so, where the Holy Spirit has entire possession, the consciousness of union with Christ will always be accompanied by consciousness of the union, joy, and love of all the members.
Is this not what we need in our daily lives, that every believer who has yielded himself undividedly to Christ Jesus will daily and continually live in the consciousness that he is one with Christ and His body? Just as a war will bring to light the intensity and the readiness with which millions of the subjects of the king sacrifice their all for the king and his service, so the saints of God will live for Christ their King, and also for all the members of the body of which He is the Head. May God’s people be willing for this sacrifice of prayer and intercession at all times and for all believers!