Praying for Others – Part Three

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19 MSG)

So far we have seen …

1> I pray that you will know God

2> I pray that you will experience God’s love

2A> Experience the Breadth of God’s Love

2B> Experience the Length of God’s Love

2C> Experience the Depth of God’s Love

2D> Experience the Height of God’s Love

Let’s move on the last part of the apostle’s prayer

3> I Pray That You Allow God to Do Great Things in Your life.

Paul saves an amazing truth for last in his prayer which we have not yet read… And they are words that we need to personally embrace.

Ephesians 3:20 MSG “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.”

These words apply to you, but they must be activated by your faith. Jesus said, “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Matthew 9:29 The Berean Bible). This is called the ‘faith factor.’ There are many factors that influence your progress in life; many of which you have no control over. Your background, nationality, age, giftedness. These are determined by the sovereignty of God. But there is one important fact that you do have control over: how much you choose to believe in God. God puts no limitation on faith; faith puts no limitation on God.

We simply need to give God room to act in our lives – and we release Him to do amazing and supernatural things by walking in faith. 

3A> God can do anything

That statement is certainly not about your ability, talent, and skill. Nor is it about mine. It’s not about us. It is about God. These words should set the bar of our expectations about God at a very high level. We need to be aware of how great a space there is between what we can do and what He can do. So we need to make room for God to do what only God can do. We do the possible. God does the impossible. We do the natural. He does the supernatural. And all this shows us who He really is. God can do anything.

3B> God is bigger than I am

God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!

How much is ‘far more’? It is not a little more or some more. It’s FAR more. It’s so much more that we can’t really comprehend it. The writer of Hebrews tried to use words to give us some kind of idea about how much more ‘far more’ is: “far more than you could ever imagine or guess to request in your wildest dreams!” But even then, we don’t really get it.

Don’t ever try to understand how much bigger God is than us. We can’t. No words can ever come close. God is God and we are not. That is both simple and humbling. His ways and His thoughts are so far above us that we can simply only grasp a small portion of what His plan and purpose in our individual lives really is.

3C> We need to choose to let God do what only He can do

God works within our heart and mind. He does not push us around but gently nudges us by His Spirit that lives within us. God does not force anything on us, not even His love. He offers it to us gently and we receive it by grace. And He works within us only because we choose to let Him do that. The question we all have to answer is simply “How much access will we give God to the various aspects of our life? We can experience as much as we desire and allow. 

Perhaps the most amazing thing about God is that He allows average people like you and me to have access to Him and His unconditional love. 

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 MSG “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

We don’t have much to offer God except ourselves. God wants our willingness, not our strengths. If you think you can do everything on your own and you’re searching for some secret reservoir of strength, then stop. Because there isn’t one. Focus on God’s endless resources. He can do what we cannot do. And He’s willing to do it if you’re willing to give Him credit for it.

God’s invitation is extended to you. He loves you. I hope you will accept that love, if you haven’t already. It will change every aspect of your life. If you don’t yet know God, you have no idea what He can and will do for you. Today would be a good to day to come into a personal relationship with Him.