Things that need power don’t operate at their fullest potential when they aren’t connected to a power source. What happens when something is disconnected from a power source? In a house, the lights go off and you live in darkness. On a construction site, production ceases. A car’s engine stops running when the battery is dead. The same is true with people.
When I’m running on empty I find myself looking for love in all the wrong places. I find it hard to love people around me. I search for happiness in momentary pleasures, which rob me of true joy. I live in a state of anxiety instead of peace. I snap at people and my words reflect a hurried and mean tone rather than a patient and kind tone. I begin to entertain sinful thoughts instead of thoughts that are full of the goodness of God. I become inconsistent instead of faithful. I become harsh and demeaning instead of gentle. I live in a perpetual state of chaos instead of Spirit-lead self-control. Have you ever experienced this?
When the gauges of my heart run in the red like this, I know that my heart is not connected to a life-giving power source. It’s like the lights go off and I live in darkness. Production of godly character inside my heart stops. The engine of my soul stops running in the right direction. Have you ever experienced this?
One author says that, “the love that motivates us is the power that drives us.” When the love within me is corrupted then the power that drives me will produce corruption. When what you love is rotten then the fruit of your life will be rotten. What we need is to be connected to a life-giving power source. We need to pray that our Heavenly Father would help us to believe in his power and fill us with his power and help us to live from the deep reservoir of his power. That’s exactly what Paul prays for in our passage today.
Ephesians 3:14 – 21…
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in Heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Last week in verses 14 – 15 we learned that your posture in prayer is rooted in the reasons you pray and the person you pray to. When Paul prays he prays because he wants the Ephesians to catch a vision of who they are in Christ. He also wants them to know the same Father he is praying to. It can be easy to fall into despair when you realize that you have an identity crisis. It can be easy to get stuck trying to force yourself into the image of who God says you are. But the problem is deeper than our identity issues.
At the root of the problem we struggle with believing that God actually loves us. We find it hard to believe that he looks upon us with joy. We struggle to believe that he’s peaceful when he walks into the room. It’s hard to believe that he’s actually patient with us. Sometimes we believe he’s unkind. Sometimes we believe he isn’t good. Or we mistakenly believe he hasn’t been faithful to us. Why would God be gentle with us? And it seems easier to believe that God would loose his control if he walked into the room. Our identity crisis is rooted in our unbelief of God’s identity.
Hasn’t this always been Satan’s aim? Isn’t this what Satan ultimately wanted in the garden? Isn’t that why he questioned Eve regarding what God had really said? Doesn’t this sound familiar to you? Satan will spend a little time getting you to question and doubt yourself but Satan’s end game has less to do with you and far more to do with God. Satan isn’t at war with you per se. Satan is at war with the God that lives inside of you if you belong to God. It’s God’s glory that Satan wants to steal not yours.
So if Satan can convince you that God isn’t a loving God he wins. If Satan can convince you that God isn’t a joyful God, or a peaceful God, or a patient God, or a kind God, or a good God, or a trustworthy God, or a gentle God or a God who isn’t in control then he wins. If Satan can keep you in the dark regarding the nature of who God is, and what God has done, and what he is doing, and what he will do for you, then Satan wins. You’ll live your life in the dark. You’ll live your life in low-production mode. You’ll live your life in weak mode. You’ll live your life without power. You’ll live a fruitless life.
But God hasn’t left you alone there. In verse 16 Paul prays to the Father of Heaven and Earth so “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” Paul knows that the Ephesians will face their own weakness. He knows they will struggle with being weak in the face of persecution; weak in the face of their struggle with sin; weak when they feel their faith failing; weak when faced with temptation; weak when their identity is tested; weak when they are questioned about who God is; weak when tested with unbelief about what God has done and will do.
The Ephesian believers were no different than us. They were human too. They would question their identity in Christ. They would struggle to believe whether God is as good or as powerful or as loving as they thought he was. And because of this struggle to believe in who God is they would struggle with temptation and sin. What the Ephesians needed was to be connected to true power through their belief in who God really is. But what do we mean when we say that our power comes from God?
#1. Your power comes from the riches of God’s glory
Paul prays that you and I would receive power “according to the riches of God’s glory.” The riches of God’s glory will never run out. The riches of God’s glory are unlimited. They are endless. But how do you make the riches of God’s glory seem tangible in such a way that it empowers you to live with endurance? The riches of my life are a tangible substance. Walk into my home and you can taste, touch and see the riches of my life. Go to my bank account and pull out every penny and you will be holding the tangible riches of my life in your hands. Look at the pictures of my wife and children or meet them in person and you will experience the tangible presence of the most valuable riches of my life this side of Heaven.
But how do I translate the unlimited riches of God’s glory into something tangible that gives me the power to live with endurance? Where else can you see this power according to the riches of God’s glory in a tangible way? We see the riches of God’s glory in the creation of the world and all of its inhabitants. Step outside and look at all of Creation and you can tangibly see the riches of God’s glory. We see the riches of God’s glory in a tangible way when Christ became fully human while still being fully God. We see the riches of God’s glory in the miracles of Christ where the dead were raised, the blind were given new sight and the sick were healed. We see the riches of God’s glory in the cross of Christ where he paid the price for sin. We see the riches of God’s glory in the empty tomb where Christ was victorious over the powers of Satan, sin and the grave.
The riches of God’s glory will never run out. The riches of God’s glory are unlimited and endless. The riches of God’s glory are made tangible in the work of God through creation and in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Your power comes from the riches of God’s glory. You need to pray that your Heavenly Father would help you to believe in his power and fill you with his power and help you to live from the deep reservoir of his power.
#2. Your power is granted to you from God
Paul prays that God would “grant you to be strengthened with power”. He doesn’t pray that God would loan you the power you need. He prays that God would grant you or freely give you the power you need to be strengthened. God’s power isn’t a loan that you pay back with interest. True power from God is a grant that he gives to you and it’s absolutely free. It costs you nothing. It’s a one-way infusion or investment of the power of God to strengthen you when life is hurling curveballs at you.
You and I often trade the free investment of God’s power for cheap substitutes. You work hard to make someone love you so you can feel powerful instead of weak and lonely. You work hard to build your portfolio so you can feel powerfully secure instead of weak and insecure. You work hard to change your image so you can feel powerfully important instead of weak and insignificant. The bottom line is that there are millions of ways that you can work to produce what God freely gives to you.
Why would I want to trade the free and unlimited power that God offers to me by working to earn broken and cheap imitations of that power? I think the answer to this question is that I love to prove that I can do it on my own. I get a thrill out of accomplishing something. I get a thrill out of being able to say that I beat this thing or that I made it through that thing. But here’s the problem. My success is a short-lived thrill ride. These short-lived thrill rides also reveal my unbelief in God’s sustaining power. Deep down inside I struggle to believe that God’s power is enough for me to live with endurance.
Is God really powerful enough to get you through another lonely night? Is God really powerful enough to get you through the financial pit you dug for yourself? Is God really powerful enough to help you stand your ground when your children are rebelling? The overwhelming answer from the Scriptures is yes. Yes. God is more than powerful enough to get you through the lonely nights. Yes. God is powerful enough to dig you out of your financial ruin. Yes. God is powerful enough to help you stand your ground in the face of rebellion. But sadly the fruit of our lives oftentimes says something different about what we actually believe.
Think about the biblical heroes for a moment. Don’t you sometimes wish you could be as powerful as they were? Oftentimes we look at biblical heroes like David in front of Goliath. Or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Or Daniel in the lion’s den. Or Joseph running away from another man’s wife when she tried to seduce him. And sometimes we think that those people were extraordinary people. But the problem with that interpretation of those stories is that it places the credit where the credit is not due. Those people were not extraordinary people. They were not extraordinary like Superman or Thor or Ironman or the Hulk.
Those people were ordinary people just like you and me. They struggled with weaknesses and sin and temptation. The real hero of all those stories isn’t the ordinary people. The real hero in all those stories is the extraordinary God who granted ordinary people the power to endure unbelievable opposition with supernatural strength. Do you believe in this God? Do you really believe in this God when you are lonely or when you are afraid or when you feel insignificant? What does the fruit of your life prove about the God you believe in?
God is all-powerful. With God true power isn’t a loan that you pay back with interest. True power from God is a grant that he gives to you and it’s absolutely free. It costs you nothing. It’s a one-way infusion or investment of the power of God to strengthen you when life is coming against you. Your power is granted to you from God. So what do you do now? You need to pray. You need to pray that your Heavenly Father would help you to believe in his power and fill you with his power and help you to live from the deep reservoir of his power.
#3. Your power comes to you through God’s Spirit
Paul prays that God would strengthen you and I “with power through his Spirit.” God’s Spirit is the source of true dynamic power. When you are connected to the Spirit of God then the life giving presence of God himself is pumped into you and through you. The Spirit of God is the one who tunes your heart to the Father’s heart for you in Christ Jesus. The Bible is full of people who struggled with believing in the power of God.
The Israelites would face down scores of enemies and witness the power of God in rescuing them. Then in the next moment they would give themselves over to worshipping idols. The disciples walked with Jesus and witnessed his miracles. But in the next moment they abandoned him at the crucifixion. They were inconsistent ordinary people.
But then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out and the disciples were filled power to be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. In the upper room we see weak and fearful disciples praying that God would empower them and that’s exactly what he does. What else could drive, fearful and weak men and women, who were inconsistent at best, previous to the resurrection, to change the course of their lives, and become witnesses of the power of the gospel, even in the face of death? The answer is only the Holy Spirit.
Only the Holy Spirit can be the source of true dynamite power in your life. Only the Holy Spirit can connect you to the life-giving presence of God himself. Only the Holy Spirit can tune your heart to God’s heart for you. Only the Holy Spirit can help you serve the people you come into contact with. Your power comes to you through God’s Spirit. Pray that God would empower you to live in the power of his Spirit when all of the fury of Satan, sin and the world are coming against you. Pray that your Heavenly Father would help you to believe in his power and fill you with his power and help you to live from the deep reservoir of his power.
#4. Your power comes from the Spirit within you
Paul prays that you and I would be strengthened by the power of the Spirit “in your inner being.” True power comes from within you but it doesn’t begin with you. Broken people, no matter how strong you are, will always have a breaking point. But God is all-powerful. God is not broken. God doesn’t have a breaking point. God created everything, he split the waters, he kept people safe in fires, he fed people with manna, he destroyed the enemies of his people, he shut the mouths of lions and he used persecuted people to do powerful things. And that same God gave his very own Spirit to dwell within you.
If that same Spirit lives inside of you then what will come out of you? What does the life of a Spirit empowered person look like? Could it be the fruit of the Spirit? What would happen if you began to believe that the Spirit of God is actually loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, trustworthy, gentle and in control? Wouldn’t you begin to live what you actually believe? Don’t you actually live what you believe anyways? If you believe in a weak God you will live in weakness. If you believe in a powerful God you will live with the evidence of power in your daily life. Your power comes from the Spirit within you. You need to pray that your Heavenly Father would help you to believe in his power and fill you with his power and help you to live from the deep reservoir of his power.
Conclusion…
After all I’ve said here, I have one more question. Where do you think the power of God becomes the most tangible? I believe that the cross of Christ and the empty tomb is the place where all the power of God becomes the most tangible. In the cross and the empty tomb of Christ we see God giving himself in love for us. We see God giving himself with joy for his enemies. We see God making peace so that his enemies could become children. We see God enduring the torture of the cross with extraordinary patience. We see the kindness of God in the face of Christ as he hangs on the cross asking the Father to forgive his enemies for their ignorance.
We see the goodness of God at the cross where he takes all of the evil in the world and places it on the shoulders of his one and only dearly beloved son. God does this so that we can taste and touch and see the goodness of God in Salvation from our sin. We see the faithfulness of God in the empty tomb where we learn that God will not leave us to eternal death but has been faithful to offer us the gift of everlasting life. We see the sovereignty or control of God in the cross and the empty tomb. None of this happened by accident. This is the power of God on display in the cross and the empty tomb of Christ.
Pray for God’s power to be made visible in you. Pray that God would help you to believe that he is powerful enough for you. Pray that God would strengthen you according to the riches of his glory. Pray that God would grant you the strength to live with powerful endurance. Pray that God would empower you like he empowered all the other ordinary people we see in the Scriptures. Pray that God would empower you to live in the strength of his Spirit when all of the fury of Satan, sin and the world are coming against you. Pray that the presence of the living God within you would produce the fruit of his presence through you.
Your power comes from the riches of God’s glory. Your power is granted to you from God. Your power comes to you through the Holy Spirit. Your power comes from the Spirit within you. You need to pray that your Heavenly Father would help you to believe in his power and fill you with his power and help you to live from the deep reservoir of his power.