Paul's Easter Prayer

Click on this slide and then press the spacebar to advance slides: ➜ (or swipe on a touch screen)

Goal: To receive the power and victory in this prayer

Now we have the prayer itself:
Can you tell me why I have marked the purple words?
- One of those wonderful places where the Trinity is just assumed, and woven into the words
The essence of the prayer is for “Wisdom, Revelation & Knowledge”
- Do you often pray those for people? I do pray for wisdom, but I must confess not really...
- All of these are from the Spirit
- I don’t think there is a big distinction—
  - Wisdom
  - Revelation
  - Knowledge of God
- But this is just the lead-up to the content
One more idea before we get to the content
- the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
- What do you think that means?
  - Obviously it is using picture language since our heart does not have eyes!
- Not an intellectual knowledge, but connects with our emotions
- Yet it not just emotion, but we say, “Ah, I see it now!”

The laws of the Lord are right,
making the heart glad;
the command of the Lord is radiant,
making the eyes light up.

What he has already done, (he has loved us and called us to be his) which leads to a certain hope
What is will do in the next life, the inheritance
But is this our inheritance?
The power available to us now!

All Covid viruses and other health challenges
- All immigration authorities
  - All employment agencies and H/R departments
    - All relationships
      - All finances

Having stripped powers and authorities,
he made a public display of them, triumphing over them in it.
Therefore let no one judge you…

[Do not submit yourselves to:]
self-imposed religion,
self-abasement,
and unsparing treatment of the body,
but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

So my first application was internal—the voices in our head
- How would the voices in your head be different if you truly believed these things?
- Now we come to the external
2. Because this is not how he applies it later in Ephesians
A large part of the second half of Ephesians is about relationship: home, work, church
The evil forces plant ideas in our minds about how we are to relate to others
- Slave: “you’re a nothing, you are worthless, just do your job”
- Sadly some of us experience this in the workplace!
- I am a child of the king and it’s him I am really serving here
  - I am far, far above you, my dear boss, in spiritual status (don’t say this)
    - but I want to do as good a job as possible because to please my beloved Jesus!
Same deal with husbands and wives
- Husband: I get to lay down my life for you, dear wife, not because you deserve it (although she might) but because I get to model my dear Jesus
How to access?
Why does Paul not mention Jesus’s death on the cross?
Paul thinks this is the most important

Ask God to enlighten the eyes of your heart so you see
- The love and security he has called you into
- The incredible richness of your future
- The power available to you
Ask God to help you walk in the truth of your true status
- Your beloved in higher than the highest
- Don’t tell yourself lies, or allow others to tell you them
Focus on what God wants you to do, and you have nothing to fear!