PT-7 "The Spirit's Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/7/2019 7:59 AM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  PT-7 “The Spirit’s Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 3:14-16

            Message of the verses:  “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

            We read about the English man Julian Ellis Morris in our last SD, and the story that was told about him illustrated that we as believers are not to be spending a part of our day in apparent poverty like he did, but we are to be living a life of victory because of the richness that God has given to us because we are His child.  Now the first step in living like God’s children is to be “strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”  I suppose that it is true that many believers never get to that first step, as they do not know what it is to see God’s power fully at work in them.  If believers suffer, then that means the church suffers and that means that the world will also suffer too because most believers are never “strengthened with power through His Spirit.” 

            As we have studied the book of Acts and other letters that Paul wrote we know that he healed many people, especially during the first part of his ministry, and we also learned that he had a deep concern for the hungry church at Jerusalem as seen by the collections that he made to help feed them which is recorded in the book of Acts along with written about in the 15^th chapter of his letter to the Romans.  This proves that Paul cared about the outer man, but the outer man is perishing each day, and so Paul’s real concern was for the inner man.  “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).”  “

            John MacArthur writes “In The Psychological Society Martin Gross questions the very foundations of psychology and psychiatry, suggesting that prestige and financial gain are the real driving forces behind them.  Even more significantly, however, he asserts that psychology and psychiatry have no answers to the mental and emotional ills they are used to treat.  His conclusion is that every person is incurably neurotic by nature and should be left alone with his neurosis.  From the purely human standpoint from which he writes, Gross’s pessimistic conclusion is perfectly sound, because man’s basic nature is indeed universally and incurably flawed.  But the flaw is sin, of which neuroses and all other problems are but symptoms.  The flaw is in the inner man, where man himself cannot perform a cure.”

            So what is the cure for the inner man?  “Only God can reach an cure the ‘inner man,’ and that is where He most wants to work.  His work begins with salvation, and after that His main field of work is still the ‘inner man,’ because that is where spiritual life exists and where it must grow.  The ‘divine nature,’ imparted to the believer at salvation (1 Pet. 1:3), is at the core of the ‘inner man’ and is the base from which the Holy Spirit changes the thinking of the believer.”

            As we have looked at the outer man is becoming weaker, and yet the inner man can continue to become stronger through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Jesus told His disciples right before He went back to heaven “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”  In the verse before this one the disciples were worrying about when the world was going to end, and when the Lord would return to get them, but Jesus did not answer their question about that but wanted them to focus on doing what He had planned for them to do in order to change the world, and change the world they did as they used that power to change the inner man of many thousands of people whom God then used to do the same through those people that were changed from the message of the apostles, and on it goes. 

            One of the chapters of the Bible that causes me to do much thinking about is the 7^th chapter of Romans.  Let us look at verses 22-23 “22  For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23  but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”  What we see here is Paul expressing the strong desire of a regenerated man to do the will of God, however is hampered by the sin that dwells in his fleshly body.  As we move onto chapter eight we hear Paul express the truth that victory that is in this conflict is in the Holy Spirit.  “5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  Paul is talking about those who cannot please God are not believers, but those who are His children can because we have the new nature that God has given to us, however we must please the Lord by living through the power of the Holy Spirit.  “For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live (V. 13).”  MacArthur writes “In fact, the promise comes that through the power of the Spirit the believer can ‘kill’ the evil deeds of his unredeemed flesh (v. 13).”

            “The obedient, effective, and productive Christian must be Spirit conscious, Spirit filled, and Spirit controlled.”  “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).”

            In our last SD on this subject I want to quote from MacArthur’s commentary to help us better understand how we can have the victory that God desires believers to have through the Holy Spirit’s power working in our lives.  It will be a rather short SD, but one that all of us need to look at more than once to help us to be more like our Lord Jesus Christ.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe “Because we possess this divine nature, we have ‘completely escape’ the defilement and decay in this present evil world.  If we feed the new nature the nourishment of the Word, then we will have little interest in the garbage of the world.  But if we ‘make provision for the flesh’ (Rom. 13:14), our sinful nature will lust after the ‘old sins’ (2 Peter 1:9) and we will disobey God.  Godly living is the result of cultivating the new nature within.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To feed the new nature!

Today’s quote:  “Our strength is seen in the things we stand for; our weakness is seen in the things we fall for.”  (Theodore Epp.)

Scripture that goes along with this quote in our next SD:

2/7/2019 8:55 AM

PT-6 "The Spirits Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/6/2019 8:35 AM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  PT-6 “The Spirits Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 3:14-16

            Message of the verses:  “14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit (NLT).”

            14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, (NASB95).”

            In our last SD we talked a little bit about how when a believer lives out his life in a way that produces “the riches of His glory,” that this means little to the unbelieving world around them, and in our country today may even get them into some kind of trouble, but as believers, we are to make every effort to do this as we study His Word and learn and grow by doing so.  In the Spiritual Diary that I posted on my other blog this morning from 2 Peter there is a quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe that I think goes well with living the Christian life:  “Because we possess this divine nature, we have ‘completely escape’ the defilement and decay in this present evil world.  If we feed the new nature the nourishment of the Word, then we will have little interest in the garbage of the world.  But if we ‘make provision for the flesh’ (Rom. 13:14), our sinful nature will lust after the ‘old sins’ (2 Peter 1:9) and we will disobey God.  Godly living is the result of cultivating the new nature within.”  “For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins (2 Peter 1:9).”

            Since the beginning of this letter Paul has been exulting over those “divine riches” as seen in verses 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” and 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” and 1:4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”  Ephesians 1:9 “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him,” and 1:11 “also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”  John MacArthur writes “The phrase ‘of His glory’ testifies that these riches belong to God because of who He is.  They belong innately to His person, which is to say, His glory (cf. 1:17, where Paul calls God, ‘the Father of glory’ and Ex. 33:18ff. where God reveals His personal attributes as glory).

            “Those, and many others, are the riches that every believer has in Jesus Christ.  Paul is not praying for God to give these riches to believers, but ‘that He would grant’ believers ‘to be strengthened’ by God ‘according to the riches’ they already possess.  He wants them to live lives that correspond to the spiritual wealth they have in Christ.”

            I want to close this SD with a story from MacArthur’s commentary to help us understand that we are to live according to the riches He has given to us:  “A certain rich English eccentric named Julian Ellis Morris like to dress like a tramp and sell razor blades, soap, and shampoo dor-to-door.  After a day’s work he would return to his beautiful mansion, put on formal attire and have his chauffeur drive him to an exclusive restaurant in his limousine.  Sometimes he would catch a flight to Paris and spend the evening there.

            “Many Christians live something like Mr. Morris, spending their day-by-day lives in apparent spiritual poverty and only occasionally enjoying the vast ‘riches of His glory’ that their heavenly Father has given them.  How tragic to go around in the tattered rags of our own inadequacy when we could be living sumptuously in the superabundance of God’s unspeakable riches.”

            We will continue looking at these verses in our next SD, Lord willing.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To live according to “the riches of His glory” takes effort on my part and also I must rely on the Spirit of God to do this.  I realize that God desires me to live this way, for His glory, and not mine.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember the truth of Romans 12:3.

Verse that goes along with yesterday’s quote:  “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is!”  (Proverbs 15:23)

2/6/2019 9:10 AM

PT-5 "The Spirit's Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/5/2019 10:01 AM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  Pt-5 “The Spirit’s Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 3:14-16

            Message of the verses:  “14 ¶ When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.”

            I promised to quote a story concerning Martin Luther in this SD, and will do after we talk a moment about this prayer that Paul includes in verses 14-21, a prayer that is very powerful to say the least.  Paul’s petition for the Ephesians, and thus for all believers was bold, confident, and it was inclusive, as Paul asked God to give believers “every spiritual” enablement that they did not already use to apply their available resources.  As I listened to a sermon by John MacArthur on this section of Scripture he mentioned that he had only preached on these verses once before when he first began his ministry at Grace Church some ten years before he was preaching at this time.  He went on to say that he had preached through these verses many, many times in places he went to preach outside of Grace Church, and the reason was that this prayer is extremely important for all believers to understand.  This prayer is about the things that Paul spoke of in the first three and a half chapters in this letter.  I gave the illustration about a car in an earlier SD, and stated that if a person knew all aspects of a car, but did not get into the car and drive it that it would do them no good.  If believers know all the truths that Paul describes in these first three and a half chapters but do not use them in their walk with the Lord, then it does not do them much good.  So as we continue looking at this prayer we see that Paul is praying that believers will use the doctrine that he taught them at the beginning of this letter.  By doing this it will make a big difference in our walk with the Lord. 

            “In 1540 Luther’s good friend and assistant, Friedrich Myconius, became sick and was expected to die within a short time.  From his bed he wrote a tender farewell letter to Luther.  When Luther received the message, he immediately sent back a reply:  ‘I command thee in the name of God to live because I still have need of thee in the work of reforming the church…The Lord will never let me hear that thou art dead, but will permit thee to survive me.  For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God.’

            “Those words seem harsh and insensitive to modern ears, but God apparently honored the prayer.  Although Myconius had already lost the ability to speak when Luther’s reply came, he soon recovered.  He lived six more years and died two months after Luther.

            “In our daily living and in our prayer, it is more difficult to appreciate spiritual riches than it is to appreciate material riches.  Whether we have a lot of money or not, we have some comprehension of what material wealth is like.  We have a taste of it in the things we do possess and we can vicariously enjoy the expensive homes, cars, boats, jewelry, clothes, and other such things that we see rich people enjoying.  Spiritual riches, on the other hand, are not so obvious—and are not even attractive to the natural man or to disobedient Christians.”

            Now the entire above quote from MacArthur seems to me that we have to understand what he wrote just before he was writing about Luther, something that I am having a bit of trouble understanding, but I think that I need to quote that too.  MacArthur writes “As the rest of the prayer indicates, Paul’s petition for the Ephesians believers was bold, confident, and inclusive.  He asked God to give them every spiritual enablement they did not already use to apply their available resources.  Jacques Ellul, the contemporary Christian philosopher, is convinced that prayer for persons living in the technological age must be combative—and prayer, he says, is not just combat with Satan, corrupted society, and one’s own divided self, but is combat with God.  We must struggle with the Lord just as Jacob did at Peniel (Gen. 32:24-30), as Abraham boldly interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:23-32), and as Moses interceded for his fellow Israelites (Ex. 32:11-13; Num. 14:13-19).”  I really hope that this helps us understand more about the way that Paul was praying for the Ephesians, and thus praying for us.  I mentioned that the Lord answered a prayer for my son in finding a job, and as I look back at the way I prayed for him it goes along with what we are learning about prayer in this SD, about how Luther prayed for his friend, and how Jacob wanted a blessing from the Lord, and how Abraham prayed for Sodom, knowing that his nephew Lot was living there, and then the two times Moses interceded with God over the children of Israel.  Moses knew God, he knew about His attributes and so that is how he prayed for the children of Israel by talking to God about his attributes.  I think that this is a good way to pray, for if we know the Lord and know Him by knowing His attributes then we can be more effective in our prayer life.

            This section is a very long section in John MacArthur’s commentary, and as I continue to look at it and as I have listened to his sermon on this section I can understand why he is so passionate about this prayer that Paul prayed, for if we believers understand this then we will be able to do better things to glorify the Lord.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I realize that there are many things that I don’t know about praying to the Lord.  I know that one of the main things in praying is having my will lined up with the Lord’s will and in order for me to do a better job at this I need to study His Word.

My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord to make my prayer life more effective and to glorify the Lord.

Today’s quote:  “Words are things; and a small drop of ink falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think (Lord Byron).”

Verse that goes with this quote in our next SD.

2/5/2019 11:01 AM

PT-4 "The Spirit's Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/4/2019 9:57 AM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  PT-4 “The Spirits Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 3:14-16

            Message of the verses:  “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

            In our last SD we began looking at verse sixteen and now we want to continue commenting on this verse. 

           

            Let us focus in on something that once you think about for a bit will become something that will be difficult to actually understand.  In verse sixteen we read from the NLT “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.”  Notice the highlighted part, especially “unlimited resources.”  If a person with a great deal of money would give to a charity $25.00 they would be given it out of their wealth, but if a millionaire gave say, $25,000 then they would be giving it according to His wealth.  Now For God to give according to His unlimited resources is absolutely staggering, because His unlimited wealth are limitless, they are completely without bounds!  But that is exactly what this verse says that is it is exactly the measure by which Paul implores God to empower to the Ephesians.  Like I said this is mind boggling.

            John MacArthur writes “Almost every prayer of Paul’s that is recorded in Scripture was for the spiritual welfare of others.  Even when he was persecuted, imprisoned, and in need of many things for his own welfare, he prayed primarily for fellow believers that they might be spiritually protected and strengthened.  Even when he prayed for himself it was most often for the purpose of being better able to serve his Lord and the Lord’s people.  Later in this letter the apostle asked the Ephesians to ‘pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel’ (6:19).”

            Philippians 1:9-10 is another example of Paul’s prayer along these lines “9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10  so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.”  Next we look at Colossians 1:9-11 “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously.”  [Being powered with all power is what this literally means.]  There are others to look at like Phil. 1:4 and also 1 Thessalonians 1:2.

            John MacArthur adds “Prayer is to be a constant effort of our daily living.  Jesus said, ‘Keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength’ (Luke 21:36).  Paul often mentioned that he prayed continually for others (Eph. 1:16; Phil 1:4; Col. 1:3, 9) and repeatedly encouraged others to do the same (Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col 4:2; cf. Phil. 4:6).  At least two of Jesus’ parables focus on persistent prayer—the parable of the man who knocks on his neighbor’s door at midnight asking for food to give an unexpected guest (Luke 11:5-10) and the parable of the importunate widow who eventually obtained help from a wicked judge because she refused to stop petitioning him (Luke 18:1-8).”

            In our next SD I want to quote a story from MacArthur’s commentary about a friend of Luther, as we continue looking at this wonderful prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians, and in turn prayed for us too, that is all true believers in Jesus Christ.

            Spiritual meaning for my life:  Praying is a big part of my walk with the Lord as I have a prayer list that in some places stays the same, and in other places on it continues to change.  My son has really not been happy in any of the jobs that he has had since he graduated from college.  There have been three jobs for him, and I could tell that he was not really happy in the one he had and it saddened me greatly.  I prayed as specific prayer for him for the last couple of months as I knew that only God could put David in a job that he would be satisfied in.  I talked to him on Friday and he told me that he had gotten another job and once he told me about the job it was exactly what I had been praying about.  God is so good, as He knew that my heart was breaking over the fact that my son was not happy in his job and led me to pray for him so that He would find the exact job that He had for him to take.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to pray and to realize that God through His Spirit has given me great power in my spiritual walk with the Lord.

Scripture that goes with yesterdays quote:  Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

2/4/2019 10:38 AM

PT-3 "The Spirits Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/3/2019 4:53 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “The Spirits Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 3:14-16

            Message of the verses:  “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”

            We finished looking at verse fourteen in our last SD and want to begin to look at verse fifteen today.  When I look at verse fifteen in the NLT it reads “the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.”  I think this makes it easier by looking at the NLT to see that Paul is not teaching that God is the spiritual “Father” of every being in the universe.  God created Adam and Eve and from them comes all people who have ever been born, but that by no means that all people are spiritual children of God, this teaches universal fatherhood of God when it is stated that God is the spiritual father of all people, and that is not true.  If that were true then why would Christ need to come to pay for sins?  The Bible teaches that one must be born from above, and that is done by admitting that you were born a sinner, and that you sin because you were born a sinner, and that you can do nothing on your own to have your sins forgiven.  Paul writes in Romans chapter one that “no one seeks after God.”  God has to seek after us in order for us to be saved by grace through faith.  In the eight chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus told the unbelieving Pharisees “If you are Abraham’s children, doo the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.  You are doing the deeds of your father…If God were your Father, you would love Me;…You are of your father the devil” (VV. 39-42, 44).  John 3:10 states “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious:  anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother’ (3:10).  By these verses it reinforces that truth that God is not the spiritual Father of everyone.

            John MacArthur writes “Every family in heaven and on earth’ refers to the saints of every age—those now ‘in heaven and those still remaining on earth.’  They are the only ones who legitimately derive their names from God the Father.  Christians are no more or less the children of God than were believing Israelites, as well as believing Gentiles, before the coming of Christ.  ‘Every family’ of believers is a part of the one spiritual family of God, in which there are many members but only one ‘Father’ and on brotherhood.”

            As we look at verse sixteen we see the first request that Paul prays for these believers, and not only those in Ephesus but those who are believers throughout the church history.  “16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

Today’s Quote:  “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of Giants (Isaac Newton).”

2/3/2019 5:17 PM

PT-2 "The Spirits Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/2/2019 9:51 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “The Spirit’s Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 3:14-16

            Message of the verses: “14  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

            We ended our last SD by talking about it not being totally necessary to get on your knees in order to pray to the Lord, and stated that there were also reasons why we should do this, and so we will look at this as we begin our SD for today.

            Why would we want to “bow your knees” to the Father in order to pray?  “In the Scripture bowing the knees signifies several things that may have prompted Paul to mention that position here.  First, it represents an attitude of submission, or recognition that one is in the presences of someone who is of much higher rank, dignity, and authority.  After proclaiming the Lord as ‘the rock of our salvation,…a great God, and a great King above all gods,’ and as the Creator of all the earth, the psalmist says, ‘Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker’ (Ps. 95:1-6).” 

2/2/2019 10:04 AM

2/2/2019 11:31 AM

            I tried to look up the word “bow” as to how many times it is used in the Bible and I found 95 times it was used, but the problem is that many times it was talking about the rainbow.  God was appalled and heartbroken over hearing of the intermarriage of the Israelites to their foreign neighbors as seen in the book of Ezra and we read in 9:5-6 the following “5 But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the LORD my God; 6  and I said, "O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.”   I wonder how many people have become this upset over their sins or the sins of the nation that they live in.  I believe that all believers should be like Ezra in our country as we look at the continued mass murders of unborn children, and it is getting worse every day.  Let us look at another verse “Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously (Daniel 6:10).”  This verse is speaking of what Daniel did even though he knew that he could be signing his death warrant if he bowed his knees to pray to God.  One more from Acts 20:36 “When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.”  This was when Paul was to leave Ephesus for the last time as he was on his way to Jerusalem where he would be arrested and put in jail.

            John MacArthur writes “As he prayed for the Ephesians while writing this letter to them, the apostle felt led to ‘bow’ [his] ‘knees before the Father’ on their behalf, not because that position or any other is especially sacred, but because it spontaneously reflected his reverence for God’s glory in the midst of his passionate prayer.”

Verse that goes along with yesterday’s quote:  “You will keep Him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You (Isaiah 26:3).”

2/2/2019 11:49 AM

PT-1 "The Spirits Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/1/2019 10:37 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “The Spirit’s Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 3:14-16

            Message of the verses:  “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

            I have to say that this section “The Spirit’s Power” will take many days to go through. 

            We mentioned earlier that when we began the third chapter of Ephesians that Paul was starting to pray for the Ephesian believers, but then may have had second thoughts and so as we begin verse fourteen with the words “For this reason” we can see that Paul picks up where he started in 3:1 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-.”  Notice that there is a dash after the word Gentiles indication that what came after verse one was a parenthesis as Paul then went back to what he was talking about in chapter two.  It is because of all the things that Paul discussed in chapter two, showing that our new identity makes us the dwelling place of God that Paul prays for the Ephesians to use the power that their great status in Christ provide for them.  MacArthur writes “Because God’s power is in those believers; Paul prays that God would enable them to employ the fullness of that power.  Because believers are the habitation of the triune, all-powerful God of the universe, Paul prays that their unlimited energy from Him would be manifested.”   

            Remember that we mentioned that in Paul’s letters he begins with doctrine and then after he takes time to explain doctrine that he goes on to talk about how believers should use that doctrine in their lives, and beginning in 3:14 Paul is showing us how to use the doctrine that he taught us in the first three and a half chapters, and he begins explain this to us by praying for us.

            MacArthur writes “The truth that omnipotence dwells within impotence is so majestic, grandiose, and elevated that we would expect Paul to address God as the eternal King of glory or by some other such exalted title.  But he says rather, ‘I bow my knees before the Father.’  ‘Father’ is the same appellation Jesus always used in prayer, and the one He used in teaching His disciples to pray (Matt. 6:9).”  Paul addressed God in “Ro 8:15  For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"  The following comes from my English/Greek dictionary from the word “Abba” “1) father, customary title used of God in prayer. Whenever it occurs in the New Testament it has the Greek interpretation joined to it, that is apparently to be explained by the fact that the Chaldee ABBA through frequent use in prayer, gradually acquired the nature of a most sacred proper name, to which the Greek speaking Jews added the name from their own tongue. {Mr 14:36 Ro 8:15 Ga. 4:6}.”  It is because of Christ’s death on the cross that those who have accepted His forgiveness that we can pray to God the Father using this word “Abba” which, form what I understand is like using the word “Papa,” a term used for a loving father.

            We see that Paul writes “I bow my knees” in verse fourteen, and Paul is not saying that this is the proper way to pray to God, as Paul did not always pray in this position of kneeling.  Let us look at some verses that show us we do not always need to be kneeling to pray.  “while Abraham was still standing before the LORD (Genesis 18:22b).”  When David was praying about the building of the temple he “went in and sat before the Lord’ (1 Chron. 17:16).  Jesus fell on His face praying in the Garden of Gethsemane as seen in Matthew 26:39.”

            In our next SD we will begin to look at a couple of reasons why Paul used this term “bow my knees.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is good to be reminded that I can come to my heavenly Father in prayer, knowing that as long as my heart is clean that He will always answer me, and if my heart is holding some kind of sin in it and I desire to ask forgiveness, then He will surely hear me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to study my verse for this year (Romans 12:3), and to continue to rely on God’s truth and now so much my emotions.

Quote for today:  “Surrender…is the key that unlocks the vault of God’s best and deepest treasures” (Chuck Swindoll).

We will look at the verse that goes along with this quote in our next SD.

2/1/2019 11:17 AM