Section 7
recorded in Ephesians 6:17-18: "Receive…the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the Word of God." It is the Spirit that is the Word of God. Then verse 18 continues: "By means of all prayer and petition." The verses then together are: "Re ceive…the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and peti tion." In what way are we to take the Word of God according to this passage? It is by means of all prayer and petition. This is what we call pray- reading! Again, we must repeat—the Word of God must be taken by means of all prayer.
HOW TO PRAY-READ
Simply pick up the Word and pray-read a few verses in the morning and in the evening. There is no need for you to exercise your mind in order to squeeze out some utterance, and it is unnecessary to think over what you read. Just pray with the same words you read. On every page and in every verse there is a living prayer.
There is no need to close your eyes when you are pray-reading. Keep your eyes on the Word as you pray. In all sixty-six books of the Bible, we cannot find one verse which says that we must close our eyes to pray, but there is a verse telling us that Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, saying,