Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer from Ephesians 3 is beautiful and it goes to the very center of what God desires to do in every believer. That passage gathers up the great mystery that God has chosen to gather all things together in Christ, and that He has made a way to actually dwell in you by His Spirit through Jesus. Your body becomes His temple, and Christ in you is your hope of glory. It is a wonder that even angels marvel at.
I join you in that prayer, that according to the riches of His glory you would be strengthened with power and might by His Spirit in the inner person. We need that inner strength, because the enemy is strong and constantly puts temptation before us, and we do not have strength in ourselves to stand. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the inner man can we stand and walk in victory. Jesus promised that you would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and that is the only power by which we can live as His witnesses and live the life He calls us to live.
I pray also that Christ may be at home in your heart through faith, that you would be rooted and grounded in love. God wants His love to take deep root in you and to flow out from your life. His love is what the Spirit perfects in us as we yield to Him and are filled with Him. You can know His Spirit is at work when your life begins to bear that fruit, a genuine love for God and for His people, a love that confesses Jesus Christ as the Son of God come in the flesh. That love is not something we manufacture. Before Christ our spirit was dead, and the world does not know this kind of self giving love. It is the evidence that God dwells in us and we in Him.
I pray that you may be able to comprehend with all those God has made holy what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. That love is beyond our understanding. He who was in the form of God emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. That is the measure of His love for you.
And I pray that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The heavens of heavens cannot contain Him, how much less any building made by hands, and yet He offers to fill you with Himself. That is His desire, that you would be so filled with Him that there is no room left for the flesh or for the old life. You have not yet attained that fullness, and He is still at work in you, still building and shaping areas of your life, but He who began that work will bring you into the fullness you have in Christ, for you are complete in Him in whom all the fullness of God dwells.
Remember there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and that same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to you. You belong to Him. You are not your own, you were bought with a price, and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of your inheritance. Do not grieve Him, but walk in fellowship with Him, led by Him, with His witness in your spirit that you are a child of God and an heir with Christ.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever. What you have asked is great, but He is able to do far more than even that, by the power of His Spirit within you. May you know His peace and joy as you walk after the Spirit, and may He give you real victory in areas where you have struggled, so that you see it is nothing but the power of Christ dwelling in you.
I join you in that prayer, that according to the riches of His glory you would be strengthened with power and might by His Spirit in the inner person. We need that inner strength, because the enemy is strong and constantly puts temptation before us, and we do not have strength in ourselves to stand. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the inner man can we stand and walk in victory. Jesus promised that you would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and that is the only power by which we can live as His witnesses and live the life He calls us to live.
I pray also that Christ may be at home in your heart through faith, that you would be rooted and grounded in love. God wants His love to take deep root in you and to flow out from your life. His love is what the Spirit perfects in us as we yield to Him and are filled with Him. You can know His Spirit is at work when your life begins to bear that fruit, a genuine love for God and for His people, a love that confesses Jesus Christ as the Son of God come in the flesh. That love is not something we manufacture. Before Christ our spirit was dead, and the world does not know this kind of self giving love. It is the evidence that God dwells in us and we in Him.
I pray that you may be able to comprehend with all those God has made holy what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. That love is beyond our understanding. He who was in the form of God emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. That is the measure of His love for you.
And I pray that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The heavens of heavens cannot contain Him, how much less any building made by hands, and yet He offers to fill you with Himself. That is His desire, that you would be so filled with Him that there is no room left for the flesh or for the old life. You have not yet attained that fullness, and He is still at work in you, still building and shaping areas of your life, but He who began that work will bring you into the fullness you have in Christ, for you are complete in Him in whom all the fullness of God dwells.
Remember there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and that same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to you. You belong to Him. You are not your own, you were bought with a price, and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of your inheritance. Do not grieve Him, but walk in fellowship with Him, led by Him, with His witness in your spirit that you are a child of God and an heir with Christ.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever. What you have asked is great, but He is able to do far more than even that, by the power of His Spirit within you. May you know His peace and joy as you walk after the Spirit, and may He give you real victory in areas where you have struggled, so that you see it is nothing but the power of Christ dwelling in you.
