Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #223 Pray Like Paul: Strengthened by the Spirit
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker0: If you're a follower of Christ, you are indwelt by the Spirit,
- 0:07Speaker0: but are you experiencing Him as King of your heart?
- 0:12Speaker0: Are you experiencing the love of Jesus Christ? Are you walking in the strengthening of the Spirit?
- 0:19Speaker1: Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
- 0:25Speaker1: The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
- 0:35Speaker1: Welcome to the One Cry podcast. I'm Bill Eliff, and this is my deep buddy, Kyle Reno.
- 0:44Speaker1: And you know, Kyle, I was just in Colorado, and a guy was talking to me,
- 0:51Speaker1: watches a podcast every week, and he said,
- 0:54Speaker1: and I love that guy with a southern accent. What's his name?
- 1:02Speaker0: How'd you know they wouldn't talk about you?
- 1:07Speaker1: Well, I've got one. When I'm up somewhere north, you know, I've got it too.
- 1:13Speaker1: But I think you've got just a tad more than I do.
- 1:18Speaker0: I think you can rest assured in that. Yeah.
- 1:21Speaker1: Yeah. You know, and Kyle, we had the great privilege of serving together on
- 1:26Speaker1: a staff here in Little Rock. and I'd about get it trained out of him,
- 1:31Speaker1: and then he'd go home for a week.
- 1:34Speaker1: And he'd come back, and man, that Alabama.
- 1:38Speaker1: It's thick. It's thick. Yeah, it's thick. But anyway, enough of that.
- 1:44Speaker1: We're, you know, one of the things, Kyle, that you and I believe in with all of our heart is prayer.
- 1:53Speaker1: We just believe, you know, I say to people all the time, you know,
- 1:57Speaker1: I just believe that prayer works.
- 1:59Speaker1: I believe that if you would really pray, God would really hear and God would
- 2:03Speaker1: really answer if you meet the conditions of prayer that that he gives us.
- 2:07Speaker1: And one of the things that, you know, people are upset with their church or
- 2:12Speaker1: they see some deficiency in their church. And I said, are you praying?
- 2:17Speaker1: Are you praying for your church? Are you praying for your pastor?
- 2:22Speaker1: And pastors, are you praying for your people?
- 2:25Speaker1: And because I just think if we would cry out to the Lord, listen, it's his body.
- 2:31Speaker1: It's his literal body of which he's the head. And Kyle, you're going to talk
- 2:38Speaker1: to us a little bit today about how to do that from one of the great passages of Scripture.
- 2:44Speaker0: Yeah.
- 2:45Speaker0: Well, man, honored to. Yeah, I actually, Bill, I had a guy that came and I'm
- 2:50Speaker0: lining him up to come preach like you just did for us not that long ago on the
- 2:53Speaker0: presence of God, which was awesome.
- 2:55Speaker0: But I had a guy that's coming to preach on prayer and he asked,
- 2:59Speaker0: what would you like for me to preach?
- 3:00Speaker0: I said, I'd like for you to preach about prayer. And he goes,
- 3:02Speaker0: well, I'm a satisfied customer.
- 3:04Speaker0: I thought, well, for those that have learned the ways to pray,
- 3:09Speaker0: you know, and how to engage God in a personal way.
- 3:12Speaker0: And even for those, and today I would, for those that are pastors and spiritual
- 3:17Speaker0: leaders, ministry leaders specifically, but this is true for anybody that's
- 3:20Speaker0: part of a local church and you need to be.
- 3:24Speaker0: You know, there's moments that sort of break us through and help us see how much it matters.
- 3:31Speaker0: And one of those places is Ephesians 3. You get to verse 14.
- 3:35Speaker0: Now, you got to understand, take the cumulative work of this letter.
- 3:40Speaker0: Man, Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writing to the church in Ephesus and
- 3:45Speaker0: probably gives us the most succinct doctrinal statements in regards to the brokenness of humanity,
- 3:53Speaker0: the fullness of the gospel, the finished work of Jesus, how anyone could ever
- 3:58Speaker0: come into the kingdom of God.
- 4:00Speaker0: I'd like for the doctrinal dudes that love to walk through the,
- 4:04Speaker0: you know, the theological framework of what we believe.
- 4:08Speaker0: I mean, there's a few books that are more weighty.
- 4:11Speaker0: Right. And specifically in chapters one, two and then into three.
- 4:16Speaker0: And then this moment happens. And I feel like the Lord just allowed me to catch
- 4:21Speaker0: the spirit of this moment recently. And I thought, oh, wow.
- 4:24Speaker0: And you get to verse 14 and you see what I think needs to be seen in the heart
- 4:30Speaker0: of a pastor or a spiritual leader.
- 4:32Speaker0: Because he gets to verse 14 after everything he says. And he says, for this reason.
- 4:39Speaker0: I bow my knees before the Father. I don't think that that was just rhetoric from Paul.
- 4:46Speaker0: I think Paul is in this holy moment where the Spirit of God is writing this
- 4:51Speaker0: unbelievable treaty of the faith, you know, to this church that he loves in Ephesus.
- 4:58Speaker0: And I think Paul gets on his knees before God.
- 5:01Speaker0: And let me tell you what you'll see revealed here in these next verses.
- 5:06Speaker0: From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, going like,
- 5:09Speaker0: hey, that is specific to God's family.
- 5:13Speaker0: And because this he's writing to the church in Ephesus, that is a part of God's family.
- 5:18Speaker0: And it's true for anybody on planet Earth. Right. And specifically in the expression
- 5:23Speaker0: of his church, his global church.
- 5:26Speaker0: I think Paul is overwhelmed by the thought of, I don't want you to merely read what I just said.
- 5:35Speaker0: What I've just written. I want you to experience everything that I'm saying.
- 5:41Speaker0: And what I think Paul was concerned about, which we should, is that we'd have
- 5:46Speaker0: a great doctrine, but not actually understand or know how to walk with God personally.
- 5:53Speaker0: And so he says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,
- 5:58Speaker0: from whom every family on heaven and earth is named.
- 6:01Speaker0: And my first charge would be to us as spiritual leaders.
- 6:05Speaker0: How often are we bowing before God, praying for our people?
- 6:11Speaker0: How often are we just begging God to take these truths that we might be preaching,
- 6:17Speaker0: we might be leading, we might be equipping, we might be discipling it,
- 6:20Speaker0: but bring it down into the inner being of the people that God allows us to lead.
- 6:25Speaker0: That's from a personal disciple maker to a pastor of a youth ministry,
- 6:30Speaker0: kids ministry, to the pastor of a local church, to a denominational leader.
- 6:35Speaker0: Man, how often are we getting before God and saying, Father, I want them to know you.
- 6:41Speaker0: As you want to be known. And I know that's true because of what he says in verse 16,
- 6:46Speaker0: that according to the riches of his glory,
- 6:51Speaker0: he may grant you, this is what he's praying for the church in Ephesians,
- 6:55Speaker0: that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.
- 7:03Speaker0: Man, that Paul's saying, Lord, I am asking that you would strengthen the inner
- 7:10Speaker0: being of every person in this church in Ephesus by the power of your spirit,
- 7:16Speaker0: that they wouldn't merely have a great orthodoxy.
- 7:20Speaker0: We want that. Doctrine matters. But they'd also know how to practice your presence.
- 7:25Speaker0: They would also know how to lean into the power of the spirit,
- 7:31Speaker0: that they would be strengthened not merely to know, but to actually live. Here's the truth.
- 7:38Speaker0: The Spirit of the living God, in which Paul knows and speaks to this specifically,
- 7:43Speaker0: the moment any person ever comes to saving faith in Christ, the reason that's
- 7:48Speaker0: true is because the Spirit of God has been drawing you.
- 7:51Speaker0: That the Spirit of God has been drawing any person that is in the family of
- 7:55Speaker0: God to the finished work of Jesus Christ, so that at the moment you might believe
- 8:00Speaker0: on Christ's work, as Scripture says, you might be born of the Spirit.
- 8:06Speaker0: That you might be regenerated, made alive by the work of the Spirit of God.
- 8:11Speaker0: The Scripture tells us the moment anybody's ever born again,
- 8:14Speaker0: that they are sealed by the Spirit. Paul tells us that.
- 8:18Speaker0: They are sealed by the Spirit.
- 8:20Speaker0: The Scripture tells us that the moment that you are saved, you are indwelt by the Spirit.
- 8:28Speaker0: Paul knows all these things. There's so many great doctrinal truths about the
- 8:32Speaker0: work of the Spirit. And in this moment, he's praying for that church in Ephesus
- 8:36Speaker0: that they'd be strengthened by the Spirit.
- 8:40Speaker0: Here's what I know. Bill, you know this.
- 8:42Speaker0: I need the daily strengthening of the Spirit to make it through any day of life.
- 8:50Speaker0: I need the Spirit to—and here's what I found about the Holy Spirit. He doesn't waste power.
- 8:56Speaker0: That he wants to empower those that know that they need it.
- 9:00Speaker0: And one of the things that I was convicted as I was praying,
- 9:03Speaker0: how much am I praying for our people to really be strengthened by the Holy Spirit every day,
- 9:09Speaker0: to be empowered by the Spirit, man, to move toward the mission of God,
- 9:13Speaker0: to be empowered by the Spirit to endure the hard things in life,
- 9:19Speaker0: to be empowered by the Spirit, man, to make the next right step,
- 9:24Speaker0: to be empowered by the Spirit, to overcome sin.
- 9:28Speaker0: And so I thought, man, isn't it awesome that Paul, after all these huge doctrinal statements.
- 9:34Speaker0: Man, bows down before the Lord and says, Father, please help them be strengthened
- 9:40Speaker0: by the Spirit in their inner being, in their inner world, mind, will, emotion.
- 9:46Speaker0: But he doesn't stop there. That's just one thing he prays for them.
- 9:50Speaker0: He says, pray that so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
- 9:57Speaker0: He's making all these big overarching doctrinal statements come to take residence
- 10:04Speaker0: in the innermost part of a human heart.
- 10:06Speaker0: You would just not know all these great truths about Christ and the work of
- 10:09Speaker0: his kingdom, but that you would know that the moment that you came to know Christ,
- 10:14Speaker0: that Christ came and sat upon the throne of your heart.
- 10:17Speaker0: I want you to know that. I want you to experience that, that you being rooted
- 10:22Speaker0: and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints.
- 10:28Speaker0: What is the breadth, the length, the height, the depth to know the love of Christ
- 10:33Speaker0: that surpasses knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God?
- 10:40Speaker0: Let me tell you what Paul wanted for the church in Ephesus in this moment,
- 10:44Speaker0: because I believe God is sharing his heart with Paul.
- 10:47Speaker0: He wanted them to not merely know Jesus beside them.
- 10:52Speaker0: I mean, like the disciples had the privilege of walking with Jesus three plus
- 10:56Speaker0: years there and physical.
- 10:58Speaker0: But he knows that there's more. He wanted them to not really know what he got
- 11:01Speaker0: to experience, that Jesus showing up on a Damascus road, which is awesome, man.
- 11:06Speaker0: He has this moment where he encounters the glory of Jesus Christ that shaped
- 11:11Speaker0: the rest of his life. But he knows that there's even something more to know,
- 11:15Speaker0: to know Christ in you, Christ in you.
- 11:20Speaker0: He is praying for the church in Ephesus, man, that you would know that Christ
- 11:24Speaker0: now takes residence in your real being, that he sits upon the throne of your heart.
- 11:30Speaker0: And in that place, he's making sure we know his great love for us.
- 11:37Speaker0: Not that he just came to live in us, but that he's come to love on us.
- 11:42Speaker0: He's he's praying that you'd actually and this is the thing which we know religion
- 11:48Speaker0: oftentimes just stops at the knowledge of.
- 11:52Speaker0: What Paul is praying is that they would have the experience of,
- 11:56Speaker0: they would experience the love of Christ,
- 11:59Speaker0: that that is beyond understanding, but that we would understand a little bit
- 12:04Speaker0: more the height, the breadth, the length, the depth of Christ's love.
- 12:10Speaker0: I know, Bill, you love Martin Lloyd-Jones, and I do, too, had the privilege
- 12:16Speaker0: of reading several of his great writings and books. But there's a quote in one
- 12:20Speaker0: of those about this text, the scripture.
- 12:22Speaker0: And he says, and I think it captures the heart of what Paul is praying for the church nurses.
- 12:28Speaker0: And just imagine pastors, leaders, if we were praying for this to be true in our people.
- 12:34Speaker0: That the breadth of Christ's love refers to the vast scope.
- 12:39Speaker0: That it extends to people of every nation, tribe and tongue.
- 12:44Speaker0: We will be amazed by the breadth of those Christ has redeemed.
- 12:48Speaker0: Can you imagine if those that are we get entrusted to lead spiritually,
- 12:52Speaker0: that they would understand how vast Jesus's love is for them,
- 12:57Speaker0: that they're not beyond it.
- 13:00Speaker0: The length of Christ's love refers to the eternal and the endless character,
- 13:04Speaker0: meaning it's not going to stop.
- 13:08Speaker0: That it began in eternity past, it continues in the present,
- 13:13Speaker0: and it goes into eternity future.
- 13:16Speaker0: That Christ's love is constant and unchanging.
- 13:20Speaker0: That he loves us, Kyle version, that he loves us even when we're not lovable.
- 13:25Speaker0: That his love for us is present right now. But to pray for our people to actually experience that.
- 13:32Speaker0: To know the depth of Christ's love, Pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones says,
- 13:36Speaker0: refers to the depths Christ descended in order to save us and the depth of our
- 13:42Speaker0: sin and unworthiness when he saved us, that Christ endured the cross to save
- 13:47Speaker0: us while we were still sinners.
- 13:49Speaker0: The depth of Christ's love is that he came after us when we were not coming
- 13:53Speaker0: after him to pray. And I'm praying for our church.
- 13:57Speaker0: I know Bill has prayed for the church that he led for so long that we're praying
- 14:02Speaker0: for churches full of people to know that Jesus' love, man, is coming after us, that he came for us.
- 14:10Speaker0: The height of Christ's love refers to his glorious heights, that Christ will
- 14:14Speaker0: raise us up to forgiveness, new birth, sonship, glorification of our bodies, beholding his glory.
- 14:20Speaker0: Christ will make us perfect without spot or wrinkle.
- 14:25Speaker0: That one day it's the love of Christ that's going to bring us home.
- 14:29Speaker0: It's the love of Christ that's going to make us whole. Can you imagine if we
- 14:34Speaker0: bask in the promise of that now?
- 14:37Speaker0: That we believe that fully, man, that by the power of the Spirit,
- 14:41Speaker0: based off the word of God, that we would experience the love of Christ.
- 14:46Speaker0: He ends with this. We must meditate on and contemplate the love of Christ to
- 14:52Speaker0: overcome discouragement, depression, and doubt.
- 14:57Speaker0: Knowing Christ's love will transform us.
- 15:01Speaker0: Knowing it will change us. Tim Keller said, here's the truth about the gospel.
- 15:08Speaker0: You are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dare believe. That's the bad news.
- 15:14Speaker0: We're more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dare believe.
- 15:18Speaker0: We're worse off than we can imagine. Yet at the very same time, we are more loved and.
- 15:25Speaker1: Accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dare hoped.
- 15:29Speaker0: And to get to the place, listen, where we don't merely know that up here,
- 15:34Speaker0: but we feel that in here, that you are loved.
- 15:41Speaker0: So I think, Bill, and I'd love to talk to you about this for a second,
- 15:44Speaker0: to get to the place where, like Paul,
- 15:49Speaker0: that we might bow our knees before the Father and pray for people to be strengthened
- 15:55Speaker0: and to know the love of Christ.
- 15:56Speaker1: You know, this is such an unbelievable passage, and everybody that's listening,
- 16:03Speaker1: all of us, would do well to just go to Paul's prayers and memorize them.
- 16:09Speaker1: I mean, really, practically, get it in your soul so that it's ready on your
- 16:15Speaker1: lips and ready on your heart, because these are God-inspired words,
- 16:20Speaker1: and it's a God-inspired prayer.
- 16:23Speaker1: You're never safer than when you're just praying the scripture.
- 16:27Speaker1: But this progression is,
- 16:30Speaker1: of what you just said and what this prayer is, that most Christians,
- 16:36Speaker1: all of us at one point, we're weak in our faith.
- 16:40Speaker1: We may be strong on the outside, but we're just infants. We're babies.
- 16:46Speaker1: And so we're off and on. We're sinning one day, and then we're coming back.
- 16:51Speaker1: We're just weak spiritually.
- 16:55Speaker1: So Paul's saying, look, I want you to grow up. I want you to get strong so that
- 17:01Speaker1: you're depending upon the Lord and His strength all the time.
- 17:06Speaker1: And then the result of that is Christ is going to dwell.
- 17:12Speaker1: That word, you and I know Kyle, means settle down and stay there.
- 17:17Speaker1: So we just keep pushing Christ off the throne.
- 17:21Speaker1: He doesn't leave our hearts as believers, but, but we don't let him have,
- 17:26Speaker1: you know, a guy said one time he's, he's, uh, you know, a resident, but not president.
- 17:32Speaker1: And so we just keep pushing him off the throne all the time.
- 17:36Speaker1: And we don't let him dwell in the place place of leadership and prominence and, and control.
- 17:44Speaker1: But if I got stronger in my faith, I would let him dwell there.
- 17:49Speaker1: And if he if he just dwelt in my heart and mind and soul and all the time we
- 17:59Speaker1: were aware of his presence, you know what we would what would happen?
- 18:03Speaker1: We'd understand the love of God.
- 18:05Speaker1: We would see, and that's, Kyle, that's the great, the great arrow of Satan is
- 18:15Speaker1: this is where it goes in our mind. God doesn't love you.
- 18:20Speaker1: He doesn't care about you. He doesn't give a rip. He knows how much you sin.
- 18:26Speaker1: And so why would you ever pursue a relationship with somebody who you didn't
- 18:31Speaker1: think wanted a relationship with? Didn't love you.
- 18:33Speaker1: Right. But but John, who comes to the end of his life and he's writing first, John, he says this.
- 18:42Speaker1: I have come. We have come to know and believe the love God has for us and perfect
- 18:50Speaker1: love. He's talking about God's love. Cast out fear.
- 18:54Speaker1: I don't I don't fear that I'm going to be left. I don't fear that I'm going to be dropped.
- 18:58Speaker1: I don't fear that I'm not going to be right for because I know the love of God.
- 19:03Speaker1: And I know how God's ways are and how he functions.
- 19:08Speaker1: And what if a whole church, man, what if you so prayed and taught as a as an
- 19:14Speaker1: elder, as a leader, as a as a Sunday school teacher?
- 19:19Speaker1: What if your whole family, you know, just if I just took this and I prayed this
- 19:24Speaker1: for my literal family, it'd be strengthened so that Christ would abide so that
- 19:29Speaker1: we would come to really know the love of God.
- 19:32Speaker1: And what a prayer, what a prayer and what a passion.
- 19:37Speaker0: I have to say how tragic it would be. I found myself because we've been diving
- 19:41Speaker0: verse by verse through Ephesians.
- 19:44Speaker0: And I found this moment really just stopped by God saying, whoa,
- 19:51Speaker0: don't just read this or preach this. Pray this.
- 19:54Speaker1: Pray it. Yeah.
- 19:56Speaker0: Pray this. Pray this. If you really love the church, I'm calling you to pastor.
- 20:00Speaker0: You'll pray for the people like Paul's praying for them right here.
- 20:03Speaker0: If you really love them, if you really want to see them get this,
- 20:07Speaker0: you need to pray they'd be strengthened in their inner being,
- 20:09Speaker0: that they'd come to know the love of Jesus Christ.
- 20:12Speaker0: And it's going to get us to another part of prayer in the next passage,
- 20:16Speaker0: in the next podcast we're going to get to.
- 20:17Speaker0: But you can't get there unless you've been strengthened by the Spirit,
- 20:22Speaker0: unless you've been loved by Jesus Christ.
- 20:24Speaker0: You've got to be built up in these things.
- 20:27Speaker0: You know, it's amazing because you go back to, I've heard you preach this before, Bill.
- 20:31Speaker0: You go back to Ephesians 1, it's like he just starts off so fired up,
- 20:36Speaker0: like, hey, every spiritual blessing that is ours in Christ, that you're loved,
- 20:39Speaker0: you're chosen, you know, you're adopted, all that in Ephesians 1.
- 20:43Speaker0: So where he gets to right here, because, you know, it's going to turn the corner
- 20:46Speaker0: in four and get really practical about our holiness and our purity.
- 20:51Speaker0: What it gets to right here in this moment is that Paul is asking,
- 20:55Speaker0: he's praying that we'll actually experience what we've already received.
- 21:01Speaker0: It's like you just said. Yeah. Hey, Jesus lived. If you're a follower of Christ, Christ lives in you.
- 21:08Speaker0: Like he is, man. If you're a follower of Christ, you are indwelt by the spirit.
- 21:12Speaker0: But are you experiencing him as king of your heart?
- 21:17Speaker0: Are you experiencing the love of Jesus Christ? Are you walking in the strengthening of the spirit?
- 21:24Speaker0: Well, let's pray for our people. Let's pray that our people would get there.
- 21:28Speaker1: And let's do it right now. And Kyle, can I tell you one little story before we pray?
- 21:37Speaker1: And we had a guy in Norman, Oklahoma, where I pastored.
- 21:45Speaker1: Bill was 6'6". He played football for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
- 21:51Speaker1: He was just a monster of a man.
- 21:55Speaker1: And he came to church occasionally, kind of a Christmas, Easter Christian, you know.
- 22:01Speaker1: And he found out one day he was working on, he was a mechanic,
- 22:04Speaker1: he was working on a car and his hand wouldn't turn the wrench.
- 22:09Speaker1: Long and short, he found out he had ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease,
- 22:13Speaker1: which, you know, all of your muscles just atrophy and everything in your body
- 22:18Speaker1: is a muscle, your tongues, your neck, you know, your arms and legs.
- 22:23Speaker1: And so two of our men went out and said, do you really know if you're going to heaven?
- 22:29Speaker1: And he said, I don't think I am. So they led him to Christ.
- 22:32Speaker1: Well, he just got it. I mean, you know, And then something happened,
- 22:37Speaker1: and I didn't know until later what it was, but he just began to pursue Christ,
- 22:46Speaker1: and he began to read the Bible.
- 22:47Speaker1: He got to where he couldn't use his arms, and his wife was gone working to help
- 22:53Speaker1: support the family all day.
- 22:55Speaker1: So he rigged him up this stand, and he would take the eraser end of a pencil
- 23:01Speaker1: and turn the pages on his Bible. This was before you had digital stuff.
- 23:08Speaker1: And they said he wouldn't live till March. He lived four years.
- 23:14Speaker1: And and he would read to the Bible four times a year.
- 23:19Speaker1: And I watched this man just disintegrate right before our eyes.
- 23:26Speaker1: You know, arms went, legs went, neck went, and he just totally bed fast.
- 23:34Speaker1: But on the inside, I watched him just grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.
- 23:40Speaker1: I mean, he became a Hercules on the inside.
- 23:44Speaker1: And if I wanted anything to be accomplished in prayer, I'd go ask Bill Berry.
- 23:51Speaker1: Wow. And it would just happen.
- 23:53Speaker1: Fifteen men were saved at his funeral.
- 23:57Speaker0: Wow.
- 23:59Speaker1: And he was the happiest, most joyful man.
- 24:04Speaker1: The Thanksgiving before he died, I asked his wife to get a testimony from him
- 24:12Speaker1: because he was so thankful. He was so joyful.
- 24:16Speaker1: And in his testimony, I found out what the secret was.
- 24:20Speaker1: He wrote, he said, when I found out I had ALS, he said, I knew I had to give
- 24:25Speaker1: Christ total control. And he said, I surrendered everything to Christ.
- 24:31Speaker1: And from that day till this, nothing's been the same.
- 24:35Speaker0: Man, praise God.
- 24:36Speaker1: I just think that's Bill Berry. And he became this,
- 24:39Speaker1: he just became this mountain of a man spiritually that everybody that knew him
- 24:47Speaker1: in that city was affected by his life.
- 24:52Speaker1: And he lived more for Christ in four years in a hospital bed than most of us do in a lifetime.
- 24:59Speaker1: Wow. What if you had a whole church full of those who were strengthened in the
- 25:04Speaker1: inner man so that Christ was just settled down and at home?
- 25:08Speaker1: Christ was just at home in Bill Berry. I mean, he just all day long. That's all he had.
- 25:14Speaker1: And he knew the love of God and so much.
- 25:19Speaker1: So, Kyle, why don't you, can you pray for us that are listening as almost a
- 25:25Speaker1: congregation that we would get this and learn how to pray this way and live this way?
- 25:33Speaker1: Why don't you pray and join us? If you're listening, don't just listen to Kyle. Join us in prayer.
- 25:39Speaker0: That's right. Yeah, no matter where you are, riding down the road,
- 25:43Speaker0: maybe on a run or spending some time with God in office.
- 25:48Speaker0: Just take your time and ask the Lord one to strengthen you,
- 25:57Speaker0: Maybe ask the Lord to help you come to know the love of Christ in a way you've never known before.
- 26:05Speaker1: Please, Lord.
- 26:08Speaker0: So, Father, I do come in the authority that is ours in Christ and thank you
- 26:11Speaker0: for every word of the scripture.
- 26:14Speaker0: Specifically, I thank you for every word that we know from Ephesians 1 through 3, verse 13.
- 26:23Speaker0: All the things that you accomplished, Jesus, all the blessings that are ours
- 26:27Speaker0: in Christ, because of your finished work on our behalf,
- 26:32Speaker0: all the things that you overcame in our brokenness and rebellion and sinfulness,
- 26:37Speaker0: all the payment that you paid,
- 26:39Speaker0: Lord, all the gift that can be received through salvation, Lord.
- 26:44Speaker0: And so, God, what we ask, I ask for every listener first that is listening,
- 26:48Speaker0: that represents churches and cities and states and our nation and even nations.
- 26:54Speaker0: God, I ask, would you help each
- 26:56Speaker0: of us, Lord, to be personally strengthened by the power of the Spirit?
- 27:00Speaker0: Yes. That you would, in our inner being, God, that you would come and empower
- 27:05Speaker0: us, Lord, to overcome, empower us to cooperate in, Lord, empower us,
- 27:11Speaker0: Lord, to be transformed, to be renewed,
- 27:14Speaker0: to be filled with hope, God, to have all the fruit of the Spirit,
- 27:18Speaker0: God, all the ways that you want to work through us,
- 27:20Speaker0: that, God, each season we would be growing to the measure, the fullness,
- 27:24Speaker0: the stature of Christ, that you would be making us look more like our King.
- 27:30Speaker0: And what I ask for every listener, God, that you would allow us to know the love of Christ.
- 27:37Speaker0: That's too high, Lord. It's too deep. It's too wide. It's too long for us to ever fully comprehend.
- 27:43Speaker0: But God, I would ask, would you help each of us know it more each season of our life?
- 27:49Speaker0: Each season of our life, Lord, we would be loved by you because you've got the love to pour out on us.
- 27:56Speaker0: Lord, so we welcome that work. We welcome it.
- 27:59Speaker0: But then I ask, Lord Jesus, for honestly, for each of us that have been entrusted
- 28:05Speaker0: to lead somebody, that's to lead in our families, to lead in disciple making.
- 28:09Speaker0: God, I pray specifically for spiritual leaders that are listening.
- 28:14Speaker0: I pray for our pastors and denominational leaders, whoever it may be.
- 28:18Speaker0: God, that we would pray for our people like we see in this moment when Paul
- 28:23Speaker0: is praying for the church in Ephesus, that we would pray that people wouldn't
- 28:27Speaker0: merely know, but they would experience who you are, God.
- 28:31Speaker0: They would experience the fullness of your power and presence,
- 28:35Speaker0: Lord, that it might transform us, that the whole world would say whatever they have, I long for that.
- 28:42Speaker0: So, Lord, please, God, do that. I pray in fresh ways, God.
- 28:45Speaker0: I pray just a new, a fresh anointing guide on every leader to move into intercession
- 28:51Speaker0: for their people like they never have before, to take the word,
- 28:54Speaker0: to take this section of scripture like a prescription and pray it over their people.
- 28:59Speaker0: I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
- 29:03Speaker1: Amen. Amen. Well, what a beautiful truth.
- 29:08Speaker1: And Kyle, we're not finished with this passage. We're going to come back on
- 29:12Speaker1: the next episode And you're going to deal with the last of those verses And
- 29:18Speaker1: so folks, we're thrilled you turned in today But would you do something?
- 29:23Speaker1: You know somebody who really needs to hear this today And would you share it
- 29:28Speaker1: with them And encourage them to listen to it this week And then join in next
- 29:35Speaker1: week live and get to hear it as we air this next week.
- 29:41Speaker1: And one way you could really help them.
- 29:45Speaker1: And then maybe in the intervening week, you're praying this exact prayer for them.
- 29:50Speaker1: How powerful would that be? So thanks for joining us today.
- 29:55Speaker1: And as always, you can find all kinds of information on onecry.com and Facebook.