A Prayer for You

One of my favorite prayers in Scripture is Ephesians 1:17-21 (AMP), so I pray this for all of you who read it:

“For I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation of insight into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints, and so that you can know and understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.”

The only way that we receive wisdom and revelation is when the Holy Spirit floods our understanding with light. And when He does, we know and understand and expect the good things that God has called us to. There are three things in this prayer that we can know – the hope of expecting good things that are to come, the abundance of what we will inherit as one who is set apart for God, and the surpassing greatness of His power toward those of us who believe. This is the same strength that He worked in Christ when He was raised from the dead and where He set Him at His own right hand in heaven, where He resides in authority and power and might over all angels and anyone who has a title, not only on the earth, but in heaven, now and in the age to come.

Paul’s prayer continues in Ephesians 3:16-21 (AMP), which I also pray for you:

“May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality. May Christ through your faith actually dwell in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of it; that you may really come to know practically, through experience for yourselves, the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge; that you may be filled through all your being unto all the fullness of God, may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself! Now to Him Who, by the action of His power that is at work within us is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think -- To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

This prayer is given so that you will be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit who indwells you. That you would so understand the permeating love of God through your own experience, that you would be filled to overflowing with God Himself. And to God, who is able to do more than we can ever ask or think, to Him be the glory forever.