Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #265 Praying Like Paul: #2 Being Filled with the Fullness of God
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker0: Even if I'm a Christian, if I'm not
- 0:10Speaker0: trusting Christ today for
- 0:14Speaker0: wisdom, for this next decision,
- 0:18Speaker0: for what do we do here, for provision,
- 0:21Speaker0: that's faith, then I'm on my own, and I'm
- 0:25Speaker0: not experiencing the power of the indwelling Christ.
- 0:28Speaker1: Welcome to the One
- 0:29Speaker1: Christ The One Cry Podcast,
- 0:33Speaker1: a nationwide call for spiritual awakening. The goal,
- 0:37Speaker1: accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth,
- 0:40Speaker1: stories, and reports.
- 0:46Speaker0: Well, welcome to the One Cry Podcast. I'm Bill Elif and
- 0:49Speaker0: my dear buddy Kyle Reno,
- 0:53Speaker0: and we are so glad you're with us today.
- 0:56Speaker0: Kyle, I'm about to pop. I'm so
- 1:00Speaker0: excited as we talk about learning how to pray
- 1:04Speaker0: the prayers of Paul.
- 1:06Speaker1: Mm-hmm.
- 1:06Speaker0: And I just— and that's what we're
- 1:08Speaker0: doing in this little series here. And I just think about,
- 1:12Speaker0: man, if everybody listening today
- 1:17Speaker0: would give themselves to learning these prayers
- 1:21Speaker0: and even memorizing, get you a note, Note card
- 1:26Speaker0: and write down each of these prayers. We'll give you the context.
- 1:30Speaker0: The first one was in Ephesians chapter 1:15-23,
- 1:36Speaker0: and that was specifically Paul teaching them how
- 1:42Speaker0: to pray to know God, to know God. And what
- 1:46Speaker0: a great thing to be able to pull out of the toolbox, right, Kyle?
- 1:50Speaker0: and pray this kind of prayer. And this
- 1:54Speaker0: prayer, which is further in Ephesians chapter 3,
- 1:58Speaker0: verses 14 through 21, is a prayer
- 2:02Speaker0: that not just that we would know God,
- 2:05Speaker0: but that we would be filled to God.
- 2:09Speaker0: Kyle, I don't know if you and I can
- 2:12Speaker0: stand all this. It's just— Paul's
- 2:16Speaker0: prayers are so rich because they're
- 2:19Speaker0: They're God-inspired and they're given to us,
- 2:23Speaker0: but it's— when you read a man's prayers, you're going
- 2:27Speaker0: to the depth of his soul, and that's
- 2:31Speaker0: why we love David and the Psalms. And so begin
- 2:36Speaker0: in verse 14, Kyle, and kind of begin to walk us through this
- 2:40Speaker0: prayer and what it means so that we can pray effectively
- 2:44Speaker0: in a minute.
- 2:45Speaker1: You know, I'm just thinking too, Bill, as we're diving into
- 2:48Speaker1: this prayer here, you know, Ephesians is rightly known
- 2:51Speaker1: for probably the most concise doctrine that
- 2:56Speaker1: we have in the New Covenant, period.
- 2:58Speaker0: Yeah.
- 2:58Speaker1: I mean, it gives us— it
- 3:00Speaker1: gives us Romans in a little bit more bite-sized
- 3:04Speaker1: way, you know, in the book of Ephesians. But in light of that,
- 3:07Speaker1: look at— look at the spirit we find in Paul.
- 3:11Speaker1: And that he just— he's writing this and he goes right back to prayer.
- 3:15Speaker1: He was writing this and he goes right back to prayer because he's looking— he's
- 3:19Speaker1: thinking about a people that he loves. He's saying—
- 3:21Speaker0: And he knows
- 3:23Speaker0: they can't understand the depth of what he's saying without
- 3:27Speaker0: a spirit that we saw last week of wisdom and revelation
- 3:31Speaker0: and the knowledge. You got to come to know him. You got to go
- 3:35Speaker0: to him first.
- 3:36Speaker1: Yeah, right.
- 3:37Speaker0: And then everything else comes from that.
- 3:38Speaker0: The filling, the knowledge, the growth. Uh, the boldness,
- 3:42Speaker0: that all comes from that first prayer in
- 3:46Speaker0: Ephesians 1, that we might know him.
- 3:49Speaker1: Yeah,
- 3:49Speaker1: it's just amazing to think. I mean, we could spend the rest of the day
- 3:52Speaker1: just— he's making this big doctrinal deposit
- 3:56Speaker1: into the heart of this church, but he's knowing that ain't—
- 4:00Speaker1: that's not enough. That's not enough. And he's like,
- 4:03Speaker1: uh, for this reason I pray. For this
- 4:06Speaker1: reason I pray.
- 4:08Speaker0: For—
- 4:08Speaker1: because he knows you're going to need God's help
- 4:11Speaker1: to understand these things, to experience these things, to live these
- 4:15Speaker1: things. So verse 14, he says, for this reason,
- 4:19Speaker1: I bow my knees before the Father,
- 4:22Speaker1: from whom every family in heaven and on earth is
- 4:26Speaker1: named. Don't you think now? And this is— man, you talk
- 4:30Speaker1: about posture matters in prayer. It really does.
- 4:34Speaker1: What it does is we align our physical body to
- 4:38Speaker1: our, to our spiritual reality. And so here's Paul in
- 4:42Speaker1: this moment. I'm going to get on my knees before
- 4:46Speaker1: God, who is Father of everyone that will ever read this
- 4:51Speaker1: letter. And I'm going to ask some things for you.
- 4:54Speaker1: Which just made me, Bill, imagine how
- 4:59Speaker1: many things have happened in our life That started with somebody
- 5:03Speaker1: on their knees praying for us.
- 5:07Speaker0: And,
- 5:07Speaker0: you know, something very practical,
- 5:10Speaker0: Kyle, that has changed my praying in the last
- 5:14Speaker0: years. I was with one of our dear friends,
- 5:17Speaker0: Nathan Leno, and we were teaching on prayer to a
- 5:21Speaker0: group of missionaries. And I just said to him, I said, Nathan,
- 5:24Speaker0: tell me how you meet with the Lord in the morning.
- 5:28Speaker0: And just be very practical. And he said,
- 5:31Speaker0: first, I do whatever is necessary.
- 5:36Speaker0: I spend however length of time to become aware of
- 5:41Speaker0: the presence of God.
- 5:43Speaker1: Mm-hmm.
- 5:44Speaker0: I would say that
- 5:45Speaker0: I always love to talk about Matthew 6:6,
- 5:49Speaker0: that we enter into the throne room and we shut the door
- 5:53Speaker0: and we pray to our Father. There's something about— it's
- 5:58Speaker0: hard to pray if you don't become conscious—
- 6:01Speaker1: That's
- 6:03Speaker1: right.
- 6:03Speaker0: Of the one you're talking to. And so we walk
- 6:07Speaker0: in our prayer— one of the— this is such a simple thing, but profound.
- 6:11Speaker0: One of the reasons some of our listeners' prayer life is just almost
- 6:15Speaker0: nothing, next to nothing, maybe you
- 6:19Speaker0: don't know how to enter in.
- 6:21Speaker1: Right.
- 6:22Speaker0: And here's the key.
- 6:23Speaker0: Bow your knees before the Father.
- 6:28Speaker0: Bow your heart. Bow your mind. Bow your
- 6:32Speaker0: day. Bow— lay aside every distraction
- 6:37Speaker0: as you're coming to pray and realize that he's the
- 6:40Speaker0: Father. He's the source of everything. All right.
- 6:44Speaker0: Keep going there, Kyle.
- 6:45Speaker1: Yeah, man. Well, just encourage
- 6:47Speaker1: us to think. So imagine Paul's not just merely trying to say
- 6:51Speaker1: some things. He's meeting with someone. He said, I'm going to come into the
- 6:55Speaker1: presence of God the Father. I'm going to kneel. I'm going to
- 6:58Speaker1: rightly posture and position myself so that I can pray
- 7:02Speaker1: for people. He said, I'm praying for you, but I'm aligning in
- 7:06Speaker1: this moment. Then he tells us— I'm just— I don't want us to move past
- 7:10Speaker1: that. Imagine that day by day, that you find those postures,
- 7:13Speaker1: that you get before God. who is Father of anyone
- 7:17Speaker1: anywhere in creation. And we hope to
- 7:21Speaker1: be true for them in salvation. And he is saying, I want
- 7:25Speaker1: to pray this way for you, that according to the riches
- 7:28Speaker1: of his glory, not mine. Paul's saying, not because— not based
- 7:32Speaker1: off what I have, not based off what I pray, according to the riches
- 7:36Speaker1: of his glory, God's manifest weight,
- 7:40Speaker1: that he may grant you To be strengthened
- 7:44Speaker1: with power through his Spirit in your
- 7:48Speaker1: inner being. So let's just slow that down. Slow it down
- 7:52Speaker1: for a second. He said, let me tell you what I'm praying for you,
- 7:53Speaker1: church in Ephesus, that I love, that according
- 7:57Speaker1: to his glory, according to
- 8:02Speaker1: the glory of God, the weight
- 8:05Speaker1: of God, that you might be strengthened
- 8:10Speaker1: by the power of the Spirit in your inner being,
- 8:15Speaker1: like at the, at the core guttural level
- 8:19Speaker1: of who you are as a, as a human being,
- 8:23Speaker1: that you might feel and experience
- 8:27Speaker1: the weight of his glory and the power of his Spirit.
- 8:31Speaker1: Man, come on.
- 8:32Speaker0: Kyle, you know why we
- 8:35Speaker0: have job security as pastors is
- 8:39Speaker0: because all people are
- 8:43Speaker0: weak.
- 8:44Speaker1: Yeah.
- 8:45Speaker0: We're weak.
- 8:47Speaker0: And so we're weak mentally. We don't think right.
- 8:51Speaker0: We're weak emotionally and we get pulled in all kinds
- 8:56Speaker0: of directions. We're weak spiritually and we
- 9:00Speaker0: don't persevere. We don't hang in there.
- 9:03Speaker1: Right.
- 9:04Speaker0: And so we'll always have a job because they need undershepherds.
- 9:10Speaker1: Yeah.
- 9:11Speaker0: Who will help them. But what they— but what
- 9:15Speaker0: those undershepherds need to do, like Paul was doing here,
- 9:18Speaker0: is just walk into the presence of God and say, now,
- 9:22Speaker0: God, would you strengthen them?
- 9:26Speaker1: Amen.
- 9:27Speaker0: With your power.
- 9:28Speaker1: Amen.
- 9:29Speaker0: And you do that,
- 9:30Speaker0: Father, because here's the means through the Holy
- 9:34Speaker0: Spirit.
- 9:35Speaker1: Yeah.
- 9:35Speaker0: Who has been given to them.
- 9:38Speaker0: And so their strengthening is not just going to
- 9:41Speaker0: come because we gave them $100 or because
- 9:46Speaker0: they had a good nap, or it's going to be strengthening in
- 9:50Speaker0: the inner man. I was just preaching Sunday about
- 9:54Speaker0: Elijah. who got strengthened in the
- 9:58Speaker0: cave, and he got up and he walked 40 days
- 10:03Speaker0: and 40 nights on the strength of what God gave him.
- 10:06Speaker1: Hmm.
- 10:06Speaker0: So God has inexhaustible strength,
- 10:11Speaker0: and what we need is to be filled with him. We'll see that
- 10:15Speaker0: in this next verse and verses,
- 10:20Speaker0: but also Along with it comes to be filled with
- 10:24Speaker0: his strength by his Spirit in the innermost
- 10:29Speaker0: part of our being. What a prayer to pray for
- 10:32Speaker0: your family.
- 10:34Speaker1: Yeah, to pray for people and just encourage as
- 10:37Speaker1: we're learning to pray these passages, slow down,
- 10:40Speaker1: see what it's saying. Like, just like we're not trying to get through every
- 10:45Speaker1: phrase. Yeah, we're not trying to get through it. You know,
- 10:48Speaker1: we're like, hey, you might not get through the whole prayer. You might just get
- 10:51Speaker1: through one part.
- 10:52Speaker0: That's right.
- 10:52Speaker1: And the glory and the strength of his power.
- 10:55Speaker1: I had a guy recently, Bill, that's on his journey to faith.
- 11:00Speaker1: I was having lunch with him and we're having some good conversations and he's close.
- 11:04Speaker1: And he asked me a question that I couldn't help
- 11:08Speaker1: but just burst out laughing when he said that because he's new to faith
- 11:13Speaker1: and things. He goes, hey, can I ask you a question about your job?
- 11:15Speaker1: I said, yeah. He said, do you ever worry that you're going to run out
- 11:19Speaker1: of content? And I just busted— I bust
- 11:22Speaker1: out laughing. And I told him, I said, there's a lot of things I worry
- 11:25Speaker1: about as a pastor. That's not one of them.
- 11:28Speaker0: Inexhaustible.
- 11:29Speaker1: Inexhaustible. And I was telling him, and he was— it was
- 11:32Speaker1: a very sincere question. And I was like, I said, you'll find out
- 11:36Speaker1: about this book that it's alive.
- 11:40Speaker1: And that when— and the more time I spend with it, The more
- 11:44Speaker1: things come alive. And so as you're praying these
- 11:48Speaker1: passages, I'm telling you, you come back to it tomorrow and pray
- 11:52Speaker1: it again, you'll see things you've never seen before.
- 11:54Speaker0: Yeah.
- 11:55Speaker1: Yeah,
- 11:55Speaker1: it's living. So he keeps walking into it and says,
- 11:58Speaker1: that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
- 12:03Speaker1: faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded
- 12:06Speaker1: in love, may have the strength to comprehend with
- 12:10Speaker1: all the saints. And I'll stop there. Okay, I'm gonna tell you what I love.
- 12:13Speaker1: I love that word, and Bill, you can close this out on this next part
- 12:17Speaker1: in a second. I love that word, that Christ may dwell.
- 12:22Speaker0: Dwell. Dwell.
- 12:23Speaker1: You know, there's a statement that's in around our
- 12:26Speaker1: faith a lot, you know, that Christ comes— you know, when did
- 12:30Speaker1: Christ come to live in your heart? You know, which is— I, I don't think
- 12:33Speaker1: it's a wrong expression per se, but I, I wonder what our understanding
- 12:37Speaker1: of that is. And, and, and what I would love— what Paul's
- 12:41Speaker1: saying, what I want you to know in intimacy
- 12:45Speaker1: is the dwelling presence of Christ in your
- 12:49Speaker1: heart, that he's home.
- 12:53Speaker1: He's home.
- 12:53Speaker0: And this is, this is, you know, all the things
- 12:56Speaker0: that Christ could have said to his disciples in the final moments.
- 13:01Speaker0: He gives us that great locker room talk in John 14 through 16.
- 13:06Speaker0: And he spends a whole— what we see as the 15th chapter
- 13:11Speaker0: saying, look, abide in me.
- 13:14Speaker1: Yeah.
- 13:15Speaker0: That word abide means stay put. It says,
- 13:18Speaker0: don't do this and this and this. I'm the vine.
- 13:22Speaker0: You're the branch. You can't do anything without me.
- 13:25Speaker0: And you don't— you don't remember that.
- 13:28Speaker0: And so you just keep pulling away and you won't dwell
- 13:32Speaker0: in me. And therefore, I cannot feel
- 13:37Speaker0: as a settled occupant
- 13:41Speaker0: of your heart. He is. He will never leave us or forsake us.
- 13:45Speaker1: Right.
- 13:45Speaker0: But I want Christ to settle down
- 13:49Speaker0: and just to take up every room. There used to be a little booklet
- 13:54Speaker0: called My Heart, Christ's Home. And the guy kind of walks
- 13:58Speaker0: through his library of his heart where his thoughts are. his recreation room,
- 14:02Speaker0: each of the— and when he got saved, he invited Christ
- 14:06Speaker0: to come into every room. But then he started getting busy.
- 14:10Speaker1: Hmm.
- 14:10Speaker0: And he would run down the stairs and he'd see
- 14:13Speaker0: the back of Jesus in the library by the fire. But I just
- 14:17Speaker0: don't have time. And he'd run out and he didn't
- 14:20Speaker0: experience the indwelling of Christ that
- 14:24Speaker0: he could have until he repented. So I'm praying that
- 14:28Speaker0: Christ Would dwell in your heart.
- 14:30Speaker1: Yes, sir.
- 14:31Speaker0: Through dependency,
- 14:32Speaker0: through faith, which is dependency.
- 14:34Speaker1: That's right.
- 14:35Speaker0: Listen, Kyle, even if I'm a Christian,
- 14:39Speaker0: if I'm not trusting Christ today
- 14:44Speaker0: for wisdom, for this next decision,
- 14:48Speaker0: for what do we do here, for provision,
- 14:52Speaker0: that's faith. And I'm on my own. And I'm
- 14:56Speaker0: not experiencing the power of the indwelling Christ. But he says, I'm praying that
- 15:01Speaker0: Christ would settle down and dwell in your hearts of faith and that
- 15:04Speaker0: you would be rooted and grounded
- 15:09Speaker0: in love. Oh my goodness. What do you think he means by that?
- 15:12Speaker0: To be rooted and grounded in love?
- 15:15Speaker1: Yeah. Yeah. Well, just immovable that I'm so
- 15:20Speaker1: secure, you know, in who I am and the love I've
- 15:24Speaker1: received in Christ. You know, you know, our buddy Jet here,
- 15:27Speaker1: they pastored Crossgates for a long time.
- 15:30Speaker1: I remember he's, he's talking about when I go— he says when I know that
- 15:35Speaker1: I'm home in his house and I'm, and I'm at
- 15:39Speaker1: ease and comfort is when I get to the place that I'm— I can take
- 15:42Speaker1: my shoes off. I can take my shoes off. And he
- 15:46Speaker1: talked about intimacy with the Lord is that place that we've so availed
- 15:50Speaker1: our heart, you know, and that could be true in a gathered setting.
- 15:54Speaker1: But let's just take the— let's just take the gathering room of our heart,
- 15:57Speaker1: and that Christ dwells in such a way, and through faith,
- 16:01Speaker1: and we're engaged in intimacy with him, that he can take his shoes off.
- 16:06Speaker0: Yeah.
- 16:06Speaker1: And, and that we can sit in this love relationship,
- 16:11Speaker1: and that I— that— look, and that you and I so know the
- 16:14Speaker1: abiding presence of of God, that we
- 16:18Speaker1: might experience the love of Christ that would,
- 16:21Speaker1: listen, anchor us in the midst of anything.
- 16:25Speaker0: Well, just think of this, Kyle.
- 16:28Speaker0: 90% of the stupid things we do
- 16:33Speaker0: is because we forget about the love of God, the love
- 16:37Speaker0: that wraps around us and makes
- 16:41Speaker0: us secure. the love that is the motivation for
- 16:46Speaker0: how we're to live. You know,
- 16:49Speaker0: all the ways that love,
- 16:52Speaker0: perfect love, God's love casts out fear.
- 16:56Speaker1: Right.
- 16:56Speaker0: So without me understanding, you know, John said in 1 John
- 17:00Speaker0: 4, I've come— we've come to know and believe the love of
- 17:04Speaker0: God. He was rooted. If ever there was a guy rooted and grounded in
- 17:08Speaker0: love, it was the Apostle John, right?
- 17:10Speaker1: Yeah.
- 17:11Speaker0: Jesus loved, the one who leaned on his breast.
- 17:15Speaker0: He was rooted and grounded, and he said, I don't have any fear.
- 17:18Speaker0: I'm not going to get swayed. I'm not going to be thrown off by fear
- 17:23Speaker0: because I know the love of God that he has for me,
- 17:27Speaker0: and I have the love of God in me. So rooted and
- 17:31Speaker0: grounded in love and comprehend All
- 17:36Speaker0: the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know
- 17:40Speaker0: the love of Christ, which surpasses
- 17:43Speaker0: knowledge. And I love this phrase in verse 19,
- 17:47Speaker0: that you may be filled up to all the fullness
- 17:52Speaker0: of God. I think, I think, Kyle, that's,
- 17:56Speaker0: that's the essence of this passage.
- 17:59Speaker1: That's right.
- 18:00Speaker0: Ephesians 1 prayer is that you would know God.
- 18:03Speaker0: Ephesians 3 prayer is,
- 18:07Speaker0: I want all this to happen so that you would just be full
- 18:12Speaker0: of them, not just a dab of Christ.
- 18:16Speaker0: You would be filled up to
- 18:19Speaker0: all the fullness of God.
- 18:24Speaker0: What a thought we can pray.
- 18:25Speaker1: Yeah.
- 18:26Speaker0: I mean, think of praying that.
- 18:28Speaker1: Well, and I'm gonna tell you this, and then we'll pray it, Bill. Uh,
- 18:32Speaker1: yeah, I heard a pastor's testimony yesterday
- 18:37Speaker1: who's being used of God probably more so than anybody I know
- 18:40Speaker1: right now. And I'm just— I'll leave it at that. And he
- 18:44Speaker1: talked about, though, he's very honest about early
- 18:48Speaker1: in his ministry, even as a church planter where he was at that
- 18:52Speaker1: point, and that there was just little fruit from
- 18:56Speaker1: his ministry and life, but God called him to a season of just seeking
- 19:00Speaker1: him.
- 19:01Speaker0: Yeah.
- 19:01Speaker1: And he would take his lunch hours
- 19:04Speaker1: and he would drive around this area in his city,
- 19:08Speaker1: and God just awakened this prayer in him.
- 19:12Speaker1: And it was this— I mean, it's this right here: the fullness of God.
- 19:15Speaker1: He said, the fullness of God. I was just saying, God, I just know that
- 19:19Speaker1: there's more of you. And he said, I He said, I would just drive this
- 19:22Speaker1: lunch hour and just keep going. God, the more
- 19:26Speaker1: of you, I'm just asking more of your love, more. It wasn't even about ministry
- 19:30Speaker1: at that point.
- 19:31Speaker0: Yeah.
- 19:31Speaker1: It was just like, I just, I just know that there's
- 19:34Speaker1: more of you. And in the course of that season,
- 19:38Speaker1: uh, the Lord just did something in him. And he
- 19:42Speaker1: honestly, he said, I just, I knew the intimacy, the love of Christ, all that.
- 19:46Speaker1: But the, the result of it Was an anointing on his life
- 19:50Speaker1: that he had never known.
- 19:52Speaker0: God found a man he could trust
- 19:54Speaker0: because the motivation of his heart was not, I want
- 19:58Speaker0: the world to know more of me. It's, I want
- 20:02Speaker0: to know more of you, and I want others to know more of
- 20:06Speaker0: you. And that's Paul's prayer. What a, what a beautiful
- 20:10Speaker0: thing, because everything's found in him, right?
- 20:12Speaker1: Right.
- 20:13Speaker0: You have him, you have everything.
- 20:15Speaker0: And then, Kyle, before we pray these
- 20:18Speaker0: last 2 verses, if you think that
- 20:22Speaker0: God— this prayer— that God can't answer this prayer,
- 20:26Speaker0: you think he's incapable of doing that.
- 20:29Speaker1: Yeah.
- 20:29Speaker0: He finishes
- 20:30Speaker0: this prayer to the Ephesians with, now to him who
- 20:35Speaker0: is able to do far more
- 20:39Speaker0: abundantly beyond all that
- 20:43Speaker0: we ask or think,
- 20:46Speaker0: according to the power that works within us.
- 20:49Speaker0: And to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to
- 20:53Speaker0: all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
- 20:56Speaker1: Amen.
- 20:57Speaker0: Well, what an exclamation.
- 20:59Speaker1: Well,
- 20:59Speaker1: that's the promise. I mean, he gave
- 21:03Speaker1: us the prayer and then Paul gave us
- 21:07Speaker1: the promise. He said, by the way, this thing I bowed my knees before the
- 21:10Speaker1: Father and asked for you, He can do more than that.
- 21:13Speaker0: He's able.
- 21:14Speaker1: Yeah, he's able to do exceedingly abundantly. Like, that doesn't—
- 21:18Speaker1: he's saying this is not, this is not a prayer that God can't pull off.
- 21:22Speaker1: This is a prayer that God can do exceedingly abundantly.
- 21:28Speaker0: Well, let's invite our people to pray
- 21:31Speaker0: with us. Yeah. And, uh, I hope
- 21:35Speaker0: you have a Bible with you maybe you can look at as we're praying.
- 21:38Speaker0: If not, just pray along with us.
- 21:41Speaker0: We're going to pray this prayer for you.
- 21:44Speaker0: We're going to ask God to do these things in you. We prayed last
- 21:48Speaker0: week that you would know God. This week
- 21:52Speaker0: we're going to ask the Lord that you would be filled up to all the
- 21:56Speaker0: fullness of God. So Kyle, why don't you start
- 21:59Speaker0: us out in verse 14, take us down a ways, and then I'll pick it
- 22:03Speaker0: up and finish us out. Okay.
- 22:06Speaker1: So,
- 22:06Speaker1: Lord, here we come.
- 22:08Speaker0: That's right.
- 22:10Speaker1: Into your presence.
- 22:12Speaker1: And we bow our hearts. We bow our
- 22:16Speaker1: heads, our knees, whatever posture, God, I pray that
- 22:20Speaker1: you would see in this moment before our
- 22:24Speaker1: God who is a Father. And I thank you that we
- 22:27Speaker1: don't have to be afraid of you, that we can come into the presence of
- 22:31Speaker1: a loving Father that welcomes us that wants us to
- 22:35Speaker1: come near. And I ask, Lord, this is what I'm going to ask for our
- 22:39Speaker1: listeners right now, and I ask for Bill and I personally, God,
- 22:43Speaker1: that according to the riches of your glory,
- 22:48Speaker1: your glory, may you grant to us strength.
- 22:53Speaker0: Yeah.
- 22:54Speaker1: By your power in our inner being.
- 22:57Speaker1: God, I'm asking in fresh ways like we've not known ever before.
- 23:01Speaker1: God, I pray for your glory
- 23:05Speaker1: to so rest upon us that it would mark each man
- 23:09Speaker1: and woman, that the glory of the radiance, the beauty,
- 23:13Speaker1: the right weight of God would rest upon your
- 23:17Speaker1: sons and daughters in such a way, and that you would
- 23:21Speaker1: strengthen us, Spirit of God, in a way.
- 23:25Speaker1: And we just confess we are completely weak.
- 23:29Speaker1: We are, we are without the strength that is needed to
- 23:34Speaker1: do whatever is next in anyone's life.
- 23:36Speaker0: Yeah.
- 23:36Speaker1: But you have all
- 23:37Speaker1: the strength. So we welcome the strength of the
- 23:41Speaker1: Spirit of God into our lives even right
- 23:45Speaker1: now to empower us, Lord, and ask
- 23:50Speaker1: that as we position ourselves, Lord— and I'm praying for our listeners That
- 23:54Speaker1: you, Jesus Christ, might dwell in
- 23:58Speaker1: our hearts, that you'd be home, home right
- 24:04Speaker1: here in the core of who we are.
- 24:07Speaker1: And we ask, we establish a throne even right now in prayer
- 24:11Speaker1: in our hearts and ask for you to rule and reign.
- 24:16Speaker0: Yes. And Father, we pray For our listeners,
- 24:20Speaker0: that they would be rooted and grounded
- 24:24Speaker0: in the love of God, that they would be overwhelmed
- 24:28Speaker0: with the love you have for them. They would say like John,
- 24:32Speaker0: we have come to know and believe the love that God
- 24:36Speaker0: has for us. We don't have to fear man.
- 24:39Speaker0: We don't have to try to impress people because we
- 24:43Speaker0: are secure in the love of God. And perfect love casts out all
- 24:47Speaker0: fear, every kind of the fear of the future,
- 24:51Speaker0: the fear of what will people think of me. Lord, all that's
- 24:55Speaker0: gone when we are rooted and grounded in the love of
- 24:59Speaker0: God. So we pray that for our listeners and
- 25:03Speaker0: that they will come to understand the love
- 25:07Speaker0: of Christ. Just the love of Christ,
- 25:11Speaker0: which surpasses all human comprehension, and they
- 25:15Speaker0: would know the length and depth and height and breadth of that love.
- 25:20Speaker0: And Father, we pray this prayer for our listeners and
- 25:23Speaker0: for Kyle and for me.
- 25:26Speaker1: Amen.
- 25:26Speaker0: And that we
- 25:27Speaker0: would be filled up to all the fullness
- 25:32Speaker0: of God. Lord, what a prayer and
- 25:36Speaker0: what a possibility.
- 25:38Speaker1: That's right.
- 25:39Speaker0: And Lord, if it weren't
- 25:40Speaker0: for you, there'd be no way. There'd be
- 25:45Speaker0: no way we would have even thought about you. There would be no way we
- 25:49Speaker0: would have been drawn to you and called to you and
- 25:53Speaker0: saved by your grace and your Spirit placed within us.
- 25:56Speaker0: But now we come boldly with Paul to pray, Lord,
- 26:00Speaker0: fill us up. Just fill us up with the fullness
- 26:04Speaker0: of God. And we know that's possible, Lord,
- 26:08Speaker0: because we're praying to the one who is able
- 26:13Speaker0: to do far more abundantly beyond all
- 26:17Speaker0: that we ask or think, according to the power that
- 26:22Speaker0: works within us. And we say, Father, with,
- 26:25Speaker0: with you, to you be the glory, both in your church and
- 26:30Speaker0: in Christ Jesus to all generations. Forever and ever.
- 26:33Speaker0: Amen.
- 26:35Speaker1: Amen. Amen. Man,
- 26:37Speaker1: so rich. You know what, Bill? He's able to do more.
- 26:41Speaker0: Yeah, more than you could ask. I think, well, I can come up
- 26:44Speaker0: with some pretty good asks. Well,
- 26:48Speaker0: also more than you can think.
- 26:49Speaker1: Yeah.
- 26:50Speaker0: Wow.
- 26:51Speaker0: Whatever your greatest, wildest thought, he can do
- 26:56Speaker0: more.
- 26:56Speaker1: Yeah.
- 26:57Speaker0: So how—
- 26:58Speaker1: we're believing for that. So just
- 27:00Speaker1: to our listeners again, Hey, honored to have a few moments with
- 27:04Speaker1: you. Pray that if it's been a blessing to you, uh, that you'd share it
- 27:08Speaker1: with others. Hey, let's, let's, let's, uh, have a little prescription
- 27:12Speaker1: this week, man. I, I, I love, I love what Bill—
- 27:16Speaker1: what Bill has said. I'm, I'm stealing this from you.
- 27:20Speaker1: He's a doctor, so I'll, I'll say based off him writing—
- 27:23Speaker0: Credentials.
- 27:24Speaker1: Yeah, he's gonna write us a prescription. I'll sign
- 27:28Speaker1: off on the Yeah, yeah, I will gladly be his internist here in this
- 27:32Speaker1: moment and, uh, and say, hey, just let's pray this passage
- 27:36Speaker1: these next 6, 7 days and just see what God would do. If you'll do
- 27:40Speaker1: it, the Lord will hear it, and he'll meet with you and
- 27:43Speaker1: others that you pray for. And share the podcast if it's been a blessing
- 27:47Speaker1: to you. Share it with somebody else. And we're going to continue next week
- 27:51Speaker1: to learn how to pray like Paul. Have a great week. I'm looking forward to
- 27:55Speaker1: seeing you then.