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Building The Body Study 11 - Prayer for the Body

  • 6 days ago
  • 15 min read

Ephesians 3:14-21 NIV 

[14] For this reason I kneel before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. [16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. [20] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

How do you pray for your church? 


Of course, I’m presuming that you’re in a church and that you want to pray for it. Nowadays these may be big assumptions. 


Most churches have some form of prayer chain or messaging group. When I was growing up, it was literally a chain, as messages were transmitted by telephone from one person to another down a long list. To be honest, if you were further down the chain, you might be wondering if what you were praying about had actually happened or if the information had somehow gotten distorted while it was being transmitted. 


Nowadays, with social networking, prayer needs are sent instantly. 


But did we ever pray like this for anyone? 


Somehow, I doubt it. 


This passage contains one of the most incredible prayers in all of the Bible. What Paul seeks for this Ephesian church is quote astounding. 


Yet, if you boil it down to its essence, this prayer is focused around three key needs for the church that even secular people pursue. 


The first if these, perhaps surprisingly, is Riches. 

 

Riches 

Ephesians 3:14-16 NIV 

[14] For this reason I kneel before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. [16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. 

How many people do you know have treated God like a glorified genie and asked Him to make them rich? I’m guessing more than would like to admit to it.  


How many do you know have thrown a massive tantrum when God doesn’t do it? 


How many do you know have brought a financial need before the Lord? I know I have – more times than I could remember. I have even sat in prayer meetings when a specific number has been mentioned and people have prayed about it. I have even led those prayer meetings. And yes, God has provided – sometimes even more than I needed. 


I once heard a great missionary leader say that the resources his organisations needed had already been given by God, they just needed to be re-routed to their bank account. 


It is not ever wrong to bring before God a specific financial need. I have seen God supply it in truly marvellous ways, sometimes even before we were aware of the need. 


In all of this, we could on these marvellous Scriptural truths: 


Psalms 37:25 NIV 

[25] I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.37.25.NIV)


Psalms 50:9-10 NIV 

[9] I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, [10] for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 

Matthew 6:33-34 NIV 

[33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Philippians 4:19 NIV 

[19] And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/php.4.19.NIV)


All of these are true. Absolutely true. They can be counted on as if your life depends on it. 


But that is not what Paul was talking about here. 


Look again very carefully at verse 16: 


Ephesians 3:16 NIV 

[16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.3.16.NIV)


Paul was not praying that the Ephesians would become financially rich. Neither was he even praying that their physical needs would be met. 


No, he was praying that God would meet their spiritual needs. 


And that is a very important distinction. 


You see, when we see the word ‘riches’, we assume that Paul was talking about money. We start seeing dollar signs and praying for a Lamborghini. In fact, the Greek word used there can also be translated as ‘resources’, and God has infinite resources at His disposal. But again, those resources are not there to make us rich. 


Those who spin that heinous lie are doing so to convince people to support their ministry to make them rich. It’s the religious equivalent of a Ponzi scheme and anyone financially supporting it is very much at the bottom of the pyramid. 


I would even go as far as to say that they are a patsy. A mark. 


A victim of a con. 


But when Paul talked of riches here, what He meant was God deploying His resources to help the Ephesians remain faithful to God in very trying circumstances and grow in their faith and knowledge of Him. It was inner strength, inner resilience, inner resources. Not a large bank balance. 


He spoke about something similar to the Philippians: 


Philippians 2:12-13 NIV 

[12] Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 

Paul prayed that God would deploy His infinite resources, not for a missionary cause or for a social programme or even a building project (and none of these are wrong), but so that the church in Ephesus would be strong and grow. 


I wonder: would we pray the same thing for our church? 


So we see that Paul prayed about wealth, but in a totally different way than our secularised prosperity ‘churches’ would. Paul then goes on to pray about something else we are quite afraid to pray about: Power. 

 

Power 

Ephesians 3:16-21 NIV 

[16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. [20] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

Power. 


It’s like a drug. People become addicted to it. Then they chase it with everything they’ve got and risk everything they have to get it, before realising that someone else is more powerful than them.  


That is the painful reality. 


Even those who reach the very pinnacle of their careers and become one of the most powerful people in the world ultimately find out that there are more powerful forces than them: 


Time. 


Sickness. 


Mortality. 


They bow to no man and never will. 


Think about it. How many strongman rulers have come and gone? How many powerful regimes have crumbled? 


The psalmist wrote these words: 


Isaiah 40:6-8 NIV 

[6] A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. [7] The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. [8] The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.40.6-8.NIV)


There are many nowadays who pursue power for power’s sake. They have no particular aim for what they will do or achieve when they get into power, they just want to have power. 


We should very wary of such people. 


But then we look at these words and all of a sudden our concept of what it means to be powerful and the power we should seek are all thrown into utter chaos. Paul doesn’t pray for the Ephesian church to have secular power, or political power, or industrial power. 


No, He prayed for them to have three different types of power. 


The first of these is spiritual power. 


Ephesians 3:16 NIV 

[16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.3.16.NIV)


Now, this is where we might misunderstand this concept entirely. Our concept of spiritual power is more connected to the world of fantasy than it is to theological reality. Paul is not praying for them to be mighty spiritual warriors who slay demons with a swish of their Sword of the Spirit. As much as I enjoyed reading the fantasy novels written by the Christian author Francis Peretti in the 1990s, that is exactly why they were – fantasy. God’s people are not meant do be doing things like that. 


No, this spiritual power, as we will see much later in famous verses in Ephesians 6:10-17, is the power to withstand and resist, not advance and destroy. 


Paul was praying for the Ephesians to have the inner strength to remain resilient in the face of overwhelming threats. 


The second power, as we will explore more later, is perceptive power: the power to perceive that you are loved. 


Again, this is a power we might grossly misunderstand. This is not the power to become a big-headed, blowhard braggard who sees themselves as being superior to everyone else. 


No, it’s the power to perceive that you are loved by God, even while you are being hated by people. For Paul, and also for the Ephesian church, facing Jewish persecution and Gentile opposition, this was such an important aspect upon which to build their lives. That’s why Paul later wrote these words: 


Romans 8:28, 35-39 NIV 

[28] And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  
[35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [36] As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” [37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Believing that the God who rules the universe loves them and is working out His good purposes even through persecution and pain is what would have kept these Ephesian Christians strong. 


I wonder: does it do the same to us? 


Apart from spiritual and perceptive power, Paul also prayed for them to believe in God’s effective power: 


Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV 

[20] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

I find this benediction very interesting. Bearing in mind the trouble situations in which both Paul and the Ephesians found themselves, Paul didn’t pray that God would show His power by ending their struggles and conveying them all to Heaven on a carpet of cotton-candy clouds. Instead, he focused on ‘His power... at work within us’.  


What is that power doing? 


Romans 8:29 NIV 

[29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.29.NIV)


Philippians 2:12-13 NIV 

[12] Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 

That power is conforming us to the likeness of God’s Son. That power is making us more like Jesus. And not in spite of our suffering, but sometimes using that suffering to do so. 


That’s quite a different perspective than we are used to. 


It’s definitely not how we’re used to perceiving power. Too many so-called Christians have attached themselves like conscienceless limpets to rising politicians, excusing their power-hungry behaviour by believing that the politicians will promote their interests. The truth is that they won’t: populist politicians do not care a jot about the people they serve. Their only attention is to gain power by any means. If any loony or group no longer serves their personal interests, then they lobby or group will be discarded like yesterday’s trash, as we have seen happens frequently. 


I do not believe for a second that it is at all part of our calling as believers to seek political power over every other consideration. It’s the Lord's kingdom we should be building, not our own. 


Think about Paul. He would have considerable power and influence as a member of the Sanhedrin. After becoming a Christian, he made no attempt to regain that power. In fact, he did several things – like being instrumental in bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles – which would have made a return to the Sanhedrin completely impossible. 


God’s view of power and ours are two completely different things. God wants us to receive His power and to use it to bring glory to Him, not to use it for our own personal agenda.


That is why Paul prays that the Ephesians would have spiritual, perceptive and effective power, not political power. 


Apart from wealth and power, Paul also prays about something everyone both wants and needs: Love 

 

Love 

Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV 

[16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

At first, this may seem like a paradox. How can you know something that is beyond knowledge? How can you measure that which is infinite? 


Perhaps a quote from modern thinker David T. Freeman might help: ‘The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know; the less you know, the more you think you know.’ 


This principle can be applied to the love of Christ. His love is firmer than the ground beneath our feet and more reliable than the air we breathe. If we underestimate it, or worse, believe that somehow He does not love us, then the very foundations of our existence begin to shake. We doubt His intentions. We cast aspersions on His actions. We believe ourselves to be facing an Almighty being with a heart we do not trust. We begin to be seriously uncertain, perhaps even paranoid. We do not see any way out of our situation, except in death. 


We dynamite any chance of resilience or strength in the face of suffering. Endurance becomes an impossibility. 


We actually weaken ourselves. 


We find ourselves saying similar things to Job’s wife: 


Job 2:9 NIV 

[9] His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/job.2.9.NIV)


But when we believe in God’s everlasting and endless, dimensionless, limitless love for us, when we perceive its unending dimensions, then we believe this: 


Romans 8:28, 35-39 NIV 

[28] And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  
[35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [36] As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” [37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

And we are strong.  


No, more: we are utterly invincible. 


There is also another aspect to this.  


Let’s imagine that you only have five pence in your pocket. That’s all. It’s not a huge sum of money. 


Now, if someone comes in front of you with a need, you are less inclined to help because you only have five pence, right? You don’t know when you will need that money. You will be afraid to give it away because you don’t know when you will next have money. 


But what if you have five billion pounds in your bank account, with a promise of five billion more each day? Meeting small, everyday needs is as nothing to you. In fact, you would barely notice it.  


It’s like that with love. If you are unfortunate enough to live in a situation where love is absent, you will barely know what it is, let alone be willing to share it around. 


But if you understand that you are loved by Almighty God, and that His love for you knows no limits, then you will draw on those reserves and love without limits. 


That is why Paul wanted the Ephesians to have the power to truly know the love of God. 


Do you see the difference it would make for them? 


So tell me, Christian: do you feel loved? 

 

Conclusion 

Ephesians 3:14-15 NIV 

[14] For this reason I kneel before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  

I woke up this morning to the news that a well-regarded American actress had been found dead at the age of just 36 years old. Harden Panattiere, star of, among many others, the TV show ‘Heroes’, had written an autobiography where she recounted the hurt and pain and abuse and objectifiction she had endured even as a teenager. It all seems to have gotten too much for her. Police reported no signs of physical trauma or struggle. 


It’s so very sad when people with so much potential endure suffering like that and do not have the will to continue. 


That’s why prayers like Paul's are important. Here in this prayer we see the secrets of enduring incredible pain, beyond what most can bear. 


We see firstly that he prayed for the Ephesians to understand God’s riches: the infinite resources He had at His disposal, not to make them rich, but to make them strong enough to face their difficult situations and bring God glory through them. He prayed that they would know God’s infinite power, and see how God was using that power to support them.


He prayed that they may become ever more aware of how much God loved them, which is something we often forget when hard times hit. 


On visiting a Christian conference around twenty-five years ago, a Chinese house church leader asked his British audience to not pray that the persecution of his movement by the Chinese government would end. 


Maybe that surprises you. Persecution is tough. It is painful. It threatens family life. It reduces income. It pushes towards poverty. It is a serious existential threat. 


Yet that leader did not want people to pray for it to end. 


Why? 


Because in the midst of their suffering, they were experiencing in full 8K technicolour what we experience in greyscale. They were experiencing the resources God has at His disposal, the deep love He has for all of us and His saving power in ways that we often don’t even perceive because our life is comfortable. 


It is in hard times that we truly discover what we have in Jesus Christ. 


That is why that Chinese house church leader did not pray for comfort. And it is why we too should change our perspective a little. Instead of hurrying for the exit door when we experience hardship, maybe it would be better to look for God in and find out what He is doing. 


Because there is a deep blessing there we otherwise cannot experience. 

 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, thank You that You are with me in times of trouble and that Your wealth, power and love stand beside me at all times to lead and guide me through it. Help me to not rush for the exit door, but to ask what purpose You could have for me there. Amen. 

 

Questions for Contemplation  

  • What did Paul pray the Ephesians would have and know and receive from God? How would this have helped them as a church? 

  • What do you think about what Paul prayed for the suffering church in Ephesus? Would you have prayed for this for them? 

  • Has this changed your perspective on your situation? 

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