8/30/2022 • Desk of Dennis Piller
The Spirit of Power – Do you know it…Do you want it?
We have this wonderful prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul says, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God”.
Are you seeing this? Paul is praying to God for us,…
“that the spirit of power would strengthen us with Might!”
Let’s say it another way, the exceeding greatness of God‘s power is to be the unceasing experience in our inner life!
Look closer and see the expression, that he would grant you according to “the riches of His glory”.
When was the last time that we thought about God’s glory and his inconceivable riches? Let alone them filling our hearts?
How can you have something that you never think about or talk about or even dream about? Paul is saying that “In Faith” that we should expect that God will do nothing less for us than His standard of the riches of that glory!
What does that mean? He means to shine that glory into our hearts and manifest the riches of his power and what he does there within us.
Paul is saying in this prayer that we can have this! Have you ever prayed that prayer for yourself? Have you ever prayed that the Lord would open up your eyes to His standard of faith? Paul states that God WILL DO within us according to the riches of His glory!
This is to be our expectation: that he would grant you…me.. each of us… to be strengthened with might by the spirit in the inner man. The Holy Spirit is indeed the mighty power of God. So as the “Spirit of wisdom”, he reveals the exceeding greatness of God’s power that lifted Christ on the cross to the throne.
So do we have a part here? Have we studied to show ourselves approved before God? 2 Tim 2:15 Have we asked him to teach us to see him…. to desire him …and BELIEVE in… the exceeding greatness of God’s power.. in us?
How often have we heard in his word God calling his servants to be strong and of good courage? God chooses the weak things of this world; but when they are truly weak… he wants them to be strong in faith and strong in the power of HIS might. He wants to equip us with the strength of will, ready to do all that God says, with the strength of character he empowered within you to be bold for any sacrifice!
Listen to this revelation that Paul gives us. In this prayer, the savior comes nearer; the spirit reveals himself dwelling within us and gives the consciousness of his unceasing and all-powerful presence.
This is not something you can pick up through a drive-in window. This is a prize above every prize. A value and worth beyond the price of any pearl or diamond!
Just as God maintains the life of our bodies by supporting the heart and its action. So the Holy Spirit, His Almighty power, strengthens our inward man day by day to enable us to live a spiritual life in spirit and truth.
That is God’s reality. Christ dwelling in our hearts is meant to be our strength.
Let’s look at the second promise in the scripture. It relates to the indwelling of Christ, “we are rooted and grounded in love”. He wants us to comprehend a piece of his reality in the joy of the love of Christ that surpasses human knowledge… Whoa, what exactly does that mean? These are “the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8) He goes on to say, being filled with “the fullness of God – the spirit of power filling our inner man. The presence of Christ himself filling our hearts… Imagine the fullness of God extending into the depths of our personalities.”
And then look at what Paul says, “now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be the glory… through all ages”. Eph 3:20 We are told to have FAITH in the promise of what the Father of glory will do in us, according to the riches of His glory. And by His Spirit, he will teach us to worship in deep prostration,
Paul is daring every one of us to declare… what he has asked for out of the riches of God‘s glory – the strengthening with divine power… the continual indwelling of Christ in the heart. Can you stop and imagine such a rooting and love as to know the love of Christ which exceeds human understanding, and so to be filled with ALL the fullness of God?
And too many would say it is too much to think about or to ask God for. But that is not what Paul has said. It is not what God has said. Paul is saying the same measure of that exceeding greatness of God‘s power that was done in his life… is within our grasp. He was saying God is ready to do in anyone who would give themself unreservedly in heart and life to Jesus.
Listen to what he says again.: “Now unto Him, that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,… by Christ Jesus world without end amen”.
Kent Henry Flow through me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoNdo_PHDLE
Excerpts are taken heavily from Andrew Murray’s book.. The Believers Call to Commitment
