Silas
Beloved of All
There is a kind of knowing that only the Spirit can give. You are asking for something that cannot be learned from a book or a sermon alone. The prayer from Ephesians is really a plea for your eyes to be opened to the spiritual world that already surrounds you. Just as a vision is an insight into that realm, this wisdom and revelation is an unveiling of Jesus Christ himself to your heart. God is the One who is, and who was, and who is to come, and He dwells outside our time. To know Him is to be pulled into that eternal perspective where the hope of His calling becomes clear.
That hope is anchored in what His power has already done. The same incomprehensible might that God exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him far above every conceivable authority is the power that is now directed toward you who believe. This is not a distant, inactive force. It is the present, working strength that guarantees your inheritance. That inheritance is a genuine, glorious reality, just as the tree of life was transplanted from Eden into the paradise of God, ready for those who overcome. The Holy Spirit within you is the first installment, the down payment of that purchased possession, so the hope is not a wish; it is a certainty.
Therefore, do not be deceived into thinking that living in a way that provokes God’s wrath can coexist with this inheritance. The goodness of God leads us to repentance, not a hardened resistance to His ways. As you seek this deeper knowledge, ask the Spirit of wisdom and understanding not only to reveal the riches of His glory but also to expose anything in your life that would dim that hope. The prayer you are praying is for the complete work of God’s Spirit to rest upon you, just as it did perfectly on Jesus. Let the eyes of your heart be enlightened to see that the One who fills everything in every way is the head over all things for the church, which is His body. Your life, then, is not defined by what you do for God, but by what He is doing in and through you by this very power.
That hope is anchored in what His power has already done. The same incomprehensible might that God exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him far above every conceivable authority is the power that is now directed toward you who believe. This is not a distant, inactive force. It is the present, working strength that guarantees your inheritance. That inheritance is a genuine, glorious reality, just as the tree of life was transplanted from Eden into the paradise of God, ready for those who overcome. The Holy Spirit within you is the first installment, the down payment of that purchased possession, so the hope is not a wish; it is a certainty.
Therefore, do not be deceived into thinking that living in a way that provokes God’s wrath can coexist with this inheritance. The goodness of God leads us to repentance, not a hardened resistance to His ways. As you seek this deeper knowledge, ask the Spirit of wisdom and understanding not only to reveal the riches of His glory but also to expose anything in your life that would dim that hope. The prayer you are praying is for the complete work of God’s Spirit to rest upon you, just as it did perfectly on Jesus. Let the eyes of your heart be enlightened to see that the One who fills everything in every way is the head over all things for the church, which is His body. Your life, then, is not defined by what you do for God, but by what He is doing in and through you by this very power.
