EPH 3:14-21 For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. The dynamics of Paul’s intercessory prayers are seen in these two passages; let’s go back and notice what he prayed for.
1. In
EPH 1:17, Paul prayed that God the Father would provide for them the mystery doctrine they needed to metabolize.
2. In
EPH 1:18, he prayed that the eyes of their right lobe would be enlightened or that they would have spiritual discernment. In this verse Paul also prayed that they would understand the doctrine of election and their escrow blessings.
4. In
EPH 1:19-23, he prayed that they would perceive, metabolize, and apply the doctrine of Divine omnipotence and the angelic conflict.
5. In
EPH 3:16, his prayer was that they would be strengthened in the new creation or the new spiritual species. 6. In
EPH 3:17, he prayed that their hearts would be filled with doctrine and impersonal/unconditional or virtue love.
7. In
EPH 3:18-21, he prayed that they would know and understand the PPOG and how to ultimately bring glory to God.
So notice those seven aspects of Paul’s prayer and how they are all spiritually oriented: Mystery doctrine, spiritual discernment, election and their escrow blessings, divine omnipotence and the angelic conflict, the new spiritual species, doctrine and impersonal love, the PPOG and the glorification of God. The point is that everything Paul prayed for had to do with the spiritual realm!
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