Ephesians Prayer Guide - Day 12

Let revival break forth in our own hearts. May we come to a greater intimate understanding and awareness in our relationship with Him.

Read and pray through Ephesians 3:14-21

So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, 15 the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. 16 And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power.

17 Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.

18–19 Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!

20 Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.
21 Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen! TPT™

He offers us His glory, His strength, His power – we are never without all the resources of heaven at our fingertips. I imagine this pitcher of pure, holy water that pours out and its source is never-ending. He is limitless. He is enough. In Him, there is NO lack!

What spiritual resources and strength are you in need of? Ask of Him. And if you’ve asked time and time again without no “answer”, ask Him what might be standing in the way.

The Father desires to release the life of Christ deep down in your soul – where it in turn becomes “the very source and root of your life”. Press in.

As I read here, I don’t see anywhere in this prayer laying our list of requests at His feet. Instead, I am overwhelmed in the simplicity of the request – “I want more of You God”.

I wonder if the answer to the struggles of this world is that simple. He knows; we’ve asked – and at times, the ask has been years worth of accumulation. The simplicity might be as straight forward as this – press in and know that HE, and His extravagant resources (even if it’s simply more of Him) will carry us SO much farther that a “simple” answer to prayer.

“He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination. He will outdo them all…”

Eight years ago, I experienced the fullness of this verse in the flesh. After seven years of asking, the Lord did “immeasurably more than all I could ask for or imagine“. The rippled answer to that prayer still leaves me in awe today – as I daily live out the extravagance of how He answered. And yet, I tell you, that answer did not come in a sweet, beautiful package. The initiation of that beauty and extravagant response first looked like a pile of ash. It looked withered and dead. A forest that has been consumed by fire leaves death and destruction every which way you turn – and yet…it doesn’t take long before NEW LIFE breaks forth in the dead, devastated ground. There is beauty in the ashes!

Friends, who is our King? He is the God of the RESURRECTION!

No matter what, I will continue to hope and passionately cling to Christ, so that he will be openly revealed through me before everyone’s eyes. So I will not be ashamed! In my life or in my death, Christ will be magnified in me. 21 My true life is the Anointed One, and dying means gaining more of him. Philippians 1:20-21 TPT™

I believe part of the enemy’s tactics are to keep our eyes cast downward, consumed with ourselves and our own circumstances. I also know how he likes to convince us that an “unanswered prayer” is reason to doubt in the ONE or to place condemnation on ourselves.

The beauty of this passage points to keeping our eyes heaven-bound, no matter what! I think of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to worship the king (read Daniel 3). They were so resolute in their decision to honor God and NOT bow down to an idol, that a furious king did everything in his power to take their lives.

Although I don’t think they were devoid of fear, their faith and confidence in the Living God were superior!

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to answer you on this point. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up!” Daniel 3:16-18 AMP

Even if… ‘Even if He chooses not to rescue, we will be unwavering to not bow our knees to another.’

This is how God honored their faith:

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king [looked and] was astounded, and he jumped up and said to his counselors, “Did we not throw three men who were tied up into the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.” 25 He answered, “Look! I see four men untied, walking around in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt! And the appearance of the fourth is like [d]a son of the gods!” 26 Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the blazing furnace and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, servants of the Most High God, come out [of there]! Come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire. 27 The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s counselors gathered around them and saw that in regard to these men the fire had no effect on their bodies—their hair was not singed, their clothes were not scorched or damaged, even the smell of smoke was not on them.

28 Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and rescued His servants who believed in, trusted in, and relied on Him! They violated the king’s command and surrendered their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego shall be cut into pieces and their houses be made a heap of rubbish, for there is no other god who is able to save in this way!” 30 Then the king caused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to prosper in the province of Babylon. Daniel 3:24-30 AMP

Let this be the cry of our hearts today: “No matter what, I will continue to hope and passionately cling to Christ, so that he will be openly revealed through me before everyone’s eyes. So I will not be ashamed! In my life or in my death, Christ will be magnified in me” (Philippians 1:20, TPT™)