Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV) 14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
The normal posture for prayer at the time Paul wrote these words was to stand with arms raised. Praying on the knees was the posture of prayer when overcome with a desire, such as Jesus did when He went to the Garden of Gethsemene, knelt and prayed. It was with great intensity of desire that Paul prayed. Paul had an almost desperate desire for the people in the church to know more of the power of God.
Can you feel the intensity of his desire? Can you feel the longing that Paul had for the church and has for you and me? Can you feel the intensity of what God Himself wants for you and me? Paul yearns for you and me to know the power of God found in Jesus Christ, and that we know that power through faith. Faith means trust. God’s power comes in God’s way and in God’s timing. And it is seen and received by those who are living and learning to trust the God we have seen in Jesus. It may be a faint, faltering trust that gives God only a small crack in our soul. But it is enough. Or, it may be a more complete trust that daily places the helm of our life in God’s hands, that entrusts the direction of our life to God, that confesses our inability and to make all that we are and all that we have available to God daily. Whether faltering or full, it is as if that trust in God gives God room to work in our life. It is as if the spirit of Christ enters our soul and begins to chisel out the “stuff” of the soul and increase our capacity to see and experience the power of God.
In a time when we place such a high price on privacy and where self-sufficient individualism is the gospel of the day it may be good to remember that the power of God may come to us as an individual, but it is often given and experienced in the body of believers, with all the saints, literally. Power comes to the community in the same way that choir members experience the power of music by singing together. The power of God comes to community in the same way a team experiences power when pulling together. May we know the power of God in Jesus Christ, received by faith, with all the saints.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 2, 2000
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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