The Necessary Prayer That Builds The Church

Let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, and we'll read from verses 15 till 23. “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe.

“These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time, Lord,

that you have given us, Lord, this great privilege to come together as your people. And Lord, as we come before your word, as we meditate, as we look, Lord, we pray, God, for the ministry of your Spirit in our lives. Oh God, we pray that you would enlighten our hearts so that, Lord, we would know you more, Lord, that our Lord and our lives, oh Father God, would be grounded, it would be rooted in the foundation of your word. Oh Father, build us up, Lord. Father, we pray that you would be glorified in our midst. In Jesus Christ's name we pray.

Amen. The title for today's sermon is The Necessary Prayer That Builds the Church. The Necessary Prayer That Builds the Church. One of the major setbacks in today's Christianity or Christendom is that the neglect of prayer. And Christian leaders and believers alike are no neglect prayer. Christians pray, but what do our prayers look like? If you examine your own prayer life this past week, how was your prayer life? What was the content of your prayers?

And we have our list and say, sometimes say some hurried prayers. And it is generally perceived, and this is common among all the Christians across this globe, and it is generally perceived that prayers are often neglected by the people of God. Yes, people pray. They pray when there are problems, when there are trials.

And when we pray, and most of our prayers are selfish. It is for ourselves. So that our lives would get better in this world. But we learn that from a man called Paul, as we've been studying this epistle, that he prayed and he often prayed for others and he prayed out of joy and prayed unceasingly. Prayers, we must understand, are so vital for the health of the church. You know, theological understanding is essential, but prayers are even more essential. Without prayer, we cannot breathe the life of a faith in God.

We cannot exercise our faith in God. We must learn to pray and we must learn to pray rightly. What do I mean rightly? We must learn to pray according to God's will. And when I say according to God's will, it's not seeking God's will for my life, it is something we pray on the basis of things that he has already revealed. We must learn to pray according to God's will and his word, and we should plead with God to let the Spirit of God work according to the truths of the Scriptures. And how do you think that we grow in Christian life and character?

If you look at your own life, are you really satisfied with the progress in your Christian life? Are you really content with the love that you have for your God who redeemed you? How do you think that we grow, progress? How do you think that our faith grows stronger even in midst of trials, in midst of unfavorable circumstances? How do you think that our faith goes stronger? It's not just by teaching, it's not just understanding the great theological truths, it's not just having in our mind that our God is sovereign and is in control. No, that's not enough.

These truths are the basis, but we must also grow by seeking those truths in earnest prayers. And why do you think this man, Paul, is bothered to pray even from a prison cell? He was in prison and he's still praying. When he heard the news of these Ephesian believers, he started praying for them. Why do you think that he was bothered to pray for them? Because he knew that prayers are so important, so vital for the maturity of God's people.

Prayer was essential to Paul. You know, you look at verses 15 to 23 of this chapter. They are sandwiched between two passages. The first passage, we see that from chapter 1, verses 1 to 14, where Paul highlights our eternal blessings in Christ Jesus. And in chapter 2, we see that Paul conveys how grace enables dead people to live in this world as God's people. And this particular passage that we read shows how the Holy Spirit makes these gospel truths understandable and also empowering us to be devoted to God. Unless God, unless God empowers

us we God. Verses 15 to 23 is not a prayer, but Paul reports on his prayers for the recipients, and he aids them in gaining a deeper understanding of God himself and his redemptive gifts, and also the power which is at work in the lives of his people. We can see two aspects here and this passage. Number one is the basis of Paul’s prayer, or we can say the basis of prayer. And the secondly, we see that the content of prayer. Number one, the basis of prayer. In verse 15, Paul starts with this phrase, “for this reason.” You know, this is usually a connector, and when something

is inferred from the previous passage or previous section. And in this passage, these prayers are connected to the realities that he had mentioned in verses 3 to 14. And the basis of his prayers is the spiritual realities of believers in Christ Jesus. Now Paul was sure that these blessings now belong to the Ephesian believers or the church. And what factors led him to consider the genuineness of their faith? If you look there, he says, because he heard of the evidence of their salvation. How was their salvation evidenced here? See there in verse 15, “the faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all saints.” The faith in Lord Jesus and your love for all saints, and this is the birthmark of all true believers. It is not enough to claim that you have faith in Christ Jesus. It’s not enough to

claim that you have faith in Christ’s redemptive work. The evidence that we have faith in Christ’s sacrifice is that the faith in Christ will soon be demonstrated horizontally. All true believers will have a vertical dimension of faith, that is faith in the Lord and his saving work, and they will soon have horizontal dimension of love for all of God’s people, no matter their ethnic or social background. There will be love, a genuine love for all people. And when we think of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, it means that we are saved. It means that there is salvation only in the person and

in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we know that we all have sinned against God. Every thought of our hearts is evil and all our good deeds are displeasing to God. We, by nature, deserve God’s anger, his punishment. And God is so holy that he cannot tolerate any sin, any violation of his will. But at the same time, we see that God is so gracious, so righteous that, you know, and we see that he cannot spare the sinner. And at the same time, we also learn that God loves us. And because he loved us, he devised a plan for our salvation to save us.

And that plan is Jesus Christ. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world through a virgin woman to identify with human race. So he could bring a solution to our greatest problem. And that greatest problem is sin. He lived a righteous life. He fulfilled the law of God. He pleased God perfectly.

And Jesus, we see that Jesus is free from all sin. And he alone was eligible to pay for our sins. And God laid our sins upon him, upon the Lord Jesus Christ, on that cross. And on that cross he took our punishment for our sins, and God poured out his wrath upon Jesus Christ. He crushed him for our sins. He died in our place. He shed his blood for the remission of our sins. Thus Jesus satisfied God’s anger, his justice, by suffering in our place. He died and he rose again on the third day. And Jesus on that cross, through his work on our behalf, he defeated sin and death, and he destroyed the power of the enemy. And whoever believes in Jesus and his saving

will be saved, will be saved, and will be granted the eternal life, the gift of eternal life. And God will — whoever believes in the person and his saving work, in the person of Jesus and his saving work, God will save such people from the power of sin and the corruption of sin. And he will give them a new life, new nature, and they can have fellowship with God now, and they will be with God forever. This is what it is to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by our faith in the person and his saving work on our behalf.

And at the same time, we see that true believers will demonstrate growth in both dimensions, that is faith in Christ and also love for all believers. May I remind you that loving other others or loving one another is a commandment from God. It is a commandment from God. It is not an option. I’m not saying that it is easy. It is not an option. Paul didn’t say we can love only few believers, right?

He says, “all saints.” The question is not whether you’re comfortable with everyone. We ought to love all of God’s people. This is the grace that God gives, right, and it could be complicated. We may struggle, but we must at the same time bring our struggles through the cross to the Lord and receive the grace from him to love all people equally. How is your love for your fellow brothers and sisters? You know, John 15 verse 12, our Lord said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.” And he says, this is my commandment.

This is the commandment from the Lord, that we love one another. And we must evidence these two elements, faith and love, continuously. This is only possible when you are part of the church. You cannot be a lone ranger and exhibit love for your fellow brothers and sisters. That’s not God’s design for his people. We need to be committed to one particular local where we can practice our faith and love with one another.

And being a Sunday Christian also doesn’t help. We need to have healthy, meaningful relationships with one another. When there are frictions in a relationship, then we will know whether we can love other brothers and sisters. And when there’s friction, when you see your incapability to love your fellow brother, and plead, “Oh God, fill me with love so that I can love this difficult brother, difficult sister.”

Only when relationships grow, being a Sunday Christian doesn’t help. You should make, build intentional relationships with all of God’s people. And when Paul, here we see that when Paul was convinced of these two elements, that is faith in Christ and love for saints, when he had heard of this evidence, he began praying for them in these lines mentioned in verses 15 to 23. When he had seen, when he had heard of the evidence, yes, these people are truly believers, then he started praying for them. And this prayer is so important for the maturity, for their maturity. And such prayer is only efficacious in the lives of God’s people.

You cannot pray for everyone. You can only pray these prayers for the truly redeemed people of God. And Paul says, “For this reason, I too, having heard.” Four years after he left Ephesus. And he was in a prison cell when he heard about the faith of these people, that they are growing, that they are maturing, that they are evidencing their faith in Christ. And he decided to pray for them. And when the word reached him that they were still in the faith and they were loving other believers, he thanked God for them.

Another peculiar aspect of Paul’s prayer is constancy. He continuously prayed for them. It’s not like he prayed once. No, he was praying for them. He was praying for all the saints. Verse 16, he says, “No, I do not cease giving thanks for you.”

Paul believed that the spiritual growth of God’s people was wholly, is wholly, dependent on God, who gives generously to his people when they call upon him in prayer. Therefore, he’s committed to pray unceasingly. May I ask you, how’s your prayer life? How was your prayer life this past week?

And if you prayed, what was the content of your prayer? How often do you pray according to God’s will? How often do you pray for other believers? How often do we join others to pray? You know, we would be willing to skip these important church meetings, prayer meetings I’m talking about. No, even if you have slight headache, cold or cough. But this man was in a prison cell, knowing the importance of prayer, and he prays. And this is one of the pieces of evidences of a love for others. And what is that evidence? The evidence is that we pray for others. And it

must have been encouraging and humbling for these Ephesian believers to know that this apostle of Christ who was suffering in prison and he was constantly thanking God for them and he was praying for them. And it should also challenge us. Will we pray like this for others even when circumstances aren’t comfortable for us? I think we would even forget to pray for ourselves when situations are uncomfortable, right? That is the basis of Paul’s prayer. Secondly, the content of prayer.

Verse 17. It says, “to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.” This was the content of Paul’s prayer. In this text, as I mentioned earlier also, that Father is addressed as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remind that this doesn’t mean that Jesus is any less than the Father. This is only said in the context of his humanity and the word Christ, whenever you see or read the word Christ in the Bible, it is always in reference to his humanity, right? And this verse expresses the exclusive human mediation of Christ Jesus as the only way to God. Okay? And here the Father, you see that the Father is described as the Father of glory. Now which is, which can be rightly translated as the glorious Father. How much do you know of your God? If I ask you, how much do you know about your God?

What would you say? Yes, God is so loving. He’s so gracious. He forgave my sins. He forgave my sins. He hears my prayers. That’s it. Here it says that He is the Father of glory. He is the glorious Father. God is full of glory and splendor. And what do we mean by that? You know, God has definitely demonstrated his glorious attributes of grace and mercy in our redemption.

But that’s not it. There’s more. All of God’s attributes are glorious. They’re unique. God only has those attributes. No other creator in this world possesses those attributes. God’s glory are His perfections and they exclusively belong to Him alone. God’s attributes are His glorious perfections, and God’s glory is the manifestation of His glorious attributes, His perfections. It is a manifestation of His holiness. You see this picture in Isaiah chapter 6, right, where the heavenly hosts stand in the presence of the Lord God Almighty, and they cry out, what? “Holy,

holy, the Lord God Almighty.” You know, what do you mean by that? They are witnessing the glorious perfections of the Lord, and they were an awestruck of God. And they couldn’t stop themselves from singing this beautiful song called “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Only God is holy.

And Paul says that he is the Father of glory. You know, in other words, Paul is praying that we might have insight into the glorious attributes of God. Into the glory of God. So that as we as redeemed people, we need to be captivated by the glory of God.

And Paul prays that God may give wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. You know, the object of this knowledge is God Himself, and we have access to this knowledge of God in and through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a prayer for more profound illumination into the person of God, into the knowledge of God. And this happens in the realm of for human spirits, our inner man. And in other words, it is a prayer to know God more. It is a prayer to know God better. You know, we begin to know God when we encounter the gospel.

And that’s the beginning. That’s the beginning. And we shouldn’t stop there. Knowing God should become our daily pursuit. And we know and we need to keep growing in the knowledge of God. And even eternity isn’t sufficient for us to fully grasp the glory of God. And we see that this happens in two ways: study and prayer. We need to pray as Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers. And this is a — this is a sad state of Christianity today. We put much efforts in our professional lives to know things, to upgrade our skills, to stay in the market and to get well-paid jobs, which is necessary, I’m not against it, but there are superficial efforts in the pursuit on

in the pursuit of knowing God we settle for the superficial knowledge of God, and we don’t go deeper. No wonder we are easily depressed, discouraged, disappointed. You know why that happens? Because everything is in direct relationship with our knowledge of God. Because we are not pursuing God. Because we are not knowing God. We are not drawing, we are not being drawn closer to Him. We are not being awakened to the glorious nature of our God.

That’s the reason we are easily depressed. We easily give up. We easily are disappointed. We easily get frustrated. You know, see this man. He was in a prison cell, maybe awaiting a death sentence, but he still prays because he knows that there is great wealth in the pursuit of God.

You know, J.I. Packer says in his book, he says, “We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business for those who do not know God.”

And he goes on to say, “Disregard the study of God and you sentence yourselves to stumble and blunder through life blindfold, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way,” he says, “you can waste your life and lose your soul. Our aim in knowing and studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better.

Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.” Dear brothers and sisters, the reason that we live defeated, aimless, purposeless Christian lives, we may be doing well in our professional front but as Christians we would fail if you are not growing deeper in our knowledge of God. Everything is related to that. And Paul prays, and we should pray, that we would be gripped and captivated by these realities in Christ Jesus. Every morning when you wake up, you the thing that you need to, you and I need to do is look get onto our knees, get onto our knees and cry, “God, help me know you better. Draw

me closer to you, help me see your glory, your wonderful things from your word. Do you think that you know God better? The more we get to know God, the more we get to know God, the more we want to know Him better.

The reason that we are not in a pursuit of God is because somewhere, somewhere, we have become passive in pursuing God. Because the point is, as we get to know God, we will want to know Him more. That’s the beauty of God’s glory.

We will be singing with those heavenly hosts, saying, “Holy, holy!” Yes, I see this, I see this, that God is so beautiful, so glorious, so marvelous. And our greatest need is to know God in his glory. And when was the last time, when was the last time you knelt in the presence of the Lord and cried to him, cried out to him, “Oh God, I want to know you, I want to know you, I by your glory”? When was the last time you prayed that prayer? Everything depends on that. And this is very important for our lives. Yes, there are problems in your lives

there are struggles in your lives, maybe there is too much load in your life, but this is what that makes you stand, fight, persevere. And this is very important truth now we must understand: unreasonable expectations. You know what are the unreasonable expectations as believers? You think that as soon as you know God there will be no problems in your lives. That is an unreasonable expectation.

And when there are problems and problems, we get disappointed. And instead of seeking God, we get disappointed with God. We get angry at God. May I tell you that God may not alter your circumstances in your life. He may not alter them. Our life situations may not change. Your difficult husband may not change. Your difficult wife may not change. Your children may bring grief to you. Your financial situation may not get any better. Your suffering or your sickness may not go.

I’m not saying that God cannot do that. He may do that, but he may not do that also. May not alter these life situations, but he may alter how you live in those situations. As you pray and study God, you will see that God is trustworthy. You will learn that God is all sufficient.

You will learn that in midst of your pain and suffering, you will learn that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Paul prayed, “Lord, I’m suffering. Will you please take away this bond?” He said, “My grace is sufficient.” And Paul was joyful in that. Yes, it’s great that his grace is sufficient for him to persevere even in those trials. See, his problems didn’t go. We’re saying, he says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” Are these not believers? Were they not awakened by the gospel?

You know, every time that we know God or get to know God, we need the work of God in a heart. We cannot understand God with our natural minds. It’s not our ability, it’s not our capability, it’s not, it’s not about our intellect, it’s about the work of God. And Paul prays for it, prays that we may be enlightened. No, we need to learn to pray for each other that the eyes of our inner man may be enlightened by God’s spirit through his word with such deep affection for God. Now as believers we

need not be discouraged, we need not be discouraged in, you know, whatever life situation, because we have access to this supernatural knowledge of God. The Spirit of God is at work. As we pray and study God’s Word in whatever life situation that you are in, he works in us to grow in wisdom, to learn how to live rightly and to live in a manner that is pleasing in his sight and pleasing, live a life pleasing in God’s universe.

The reason that we get quickly disappointed in life circumstances is that we do not know God better. So my brother, my sister, do not betray your prayers to seek him exclusively. Our prayers should be designed in such a way. Yes, there should be a time where we bring our petitions to him, our problems to him, our pains to him, our sufferings to him, our disappointments to him. Yes, there should be a time. But there should be a time where we exclusively seek him.

You can spend days and days, you can fast and pray for your problems. No, God may be merciful to you in those problems, but we will not grow in our knowledge of him. The next time you have problem, we are disappointed. And Paul's prayer is that as God's people are enlightened by the knowledge of God. Now they will grasp some of the life-altering truths. And what are those truths? Verse 18, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know,” you will know what is the hope of his calling.

Number one, the things that we grasp and we should be grasped with is the hope of his calling. What is the calling here? You know, we are already called by God by the glorious gospel. And this calling is effective because God chose us before the foundations of this world. And Paul is praying that we will know the significance of that calling. We will know the significance of God's sovereign choice.

We will know the hope of this saving work. We are called to this one hope. This hope is not some wishful thinking. This is our destiny which God has promised. If you look at 1 John 3 verse 2, 1 John chapter 3 verse 2, it says that, “Beloved, now we are the children of God. It has not appeared as yet what we will be.” It says, “we know that we will be like him when he appears, because we shall see him just as he is.”

We know that we are saved. But what we are saved for? What is the hope of a salvation? No? John says, we will be like him. Romans 8:29 says, “For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son,” to be conformed to the image of his son. Ephesians 5:27 says, “he might present to himself the church in all our glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but he that, but that he should be holy and blameless.”

This is the hope of a calling. We need to be gripped by this truth that we will be like him, we will be conformed into the image of his son, and we'll be holy and blameless before him, and God is working towards that end.

God saved you and put you here, your lives better, not to make our lives free from problems. If you're expecting that, we'll be disappointed. Not to be free from sicknesses and trials. God's big goal is that we become like his son. You know what that means, to be like his son? Do you know the glory of Lord Jesus Christ? You know, it's perfection. He alone is holy and blameless. He never sinned. Do you, do you ever know, you know what is not to sin?

And God says. The Bible says that. We will be in that state. One day. Free from sin. Completely. And we will enter. Into that state. Where we will not know. What is to sin. And that is the hope of a calling. God is working there.

working for that. So Paul's false prayer is that we get to know God better. And as our eyes are enlightened in the knowledge of him, no, we will be awakened to this hope to which we are called. As we are gripped with this reality in Christ, we will live with that perspective, with that perspective, in whatever life situation we are in, for the glory of God. Your problems might be bigger, your suffering might be greater, but whatever life situation you are in, we must be pursuing God. We must be gripped by this glorious truths, no, which gives us a perspective to live to

endure, to trust in those situations. And number two, verse 18, the last part, he says, “what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” Now what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? In His saints?

Now several English versions attach glory as an adjective to the inheritance. If you use an NIV or ESV, it says that “the riches of His glorious inheritance.” And in this text, glory is not an attribute, or it's not an—in the sense like, it's not an adjective, but it is a noun. And the noun here is in a Greek case called genitive case, which shows possession. And I think the reading of the NASB is right.

Because it says that the glory of his inheritance. It’s not glorious inheritance. And Paul says his inheritance, his inheritance. You know, you should not forget the pronoun there, little pronoun, his. He’s not talking about our inheritance. He’s talking about his inheritance. Paul is praying that we would know God’s inheritance. His inheritance. In other words, we are God’s inheritance.

His inheritance is in the saints. God possesses his people. You know, God is the owner of this entire creation. Everything belongs to Him. Everything belongs to Him. He made everything. But His word says, by the virtue of His redemption, God has inherited us.

He didn't say the world is my inheritance, the heavens are my inheritance, the earth is my inheritance. No, he said you, you who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, who are marked off by the blood of Jesus Christ, who are sealed now by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption, you are my inheritance. You, I possess. You are my possession.

And Paul prays that we would grasp this rich privilege of the saints. Paul prays that this wealth of the saints is that we belong to God. And Paul prays that we would be grasped by this reality. That we are his people. And he prays that we must fully grasp what we are to him. And how precious we are to him.

Get rid of all the self-pity thoughts. No one loves me. No one cares for me. Boy, God loves you. God knows you. You are precious to him. The king of this universe loves you. He has set his heart upon you. He says, you are my possession.

I purchased you by the sacrifice of my son. You are mine, he says. He is working on you. He is making you better. He has put His Spirit in you. He is working round the clock in your troubled situations, in your trying situations. He has not given up on you. He is working. And we complain. God, you’re precious to him. Me,

worthless me? Yes, we. And this is the value that God has placed on us because of Christ, and in Christ we have this privilege. No one may recognize this privilege now. Your friends may despise you. Your family members may hate you. No one may recognize the worth that God has placed on you. But there will come a day, the Bible says, Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 19, he says is that God, there will come a day where God will reveal the sons of God to the creation. There will come a time where God will openly declare the adoption of his sons, of his

children. He will declare to the entire creation, “These are the ones whom I possess. These are my children. These are my inheritance. I possess them.” God is going to present the church, the beautiful bride of Christ, to the world and say, will say that, “This is my possession.” So let us live like God’s children in this world, as people possessed by God. You know, when will that become a dominating factor in our hearts? As and when we honestly pray. Our prayer will not alter the fact that we are possessed by God. Our prayers will change us, will help us perceive

that reality of who we are in Christ and live with that perspective in this world. It will change us. It will help us to become better God-glorifying Christians in this world. And finally, Paul speaks about the surpassing great power. Verse 19 and 20, he says that, “And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe?”

“These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places.” And Paul also prays for something else here.

We also should be awakened to the power that is at work in us. We can understand that God is omnipotent. He can do anything. Just look at the universe that he had created. It all shows God's awesome power. Paul uses a superlative phrase here. He says that surpassing greatness of his power.

Now to show us the greatness of his power, Paul uses three more synonyms of power. Of the strength of his might. No, he said, he uses this word work, strength and might. All are saying the same things. Paul uses the these different words to describe God's omnipotence which is at work in the lives of God's people. Now Paul, Paul is asking, is not asking us to pray, no, pray for this power us. Paul is asking us to pray so we would be awakened to this power which is already at work in us. We must remember that this extraordinary power is at work in those who believe. And Paul's prayer is that we

would be awakened to this power of God which is at work in us. In verse 20, Paul reassures that God has already demonstrated such a kind of power. How? By raising Christ Jesus from the dead. Not only that, he says, by seating him at his, at the right hand of the majesty in the heavenly places. That power, and now we belong to him. So Christ's resurrection guarantees our resurrection, our place in eternity. And verse 21 onwards we see there, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. He put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” You see that

Christ's messianic reign was initiated at the Father's right hand. He reigns supreme over all powers, all evil, and nothing can stand before him. And he will bring every other power to an end. And after the resurrection, Jesus exercises the same omnipotent power. The point here is that the same omnipotent power is at work in the lives of his people.

The same omnipotent work is at work by the Spirit of God. We see that in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16, where he says that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with the power through his Spirit in the inner man.

Yes, there is an aspect where God is at work in us and there is also another aspect where we seek for that demonstration of his power in our lives. He is intensely at work in all of God's people through the Spirit of God. He blesses us daily with his grace to know him better. He sanctifies us. He enables us with the gifts to be useful for his kingdom. And all of his power is at work to gather the saints. And he

And he will persevere them until we stand blameless before the throne of Christ. Considering this, nothing can ever separate us from the Lord and his promises. Our trials in this world will only amount to our sanctification. Never stop seeking the Lord because there are trials in your life, because there is difficulty in your life, because that is the lifeline. As believers we must be awakened, gripped by these truths. We must be convinced that his hope fashions our life here, our actions and motives. Our life here must flow out of this conviction that we have hope, inheritance and power which is at work in us.

And the same power which raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to the supreme power of authority over all evil and powers, the same power is at work in us. And it is crucial to pray for these things. Paul saw this as a necessary aspect of believers' sanctification and usefulness. Should we not pray along the same lines as Paul?

Should this not be the content of our prayers daily? So let us, brothers and sisters, pray for ourselves and all the saints that we would increasingly be convinced of our hope in our inheritance and power and that we would know God better and better daily. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your mercies in our lives. Thank you, Lord Father, for saving us. Thank you, Father, for making us your possession. We ask you, Lord, at this time as your people, please enlighten our hearts. Pray, Father, that you bless us with the spirit of wisdom and revelation into the knowledge of you, O God.

May our hearts and our minds be illuminated daily to know you better. And so that Lord and we would our hearts should be continuously be enlightened to the hope of your calling and also the truth that you possess us and also to the truth that your power is at work in us. Pray, Father, we pray that you would alter the way that we live in this world in the midst of our trials, sufferings, and disappointments in this world. We pray that you would give us your grace. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.