This morning we continue our series, “Maximizing 2015 by God’s GREAT GRACE.” This is the last week of January and many of us will be wrapping up our fasts. Since fasting and prayer go hand-in-hand, I have been teaching on prayer. We have walked through Ephesians chapter one and most of chapter two. Back in chapter one we learned from a prayer Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus. It was a grace-based prayer. For the next few days I feel led to share a few of Paul’s prayers with you and we will seek to see the grace of God in each prayer. Today’s prayer is found in Ephesians chapter three.
Paul’s grace-based prayer: “So I bow in prayer before the Father. Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you. With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21 ERV).
So what does this mean to you today? There’s so much I could talk about in this prayer that I could teach on it for a week, but I will attempt to summarize my thoughts and simply give you a few nuggets.
1. Pray to the Father.
a) Paul prayed to the Father.
b) Because of Jesus, we have the grace to go directly to the Father in His name.
c) Pray to the Father in the name of His Son, through the power of His Spirit.
2. Pray for the Father to give you strength in your spirit, through His Spirit.
a) Paul prayed, “I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit.”
b) God has limitless power and He makes His power available to us through His Spirit.
c) Through God’s empowerment (or grace) we can operate in power that far exceeds human ability.
3. Pray for understanding concerning the depth and breadth of God’s love.
a) Paul prayed that we would understand “the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is.” Paul said, “Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love.”
b) When you get a revelation of the love of God, it will change you forever.
c) Once you know how much God loves you and all He planned to do in your life by grace, your perspective of Him and your future will change forever.
4. Pray to be filled with everything God has for you.
a) Paul taught that once you get a revelation of God’s love and all He planned to do in your life by grace, “Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.”
b) Your life is not about you. It’s about God’s assignment for your life; an assignment God issued before the world began.
c) If you allow yourself to DIE TO SELF, you will be in position to receive God’s GREAT GRACE and 2015 will be the best year of your life.
5. Pray for God to reveal and manifest His best in your life – which is far greater than anything you could ever ask for, think of, or even imagine.
a) God’s plans for your life are far greater than your plans!
b) Paul said, “With God’s power working in us” — which keeps the emphasis on God and His grace — “God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of.”
c) God is the one with the power and He is the one who wants to flow His power through you; by His grace, for His glory.
d) When God’s power flows through you there is nothing you can’t do. That is the power of dying to self and yielding to God’s grace.
*** This is the season of the Greater Grace for you. This Greater Grace will not come to you with more TRYING. It will come with more DYING!
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for Your Great Grace towards me. I also thank You for teaching me to pray from a position of grace. I declare that I have received supernatural power in my spirit, through Your Spirit. Your power flowing through me enables me to do what I could never do on my own. I am Your legs to walk, Your mouth to talk, and Your hands to touch. I die to self and You flow through me freely. I am willing to die to self because I am learning more and more about Your amazing love. You love me with an everlasting love. You love me more than I could ever love you. Your love is changing me from the inside-out. The more I get a revelation of Your love, the more I am open to ALL You have for me. My life is not about me. My life is about You and the plans You made for me before the world began. Your plans are great than mine. Through the power You have placed IN me, You are able to do far greater than anything I could ever ask for, think of, or even imagine. So here I am Father, I am clay in Your hands, yielding to Your plans, an instrument for Your glory. I die to ME and as I do, You then use me to change the world! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper!
