The Spirit Of The Lord
6. Power Through His Spirit
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, (Ephesians 3:16 NKJV)
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (Ephesians 3:17 NKJV)
I pray that he would give you, according to his glorious riches, strength in your inner being and power through his Spirit. Ephesians 3:16
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, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20 – 3:21 NKJV)
Might or power in the inner man means that Christ is dwelling in us. This means knowing and experiencing the love of Christ. Christ is the power and wisdom of God. He can live in you with a lot of glory and He can live in you with scanty or no glory. He is there but you won’t feel or experience His glory just like when the glory left Israel. Do you remember Ichabod ?- the glory has departed or no glory.
God is everywhere but His glory is not everywhere. His glory dwells in heaven and visits earth. However, He is in Hell as the omnipresent God in all of creation, but His glory is completely absent in Hell. Wrath or punishment is what lives in hell and these are caused by the human nature and disobedience not God.
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. Psalm 139:8
The power of Christ resting upon the spirit of man is the love of Christ. It is possible for us to be Christians yet Christ is not dwelling in the inner man. Rather, weakness, infirmity and decay dwells in the inner man. Paul said this prayer because he recognised the need to pray for us to be strengthened with might or power in the inner man. God is able to do this in Jesus name.
Christ already lives in us. This is talking about Christ as the power and glory of God. It is talking about His manifest presence dwelling in us. Christ’s Spirit lives in every believer but the glory in every believer varies. The Bible says we are being transformed from glory to glory. This means that the glory or manifest presence of Christ in us must keep increasing, till we are filled up, and surrounded by His very essence, beauty and glory.
Christ dwelling in us through faith means unwavering belief in the blood of Jesus that set us free, praying with expectation and not wavering or doubting. It means constant praise, worship, thanksgiving and rejoicing. We do all these with persistence and perseverance without turning back or giving up.
These are all acts of faith. Faith is a multidimensional concept with many variables. As long as we embrace and practice the variables of faith persistently with love, worship, thanksgiving, praise and expectation God will not fail us. He is a faithful God – if we draw near to Him in faith, He will draw near to us.
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 3:20
And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Romans 8:10-11
The Scripture topic at the beginning of this post is also talking about the attributes of God. Christ can live in us yet we have not yet crucified the flesh and the Holy Spirit is not controlling our lives. Christ refers to the power, word, wisdom, glory, and grace of God. The more grace of God we have, the more understanding of the Scriptures which builds faith.
The more grace we have, the more we are able to practice the word of God, are led by the Spirit and follow God’s plan for our lives. The more grace we have, the more we are generally able to please God. These will ensure the manifest presence of God resting on us and going with us everywhere. Meaning that Christ now dwells in us and walks with us.
Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. Exodus 33:15
Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. Hebrews 13:9
Power resides in the grace of God and every good thing comes by the grace and ability of God. Man’s power is useless. The more we seek God and rely on His grace, the more successful we will be in our Christian lives. We cannot even have faith or practice the word of God without His grace so we must never forget the grace of God even as we seek Him and meditate on the Scriptures to build faith.
Only God and God alone can make us mature Christians. He alone can guarantee power in the inner man through His Spirit. He alone will enable Christ to dwell in us even as we wait upon Him and continue to seek His face daily.
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