PAUL'S PRAYER FOR THE EPHESIANS - PART 4

THURSDAY 26 JANUARY 2023

Let us be certain that, if we keep ourselves in the love of Christ, and continue in the grace of God, we will function by the revelation of the fullness of God, which will dwell in us richly. Let's find out more!

Reference: Ephesians 3:18-19 New Living Translation (NLT) "And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God."

Paul's prayer goes like this: 1. Power for adequate spiritual understanding of the dimensions 2. Richest experiential knowledge of it, leading to 3. Completeness and totality of Supreme Deity within.

As you keep comprehending the width, length, height and depth of Christ's love, with all the saints (God's people), you'll keep experiencing its amazing, endless and unconditional character, through the Spirit. Since the love of Christ far surpasses mere knowledge, we come to practically know and grow in it by personal determination and experience. And I shared about the manifold ways we experience it in part 3, noting the Scripture, 1st Corinthians 5:14-15, which reads, "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (ESV).

If this love controls us, it means that we've submitted ourselves to it. Actually, this control denotes an earnest submission to the Lordship of Jesus and obedient response to His teachings. To that effect, in John 14:23 (NIV), "Jesus noted, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." Now watch this: We are to acknowledge that apostle Paul's prayer is exactly in accordance with this very Scripture and purpose. When you submit to the influence of Christ's love by responding to and acting on His Word, you'll begin to understand, experience and grow in it. Our referenced Scripture noted that in the continual process, you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. No wonder Jesus said: My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Got it? You will be filled up throughout your being, with all the fullness of God; in a nutshell, you'll be completely flooded with the entirety of God and Christ (Supreme Deity).

Oh, how I love Jesus' expression: "My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." Imagine that for a moment! Remember Paul was praying for such wholeness of encounter for the saints, not unbelievers. According to the prayer, with firm reliance on Christ's love for everything, leading to experiential knowledge of it, your spiritual understanding becomes an open door and the door is nothing of itself, but when it is opened, it admits and receives the fullness of sovereign guests, which implies - to be made complete with the totality of Supreme Deity within. In essence, this truth reveals that simply being born again does not automatically grant us access to the measure of all the fullness of God; there should be an accurate understanding and provable evidence of your walk with God - based on "tried and true" knowledge of Christ's love. This empirical evidence welcomes the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Therefore, apostle Paul prays that we grasp and possess this kind of experiential knowledge gained from an effective Christian life. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - John 1:16; Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:9-10; 1 John 4 :9-10.

Guided Prayer: Gracious God, may your fullness flood through my entire being, as I continually receive the power to understand the love of Christ, which is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep. May the ongoing life's experience of this love surpass and overwhelm every other thing I experience in life, such that it will take root in my heart and become the bedrock of my intimate relationship with you, in Jesus' Name, Amen!