EPHESIANS 6:17-18: “…and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” 

What is this prayer in the Spirit? What does it mean to be praying in the Spirit? Is there any prior context of prayer in the Spirit in the Bible that can shed light on what the Apostle Paul was talking about?

Why yes, there is!

As we explore this text, we will cover much ground. We will consider some detailed exegesis from Paul examining the differences between Spirit-inspired prayer versus speech, review some Greek words used in the English translations, as well as find an unexpected bonus near the end of this blog. I am hopeful that if you find yourself with any But what about? thoughts as you read through this blog they will be resolved by the conclusion of the discourse. Here we go!   

I CORINTHIANS 14 GIVES THE CONTEXT OF EPHESIANS 6

The 14th chapter in I Corinthians is contextually important for understanding Ephesians 6:17-18 in the following ways: 1) it is the only place in the New Testament where we find the closest reference to the words in Ephesians of “praying in the Spirit“, 2) it is the only place in the New Testament where the nature and practice of any sort of “praying in the Spirit” is described, 3) the composition date of I Corinthians precedes the composition date of Ephesians by as little as 15 years (early scholarly dating of Ephesians) to as much as 70 years (later scholarly dating of Ephesians). Therefore, with the earlier dating of I Corinthians the letter certainly should have a measured degree of impact on one’s understanding when we exegete a succeeding book or passage.  

With these three important contextual realities in mind, it is important that before we even look at the words in Ephesians that we first look at what was written before in I Corinthians. Otherwise, we have no context to infer the meaning and are left to mere speculation and conjecture.

In 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul makes a specific distinction between two types of prayer: one that is done in the power of one’s mind, and one that is done in the power of the spirit. Going forward I will refer to these as spirit-empowered/enabled prayer and mind-empowered/enabled prayer. 

SPIRIT-EMPOWERED PRAYER 

Paul qualifies spirit-enabled prayer as the supernatural gift of tongues. Notice in the following passage how Paul links the phrases “speaks in a tongue” with “pray in tongue”, and then links those with “pray with the spirit”:

^“Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” (I Corinthians 14:13-15, ESV). 

When you speak in the gift of tongues, the sounds and syllables coming out of your mouth are supernaturally enabled/empowered by the Holy Spirit. Your human spirit does the praying and the speech is under your volition, but the ability is being powered by the Holy Spirit. This tongues-speech is an unintelligible prayer language that is not directed toward people but toward God (I Corinthians 14:2). When you direct speech toward God it is called prayer, which is why Paul can use the phrases “speaks in a tongue” and “pray in a tongue” and “pray with the spirit”  in I Corinthians 14:13-15 all interchangeably—because all three describe the same action taking place. 

Here is another way to say this simply: when you speak in tongues you talk to God—when you talk to God it is called prayer—when you pray in tongues the ability to speak in tongues come from the Holy Spirit that we can then call Spirit-empowered/-enabled prayer. (Oh, and add a little melody to your tongues-speech and you can “sing with the spirit” in prayer to God too!)

Therefore, to “pray in the Spirit” you must be praying in a way that can only be done through a supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit, which Paul just specifically qualified as the gift of tongues.  

Now, notice how this language in I Corinthians 14, “I will pray with the spirit“ is darn near identical to the language that we found in our opening verse of Ephesians 6:17-18, “praying at all times in the Spirit“. The only difference we find between the passages are the prepositions with from I Corinthians and in from Ephesians. What can we say about the difference between these two prepositions?

They can have different meanings. If my wife said, “I set your car keys with your wallet.” then it actually would be different if she said, “I set your car keys in your wallet.”. Those sentences do convey different meanings. However, both those sentences are using the prepositions in a locative case, and I don’t think the Apostle Paul is trying to indicate a physical location where we ought to partner together with the Holy Spirit.

But I could also use those prepositions in the following ways, “Because my favorite baseball team is in first place, they are heading into the playoffs in expectation to win”, and “Because my favorite baseball team is in first place, they are heading into the playoffs with expectation to win.” The usage of the prepositions in this context concerns the state of being or attitude of a person(s). Here the differences in the two prepositions still express the same idea and are completely synonymous.

Although different prepositions are used in each passage this is not an indication that the author is referring to a different thing. The prepositions are most likely interchangeable in a non-locative context. And there is nothing in the Ephesians 6 text that indicates to the reader that a new definition of Spirit-prayer has been presented. Therefore, given the context of I Corinthians wherein Paul has first defined what Spirit-prayer is (tongues), there is no justification to look at Ephesians 6:17-18 any differently. Spirit-prayer has already been defined. The context from I Corinthians drives the meaning because the difference in prepositions is minute and de minimis. It is only when someone fails to incorporate the context, or when someone intentionally wants to interpret Ephesians outside of a tongues context, that any other conclusion can be reached. 

Yet surprisingly some would still challenge me on the context and conclusion that I present. Someone might say, “How can we be sure that ‘praying in the spirit’ couldn’t be referring to some other type of non-charismatic/non-prophetic enabled speech?”

Well, I can see why one would ask that, especially for those who have not yet received the gift of tongues. Perhaps that is the most understandable reason.

This question can be answered by looking at the other type of prayer Paul describes that I call mind-empowered/enabled prayer.

MIND-EMPOWERED PRAYER

It is the very fact of tongues being spirit-empowered prayer to God, unintelligible to one’s mind, that the Apostle Paul writes this passage to the Corinthians. The mind’s weakness during Spirit-empowered prayer is what Paul uses to make the chapter’s main point.

In verses 6-13 and 16-19 he says that when someone wants to interrupt or address the assembly/meeting via the gift of tongues the tongues-speech MUST be interpreted back into the native tongue of the people. Otherwise, no person in the room will understand with their minds because the mind doesn’t know how to process these foreign, heavenly sounds—”For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries” (I Corinthians 14:2). Paul adds that the person who speaks in tongues themself needs to pray that they receive the interpretation so that they can deliver the message in native language. This is because not even the person who speaks in a tongues knows what they are saying. Their mind has not been empowered during the action.   

When one engages in Spirit-enabled prayer the mind is NOT INVOLVED. The mind is DISABLED. Spirit-enabled prayer bypasses the limitations of one’s mind and unlocks the potentialities of the infinite power and wisdom of God through the empowering of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 2:6-16).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that it is disadvantageous to use the mind in prayer. Of course not! Mind-enabled prayer and to “pray with the understanding” can be a good thing, which is why Paul advocates for interpretation if someone address the crowd in tongues. But the mind has limitations, and there are times that only the Holy Spirit knows what we ought to pray for and we need a boost of brain-bypassing, Spirit-enabled prayer to get the job done.

However, when the mind is switched on in prayer the prayer has then lost its special qualification of being Spirit-empowered. For to be Spirit-empowered means that we have gone beyond the human mind. Certainly, one can pray in their native tongue as they feel influenced by the Holy Spirit, but that cannot be called “praying in the Spirit”, because as we saw earlier Paul has already qualified that phrase as referring to praying to God in the gift of tongues, an activity in which neither the speaker nor the hearer understands the words spoken (I Corinthians 14:2, 13-15). We should not conflate the two, just as Paul does not. For scenarios when one prays in their native tongue under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we ought to use different terminology, such as Spirit-led prayer.  

Praying out of your own understanding, even if one feels it is Spirit-led, is not “praying in the Spirit” because Spirit-empowered prayer does not incorporate the work of, nor does it employ, the mind.  That’s why the Apostle explains that when someone “prays in the spirit” the mind is “unfruitful“—meaning that no one’s mind is benefiting from/contributing to the experience and the mind is not playing a role. The Holy Spirit is the only one playing a role during Spirit-empowered prayer.  

Therefore, in light of the Apostle’s teaching, it is now quite easy to understand why “praying in the spirit” cannot not be referring to some other type of Spirit-enabled speech as some would wonder. Spirit-enabled prayer is a term specifically reserved for when the words coming out of your mouth are an unintelligible, heavenly prayer language that bypasses the limitations of the human brain. If your brain is being used, then it is mind-empowered or Spirit-led prayer. 

OTHER INTERPRETATIONS 

If Ephesians 6:17-18 is read outside of the correct context of the gift of tongues, then people have nothing left to do other than speculate about what Paul means by “praying…in the Spirit” because there is no other place in the Bible in which a description of “praying in the Spirit” is given! If someone does not pray in tongues and in ignorance does not know how to look at this verse in context, or if someone does not believe that tongues are for today’s church, or that tongues are only limited to a few chosen people, then of course they are going to look for alternate explanations. But they MUST concede (and almost all do!) that at best they are only guessing about the meaning because they have no scriptural grounds to back up their claims. And accordingly, when one surveys the many commentaries and teachings for Ephesians 6:17-18 we find a number of possible meanings: to pray in unity with others, to pray with the mental understanding of what God’s will is, to pray in agreement with the scripture and with an attitude of submission, or to seek the Holy Spirit’s inspiration on what to pray for. 

But to say that, “praying…in the spirit” is merely praying in unity with others, eliminates the supernatural aspect of this action. If I only need to get into unity with someone to agree and pray, then that certainly can be accomplished in my mind. “You want me to agree and pray for your health? I agree God wants you healthy—let’s pray!”. 

Or, to say that “praying…in the spirit” is merely praying with the understanding of what God’s will is, that takes out any need for pressing beyond human understanding. “I don’t need to look to God for a supernatural revelation or for help on this issue, I have His written word, the Bible. That’s all I need. If I just know my Bible I can pray God’s will in the power of the Spirit. I’ve got it all figured out” 

Or, to say that “praying…in the spirit” is merely praying in your native tongue in agreement and with an attitude of submission to the Holy Spirit, then that completely ignores what Paul said in I Corinthians 14:2 when he said that when one prays in the Spirit, one “…does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.” If people can understand what you are saying without interpretation you are NOT “praying in the Spirit”. 

Of course, all of those aspirations are good and fine things to do, and something to be desired in one’s prayer life. Yet, notice that in all of the three interpretations I referenced, every one of them employs the usage of one’s mind and personal effort. Doing any and all of those things must be done in one’s flesh. There is no supernatural spirit–enablement taking place. And the whole point of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is to enable one to do things beyond the limitations of one’s own power. God’s empowering presence through workings of the charismatic/prophetic baptism of His Holy Spirit brings us into a whole different dimension. We completely disregard this powerful, new dynamic if we look at Ephesians 6:17-18 outside of a Spirit-enabling context.  

But if we instead use the longest exposition in scripture on tongues to guide our understanding, I Corinthians 12-14, and we do not treat this as some one-off, vague passage that would then force us to guess about its meaning, then the answer becomes quite clear and easy that Ephesians 6:17-18 is concerning tongues-speech.

WHAT ABOUT SPEAKING BY INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT?

Up to this point we have only been talking about prayer—when one talks not to people but to God. But there are other passages in the Bible where we see people speaking out loud by direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit that is not in tongues (e.g., twice in Luke 1, Stephen in Acts 7). They are talking in their native tongue, yet empowered by the Spirit. How do I, then, explain that?

This answer is incredibly easy when we compare to whom this Spirit-speech is being spoken.

As Peter is being questioned in prison, Acts 4 says, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel…” and as a result Peter then delivers a quite Spirit-inspired speech. In Acts 13 a sorcerer named Elymas starts meddling in Paul’s ministry and it says, “Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness…” and Paul goes on to smite the sorcerer with blindness.

So, yes of course, there are times when one speaks through a New Testament, supernatural enabling of the Holy Spirit that is not tongues-speech. 

But notice this one important observation—in all of these cases of this non-tongue talking, Spirit-enabled speech to whom is it directed to? —OTHERS. 

This non-tongues, others oriented, Spirit-inspired speech is not prayer because it is not directed or intended for God, therefore it cannot be “prayer in/with Spirit”.  Rather this type of Spirit-speech is prophecy.

If you speak the mind, will, and intentions of the Lord by divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit to others you are prophesying. And for prophesying to be coherent so that others can benefit from it, it must be spoken in the native language of the person spoken too. 

Having an “Ah-ha!” moment yet? 

Let’s look the first two verses of I Corinthians 14 again:

“Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries“.

Here Paul is talking about using spiritual gifts specifically in the context of a church assembly or meeting. He rightly instructs the Corinthians that when addressing the church in assembly one should strive to prophesy instead of speaking in tongues. Why? Well, in the very next sentence he gave his reasoning —For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries“.

Words of prophecy, then, are genuine, Spirit-inspired words spoken in the speaker’s native tongue so that the mind can understand, while the gift of tongues is unintelligible, Spirit-inspired speech that no one can understand because that speech is not directed to human beings but to God Himself. That is exactly why in verses 13-15 Paul uses speaking in tongues and prayer in the Spirit synonymously—because tongues are intimate communion and prayer with God directly. Speaking forth to others (prophecy) and speaking to God (prayer) are different actions. 

When we arrive at Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:17-18 he does not tell them to prophesy—to speak to one another for the purpose of edification. Rather in this passage he tells them to pray together, which means to talk to God directly, and when they do this they ought to pray together in the spirit—which Paul has already qualified in I Corinthians 14 that prayer in the spirit is prayer in the supernatural gift of tongues.  

ADDED BONUS

And just as an extra bonus in case you missed it, I saved maybe the best part for last.

As we saw earlier, the only difference in wording between our two passages were the Greek prepositions used: Ephesians 6:17-18 uses ἐν, which most English Bibles translate as in (“praying at all times in the Spirit”), and in I Corinthians 14:13-15 where most English Bibles add in the preposition with (I will pray with the spirit) due to the Greek definite article ὁ inflected as τῷ.

All this to say, some folks make much ado about the difference between with/in and say that since the two passages do not match exactly in the English translations there is no compelling evidence to believe that Paul is referring to the same tongues-prayer found in I Corinthians 14:13-15 as when he calls the church to be praying at all times in the Spirit in Ephesians.

Yes, we do find places in scripture where one iota does make a HUGH difference (Galatians 3:15-16 for example), so hats off to those folks for examining the scripture with such scrutiny. But hold your horses for just one second and prepare to get your mind blown. 

The ἐν in Ephesians can and is translated in other places as with. If the translators did this it would make the English text in post passages EXACTLY the same, making my argument nearly undisputable. But unfortunately for me, almost every English Bible translates Ephesians 6:17-18 as in, and not with—bummer! So, that makes my job a little harder because I currently cannot find any historical support for translating the Ephesians passage any differently than in. But as you may have overlooked it when we just read the I Corinthians 14:1-2 passage, there is historical support in English translations for tongues-speech to be referred to in the exact same way as Ephesians with the preposition in.

Here is I Corinthians 14:1-2, for the third time, but this time I’ll put the evidence in bold:

“Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries”.

There it is, sitting there plain as day. For those who need the preposition “in” for proof, there you have it.

But how does this further prove my case? 

I already showed earlier that Paul uses speaking and praying in the Spirit interchangeably; as he does so in I Corinthians 14:13-15. And in this I Corinthians 14:1-2 passage, which is indisputably talking about tongues, Paul simply uses speaks in the spirit instead of prays in the spirit. Therefore, let’s reword this passage accordingly without altering Paul’s intended meaning, “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he prays mysteries“.

Praying “in the Spirit” as referring to tongues was actually in there all along! We just didn’t see it at first because it was masked by Paul’s interchangeable word speaks. And for the historical support, nearly every English translation adds the preposition “in”, just as “in” is found in Ephesians 6:17-18. And since later in verses 13-15 the preposition with is used to refer to the Spirit-enabling gift of tongues, we now have two valid ways in which we can describe praying in the gift of tongues—”praying in the Spirit” and “praying with the Spirit”. (This also sheds light on firm exegesis for Jude 20, “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,“. 

It is now indisputable to assert that whether you are praying in the Spirit, or praying with the Spirit, you are doing the same exact thing—you are praying to God via the supernatural gift of tongues-speech.

My friends, I rest my case.  

P.S.: The revered Dr. Gordon Fee (1934-2022) strikes a more conciliatory tone exegeting this passage in his book, “God’s Empowering Presence” on pages 730-731. He doesn’t go as far as me to say that Ephesians 6:17-18 is only speaking in reference to tongues-speech, but he does back up my position that given the content of I Corinthians that Paul is most likely referring to, but not exclusively, tongues-speech. 

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT TOGETHER?

One last objection that folks enjoy raising is that if what I’m saying is true, then how do I explain Paul’s instructions in I Corinthians 14 that tongues-prayer should ONLY be done when it is interpreted and ONLY by yourself, not together as the Ephesians passage suggests doing as a corporate activity. For insights on that very topic you can take a look at my blog from 2022, Praying in Tongues Together: Allowed or Disallowed?.   

One small bit that I will throw in here now is that a style of corporate prayer wherein everyone prays out loud with their own individual petitions to God among everyone else’s individual petitions has a name—concert prayer. This is a widely accepted form of prayer in other countries, especially in some Korean churches where some Americans have come back from those experiences and now use the term Korean prayer in place of concert prayer to express the same action. Many American Pentecostal churches today and those going as far back as far as 1906 and the Azusa Street Revival practice this form of prayer regularly. Concert prayer “in the spirit” can be a beautiful, powerful, and unifying experience among the faithful and it’s something that my immediate family and church family do regularly with much joy. Nothing flies off the rails, unity isn’t disrupted, and order is kept.     

ORIGINATION

Let me tell you what sparked the creation of this blog post. A dear friend of mine, a Charismatic Spirit-filled, tongue-talking and artfully gifted young man recently took a public position that this passage is not referring to the gift of tongues but to getting into and praying in agreement with the Kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit. I later pressed Him on why he took this position. One of the reasons he cited was that, “would [not] our brothers and sisters who have not the gift [of tongues] be stripped of a vital form of armor?…I decided to remain sensitive to all and chose to present praying in the Spirit that brings our hearts and minds to a point of submission to the Spirit.” 

I have no objections with the heart behind the approach. But would it not be better to empower those who have not yet entered into the realm of tongues-speech and enable them to utilize this supernatural armor rather than to water this passage down to the degree that it further dissuades them from pressing into the charismatic/prophetic realm and receive the wonderful gift of tongues? Wouldn’t it be better to teach, encourage and help someone receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the ability to pray in the Spirit rather than to teach that one only need to operate in their own human ability, in the power of their mind, to generate this “in the Spirit” prayer? Sure, it might make for some uncomfortable moments with non-tongues talkers, but the exegesis is solid, and I would not characterize the life that God has called us to live on this earth as a life of never being challenged. God wants to press us, stretch us, grow us, and bend us. God help us if we ever come to the place where we would rather live and preach “comfortability in the Spirit”.   

*As always, I’d love to hear what’s on your mind so please drop your thoughts in the comment section below!