THIS IS WHAT MAKES YOU WANT MORE! (Ephesians 1:15-23)

Ever since I heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for Christians everywhere, I have never stopped thanking God for you.  I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.  I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called.  I want you to realize what rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.

I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.  This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms.  Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in the world or in the world to come.  And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church.  And the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence.

Now I have been very eager to meet the Ephesian church, a people with a strong faith, beaming with love for one another.  It's contagious you know.  That passion that Paul describe them with.  He prayed for them passionately and purposefully.  He knew exactly what they were going through,  Their strong faith was seen by their strong love for all.  He wants them to understand and realize and he uses this words.

He wants them to understand the wonderful future God has promised to them.  He wants them to realize the rich and glorious inheritance they had been given and to understand the incredible greatness of his power.  Paul didn't just say those words to please his hearers.  He said them with power and purpose.  It's almost like he knew personally about all these things in his heart of heart and he was passionate about it.  That power had done something to him and it was bursting at the seams.  It was that same power that raised Christ from the dead.  That was that power that he knew personally because he knew Christ personally.  He was not just saying so to bring people in.  He was excited about that one thing and that was to know Christ and his power, the power of his resurrection.

That power, let me tell you about it!  That power is set apart from any other power here on earth.  It's not just a mere powerful engine's power.  It's not just the power of the fiercest wind or earthquake or tsunami.  No that power can raise anyone from the dead in a twinkling of an eye and most of all it can change your thoughts and your destiny in an instant.  What a power!  That's the power from which Christ's authority comes from.  He is above all and all are under him, not man under man.  He has given that same power and authority to the church to walk on this earth as his body and he fills, always fills her with himself, with his presence which encapsulate the qualities of hope and faith and love.

This passage is therefore a great comfort to us as the work of completion has come by that presence.

The excellence of that power is revealed now to the church through his authority and power.  That power is always at work in us to bring changes to ourselves as we focus on the benefit of that authority.

Lord willing then that power and authority is transferred unto others but before that, we must understand it personally and intimately, starting with our personal prayers between the Father and us.