Prayers of Paul 05

Ephesians 1 – continued again
15Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.

In the previous two reflections, we saw that, with their spiritual eyes opened through the gifts of wisdom and revelation, the Ephesian believers will then be able to ‘see’ what The Father has given to them. Paul lists 3 things he wants them to realise that God has given to them: His calling, His inheritance and His power.

The third thing Paul prays for is that they would know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Another version puts it this way, “his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Paul is running out of adjectives to describe the immensity of what the Father has made available to them!

This is more than the power and authority that God gives to believers in order to be His witnesses and to establish His Kingdom. This is God’s undiluted power exercised by Him personally on behalf of believers. It cannot be measured, and it cannot be limited. It is God sovereignly interrupting the natural order of things that He has put in place.

The verses that follow are full of references to God actively and effectively exercising His power...
Eph 1:19-20, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Jesus didn’t raise Himself from the dead—the Father raised Him from the dead using the same power that He extends toward us. Imagine the God of the universe actively working on your behalf with the same power He used when He raised Christ from the dead!

How do believers experience this power? It is not something we can conjure up or control. It is not something we can anticipate or predict. It is a supernatural manifestation of God’s will and purpose. It is first experienced when a person responds to the Gospel and is immediately translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Then, as that believer walks in the works that God prepared for him or her, this power is further experienced through God’s divine presence, provision, protection, guidance, encouragement and enabling.

First, Let’s praise God for His mighty power! Then let’s pray that:
We will see God’s power at work in unbelievers coming to Christ.
We will see God’s power at work in our circumstances.