Prayer for the Body of Christ

Well, for some time now, Pastor Philippi has been encouraging me to review the message that I did on prayer a while back, and that was a three part message and it's on the website. I was surprised when I saw that. I did that message way back in 2009, so I thought it might be a good idea to review that message now, especially since we probably have a number of folks here on a regular basis who were not even with us back then in 2009. Back then, I started that message off by quoting a particular radio program which you could hear at that time Mondays through Friday on WYLL, the same radio station where our messages are broadcast. And that radio program was the radio ministry of Gregory Dickow from Life Changers Church right out here in Barrington.

And I'm going to quote for you the introduction that was always used to start off that radio program. And it went like this. "The 18th chapter of Matthew says, if two of you agree about anything you ask for, it will be given to you by our Father who is in heaven. If you need prayer for any reason, healing, salvation, finances, relationships, marriage, children, a new job, or anything at all, call our prayer line at such and such a number." And the number was given.

And the message went on to say, "prayer partners are standing by waiting for your call. Are you ready for God to do something great in your life? Well, get ready. Today is your day."

Well, Life Changers and Gregory Dikhoff still have that radio program, and I finally remembered to tune it in for a couple of evenings to find out if they were still using that same introduction. Well, it sounds like they've changed the introduction, but the nature of the teaching is still the same. And the fact is that you can hear similar claims from countless other radio and television ministries all across the board. And it's really just a manifestation of what Paul warned about in Second Timothy, chapter two, verses three and four, where the order of the day was going to be, where people after their own lusts and itching ears would be drawn towards these types of teachers. Let me run that by you one more time.

As it says in the 18th chapter of Matthew, if two of you agree on anything you ask for, it will be given to you by our Father who is in heaven. Prayer for any healing, salvation, finances, relationships, marriage, children, a new job, or anything at all.

Wow, that's a pretty lucrative hook, isn't it? This is what we commonly refer to as the prosperity gospel, that God wants you to be healthy, wealthy and successful in every aspect of your life, and that these things can be a reality in your life. And you hear this type of teaching everywhere you go in the Christian media. And the sad reality is that most of those folks who call themselves Christians today will usually be praying right along the same lines as the introduction to that radio program. This is the prosperity gospel.

The health and wealth crowd, the name it and claim it folks whose preachers are taking prayer promises and provisions completely out of context, taking prayer promises and provisions from Israel's Kingdom program and attempting to make them work in the lives of believers today. And of course, it doesn't work. That passage, which was quoted from Matthew 18, doesn't even have anything to do with prayer. Those were specific instructions given to Peter and to the twelve to give them the authority that they would need to make decisions pertaining to the Kingdom program during the time of his absence, just as we see them doing in Galatians, chapter 2, verses 7 through 9.

And your heart really has to go out to those sincere folks who do have problems very often. These are medical problems, folks who are earnestly praying for a healing, and that healing never comes. And I have to tell you that I've seen this personally. I've had patients with very difficult and painful orthopedic problems, and they just keep sitting under this prosperity teaching. And I'm talking about this very place where this radio program and this introduction message that I gave to you came from, expecting to be healed someday.

So they never become willing to devote the time and perseverance which is often necessary to stay with proven lines of treatment. And that may be the only hope they'll ever have of getting any better. They're just going to keep on praying for the healing, and they're just going to continue getting assurance from these teachers that the healing is there to be had. The fervent prayers from perhaps a righteous man or woman, as James would say it. But those prayers are never answered.

How many times do you suppose those unanswered prayers have destroyed the life or the joy of a believer? Very sad. And how different all that is from the sound doctrine we've been given to deal with those very problems. And even among those folks who are not completely led astray and listening constantly to the false promises of the name it and claim it teachers. It's pretty likely that even those folks, if they're not studying their Bible dispensationally, will in their own minds still have an expectation that if their faith were just strong enough, or if they could just get this or that sin out of their life, or if they were just able to give enough to God either financially or in service or in whatever manner that God would heal them or find them that job they need, or heal that broken relationship or resolve their financial difficulties or whatever the problem might be.

For so many people like this, the only thing that makes God real in their lives is their perspective of how God is intervening in their own personal experiences or perhaps in the lives and experiences of other people who are in their own close personal circle of friends. And that's experience based Christian reality. Just the opposite of walking in faith as we're supposed to do. And something else that is almost certain to reinforce such error is the serendipity which is typical in the life of anyone. Now by that I mean there is generally enough coincidence, just pure coincidence or serendipitous experience in anyone's life to give them the perception that, well, there was this time, I remember this time when God did answer that prayer.

And that perception can be so powerful that they simply forget about the overwhelming majority of occasions when their prayers were not answered, basing everything on experience, completely forgetting that in this age of grace, we walk by faith and not by sight. And if you were to take those prayer petitions away from these poor folks, in most cases they wouldn't have anything left to pray for. Because that is almost the first issue that comes up with someone who is beginning to understand how to rightly divide the word of truth and beginning to understand these things. The critical differences between what was going on in Israel's Kingdom program and what is going on for the church, the Body of Christ today. When someone begins to see and understand how the prayer promises and provisions for the Jew and for the nation Israel were not meant for the Body of Christ, their whole prayer life falls apart.

I mean, what else is there left to pray for? And you know, that's the way it goes when you point these issues out to someone for the first time, they'll often ask you whether you pray at all or if you do, what do you pray for? I've gotten those kinds of questions from radio callers or some folks may contend that we're putting limitations on God. That's what you're doing now.

You're putting limitations on God and you can't do that. So that's what we're going to review in this study. What is prayer for a believer in the Body of Christ today? Where do we get our instructions on how we should pray or what we should be praying for and about? And what is God's role in all this?

What part does God play? Is God intervening in the lives of believers today or not. And if he is, how is he doing this? Well, obviously the answers to these questions lie somewhere in the revelations of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, which he gave to the Apostle Paul for us. So that's where we need to start looking.

And as we look into the passages which give us the information we need, I want you to be thinking about what I consider to be the seven basic categories of prayer, doctrine, and understanding which we're going to come across in Paul's doctrine for believers in the Body of Christ. And those seven categories are listed on the board. We'll just go through them. We'll start to see them as we go through this study.

Number one is Thanksgiving.

Number two is who and what we are and have in Christ.

Number three is the knowledge of the character of God, in particular of Christ.

Number four is love for the Body of Christ.

Number five is God's will pertaining to issues of our sanctification.

Number six is God's will pertaining to our ambassadorship.

Number seven, intercessory prayer for others.

Okay, so you want to look for these categories of prayer, and I'll be pointing them out as we go along. Now, no study on prayer for believers in this dispensation of grace can be properly considered without examining the major exemplary prayers given by the Apostle Paul, prayers for people which he was addressing directly at the time in which he wrote, and which are prayers which in effect are addressed to all members of the Body of Christ today, they're for us. We'll begin by looking at those in Ephesians chapter one.

Now, before we begin examining this prayer of Paul's, I want to point out that just as the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples how to pray and what to pray for pertaining to their kingdom program, where did he do that? In prayers like the disciples prayer of Matthew, chapter six. So does the Lord Jesus Christ instruct us through our Apostle Paul about the things we should be praying for and about in this dispensation of grace. So if you want to understand prayer as it relates to us today, you have to study the prayers of Paul. And the first of Paul's four major prayers pertaining to the Body of Christ in this dispensation of grace are here in Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 15.

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers.

So verse 16 says to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers. So Paul starts off with the giving of thanks for the saints at Ephesus, essentially thanking God for the reality of the Body of Christ, Thanksgiving for other believers and the Body of Christ. Let me ask you, when is the last time you thank God for the reality of of the Body of Christ with a true understanding of how this Body of Christ is supposed to function? When is the last time you thank God for those members of the Body of Christ who have devoted their entire lives to the study of God's Word and who have passed that information on to us, enabling us to take that understanding of to greater and greater heights?

When we come to our last category of prayer, intercession for others, we're going to see what a wonderful blessing the Body of Christ is designed to be in our lives. So the first thing we see here is thanksgiving, the first category of prayer which I've listed on the board. So if you're ever at a loss for what to pray about, start by thanking God. You can start by thanking God for everything we have in Christ and for everything that's going to happen to you in the future because you're in Christ.

Have you ever read through Paul's Epistles and written out all the things which became true of you or which you now have or will have in the future as a result of trusting in Christ and becoming saved? Those 40 to 75 or more things which I have referred to in other of our studies and most recently in the series of the sanctification of the believer and the three phases of salvation. Every believer should do that. Make a list of those things as you read through Paul's Epistles and you're going to come up with anywhere between 45 to 70 or more things, depending upon how general or specific you might want to get, which are true of you or which will become true of you in the future simply because you trusted in Christ and in Christ alone and became saved. Sometimes you'll hear these things referred to as the values of the cross or the unsearchable riches of Christ from Ephesians 3.

You can call them whatever you want to call them, but these are all things you have or will have as a result of salvation, as a result of phase one salvation, the instant you trust Christ. Not only that, but these are all things which you cannot lose. And knowing these things becomes the key to phase two of our salvation. Our progressive sanctification and maturity in the Christian life. And we'll be speaking a lot more of that as we go along.

These all come under the second category of prayer, understanding who and what we are and what we have in Christ. When you begin to understand all those unsearchable riches of Christ, those 45 to 70 or more things which are now true about you as a believer, and when you begin to get a hold of those things which Paul has taught us here in Ephesians and in other places, about what God is going to be doing through members of the Body of Christ, when you begin to come to an understanding of these things, you cannot help but to be filled with thanksgiving. You know, a new believer, a babe in Christ, as Scripture calls the new believer, he doesn't know any of these things. He or she has no idea of what the dimensions or the magnitude of what God is actually going to be doing through the Body of Christ.

And the tragedy is that 99% of what considers itself Christianity today doesn't know about these things either. That is precisely why Paul's prayer in First Timothy 2:4 called for all men to be saved. That's God's will, that all men be saved. And then what? And to come to the knowledge of the truth.

To come to the knowledge of the truth. So when you're at a loss for what to pray about, just start off with thanksgiving. Continuing on with Paul's prayer here, verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

Here is our third category of prayer. A knowledge of the character of God. The character of Christ. You know, there probably wasn't any human being who ever lived who knew Christ better than Paul did. But Paul's deepest desire was to know Christ better.

Do you remember what Paul had to say in Philippians 3? Turn over to Philippians 3 for a minute.

Beginning in verse 7, Paul says, but what things were gain to me? Those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Drop down to verse 10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection. In verse 8 we have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my lord. In verse 10, that I may know him.

May I propose to you that at least a major part of this knowledge of Christ which Paul is referring to here is an increased appreciation of Christ's love for us. Have you ever dwelt on the magnitude of Christ's love for us? Knowing the love of Christ is a very important thing to grasp, although in these present bodies we can never fully understand the magnitude of Christ's love for us. Because when we get to Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3, we'll see how that Christ's love for us is actually beyond our knowledge. We can't fully understand it.

But gaining a better appreciation of Christ's love for us is important. It's very important. Paul refers to it as one of the most excellent things there could ever be here in Philippians 3. And there's a very good and a very practical reason for this. In Second Corinthians 5:14, Paul tells us that it's the love of Christ which motivates us.

Now that's not our love of him, but his love for us. And his love for us constrains us. To constrain us is to compel us or to motivate us. Christ's love for us should be the most effectual motivator that we could ever have in our lives. If it isn't, there's something wrong.

If it isn't, then I think that to pray that Christ's love becomes the effective motivator it should be would be a very appropriate subject of prayer. And although Christ's love for us is beyond human comprehension, as we study and as we become better able to comprehend the dimensions of what God has done for us and what he will be doing through us, as Paul explains those things here in Ephesians and in other places, we will gain a better understanding of the magnitude of the love of Christ. I am of the personal opinion that after the Rapture and after God has worked his all ultimate power on us and on these corruptible sin cursed bodies, and when we're finally totally sanctified, phase three of our salvation and sanctification, then we're going to be able to see more clearly the love of Christ which passes knowledge. That's part of our hope in Christ and that's future. But here in Ephesians, these petitions in Paul's prayer have an ultimate purpose for our lives.

Now back to Ephesians 1, picking up again in verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. So Paul is praying that believers will gain wisdom, revelation, understanding and enlightenment. Now, what does Paul pray that we should be enlightened about? There are going to be three major areas of doctrine here in which God desires for us to have understanding and enlightenment. Let's see what the first area of that doctrine is.

Verse 18. The eyes of your understanding, being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling. The hope of his calling. Here is the first area of doctrine. We have a calling.

Do you know what the hope of God's calling is for the Body of Christ? Later on in this same epistle in chapter four, Paul is going to identify seven magnificent truths which we sometimes refer to as the seven verities pertaining to the Body of Christ. And one of those truths is the one hope for the Body of Christ. What a sad commentary it is on that which calls itself the Church today that there are so few believers, even whole churches, who understand the distinction between the earthly hope that belongs to the nation Israel and the heavenly hope which is the destiny of the church, the Body of Christ. How few believers there are who understand that we already positionally are seated in the heavenlies and that that's where our destiny and citizenship really is.

Or that we'll be judging angels in a literal governmental structure in the heavens, which God refers to as angels. Invisible principality. Colossians chapter 1. How many believers understand those truths? Not many.

Not many. These are truths that God desires all men to come to the full knowledge of in accordance with Paul's prayer in First Timothy 2:4, when Paul writes that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth, well, those are some more of the unsearchable riches of Christ to include in our second category of prayer. Who and what we are and have in Christ. Continuing on in Ephesians 1, verse 18, again, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Now we have the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

Here is the second area of doctrine that God would have us understand. Romans 8 tells us that we are heirs with Christ. Heirs with Christ. Can you really wrap your mind around that concept? Everything that Christ has, we have.

That's really a bit too much to fully comprehend. But that's another one of those 40 to 75 or more unsearchable riches of Christ which become a reality about us the instant we trust Christ and become saved. These are all things that are part of what we call the mystery and which are revealed to us only through our apostle Paul. These are things that a believer is never going to see or understand until he studies what Paul has written to us. And again, someone who's just trusted Christ, a new believer, the babe in Christ.

He doesn't know about any of these things until he begins to study Paul's epistles. Continuing on in Ephesians 1:19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places? So verse 19 speaks of the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe. Here's the third area of doctrine that God and Paul would have us understand here.

The power God. Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel of the grace of God is God's power unto salvation. Most Christians kind of have an idea of what that means, but there's a lot more involved in God's power than that, as we'll see as we look into Paul's second prayer for the Body of Christ in Ephesians chapter 3. So turn with me to Ephesians 3. And in this second of Paul's prayers for the Ephesians and for the Body of Christ, we're going to see some very important things that Paul is praying for us in this prayer.

We're going to see five specific purpose clauses in this prayer, beginning in verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.

Verse 16 says, to be strengthened with might. Here is the first purpose clause, to be strengthened with might. You could just as well read this, to be strengthened with might power, because it's the same Greek word for power that we saw in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 19. Paul is going to be telling us how it is that the Body of Christ can generate the power that is available to it through the word of God.

How is this power obtained? How is this strengthening done? Well, verse 16 here begins to answer those questions. Verse 16 says, by his Spirit. This is one of the wonderful and amazing functions of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.

And we'll see much more about this as we go along. And also, where is this done? Verse 16 answers that question as well. It says, in the inner man. And we'll see much more about this very soon.

But do you understand that anything and everything which God considers good and fruitful in our lives that's ever going to be accomplished by the believer is going to be done through the power of the indwelling spirit of God working through the inner man. We need to understand that this is an operation of God and that this operation of God is every bit as supernatural and every bit as powerful as any of the miraculous events that ever happened on behalf of Israel as part of their Kingdom program. There is great power in this operation of God which is going on in the inner man. And we're going to look at this some more later on. But for now, this power that Paul is referring to here is one of the magnificent riches of Christ that we as believers are able to access.

But you can't access this power unless you first know about it. You see, it's the things that we know, things that we reckon to be true from this letter to the Ephesians and other of Paul's teachings. It's those things that we know which are going to empower our lives. So in chapter one in Ephesians, Paul's prayer focused on wisdom and understanding. Here in chapter three, the focus is going to now be on the power that is available to us.

Now. I hope at this point that you can see that these prayers of Paul for the believers of his day are just as much intended for us. That these are prayers for us and for every member of the Body of Christ. Continuing on in Ephesians 3:17 again, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Here is the second purpose clause. Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. What does Paul mean by this? Well, to dwell in a place is to be somewhere where you can comfortably settle down and be at home.

There's a difference between living somewhere and dwelling somewhere. When you're on vacation for a week or two, you might live in a motel room or in a hotel room, or in a camper, or maybe in a tent. But you'll never likely be able to consider that a place in which you really dwell. Most believers come to understand that Christ is in us. But does he dwell there comfortably?

Does he feel at home there in our souls? And are you comfortable having him there? Or are you comfortable having him there only for a few hours every Sunday morning when you're with us, other like minded Christians? Verse 17 again, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

The heart. Paul uses this phrase many times in his letters and when he does, heart is almost always synonymous with the mind, literally with your thinking process. It's a function of the inner man which occurs within the soul of the man. And it's critically important that you understand the role of your thinking process in everything we're talking about here today. Is Christ at home in your thinking?

Turn for a moment to Colossians 3:16. Paul's letter to the Colossians is like a companion letter to the Ephesians, and vice versa. You can gain tremendous amounts of information and understanding from one letter by looking at verses in the other letter and back and forth that way. Look at verse 16, which says, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. In all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. Here is that word dwell again.

Do you see here that it's the Word of Christ that is supposed to dwell in us richly? Is the Word of Christ dwelling in you richly? Is the Word of Christ dwelling in you comfortably? Is the word of Christ dwelling in you at all?

That's what this is all about. Christ, the living Word, dwelling in you. You want to turn your attention to the board for a minute.

In the 2009 study we did on prayer, I referred to this equation that you see at the top of the board as an equation of equivalencies. It's on the website as part of that study, but I changed the order of the four equivalencies here a little bit. And you can also see that there are some verses which you can tie all of these equivalencies to, and we'll talk about some of them as we go along here. But this equation just very helpful to me to tie all these things together and help me understand these things that we're talking about here today. And it all begins with Christ as the word.

John 1:1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Christ was the Word. Christ was and is the Word. Everything begins with Christ the Word. And what else is Christ?

Christ is the Word, the living word. Right. John 1:14 says that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Word became the living Word, the Word became life. In John 14:6, Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, Christ the living Word". And what else is Christ? Christ is Christ, the written Word. You cannot separate Christ from the written word. And Colossians 3:16 just said, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

That is Christ in you. When the Word of Christ dwells in you richly, that is Christ, and Christ in you is your hope of glory. Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 1:27. Do you see all these equivalencies here and how everything is so interrelated?

Sadly, however, for many Christians, the only word of Christ that dwells in them comfortably is the Gospel of the Grace of God, which they understood and believed. Not to belittle that, I mean, that's a wonderful thing. But there's so much more to salvation than that. And it's that written word which becomes operational by the Holy Spirit working in and working on the thinking process inside the inner man. The thinking process is how the mind is renewed.

Turn with me to Romans 12, and we'll be looking at verses one and two. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Verse 2 says, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Your mind is where the thinking process is taking place, and that is in the inner man. And the Word of God never works in the inner man independent of the Spirit of God.

That's what walking in the Spirit is. And the Spirit of God never works in the inner man independent of the written Word of God. You can't separate the two. So then how important is it that you know the written word of God? How important is it that the Word of Christ dwells in you richly and comfortably?

Everything depends on this. And we're going to look some more a little later on in this study at this critical interaction between the Word, the Spirit of God, the inner man, and prayer. But let's turn back again and look some more at the Ephesians 3 prayer, Ephesians 3:17 again, That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love. Okay, in love. What love is Paul referring to here?

Is this our love for Christ, or is this our love for other members of the Body of Christ? Well, it's probably both, but especially our love for Christ. You might recall that love is the first of the nine fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, and following and preceding that verse in Galatians 5, Paul had just stated in Galatians 5:14 that all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Sometimes when I think about how much love I have for God and how much love I have for Christ and for fellow believers and for people in general, I end up not feeling so good about myself. Especially when I see other Christians, and sometimes these are Christians who I know don't have anywhere near as much doctrine as I do, yet they're demonstrating love so much more readily and genuinely than I do. That can be pretty sobering. But then that's a pretty good prayer request, wouldn't you say?

Paul thought it was. So while we're on the subject of this love, we might just look over in Philippians chapter one, Here in Philippians one, by the way, is Paul's third major exemplary prayer for the Body of Christ. And we're going to look at verse 9 here. Philippians 1, verse 9 and this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Paul is praying that love for one another among the Philippian saints should continue to increase, and therefore that our love for other members of the Body of Christ should increase as well.

And let's take a quick look at another one of Paul's prayers pertaining to this particular love in 1 Thessalonians 3, And we're going to begin there in verse nine.

For what thanks can we render to God again for you? Here's thanksgiving again for other members of the Body of Christ, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God, night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Now God himself, and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you in and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you.

Verse 12 says that the Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another and toward all men. Now we didn't look at this, but back in chapter one of this first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul had just praised these Thessalonian saints for having been such a commendable example of faith, love, and hope throughout all of Asia.

And now he's praying that we'll be able to love one another even more. So how important is this issue of love? This is our fourth category of prayer on the board, love for the Body of Christ. So praying that I might be a continually improving demonstration of love, I'm sure, is going to be something that will be appropriate for me to be praying for until the Rapture.

Let's go back to Ephesians 3, and we're going to look at verse 17 again. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye, being rooted and grounded in love. Especially our love for Christ for what he has done for us and everything that we have in Him. Notice that this is what we are supposed to be rooted and grounded in. Now, that's a very interesting metaphor. What do roots do? Roots sink down deep into the earth, and they draw out nourishment for growth.

Roots anchor the tree or the plant and give it stability. Roots provide the life. This is just like the man in Psalm 1, the very first Psalm, who is planted. The man who is planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth fruit in his season. That's the idea here. That is the ultimate goal. The love in this verse is going to provide the power to achieve this goal of bearing fruit.

Let's look at the verse again.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height.

Here we've got the breadth and length and depth and height, four directions. So what are the actual dimensions of these four directions? Doesn't tell us, does it? And what are they the dimensions of? Doesn't tell us that either. At least not in the verse it doesn't.

But there is a context here. There is a tremendous context here. And that context is everything that the book of Ephesians and other of Paul's writings are teaching us. I believe the dimensions here are referring to the magnitude of everything that God is doing today through the formation of the Body of Christ. That's what Ephesians is all about, especially these first three chapters. It's the advanced doctrine of what the book of Ephesians is all about.

So this is a reference really back to verses 8 through 11 in Ephesians 3 here, all those previously unsearchable riches of Christ and everything that comprises the fellowship of the mystery which had been previously unknown. The verse says that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height. That's the third purpose clause in the prayer here, get to know these things.

Get to know those 40 to 70 or more unsearchable riches of Christ, which are really going to be the things which will ultimately generate the power which is available to us. Look back at verse eight. Let's read the verse. Paul says unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ.

These are those truths which God desires all men to come to the full knowledge of in I Timothy 2:4. These are things that no man had any knowledge of, no matter how diligently they searched through the written word of God before Paul.

Turn with me to I Corinthians 2:9, Paul writes, But it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart that is the thinking of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

Before the risen Lord Jesus Christ had given Paul all this doctrine for the Body of Christ, nobody could have ever even dreamed that all these things that we've been talking about would become our destiny. But they are. And God and Paul are longing for us to understand these things, because that is what will generate the power which we need. Verse 10 says that God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. All those unsearchable riches of Christ are ours.

Do you know what they are? Does most of what calls itself Christianity today know what they are? I'm sad to say that they do not. They just spend most of their time in the Gospel accounts reading about what Jesus did. Nothing wrong with that, but that's not where we are today.

Back to Ephesians 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. To know the love of Christ. Here is our fourth purpose clause in the passage. To know the love of Christ. We already saw in Philippians 3 how important that was to Paul to know Christ better.

We just looked at the love which we're supposed to be grounded in, verse 17. And I propose to you that that love was love issuing out from us as our demonstrations of love towards God and towards Christ and towards others. And we saw from those verses in 1 Thessalonians 3, that praying for our love to increase in these areas is certainly an appropriate thing to pray for. But here we have Christ's love for us.

And the verse here teaches us that the magnitude of Christ's love for us is beyond our ability to comprehend it. But it is a goal. The Love of Christ. The term the Love of Christ appears only three times in Paul's writings. In Romans, chapter 8, verse 35, it's found in the context of the eternal security which we have in Christ. We can't lose these things.

In II Corinthians 5:14. It's found in the context of our motivation for service. We touched on that a little bit earlier, and that's just what it does here in Ephesians 3:19. Let's read the verse again.

And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Here is the fifth purpose clause, here is the ultimate goal. What does it mean to be filled with the fullness of God? Well, you can certainly look at this as being filled with Christ, Christ in us and living through us. This is the word of Christ dwelling in us richly, as we saw in Colossians 3:16, with the goal of being conformed to the image of Christ. And that is exactly what Paul means in Ephesians 5:18. If you'll just turn the page over to the fifth chapter of Ephesians, and look at verse 18. Paul writes, and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Be filled with the Spirit. Understand that to be filled with the fullness of God is to be filled with the Spirit of God, which is done when the words of Christ dwell in us richly. And that means that we need to know what the words of Christ are and what the will of God is for us. It is critically important that we know what the will of God is for our lives. Turn over to Colossians chapter one.

Here in Colossians one is another of Paul's four exemplary prayers for the Body of Christ. And look at verse 9.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

The verse says that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will. It seems that most people who consider themselves Christians today are never really quite sure what the will of God is for their lives. And that's pretty sad, because if you don't know what the will of God is for your life, you're not going to know what to pray for or how to pray the way you ought to pray. Romans chapter 8, verse 26 tells us that we know not what we should pray for as we ought, and we're going to look specifically at that passage in some depth later on in the study. But for now I just want to say that knowing how to pray the way we ought to pray begins by knowing what the will of God is for our lives.

In this dispensation of grace, the will of God is executed through a knowledge of the word of God working on the inner man of the believer through the activity of prayer. Prayer and the will of God are inseparable, and carrying out the will of God is accomplished by the energizing power of the Holy Spirit. We saw that power in both of the two Ephesians prayers, the power and the might of God. So now let me direct your attention over to the board again. We'll talk a little bit about the schematic you see over on the lower right hand side illustrating this functional triad consisting of three components. Those three components are the will of God or the word of God up at the top there and prayer and the supernatural energizing power of the Holy Spirit.

And notice that this is an operation that takes place where in the inner man. As you can see, the inner man is in the center of this triad because that's where our minds are going to be renewed. Now you might recall that we studied the process of mind renewal quite extensively in the study we did on the three phases of salvation, sanctification and the Christian life. In that study, on the three phases, which is on the website, we used a schematic which illustrated the three part anatomy of the believer, the spirit, the soul and the body. So all this that you see here in our little triad here, this is occurring in the soul and spirit of the man, in the inner man.

Now, just to review that information briefly, what we saw is that the spirit of the believer is where the believer is capable of understanding the things of God. He has God's spirit. The believer is capable of understanding the word of God by virtue of his previously dead spirit being made alive at the moment of phase one salvation. So the believer is now capable of understanding doctrine. But we also saw that simply understanding doctrine alone does not automatically result in phase two, progressive sanctification, or a changed life or fruit bearing, or however you want to describe the process of sanctification.

Those changes which are supposed to take place do not take place until doctrine is successfully transferred from the spirit of the believer into the soul of the believer, where it will then be allowed to dwell comfortably and produce those changes. Colossians 3:16.

We saw that whether or not a believer were to allow that doctrine to dwell comfortably in the soul was a function of the will. The will is also located in the soul of the believer. So the believer has to make a choice. And there are going to be situations where we are simply not motivated enough to allow this transfer to take place. Doctrine into the soul. There are going to be situations where we would rather function according to our own will.

That's what Romans 7 is all about. This is where the flesh is warring against the spirit and the spirit warring against the flesh, Galatians 5:17, and all this is taking place in the soul of the inner man. So we are now looking at this functional triad consisting of the will of God or the word of God. Colossians 3:16, the energizing power of the Holy Spirit of God, and prayer. And remember again that this energizing power of the Holy Spirit is every bit as powerful and supernatural as any of the healings or other miracles that ever took place in Israel's program as a believer prays or simply contemplates the Word of God. Because there really is no difference between the two. And I'm sure that is exactly what Paul means in I Thessalonians 5:17 where he exhorts us to pray without ceasing. Or in Romans chapter 12, verse 12 where we read how that the believer is to be continuing instant in prayer.

Understand folks, that all you really need to do to pray is to be thinking about or contemplating the word of God constantly running through your mind. The will of God, the words of Christ as you understand them. Are they dwelling in you the way they should? Or do you just have a head knowledge of what those things are? And you need to understand also that this whole transformation takes place only in someone who believes.

Turn over to 1 Thessalonians 2:13 for a moment. Paul writes, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

And if you haven't already cross referenced this verse with Philippians 2, verse 13, you should because that verse says that it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That should be easy to make the connection. They're both chapter two, verse 13.

So we have this three component triad consisting of the will of God, prayer and the energizing power of the Holy Spirit. And we have this two part cooperative effort. Hopefully it's a cooperative effort, so to speak, between our will and the Holy Spirit. And again, our inner man is in the center of the triad. And this entire supernatural energizing of the Holy Spirit is only operational if our will allows Christ's words to dwell comfortably in our soul.

And this might be a good point at which to look at Romans 8:26 to learn some things about how the Holy Spirit operates in these issues having to do with prayer. And that is a subject that we'll pick up in the next session next week.