Prayer for Power

How Prayer Works
http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/ephesians/how-prayer-works

But when you lose heart -- you lose stamina, you lose morale. You come to the place where you say, "What's the use? Why keep going? I can't make it." And you give up. That is what Paul sensed was about to happen there in Ephesus. They were about to give in, lose heart. So he says, "I am concerned. Don't lose heart. The situation isn't the way you think it is." And, as we have seen, he teaches them some wonderful truth to show them why they ought not to lose heart. But then he closes with this great prayer:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power 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 with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19 RSV)

 For the apostle makes clear that they need not only to have light and knowledge to begin, but they need power to continue. They not only need motivation, but they need resolution to keep going, to stay with it, to stick on to the end.

 But this is a prayer for power -- power which keeps you going and helps you to recover from losing heart.

The first step:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, (Ephesians 3:14-15 RSV)

In other words, he begins with prayer.

And the apostle wants you to remember that when you are despairing about your spiritual life or about someone else's, when you are feeling cold and lethargic, and you are about to lose heart, and you feel like giving up and saying it is time to quit, then that is the time to turn to a Father. God is our Father, and he is the very quintessence of fatherhood. And he approaches this problem of the paralysis of our will out of the resources he has as a father, which Paul describes as "the riches of his glory":

...that according to the riches of his glory... (Ephesians 3:16a RSV)

Now he begins to trace step by step the course of recovery from spiritual depression:

1st Step

...he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, (Ephesians 3:16b RSV)

That is the first step: "strengthened with might by his Spirit [literally] 'into' the inner man."

The way to start, the first step, is to ask God to grant you that your spirit will receive a new infusion of strength, that you can drink again of the river of the Spirit of life which is in you, and that your spirit will be restored so that you can begin to operate as God intended you to. You won't feel this, necessarily. We sharply feel what occurs in the soul, but only sort of deeply sense things taking place in our spirit. This moves us to the second step, which immediately follows. Paul prays that God may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit into the inner man so:

The key to that 2nd step is the words "through faith."

"If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him," (John 14:23 RSV). That is what Paul is referring to. Faith is awakened now. You remind yourself that Jesus Christ lives in you. You are a believer. He has taken up his residence in you. He will not leave you. He is at home in your heart, and you belong to him. That immediately brings the 3rd step.

that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (Ephesians 3:17b RSV)

Then we have a sense of well-being. Love always gives us that. That is why a lonely, solitary life is so difficult -- because there is no sense of well-being. That is why it is the greatest cause of suicide in this world. What causes people to jump off bridges and blow out their brains? They don't feel loved. No one appreciates them. No one reaches out to them. But the Christian can find his ground of solidarity and security and love in Jesus Christ. And when that stage is reached, then you are ready for the next -- the 4th step:

...that you...may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, (Ephesians 3:18 RSV)

Now we are climbing back to power and vitality. This sense of identity gives us power to relate to others "power to comprehend [or "realize" is literally the word] with all saints." This means that now we can begin to relate to somebody else, to reach out to someone else. And when we do, we will begin to lay hold of the breadth and length and height and depth. 

And, you see, all of this comes to us as we learn to relate to others

The 5th step:

...and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, (Ephesians 3:19a RSV)

Think of it -- to know the unknowable! How do you do that? Well, here is where experience reaches its full peak. You begin to know the love of Christ. Here is where feeling comes in full throttle. You can really begin to glow with this understanding of the love of Christ. You can't understand it but you can feel it. 

And then we come to the last step:

...that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:19b RSV)

Now you have reached the top. And when you have, you have realized the purpose of your own creation. This is what God made humanity for. He made us to be vessels wholly filled and flooded with God himself.