The Messenger 11
Introduction
Between 1725 and 1760 a religious revival swept over the American colonies and became know as the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards, whose powerful preaching had an impact on stimulating the revival, had this to say:
When God has something very great to accomplish for His Church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people.
Prayer, or as Jonathan Edwards so aptly put it, “the extraordinary prayers of God’s people”, precedes God’s actions on the earth. No one knew that better than Daniel (Daniel 9: 3-19). “So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God…..”
Prayer, as has been said before, is God’s way of enabling us to co-operate with Him so that His will in heaven can be expressed on earth. Discovering from God’s Word just what God’s will is, therefore, becomes a vital part of effective intercessory prayer.
With that as a background, we continue now with our examination of the contents of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21.
Prayer is addressed to the Father
When it comes to the actual contents of the prayer in Ephesians 3, there are two things that are worth noting. Firstly, Paul’s prayer, as ours should be, was addressed to the Father. “I bow my knees before the Father…” In acknowledging the Father in this way Paul was simply following the teaching of Jesus.
Some years ago Tom Smaile wrote a book entitled “The Forgotten Father”. Its message is still relevant for the Church today. Writes Smaile: “For modern westerners, especially in an age where family life is very fragmented and often dysfunctional, probably the most difficult thing to understand about God within Christianity is that He is a Father. There are academic, cultural and experiential problems we have with God the Father.”
Whatever may be the difficulties many have in understanding and identifying with the Fatherhood of God, whether as a result of an intellectual struggle with the idea of a patriarchal society or whether because of having to overcome the negative effects of a tyrannical or dysfunctional earthly father, the Fatherhood of God is central to the ministry and teaching of Jesus. “Jesus taught his disciples to call God ‘our heavenly Father.’ Therefore, the loving relationship he has with the Father from eternity now extends to those adopted into God’s family (Rom. 8:15). The father-son relationship is the most intimate personal relationship, one marked by reciprocal love and respect, and it is God’s supremely personal and loving nature that the term father is meant to underscore.” (Christianity Today).
In everything Jesus did His aim was to glorify the Father. He dispels any false concepts we may have and shows us just what the Father is like. “You want to know what the Heavenly Father is like. Look at me and you will see what the Father is like” Jesus said to Philip (John 14:9). And what an incredible image of the Father Jesus leaves us with. But not only did Jesus make the unique claim to reveal the Father, He also claimed to be the only way into the presence of the Father (John 14:6).
Whoever we are and whatever we may have been in this life, the love of the Father reaches out to us from the cross of Christ to draw us into His family and embrace us with His liberating love. As Bill Bright so simply yet so meaningfully expressed it: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” All that is required from our side to experience that love and enter into that plan is summed up in the words of that well-known hymn by Charlotte Elliott:
Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, thy love unknown hath broken every barrier down; now, to be thine, yea thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
In Jesus we see the Father revealed. In Jesus we enter into the presence of the Father and become the adopted sons and daughters who cry out, “Abba Father” (Rom 8:15-17).
“I bow my knees before the Father” is how Paul begins his intercession.
Paul’s prayer here is for the saints
The second thing worth noting in Paul’s intercession is the fact that Paul is interceding here for the saints. Why is that so important to recognise and why is it an example we should follow in our own intercessions? When we look at the world around us today we are often appalled by what we see and read of the negative influences impacting our world. Corruption, violence, greed, materialism, secularism, the influence of drugs on the minds of young people, conflicting ideologies competing for our allegiance. What has happened to the Church that its people seem to have so little influence in the world? What has happened that often the only thing that distinguishes the professing believer from the unbeliever is that the former attends church on a Sunday and the latter doesn’t?
The Gospel seems to promise so much – so little of it is actually being lived out in reality. How can that change? The answer is there in Ephesians. Know what God has done in Christ on our behalf; know the blessings with which God has blessed us in Christ, and then follow Paul’s example and come before the Father to pray that His will for us in heaven might become His will for us on earth. Pray to the Father that we who claim to be His followers may know, not simply know in our heads, but know in our experience the love, the power and the reality of all that is already ours in Christ but needs to be possessed.
Change in society begins to happen not through the Church trying to control what happens. As we discover from church history, it may have been the way the Church acted in the past. Christianity, however, is not about control but about love; not about enforcing outward conformity but about the inward transformation resulting from the indwelling Spirit who takes the lovely things of Jesus and makes them real to us and through us. It is thus that we become salt and light in our community and exercise a positive influence on society.
“We live through Christ and become the sons and daughters the Father always intended us to be, carried along by the Holy Spirit who was sent to us when we were adopted. This is a beautiful message and is good news indeed” (Chris Tenny).
Paul prayed a passionate prayer. Read Paul’s prayer of intercession again in Ephesians 3:14-19. He prayed that prayer to the Father and he prayed that prayer for the saints, those set apart in Christ for God. Now let us resolve to follow Paul’s example and do the same.
If you have a question or a comment about this series please feel free to write to me, Brian, at
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