"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

-         Ephesians 6:18

 The Greek word for "supplication" is DEESIS, which on the surface simply implies asking as an earnest entreaty or petition. The root word is "supple." A word we understand to mean, to yield, become pliable, something that is easy to bend; in other words, it involves being adaptable to different conditions or circumstances.  In most cases, this is the thought that we have taken when it came to interpreting the meaning of "supplication." We have said it means to ask in prayer or to make an earnest plea.

However, upon further study into the Greek, we discover something much more revealing.  First of all, the Greek word DEESIS   comes from DEOMAI, which means to pray, beseech, or to make request. But the root word for DEOMAI is DEO, which is a word used in Matthew chapter sixteen when Jesus told his disciples: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). Here, the word DEO has to do with binding something in order for it to be bound. 

When Paul wrote to the church of Ephesus these words: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints," he uses this word DEESIS twice.  The first time he said, "Pray with supplication in the Spirit."  The second time he said, "Watch with supplication for all saints."  How many times have we seen these two word coupled together - to watch and pray?

For us to better understand the idea behind these two words (watch and pray), and how they pertain to supplication, we have to go back to this root word DEO.  The Greek definition breaks this word down to two different thoughts.  The first thought involves binding or fastening something.   The second thought involves prohibiting or forbidding something.  When we are making entreaty to God, the first thing we must learn to do is bind or fasten "ourselves" to the Holy Spirit.  That's why Paul begins by saying, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit."  Every prayer or supplication must begin with our complete and total yieldedness to the Holy Spirit.  This is entirely consistent with everything we know about prayer.  We have to be pliable and adaptable to whatever he wants.  When Paul is talking about our making supplication in the Spirit, his first thought is us tying ourselves to the will of God.  Being "in the Spirit" is all about connecting to what God has on his heart. 

Prayer is not about just praying to pray.  We have to learn what it means to pray, and we have to learn the protocol that goes with prayer.   "All" prayer must be accomplished in the Spirit. Yes, there is the language of the Holy Spirit provided for us to pray, but praying in the Spirit involves much more than just your prayer language.  It involves connecting with the mind of the Spirit, being in agreement with what he wants and how he wants it done.  Paul said "in all prayer" or "every kind of prayer" because that is our first and foremost responsibility.  We must learn to connect to the Spirit of prayer!  Once this is done, then we can become much more engaged in our effort to watch with all perseverance and supplication for the saints.

In discovering how supplication is to be made, we learn that it is a process of getting us prepared spiritually so that we can become most effective in attending to things needed within the body.  We begin by yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit and fastening our hearts to the will of God. Then we put ourselves in a much stronger position to make supplication for all saints.  A better way of saying it might be that we are in a stronger position to prohibit whatever outside influence or interference the enemy is seeking to do against the saints.

        See, our first obligation in making supplication is we have to bind ourselves to the Spirit, and then we follow him into whatever area of prayer that needs to be made in disarming the enemy.  Whatever the needs are within the body, we have the right to use the keys of the kingdom to shut down the strategies of hell that are conducted in the heavenlies.  Our right to enforce the will of God on earth is all summed up in our willingness to bend with the Spirit as he maneuvers us in prayer.