ne point of emphasis in the Scriptures that warrants our attention is the Lord's pleasure in using His people to declare His glory. If we meditate on this truth honestly, we will find within ourselves an urgent appetite for prayer.
Through His people, God displays His character to all creatures, especially to unbelievers. This is clearly demonstrated in the Exodus, after the Lord delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. Following the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, Moses sang these words together with the children of Israel: The people will hear and be afraid; sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Palestina . . . Fear and dread will fall on them; by the greatness of Your arm they will be as still as a stone, till the people whom You have purchased pass over . . . The Lord shall reign forever and ever (Exodus 15:14-18). This song announced that the glory of God, which He had manifested in His people, was demonstrated clearly to the pagan nations.
A generation later, the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, and by the Lord's hand, they defeated Jericho. Before the battle, we see an interesting remark from one of the inhabitants of that city: For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt . . . And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath (Joshua 2:10-11).
We see here the effect wrought in unbelievers when the Lord works in His people. Those in Jericho did not lose heart because Israel was mighty, but because they knew that Israel's God was God in heaven above and on earth beneath. When God truly works in His people, the attention is never on man, but rather on God Himself. May this be true of us as well! He is our strength, our glory, and our victory. May His attributes shine through us!
Perhaps the most startling truth in this connection is found in Ephesians 3, where Paul writes regarding the mystery that God will save the nations. This mystery was hidden from the beginning of the ages, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him (vv. 9-12). Not only are God's people (the church) His billboard to display His glory to all men, but also to celestial beings as well. In this text we see this to be the purpose of the church — God's eternal purpose. And by what means does God accomplish this purpose? By granting us confident access to Himself, and by making us bold.
As we follow this discussion in Ephesians 3, we see what results from meditating on God's purpose for the church. The result is prayer. Paul continues in verse 14 with a note of application: For this reason I bow my knees . . . If we follow Paul's example, we come away with specific directions for prayer.
is named by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 14-15). He has made us His children, and He has brought us into a familial relationship with one another. He is our Head and we are His body. We do not establish or preserve this relationship; He does. For this reason we pray to Him.
2. We pray in the strength which is according to the riches of His glory (v. 16). The riches of God's glory are defined in Colossians 1:27 as Christ in you, the hope of glory. Thus we pray according to Christ. And so we pray according to this great truth: And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom. 8:10).
3. In the two directions above we are presented with the mindset that is behind our prayer. Now we turn to the substance of the prayer, beginning with the request that the saints be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man (v. 16). Here we pray for the inside of our cup, for true integrity is established in the inner man. Of course, the strength comes not from ourselves but through His Spirit. Our dependence on Him is absolute. 4. We ask that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (v. 17). Notice that we are requesting that which forms a basis of our prayer. The basis of our prayer — the indwelling of Christ — is the request we make in our prayer for others.
5. We ask in prayer that you . . . may be able to comprehend . . . what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge (v. 17-19). This request is profound in that it asks God to accomplish in us what is impossible on the human level. In light of the eternal purpose of the church, no other sort of prayer would suffice. We ask to know something which is beyond knowledge or knowing. The precious object of this knowledge is the love of Christ. Scripture tells us of only one path to such knowledge: By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us (1 Jn. 3:16). Such knowledge is only God-given, thus we ask Him for it.
5a. We ask in prayer that this knowledge would come from being rooted and grounded in love (v. 17). Here we pray that knowledge of Christ's love would come by a particular means, and the means is love itself. Knowledge of Christ's love does not come out of bitterness or malice, it comes from being rooted and grounded in love. Only love yields a genuine knowledge of Christ's love.
5b. All this we pray for all the saints (v. 18). Knowledge of Christ's love is our desire for the whole body of Christ, the true catholic church. We must not restrict this request for those with whom we are close; we must pray for the entire church.
6. We ask that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (v. 19). Earlier in this epistle, Paul remarks that the church is the fullness of God (1:23). Our grand request here is that God would wonderfully manifest His glory through His people -- the very thing that prompted Paul to pray this way in the first place.
When Paul considers God's eternal purpose for the church, which is to display the manifold wisdom of God, he prays for the church. This prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19 is a model for us. We should pray for others this way as we meditate on God's eternal purpose — a divine purpose that is not accomplished by us, but rather by Christ Jesus our Lord (v. 11). Let us therefore, as the fullness of Christ, pray for one another (Eph. 3:20-21).
