Christ God and Holy Spirit All Live Inside a Christian

In fact, Paul starts out in Ephesians 3.14, saying, For this cause. In other words, because of something, and because of what? We have to go back to verse 1, where he started this statement before he was interrupted by his parenthesis. For this cause I pray. What cause? Back to verse 22 of chapter 2. Because you are built together in Him, for a habitation of God through the Spirit. That’s the point. In other words, because the believer has dwelling in Him Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit. All three mentioned in that verse.

In whom is Christ, God is mentioned, and in the Spirit. Because they all dwell in you, you are incredibly rich. And because of that resource, he prays that you would really begin to turn the power on, so that ultimately, verse 20 would be a reality, you would see exceeding abundantly above all you could ask or think, according to the power that works in you. Now this is the Christian’s turn on. He wants you to get to verse 20, where you’ll really see the power flow. And you’ve got the resources, you’ve got the engine, you’ve got the energy, you’ve got the power.

It’s all there, you’ve just got to turn it on. Now, in Paul’s discussion here of how to get turned on, there are five progressive steps. First of all, we go down through this progression. Now, I told you last time, this is a series in the Greek, what we call hina purpose clauses, a purpose result clause. Do this in order that this may happen, in order that this may happen, in order that this may happen, in order that this may happen. You can’t jump in the middle, you can’t start at the end, you’ve got to start in the beginning, and it’s a sequence, it’s a progression, and it all starts with inner strength, and then proceeds to the indwelling Christ, incomprehensible love, infinite fullness, and internal power.

Finally, you get to the place where internal power is released. But not until inner strength, the indwelling Christ, incomprehensible love, infinite fullness. And that leads to internal power. We’re going to cover these in the weeks to come. Now, let’s begin at the beginning. For the Christian to really get his power turned on, for the believer to really know the energy that is there in operation, he starts with this concept of inner strength, verse 16. Now, here’s Paul’s prayer, that you would be, first of all, strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.

Now, this is a very basic concept, but I want you to get it, so I’m going to keep it as simple as I can this morning. It is a very important and essential doctrine for the life of the Church of Christ, for your life. Here is the first step, strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. Now, this is where it all begins, if you’re going to know the power of God in your life. And you know, most Christians, as I say, never really experience it. They sort of limp along.

They can’t resolve their home conflicts. They have trouble getting along with their family. They can’t seem to adjust to the job. The neighbours give them problems. They’re sort of weak. They’re sort of infirm on the inside when challenged with an incredible or important opportunity for service to Christ. They feel inadequate. They try to do the best they can to be an example of Christ, but they falter. They have internal anxieties and pressures and problems. They’ve got to go to the Christian counselling centre. They’ve got to get help. You know, most Christians never ever get to Ephesians 3.20.

Never. They don’t even know what it is to see exceeding abundantly above all they can ask or think operating in them. They don’t even know that. But it isn’t God’s fault. It is theirs, because the energy is there, the availability is there, the engine is there, the riches are there. It’s only a matter of appropriation. And it’s a sad thing that Christians, as well as the rest of the world, suffer from a weak inner man. That’s what he is trying to overcome here. The inner man is the real issue. You have a weak inner man.

You suffer from frustration and mental strain and emotional and spiritual imbalance. Now we would expect the unregenerate world to lose the battle of the inner man, wouldn’t we? We don’t expect unregenerate people to have great self-control over sin. You know, we don’t go into the local bar and say, alright, everybody put that stuff down and shape up. You’re wasting your time. Last night we had a party in our neighbourhood. I mean, it was, if you lived anywhere near Balboa and Devonshire, you were at the same party. You were, no way you could avoid that party.

They had a rock, I don’t know if it was a band or not. It was a rock hysteria going on, with loud amplifiers and drums. The music made absolutely no sense. You could tell by just listening to it, it was right out of the pit. And kids everywhere. And this morning we came out, our front lawn had beer bottles all over the place. You know, that is not a good testimony for the pastor. So I had Marcy, and Marcy and I, we picked up the beer bottles and put them in the trash, and then we thought that that’s probably not a good testimony either.

So this afternoon, we’re going to dump them in the Jones trash across the street. No, we wouldn’t do that because they go here to Grace too. So, we won’t. But anyway, we’re now trying to think how we can get rid of them in the right way. But anyway, there were kids all over the place. There was drugs and, oh, it was just a terrible racket dragging up and down the street and all this. And Patricia and I were talking about the fact that, you know, first of all, these rowdy kids, what are they doing? You know, you can’t sleep and all this stuff.

And then I said, you know, I said, what else would you expect? What else would you expect from people who have no resources to control their inner man? They express it in whatever is permissible, whatever is allowable, and whatever feels good. What else can you possibly expect? These are just people without Jesus Christ. These are people with no resource to control the inner man. But on the other hand, you know, sometimes we as Christians find ourselves in a position where we don’t seem to be able to control it either. Maybe it comes out in the things we say, or the things we think, or the things we do that are unacceptable to God.

A failure to be obedient to follow up on spiritual resources, whatever it is, but very often it happens even to Christians. Sometimes we lose the struggle with the inner man. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit all live inside a Christian. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].