Paul’s Prayer: Grasp the Hope & Power of God – Live Each Day in Christ, part 2
Did you know that God’s wisdom and power are available to you? This message offers hope, encouragement, and instruction to leave the past behind, overcome bondage, and cultivate the power of Christ in your life. Plus, learn three important truths every believer should know.
This series asks and answers life questions such as: Who am I? How do I get past my past and embrace my future? How can I have peace? Learn how to live in Christ every day and in the hope you have in Christ, both now in the present and in the future. As a believer, God is with you, and your past is forgiven. God chose to love you and extend his grace to you in Christ. It is my hope that you are spiritually encouraged. No matter what you are facing, living in Christ, you can face anything, even death. God has a plan for your life. He loves you and you can trust him.
Hope, Wisdom, & Revelation Are Available to You
We saw last week how the apostle Paul wanted the believers in Ephesus to realize who they were in Christ. Paul wanted the believers to know that their past did not need to define who they were moving forward once they placed their faith in Christ.
Do not let your past haunt you. You are no longer that person.
Paul wanted to communicate to the believer the following:
God is with you, and you are never alone.
Your past is forgiven.
God sent his Son to pay the debt of sin that you could never pay yourself.
He loves you, chose you and predestined you in Christ even before the creation of the world.
Before you did and wrong, he chose you.
Knowing you would sin, he chose you.
Paul emphasized that God chose to love you, the believer, and extend his grace to you and everyone who are in Christ. Paul is encouraging the believer to live in Christ every day and in the hope that every believer has in Christ for both now in the present and in the future for all eternity. Do not allow your past, negative thinking, worldly feelings, or what others might say about you haunt you or dictate how you should live or the life choices you make. Rather make every decision in life based on who you are in Christ.
Paul lived each day in Christ and he wanted every believer to do the same. Paul’s newfound faith took him down some difficult roads in life. However, Paul knew he could trust God and he recognized that God had a plan.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV).
I shared last week that Paul would have known the words of Jeremiah very well. As I said last week, this word of Jeremiah was to the Jew, and it was a promise for the Israelites to be delivered from the captivity of other nations. Yet I believe it is also a promise for today and to whosoever will believe and call on the name of the Lord. Look at the next few verses of Jeremiah 29:
‘Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”’ (Jeremiah 29:12-14).
As a Christian you are no longer a slave to sin. You are set free in Christ. Pray and seek the Lord with all your heart and he will deliver you from whatever bondage you are in. He can and will deliver you from addictions, from evil, and from the curse of sin.
“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness”
“21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:17-18, 21-23).
Paul understood this truth and he wanted every believer, including you, to know this truth in your heart.
Paul, wrote this letter to the Ephesian believers referring to them as God’s holy people, the faithful in Christ Jesus. Paul viewed the believer as holy, as set apart and faithful in Christ. Paul expanded his greeting, telling the believers that grace and peace with God was theirs, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:2).
Grace is an unmerited, undeserved favor that is shown to a person. Grace is different from mercy. Mercy is withholding a punishment that is deserved, whereas grace is extending favor that is undeserved. The grace that God extends to the believer is totally undeserved by them and results in peace. Understand: the grace of God brings with it peace with God and the peace of God. Paul wanted to make sure that the reader understands that such grace and peace only come from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I shared last time, Paul is speaking from personal experience. If God extends his grace to Paul (the worst of sinners), God will extend grace to you.
Paul wanted you, the believer, to know:
You are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
You are chosen in Christ.
You are loved, predestined adopted as sons and daughters.
That in Christ you have redemption through his blood.
God extended grace to you.
God made known the mystery of his will which he purposed in Christ.
You can have the peace of God in your heart.
Your life will bring glory to God as you live each day in Christ.
We learned last week that Paul made this known to the believers in the beginning of his letter. Now, we see that Paul is praying for the believers. In Paul’s prayer he thanks God for the believers’ faithfulness and asks God to give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, resulting in a greater knowledge in knowing Christ better, and spiritual strength for both the present and future.
“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:15-23).
Paul prayed that the believer would be given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the express purpose of knowing Christ better. Just because the believers in Ephesus had placed their faith in Christ Paul did not stop his concern for them. Paul did not see his work as being finished. Paul was aware of the ungodly influences in the city and the world, and he did not want the believers to fall prey to false teaching. Paul wanted the believers to grow spiritually in Christ. Paul prayed that God send them the Holy Spirit and that he would give the believers both wisdom and revelation regarding living in Christ Jesus.
Regarding living a Godly lifestyle: Paul was concerned about discipling the believers and giving them all they needed to live a spiritually victorious life in Christ. To live a spiritually victorious life in Christ the believer will need to know right from wrong. Good from evil. Godly way of life from an ungodly lifestyle.
The word for wisdom in this verse has a meaning of knowing the deep things of God. Paul was praying that God would give the believer the Spirit of wisdom, giving the believer a deeper wisdom and understanding regarding the things of God. The deeper wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit helping guide the believer in the deep truth of God. Deeper spiritual wisdom will help the believer to know how to live and guard their heart from selfish, evil, and worldly desires.
We find that the Spirit imparts both wisdom and revelation regarding the eternal truths of God so the believer might avoid making wrong choices and one day find themselves at odds with God.
The revelation that Paul prays for the believer to receive comes by the Holy Spirit and is to reveal and make known the spiritual truths of God so that the believer would better make known Christ to be their Lord and savior and to live a life of obedience. Obedience to the truths of God only comes from knowing the truth of God in the person’s heart. So many people in the world today are spiritually deaf and blind regarding the truth of God. They may know about Jesus, but their spiritual eyes blinded and their ears are deaf to the truth regarding Jesus. Oh, the person might know the truth about God, but the truth of God has not penetrated the person’s spiritually hard heart. The person can have the head knowledge regarding God but still not live according to that knowledge. Knowing the truth and living according to that knowledge are two different things. Paul desired that the believer to not just know the truth but to have the spiritual understanding regarding Jesus and to live as a child of God. Paul wanted the believer to know in their hearts the grace, love, and power of God that is available to them in Christ. That’s why Paul prays that the believers’ eyes of their hearts may be open and enlightened so that they know and live their lives in Christ.
Paul desired the believer to know three important truths:
The hope to which God had called them.
The riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints.
And God’s incomparably great power for us who believe.
In other words, Paul wanted the believer to know God has called them and the hope of eternal life in Christ. That the believer has a glorious inheritance in Christ and will one day be with Christ in glory. That the believer knows and understands the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that is available to every believer to live with Christ in glory. Paul then proclaims the authority of Christ, having been raised from the dead. Paul then proclaims that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. The fact that Jesus is seated means that the work of salvation is complete. Nothing else needs to be accomplished regarding salvation.
Paul wanted to make it clear to the believer that Jesus is above all rule and authority, every power, and dominion and that Jesus’ name is above every name and God has placed all things under his feet. In all this Paul gives thanks to God Almighty. Paul knew if the believers in Ephesus were to live a victorious life in Christ, they needed the Holy Spirit and they needed to know in their hearts the power and authority of Christ Jesus. They needed the spiritual wisdom and revelation of God to know how the Lord would have them respond in every situation they faced.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).
We need that same wisdom and revelation today. We need to know and understand the power of God and have the hope of God in our hearts no matter what we might face.
The world’s hope is in worldly ideas: money, self, and empty promises. The nonbeliever has no hope in death. The believer, the person in Christ, has hope both in the present and in the future.
“Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. 6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:5-8).
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:22-30).
Paul wanted the believer to know and experience the hope in Christ, the wisdom of God, and to know Jesus in a way that—no matter what came their way—the believer knew that in Christ Jesus everything would work out according to his will. The person of faith only needed to have faith and live every day in Christ. Paul’s passion was the to see the person in Christ be victorious and God receive all the glory. The passion of Paul’s heart for the believer is seen in the final verses of Ephesians 1.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:18-23).
That same hope, wisdom, and revelation is available to you. The knowledge regarding Jesus having paid the debt of sin, the knowledge and hope of eternal Life in Christ.
Luke 10 speaks to the authority the believer has in Christ the Lord.
“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:19-20).
Revelation 12 speaks of the day that Christ overcomes the enemy of your soul. The authority of Christ brings total victory. This is the hope we all have in Christ.
‘Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!”’ (Revelation 12:10-12).
I want you to be encouraged in Christ. I want you to know the hope you have in Christ. Know as you live in Christ every day you are never alone; God sent the promised Holy Spirit and you are marked in him who is a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory (see Ephesians 1:13-14).
“Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Timothy 1:14).
Guard your heart and mind. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Live every day in Christ. Pray in the Spirit and know that the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead will raise you in Christ and you will be with Christ in glory to the praise and glory of God Almighty.
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