Paul's powerful prayer: Ephesians 3:14-21

No more puny prayers!

Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Do you ever get fed up with making or hearing puny prayers?

That is not how the apostles prayed , they prayed mighty and powerful prayers, prayers that changed the world they lived in.

This prayer contains a progressive revelation (each of the 5 steps from v16-20 builds onto the previous step).

Step 1 v16 , to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. We need the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us to help us progress spiritually and without this power we cannot proceed with steps 2-5.

Step 2 v17 tells us that the consequences of  Christ may dwelling in our hearts through faith; is that we become  rooted like a tree and grounded in love like a building with Jesus Christ as your foundation. This means that our Christian walk of obedience to Christ is based on us responding to the love Jesus first gave us.

Step 3 v18 When we are strengthened with might in our inner man, and Christ is dwelling in our hearts by faith, we become rooted and grounded in his love. We then are in a position to begin to comprehend or discern spiritually what are the dimensions of God’s which cannot discerned by mere human knowledge. Here are some features of God’s love.

Breadth a -boundless           Length b-endless

Depth c-fathomless             Height d- measureless

a How broad? All men of every race and colour at every stage of development from a foetus to an old man on his death bed, embraces every man from Adam onwards. This breadth of the fathers have told the early Jewish believers the He even loves the Gentiles. It speaks to our heart of the different parts of the body pf Christ, Baptist, Pentecostal, faith people, love people in my father’s house there are many mansions. God’s love is so broad it takes in all barriers of rank or position intelligence, personality etc.

b How long? Invites us to meditate on the eternal nature of God’s love. He loved us before the world was made and has promised to love us from everlasting to everlasting [Jeremiah 31:3] is for each one of us.

c How deep? Let’s look back to where we came from spiritually dead on the way to hell, no joy, peace or hope. Take a minute to think on the depth of love that caused Jesus to go through the cross for you to pluck you out of Satan’s hand. [Ephesians 2:3] We were children of wrath by nature, engrossed in sinful lives. He loved us so deeply he paid the full price of our sins.

d Height, breadth boundless, length endless depth fathomless then the height is measureless in trying to comprehend the height we may look to both our present privileges and our future promises as clearly identified in the word of God.

To describe God’s love as a sea is not enough since seas have limits

Think of God’s love on the cross.

Step 4 v19  We must experience the love of Christ, each one of us that agape love that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5). For when we are filled to overflowing with divine love then we attain the fourth part of the progression that is we have the richest measure of the divine presence, and we become a body wholly filled and flooded with God himself. To be filled with all the fulness of God in the Greek suggests a continuous process where the vessel expands to continue being filled i.e. our hearts will expand and take in more and more of God.

Step 5 v20 Paul goes on to say after having given us such a tremendous revelation of the word that the Lord can give us infinitely more than we dare to ask or think, infinitely above our highest hopes, prayers, desires, thoughts or dreams . Wow!

Conclusion

No more puny prayers! Would you dare to make such a prayer for yourself or your church fellowship?

Closing prayer

Father God, we bow our knees to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

We ask that you grant us, according to your riches, that we might be strengthened with your mighty power in our inner man.

We pray that Christ may be dwelling in our hearts by faith, and that we are becoming rooted and grounded in your divine love.

We ask that we may be able to comprehend with all your saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of your love, and to come to truly know your love which surpasses human knowledge, that we might be filled with the love of God as you are Lord.

Lord, we know you can do much more above all we can ask or even think because your power is at work in us and we say Amen and Glory to your name.