As
I considered afresh what it means that the strength of our inner being is
described passively, “to be strengthened,”
I again realized that the strengthening is not the starting place. We will
experience this “to be strengthened,”
as something else happens inside us.
I
can also see that the “with power,”
is not the central focus, since the power resides in someone other than
ourselves. We cannot look around for any old power we choose, and find our
strength from that power. There is something else that is necessary to be
strengthened.
You
would think that, “in your inner being,”
is as central as one could get. If we focus everything on our inner being, and
pray that things would happen in our inner being, we would surely have the very
best experience of all that Paul is praying.
However,
what is central, the bull’s eye, or the first domino, if you will, is the
collection of words, “his Spirit in your
inner being.” Everything else in this prayer surrounds this reality. If we focus on God’s Spirit without the connection to our inner
being, we will continue to manage which parts of our lives the
Spirit is permitted to work on.[1] If we focus on our inner being without the imperative of the Spirit’s
presence within us, we also maintain a sarky, fleshly focus on maintaining
control of what takes place.
When
we consider that, “his Spirit in your
inner being,” is the one thing that causes everything else in this prayer
to happen, and that we cannot conceive of any other aspects of this prayer
reaching their fulfillment without this relationship of the Holy Spirit to our
inner being, we can then keep this as the measure of everything else.
Do
I want to know what it is like to live in power, to have power to live the
Christian life, to have power to be strong where I am weak?[2] Then I must have the Holy Spirit filling my inner being. Do I want
to know how power from God strengthens me for the work of God, strengthens me
to work out my salvation with fear and trembling while God is working in me
both to will and to work for his good pleasure,[3]strengthens me to take my stand against all the powers of darkness?[4] Then I must have the Holy Spirit filling my inner being.
One
thing that is exciting about this prayer is that, while Paul makes this
Spirit/inner-being experience central to the prayer, and central to the things
he desires for us, our deficiency in this experience does not limit what he is presenting.
This is what is so helpful and encouraging: it is PRAYER!!!!
I
do not need to get the Spirit into my inner being so that I can pray, I need to
pray so that I can experience whatever changes God will make to my life that
results in the Holy Spirit in my inner being. I do not need to figure out how
to be filled with the Spirit when my inner being is filled with my sark.[5] I need to pray that God would do all the transforming work of
filling me with the Spirit. I do not need to be filled with the Spirit to begin
praying; but I do need to pray to be filled with the Spirit, and then be satisfied
with nothing less than the experience of being filled with the Spirit in my
inner being.
I
do not need to know how to be filled with the Spirit, or what all it involves
doctrinally, and who is right about all the spiritual gift issues. If I realize
that being filled with the Spirit is God’s command, not mine; and that it is
God’s Spirit, not mine; and that God knows what he means by filling me with his
Spirit no matter how little I understand what it means, then God will not be
restricted one little bit in filling me with his Spirit.
Does
God call us to his word in order to help us recognize what his work looks like?
Of course. Do we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly so we know how to
teach and admonish one another with all wisdom?[6] Of course. But there are so many ways that people focus on the word
of God without the Spirit of God, and so miss out on what would happen with those
words if the Spirit was filling our inner being.
My
point is never to promote some experience that is contrary to Scripture.
However, Scripture itself repeatedly shows God doing things that were beyond
people’s understanding of Scripture, and so we must keep our focus on praying
for the Spirit to fill our inner beings, and to strengthen us with his power as
he does so.
Notice
the benediction Paul places at the end of his prayer:
The God who does more than we can ask or think
must be honored for his right to do things we didn’t ask for, and answer our
prayers beyond what we thought he would do. That is what Scripture says!
So,
according to God’s word, we pray that we would be strengthened with power
through God’s Holy Spirit in our inner being, and then watch how he will do
things in a way we didn’t ask him to do them, addressing and transforming things
in our lives we hadn’t even thought about, as he gives us this great and
wonderful gift of filling us with the very fullness of God.[7]
Don’t
ever think you could figure out in advance all the ways that God would fill us
with his Spirit, cause Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith, and fill us
up with all the fullness of God. But do ask for it with reckless abandon, and
don’t cease to pray for it until you know that God has done what God alone can
do. You will thank him that he called you to pray.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
By “permitted,” I do not suggest that we are able to overpower the Spirit’s
work and decide where he works and what he does. I simply refer to the sarky
way in which we think we can decide what the Spirit should work on in our
lives. As long as the Spirit is outside our inner being, it appears that we can
pick-and-choose what he touches and what he leaves alone.
[2]
II Corinthians 12:9
[3]
Philippians 2:12-13
[4]
Ephesians 6:10-20
[5]
Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 5:18
[6]
Colossians 3:16
[7]
Ephesians 3:19
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