Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

TUESDAY June 11^th

 

Ephesians 1:19–20

 

‘. . .and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places’

 

Let me repeat where I left off previously, although re-worded, God has made his power available to us who have believed to enable us to live victoriously in this world.

 

HIS power, God knows we cannot do it in our own strength! Power to be able to live for Christ, power to live according to the Spirit and not the flesh, power to fight the good fight of the faith, power to stand firm, power to say no when the world demands us to conform, power to overcome the evil one, power to make it to the finishing line, our eyes firmly fixed upon Jesus.

 

And Paul uses as the example of what this power is like as being the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead—now, when Jesus died, he was placed into a tomb and a stone was placed in the opening to block it off and a seal was placed around it. But it didn’t stop or prevent the power of God, for in the darkness of the grave, Jesus the light of the world was raised back to life! No medical intervention, no magic, no! The power of God was at work, defying all the laws of nature, defying all the logic of men, defying the powers of darkness and demonstrating that without any shadow of doubt that God has power over all things.

 

Now, I am sure we have all seen some incredible things that would cause us to be astounded, but the resurrection of Jesus is the most astounding thing that has ever happened. Now, some would argue, ‘Ah but you didn’t witness it, you have only read about it’. That is true, but I believe it! And the Scripture says that the ones who are blessed are those who have not seen yet believe!

 

Paul wants us to know that this incredible power that was demonstrated in the tomb is being made available towards us who believe. Later in this same epistle, Paul encourages us to ‘be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might’, or as the NIV puts it ‘be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.’ (6:10)

 

I wonder if sometimes too often we live our lives as if we are running on low voltage batteries, or rechargeable batteries that are running low, rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to indwell us and to empower us, for to remind us again, it is not by our own might, nor by our own power—I can assure you that this way I would get absolutely nowhere—but it is by his power and his power alone we will live victoriously.

MONDAY June 10^th

 

Ephesians 1:19

 

‘. . . and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe . . .’

 

The ESV has verses 15-21 as two sentences, but the NIV breaks it up into six sentences, one of those breaks being here at the end of verse 19 ‘and his incomparably great power for us who believe.’

 

Remember that Paul has prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him’ and as we come to verse 19 it is that we also may understand ‘what is the immeasurable greatness of his power’ or as the NIV puts it ‘his incomparably great power’ that is for us who believe. Now in the next verse, or sentence as in the NIV, Paul uses an illustration to describe how great this power is, by considering the resurrection of Jesus, but we will turn to that in the next devotion. For today we will consider some other examples of the greatness of God’s power.

 

As I prepare this devotion, I have just been reading for a future ministry the account of the exodus of the children of Israel from out of the land of Egypt, and verse 6 of Exodus 15 says ‘Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power. . .’

 

There is absolutely nothing, whether a person, a principality or a power or any man-made invention that can match the power of almighty God. And God has demonstrated this great power in many ways, consider the power of his voice, which spoke what is into being, the same power that holds everything together.

 

Going back to the chapter in Exodus, his power had been demonstrated by delivering the Children of Israel, while at the same time destroying their enemies. That is amazing, but Paul says about his power toward us who believe, that is we who have responded to the wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power that originally created all things has also recreated us or made us anew in Christ Jesus, the power that destroyed the armies of Egypt, has destroyed the enemy of our souls, and has destroyed the sting of death which is sin. The same power that caused the walls of Jericho to fall, was present with Daniel in the den of lions, with the three Hebrew lads in the fiery furnace, and the same power as Paul says that was worked in Christ when God raised him from the dead is the power that Paul prayed that the believers would come to know and to understand more. Power to enable us to live victorious Christian lives that we need to be living in our anti-God society. I don’t know about you, but I willingly admit, I need that power in my life today.

 

I remind us, that it is ‘not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts’. It is his Spirit that brings to us or gives to us the power we need to walk in this world today.

FRIDAY June 7^th

 

Ephesians 1:18 ‘. . . having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints . . .’

 

We continue from the previous devotion, which is that we will have our hearts enlightened towards that which ‘are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints’.

 

At first, we would consider the word inheritance and think of that which is ours in Christ, because we are heirs of Father, joint heirs with the son, but commentators suggest that what Paul is expressing here is that we as the redeemed of the Lord are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance. When God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, it is later said of them in Deuteronomy 9:29 ‘For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’ The NIV uses the word inheritance, ‘But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’

 

The children of Israel became God’s chosen possession, it is said of them in Deuteronomy 7:6 ‘For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.’ Now, before we move on this surely is sufficient for us to realise even today in the 21^st Century, that Israel as a nation and Israel as a people are extra special to God out of all the nations and peoples of the world. After all, we often say, the God of Israel. That is why it is so important that we pray for the nation and the people of Israel.

 

But when we come to 1 Peter 2:9-10, it is said of the church ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

 

Does this mean that the church has replaced Israel—not at all, God has not finished with Israel, he still has much to fulfil through them as a nation and as a people, the wonder is this that God has chosen to gather from the Gentiles those who will make up the Church, the body of Christ who have become his glorious inheritance, when God looks at Israel he sees them as his inheritance, when God looks at the church he sees us as his inheritance, that is we belong to him, we are precious to him. And how has this been made possible? Through the riches of his grace, as Paul has said earlier in Ephesians 1:7-10. ‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.’ In Malachi 3, there is a verse that says ‘“They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.’

 

When we fully grasp this, who we are and what we have become in Christ, and especially that God sees us as his glorious inheritance or heritage, we would ensure that all times we would seek to bring glory to God by the manner of life that we live, what we do, where we go, how we speak and act, for as his inheritance he has the right to demand that just as he is holy, so we too should be holy. Ephesians 1:12 ‘so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory’.

FRIDAY June 7^th

 

Ephesians 1:18 ‘. . . having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints . . .’

 

We continue from the previous devotion, which is that we will have our hearts enlightened towards that which ‘are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints’.

 

At first, we would consider the word inheritance and think of that which is ours in Christ, because we are heirs of Father, joint heirs with the son, but commentators suggest that what Paul is expressing here is that we as the redeemed of the Lord are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance. When God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, it is later said of them in Deuteronomy 9:29 ‘For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’ The NIV uses the word inheritance, ‘But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’

 

The children of Israel became God’s chosen possession, it is said of them in Deuteronomy 7:6 ‘For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.’ Now, before we move on this surely is sufficient for us to realise even today in the 21^st Century, that Israel as a nation and Israel as a people are extra special to God out of all the nations and peoples of the world. After all, we often say, the God of Israel. That is why it is so important that we pray for the nation and the people of Israel.

 

But when we come to 1 Peter 2:9-10, it is said of the church ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

 

Does this mean that the church has replaced Israel—not at all, God has not finished with Israel, he still has much to fulfil through them as a nation and as a people, the wonder is this that God has chosen to gather from the Gentiles those who will make up the Church, the body of Christ who have become his glorious inheritance, when God looks at Israel he sees them as his inheritance, when God looks at the church he sees us as his inheritance, that is we belong to him, we are precious to him. And how has this been made possible? Through the riches of his grace, as Paul has said earlier in Ephesians 1:7-10. ‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.’ In Malachi 3, there is a verse that says ‘“They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.’

 

When we fully grasp this, who we are and what we have become in Christ, and especially that God sees us as his glorious inheritance or heritage, we would ensure that all times we would seek to bring glory to God by the manner of life that we live, what we do, where we go, how we speak and act, for as his inheritance he has the right to demand that just as he is holy, so we too should be holy. Ephesians 1:12 ‘so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory’.

THURSDAY June 6^th

 

Ephesians 1:18 Paul continues to pray, ‘. . . having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints . . .’

 

In our previous devotion we saw that we need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enable us to come to a better knowledge of God, and then in our verse today, Pauls prayer continues in asking that the Spirit of wisdom and revelation will enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we will understand or know in a greater measure the hope to which we have been called and a greater understanding as to what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

 

In other words, we need to grasp more fully the immensity of the hope that we have as believers and to grasp more fully the riches of his glorious inheritance, which is us who are the saints, the children of God.

 

Firstly, though we need to allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, I want to link this to what Paul says later in the same letter, Ephesians 5:18, ‘Be filled with the Spirit . . .’, I wonder how little the Spirit can do sometimes, in many areas of our lives, but more specifically in the context of this prayer that Paul has made, and which we can say as a prayer for ourselves, because we are too often occupied with filling our lives with so many other things that hold no real value, rather than to be ensuring that we seek to be filled and to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit so that we will know the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation.

 

Secondly for today, what is the hope to which we have been called? We need to know what it is, and the answer in a nutshell is that in Christ we have been called to that which is a sure and a certain hope.

 

In chapter 2 of this same letter Paul says this about we who are as Gentiles by natural birth, ‘that you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, HAVING NO HOPE, and without God in the world’. That is a hopeless situation. But thankfully Paul continues with this, ‘But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ’. This means that all the negatives of the previous verse have been undone and we can now say that because of the blood of Christ we are no longer separated from Christ, no longer alienated, no longer strangers to the covenants of promise, we HAVE HOPE, and not only have we been brought near to God, but we will also spend eternity with him. That is our sure and certain hope.  It is not something that we cross our fingers and hope for, it is guaranteed because of the one who was willing to have his hands and his feet nailed to a cruel cross.

 

The more we fully understand this hope that is ours in Christ Jesus, the more serious we will become concerning how we should be as the children of God as we live as strangers in this world, awaiting the day when we will arrive at our eternal destination. As our eyes become more enlightened, we should want only to live for our Saviour and coming King.

WEDNESDAY June 5^th

 

Ephesians 1:17-18

 

‘. . .may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you . . . ’

 

Well, the first part of what Paul prays for the believers is found in verse 17 of Ephesians, that he ‘may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened’, the reason being ‘that you may know’ and he continues with what he wants them to know.

 

So, the first part of the request is that they may receive ‘the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him’. Note that it is Spirit with a capital S, that is he is referring to the Holy Spirit and he is describing something of who the Holy Spirit is, he is the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation, and as we receive the Holy Spirit this way as the NIV puts it, it is that ‘you may know him better’.

 

The Holy Spirit helps to bring us into a greater understanding of who God is, and however long we may have been on our Christian journey, we can all come to know God even more, so we need as did the Ephesian church to be given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Because this wisdom and knowledge comes from the Holy Spirit, it is therefore supernatural wisdom, it is supernatural revelation, it is far superior to anything we can attain to in the natural realm.

 

Being a people of the Holy Spirit, we have had our hearts enlightened, we can understand things that those who are not saved cannot understand, this is because of the Holy Spirit being the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. In 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 Pauls says this, ‘But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.’

 

I can only answer for myself, concerning how little or much I may understand about God, but I am sure that just as Paul prayed for the Ephesians so we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, that we will receive in abundance the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enable us to know God even more.

 

TUESDAY June 4^th

 

Ephesians 1:15-16

‘For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers’.

 

It has been difficult to know how to break down this prayer in verses 17-23, and in the verses which we will eventually get to in chapter 3:14-21, but we see that Paul desired for the believers to know what it was to grow in Christ and to develop into spiritual maturity.

 

To note first is that he addresses his prayer to ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory’. At first, if you haven’t stopped to think about this, why the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, when Jesus himself is also God? I am going to answer this two ways, these are my own thoughts from my personal meditation on these verses, there might be other reasons, but the first I considered is that by praying to ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ’, it is a declaration that the God of Jesus is the true and the living God, as opposed to the many other gods that the unbelieving folk in Ephesus and the surrounding areas called out to. They, that is the other gods were unable to answer, for they were mere idols.

 

Secondly, I am going to see it by being linked to what Paul says in Timothy concerning Jesus as being the one who is the mediator between man and God, and what is written in Hebrews which is that we have access to the Father through the Son, who has become our great high priest and Paul knew that we come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ and he is making this prayer in Ephesians to God, that is the true and the living God, the Father and through Jesus the Son.

 

These are the verses: 1 Timothy 2:5 ‘For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ and Hebrews 4:14-16 ‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’

 

Before we move on, we have the same access! Because the One who Paul knew as his great high priest, is also our great high priest. His name is Jesus, he is the One who has made access for us into the presence of almighty God, he is the One who has given us permission to come and to call on his Father, God, our Father who is in heaven.

MONDAY June 3^rd  

 

As we return to the devotions, after a short break, I start by reminding us of the verses we were looking at, and to remind us that Paul was praying for the believers in the Ephesian church.

 

Ephesians 1:16-23

‘For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.’

 

In this prayer, Paul takes us from his concern for the church v16, to the One who is the head of the church v23, the Lord Jesus Christ and in between reminds us that he, that is Christ has been exalted to the highest place and is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.

 

This is a good time to remind ourselves that with all that we see going on around us in this world, political strife, nations in strife with one another, society seemingly crumbling around us, that as we read in Philippians 2:9-11 ‘Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’

 

There is One who is above all these things and is in control, his name is Jesus, and he reigns over all. But we will get to this again when we get to the verses. In our next devotion we will begin to break down and look at what it was that Paul prayed for on behalf of the believers. Since I originally wrote this devotion, we in the UK are heading toward a General Election, we must seek direction regarding this and pray that just as God’s will is done in heaven so it will also be known on earth, in our nation.

FRIDAY May 24^th

 

Ephesians 1:16

‘I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.’

 

Paul was undoubtably a man of prayer, again on a recent Sunday I took us through some scriptures that covered the subject of prayer, in particular corporate prayer and from Acts 16 I mentioned two examples concerning Paul and prayer.

 

The first was from Acts 16:13 ‘And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.’ It would seem that it was important for Paul and his companions to partake in prayer with others, the second example is later in the same chapter after Paul along with Silas had been arrested and put into prison, it says in verse 25 ‘About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them’, and if you are familiar to the account, you know what happened, there was a sudden earthquake, which eventually led to the jailor and his family coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a third reference to prayer, it comes in between the two I have mentioned, but chronologically actually happened before they had net with the believers for prayer by the river side.

 

It is in verse 16 which says, ‘As we were going to the place of prayer’, Paul then gives a report of what happened, they met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination. The result was that she was delivered, and this was what eventually what led to them being arrested and put in prison.

 

Prayer was integral to who Paul was and what he did as a servant of God. He met with a prayer group, he prayed when he was in a difficult situation, and as we have seen from our text from Ephesians he was actively praying for the believers.

 

This is not meant to be a series about prayer, but it is a reminder of the power of and the importance of prayer, both personal prayer and collective prayer.

 

Returning to our text verse, in the ESV there are cross references to Romans1:9-10 and 2 Timothy 1:3 where we see again Paul’s concern for others expressed in prayer, in Romans it is for the local Church, in Timothy it is for an individual, he was and so should we be concerned through prayer for us as a collective body of believers, the local church and also for each individual that makes up the local church.

 

May we be a prayerful church, continually upholding one another before the throne of grace so that each one of us will receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

We are away next week, Monday through to Friday with some of our family for a holiday together, so the devotions will return on Monday June 3^rd.

THURSDAY May 23^rd

 

Ephesians 1:16

‘I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.’

 

This sentence here in verse 16, was the reason behind why I originally read the verses from this chapter recently in our Wednesday prayer meeting. First to highlight that Paul remembered the Ephesian believers in his prayers and secondly that he continually gave thanks to God for them.

 

Paul would have been a very busy man, continually on the move, pioneering and planting new churches, writing to them, sometimes from prison as he was being harassed and persecuted for his faith, and yet he still ensured that he cared for those who had come to faith as individuals, and he ensured that he cared for the local churches that had been formed as a result of his apostolic efforts. He cared by praying for them and for thanking God for them.

 

Going back to that Wednesday evening, which was May 8^th, we spent the time praying for each one that attends our local church here in Gateshead, those who are regular in attendance and those who are unable to attend owing to health. We also prayed for the unbelieving family members of those who attend. We put into practice what we saw Paul giving as an example here in Ephesians 1. Going back to the previous verse where Paul talked about their faith and their love, it reminds us that the love we should have for one another should also prompt us to give thanks for one another and to pray for one another.

 

We don’t even need to know every single detail about one another, we don’t need to know the specific needs that each one may have, we simply need to show our care and concern by praying for one another.

 

I want to take this as an opportunity to say thank you for each one that prays for me, and for Elaine. But I also want to take this opportunity to encourage us to pray for the younger generation, the children and those who are in their teens, that they will know the protection of God’s power over their lives during these difficult days in which we are living. When I look back to when I was a teenager, and that is a long time ago now, I was never faced with so many challenges and difficulties as to which they are faced with today. May our prayer be that each one of the teens and children will discover what it is to trust in the Lord with all their heart and not to lean on their own understanding. Praying that each one of them will acknowledge the Lord in all their ways so that they will know what it is for their paths to be made straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6).