“Lord Jesus, teach us to pray with understanding and in alignment with Your purposes. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Act 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
We will consider one prayer of Apostle Paul. As we ponder on this prayer, let us ask the Lord that we will apply these matters to our lives. Let us pray that we will also learn to pray in this same way for one another.
Ephesians 1:17-23 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
Wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord or submission to His will. As we submit to His will there is a greater revelation of Him. If we do not submit to His will, even the little knowledge that we have of Him will be removed.
(18) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
The eyes of our understanding represent our mind, which is our worldview or our belief window to life. It is our belief window that determines our actions.
Our belief window to life must be God’s calling for each of us. God has a specific calling for each of us, which aligns and is within God’s overarching purpose, which is for man and creation to be reconciled with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is essential for us to know God’s calling. We must seek the heart of God to know His calling for us.
(19) and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
When we are surrendered and yielded to His calling for us, we must know that we are energised with the greatness of His mighty power. We must, daily, appropriate His mighty power into our circumstances, by faith. Our life, therefore, has purpose and movement. It is not a life that is stagnant and wasted.
(20) which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
This mighty power of God was demonstrated to us by Jesus rising from the dead. This is the power of Christ.
In a similar manner, when we see that things are not how they should be, we must speak and move matters from the state of death to the state of life. The devil’s strategy is to tell us that things are bad but ours is to operate in the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead. We live out our calling in the resurrected power of Christ.
(21) far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Jesus is now seated in the heavenly places, above all rule and authority. All rule and authority in this world and the next, submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. We, live, move and have our being in Jesus, which should make us realise the tremendous place to which the Lord has raised His church.
This is what the devil does not want the church of Jesus Christ to be conscious of. He makes us live in shallowness, powerlessness, and defeat. When we listen to the ways of the evil one, then we have wasted our life.
Remember the parable of the servant who did not multiply what his Master had given him. Did his Master excuse him? No. Listen to the Master’s verdict on this servant. Matthew 25:30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Living in defeat, powerlessness, and hopelessness, is not an option. The Lord has provided us with every needed resource for us to live victoriously in this world, whatever our situation may be. We are to exercise the rule of Jesus in our world by thrusting out the wicked one, for he is ruling this world, by deceit.
(22) And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, (23) which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The church is to bring the rule of God into this world. This is who we are and this is why we are here on earth. We are to reconcile man and creation back to God and we are to bring His kingdom rule here on earth. The keys of His kingdom have been given to His church.
Matthew 16:19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
This is the substance of Paul’s prayer for the church.
I pray that we will embrace this prayer for ourselves and we will also pray in the same manner for each other in the body of Christ.