Daily Journal: 3 November

Strengthened with Power

I desire that Christ dwell in my heart, that I am rooted and established in His love and that I will understand how wide and long and high and deep His love is. I desire to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, and that I be effective in the skills He gives me to use.

Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Filled to the measure of all fullness.

That sounds amazing. I can’t grasp that on my own. Christ’s indwelling comes through faith. But I need more than that. Ephesians 3:16-19 says I need power.

Power?

This is my prayer. I don’t understand this passage of power. But I want it. I want to be strengthened with power through God’s Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart. I want to be deeply rooted and established in His love that is so deep it surpasses knowledge – that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. This is my prayer.

How is it that I need the Holy Spirit’s power to have the faith for Christ to dwell in me and so that I can understand His love? Why power? Why not the grace of Christ? Or the fellowship of the Holy Spirit? Or the anointing? What is this power that I need to be established in His love and to be effective in His ministry?

In a quick study of the word power, it refers to the being of the Holy Spirit. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that enables my spiritual understanding to be opened, my eyes to be opened, my heart to receive, my mind to conceive (Micah 3:8); with the same power that will come with Jesus Christ in His glory when every person will see Him (Matthew 24:30); not just with words but with power and deep conviction (1 Thessalonians 1:5); clothed in Him (Luke 24:49); by His power who rules with a mighty arm (Isaiah 40:10).

This is the power I need. This is the power I am strengthened with. I cannot conceive it on my own.

This is the power, the power of the Holy Spirit, that opens, strengthens, convicts, brings sight and understanding and fills me with His unsurpassable knowledge and love. This power is full of His righteousness and justice. It is by His power that I am given all that He is and speaks about.

Exodus 31:3 (NIV)

and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

Yes please, Lord. This is my prayer.