Accessing Your Spiritual Power, Part 1

Christ may be in your heart, but the question is, is he comfortable with the arrangement? Dr. Tony Evans says if you want spiritual power, it may be time for a spiritual house cleaning. The more at home Jesus is, the cleaner your life will be.

So that means you've got to come clean in developing an intimate walk with Christ. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. We often ask God to give us strength. But truth be told, believers already possess it.

Today, Dr. Evans takes a look at the spiritual power that every believer has access to. Let's join him in Ephesians chapter 3 as he explores what it means to be strengthened through God's Spirit. There are three main points to be found in verses 14 through 21. He's going to give the prayer for spiritual power.

Then it's going to give a perspective. for spiritual power, then he's gonna give the purpose. For spiritual power. And if you learn these principles, you will have at another level spiritual power. Because he's going to give in verses 14 to 21 how to access your spiritual power.

The prayer for spiritual power. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth. derives its name. Most prayers in the Bible, the person praying is standing. Kneeling was when you were getting serious.

Kneeling was when you wanted, when you needed to humble yourself.

So kneeling had to do with going low. It was a position of humility to reflect the heart.

Now if stuff really got bad, you laid prostrate. You got as low as you could possibly get, flat on your face before God. You were super humbling yourself.

So, this is a very important principle. He says, I bow my knee. Before the Father, before the Father, humbling myself before the Father.

So, what you want to do if you need spiritual power is humble yourself. before the father now He then enters into a discussion. And he's going to touch on four areas in this prayer for spiritual power. Let's look at how he breaks it down. Verse 16, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through the spirit in the inner man.

He now, first of all, wants you to have increased spiritual strength. Increased spiritual strength. God strengthens us. to come to him to be able to receive what he has for us. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to renew and empower us so that our capacity is enlarged.

Look at a couple of references. First of all, is 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 and 18 do not 218 therefore we do not lose heart we don't quit Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed, how regularly? Day by day.

So your capacity can grow on a daily basis. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

So, what should we be focusing on? Things that are what? Not seen. Because remember, the things that are not seen control the things that are seen.

Now he says outward man is decaying. And I don't care how good you look, you are decaying. Keep looking in the mirror. There'll be more wrinkles to cover. There'll be more gray hairs to hide.

As your physical person Deteriorates. And you feel walking slower, moving slower, getting grayer, your inner man should be getting younger. As your outer man gets older, and guess how it gets older day by day. Day by day, Age takes its toll. You don't feel it every day, but over time you see that it's taking its toll.

Your inner man should be getting younger and younger or getting renewed, he says. If that is not happening, then your spiritual capacity. Is not growing with time, like your physical aging is taking place with time. Look with me at Colossians chapter one. In this regard.

Verses 9 through 11. Colossians 1. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. You see, he is praying for their spiritual growth. Because he knows as their capacity expands, so will their experience of the power of God expand.

You will find that when your spiritual capacity expands and you appropriate the power of God. That since the first time. will decrease not the flesh's desire to sin But your inability to keep the flesh from fulfilling its desire to sin. The flesh will always want to sin, but what will decrease. Yeah.

You're saying yes to the flesh. What will increase is your saying yes to the spirit because what sin does is limit our capacity. See, when you hear the word of God, it expands your capacity like a balloon. When you sin, it becomes a needle in the balloon to pop the capacity that was just expanded by exposure to the word of God and by being in the presence of God through prayer.

So many of us blow up in church. And then we leave and Satan sticks a pin in. Our capacity shrinks. That's why you've got to have the daily intake of the word of God and the daily presence before God so that you keep this thing going and going and going and going and going, and you'll find yourself having increased victory, increased victory, increased victory in your life.

Okay, so nearer to God means further from sin. And therefore, the way to have spiritual victory is to spend more time in his presence, more time on your knees, asking for expanded capacity in the area of spiritual strength. Secondly, he wants us to pray for increased spiritual intimacy. Increased spiritual intimacy, verse 17.

So that Christ, and by the way, in verse 16, we're strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Notice where, in the inner man.

So it's in your human spirit that is at the center of your soul that this increase occurs. Then you want increased intimacy, verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Now, the word dwell, you may say, well, Christ already... dwells in my heart.

Well, this word dwell is a very intimate word. The concept of it is given in John chapter 14, verse 23. Let me read John 14, verse 23, and you'll get a better understanding of this concept of dwell. He says in verse 23, Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. That's the concept of dwelling.

Dwelling means to make yourself at home.

So let's look back at Ephesians now with that kind of understanding. And I think that will help us understand the second concept of our prayer for intimacy.

So that Christ may make himself at home in your heart. Christ may be in your heart, but the question is, is he comfortable? with the arrangements. What he wants to do is have access to all of life so that he can be totally at home. Because guess what?

The more at home Jesus is, the cleaner your life will be.

So that means you've got to come clean in developing an intimate walk with Christ. Not only is there to be increased spiritual strength and increased spiritual intimacy, there to be increased spiritual depth. Notice the second half of verse 17. And that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may comprehend. With all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth?

He says being rooted and grounded in love. He gives us two analogies that explains his concept. rooted and grounded. Rooted is an agricultural term. It refers to roots that run deep.

Under the ground, which keeps the tree or the plant or whatever it is, stabilized regardless of external weather.

So to be rooted means to be stabilized from underneath. Agriculturally grounded referred to the foundation. If you want to build a high building, you've got to take time and dig a deep foundation. The higher the edifice, the deeper the drill for the foundation. What he is saying is God wants us to go deep.

In love. He says, rooted and grounded in love.

So that Our capacity to love grows. Because remember the definition of love now is not first talking about emotions or affections. It's talking about acts of the will that seeks that which is better for the other person.

So when we want to love God, we want to seek his glory. We want to love people, we want to minister to their hurts and needs in accordance with the word of God. God wants us to go deep in love.

Now, why does he want us to grow deep in love? because love always expands your capacity. What does the scripture say? Love covers a multitude of what? See, the more love you have, the more capacity you have, okay?

The more capacity you have to receive the love of God. God loves us. But many of us don't feel that love, experience that love, or sense that love. Because our capacity to receive love has been greatly damaged. Perhaps we were abused or bruised or something happened into our life.

So our ability to love is very small. He says, through prayer, if you go deep. In your relationship with God and in your Depth of love by seeking to do that which pleases God, which will affirm that which is your ability to relate to others, then you expand your capacities. But deep roots don't grow by accident. And Dr.

Evans will explain how God uses trials to test and strengthen the foundation of our faith when he returns with the second part of our message in just a moment. Stay with us. I urge you to take this course. Dr. Craig Evans, renowned expert on the New Testament, serves as the special guest lecturer for the Tony Evans Training Center course on the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Bible.

That covers very important ground, what they are and what they're not. One of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide unparalleled insights into the accuracy of the Bible. These ancient manuscripts offer a treasure trove of historical and spiritual significance. They preserve for us the Hebrew Bible and shed light on the teaching of Jesus and the major contributors to the New Testament. The scrolls open a vivid window into the life and beliefs of the Jewish people during the time of Jesus.

You will understand the Bible and Jesus and Christian origins better than you ever have before. Take your first step as an honorary Amateur archaeologist. Dive into the Dead Sea Scrolls with special guest lecturer Dr. Craig Evans. Discover this and other fascinating biblical studies at tonyevanstraining.org.

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I'll repeat that contact information for you after part 2 of today's message. Let's rejoin Dr. Evans in Ephesians 3.

Now, God will always test how deep you are. And that was a call, trials. Trials are God's way of testing the depth of your root. or the depth of your foundation. And it is when you can love.

That's why God will put an enemy in your life to see whether you're ready to love your enemies. But remember, he's not asking you to like your enemies. He's not saying get butterflies in your stomach when your enemy shows up. He is saying Act out the will of God toward them regardless of how you feel. Because guess what that will do for you?

Expand your capacity to receive me, because that's what I do. Even while you were yet sinners, I loved you. Even when you didn't have a thought of me, I loved you. And he says, then he wants you to increase your spiritual understanding. Verse 18.

May be able to understand With all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth. Understanding. This word means apprehension or laying hold of for yourself. You need your own testimonies. Don't piggyback off of my walk with God, and I can't piggyback off of your walk with God.

You need your own. He says in verse 18 that you may be able to understand with. All the saints, that's a very important phrase. Because you will never get it all yourself. See, it's good we're hearing testimonies to see what God is doing in somebody else's life.

But we need our own testimony so somebody else can hear what's happening in our lives. And then when we get everybody's testimony together, we'll see how big God really is. Because He did that for you, He did something else for you, something else for you. And if we have 500 people in the audience and they have 500 different testimonies, you know what that tells us? How great God is.

He can meet each one of us individually in our individual problems, handle them individually. And we all have reason to praise him.

So that next year, when you run into a problem that you didn't have this year, you'll remember God did something about that in somebody else's life.

So that's why you've got to be part of the family of God so that you can get the size of God because nobody will ever have all the experiences that God has to offer.

So he wants you to have an experience of an understanding.

So that you will have, notice what he says. To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. He wants you to understand the fullness of God.

Now Let me try to illustrate this. Let's say we're we're at the Pacific Ocean. And you have a fimble. A thimble. You dip the thimble in in the Pacific Ocean.

All the component parts that make the water of the ocean what it is is in your thimble.

Okay? It's not much, but it still is the ocean. That is, you know, if it's the Pacific Ocean, that is the Pacific Ocean you now have in your thimble. Yeah. Somebody else comes along with a bucket.

They dip their bucket. They have the Pacific Ocean. In their bucket.

Somebody else comes along with a barrel. And they fill up the barrel with the Pacific Ocean. They've got the Pacific Ocean in there. Barrel, okay?

Somebody else. Comes with a tanker. And they filled the tank with the Pacific Ocean. They've got the Pacific Ocean in their tank. The fimbles got the Pacific Ocean.

Got the Pacific Ocean. The barrel has the Pacific Ocean. This tanker-sized unit has the Pacific Ocean. Else. or have the Pacific Ocean.

But all four do not have the Pacific Ocean to the same degree. You with me? They all have the same thing. But they don't have the same amount of the same thing. You know why they don't have the same amount of the same thing?

Because they didn't come to the Pacific Ocean with the same capacity. See if you only come with a thimble if I try to pour In your thimble. A tanker full of Pacific Ocean, it's going to be wasted because you have no capacity to handle it in your thimble-sized Christian life. Yeah. Many of us Pray.

Thank you, Prayers. And say, God, pour it into my thimble spiritual. Situation. Why wouldn't God answer that prayer? Because that means once the fimble is full, the blessing is wasted.

If you come with a bucket. Same problem. God can only give you a bucket full.

So rather than asking God for more stuff. Ask God for more capacity. Because he will always fill you. to your capacity. He wants you to have, notice what he says in verse 8, 19, the fullness.

Of God. The fullness of God. He wants you to comprehend with all the other believers. The fullness of God. That means you're going to have to have your tanker and then you need to be around other people with tankers so that we all collect it and we see how big and vast God really is.

You haven't been on the Pacific Ocean, been on a cruise? You know, when those cruise ships are docked and you first walk on a cruise ship, Massive. You get out in the ocean, it's nothing. Ask Titanic. Nothing.

swallows it like nothing. But when it's sitting when it's dark. Actually, you stand up there, woo, floating hotel. You know? When it gets into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it's a speck.

It's nothing. Ocean will swallow it up and it'd be meaningless like it never existed. You see, it all depends on what you're measuring against.

So what you want is increased capacity so you can handle more because God will always fill you to your capacity. That's why he says. In verse 18, He wants you to know the breath. The length. The height.

The damp. That's just a nice way of saying he wants you to understand how big God really is. Let me tell you how big God really is. In eternity. when you've been with God 100 quadzillion years.

Which I don't even know what that number means. But when you've been with God 100 twadillion years, you would have just been introduced to him. That would have been like a three-minute introduction to a message. After 100 quadzillion years, because the God of the Bible is inexhaustible. He has no end.

That is not for human consumption. To try to understand God is a waste of your natural time. All right. Because the scope, we're talking about the scope is too big. That's why we're going to have to have new bodies, because we're going to have to have new capacities for taking this stuff in, which we do not have in our current finiteness.

So, what he wants you to do is he wants you to realize through the Holy Spirit's power, through Christ's intimate relationship with Christ, and through this love relationship with God, that he's got a love so big it'll last forever. It's that long. It's so high it can reach, take the sinner to the highest heaven. It's so deep, it can reach down to the lowest sinner and pick him up. He's talking about the breadth of this great love of God, which surpasses knowledge.

You couldn't write enough books to cover it. Can you imagine? All the books have been written about God, Jesus Christ. And then Millie, introductory volumes. Libraries are full of them by the mega thousands.

No books about any other being in the universe like there are about God and his Son, Jesus Christ. And so He wants you to come to understand through prayer your spiritual power by expanding your spiritual capacity. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us that prayer isn't just communication with God. It's the key to unlocking the power He's already placed within us.

Well, as I mentioned earlier, today's message is part of Tony's 16-part series on Ephesians called Ordinary Holy: Finding God in the Mundane. It's available as our gift to you when you make a donation to help support the ministry of the alternative. You can receive it as an instant digital download as well as on CD or USB flash drive, bundled along with an added bonus, Dr. Evans' powerful book, Kingdom Living. Just visit tonyevans.org to make your donation and request these resources.

Or call us at 1-800-800-3222. That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. Just a quick reminder: a brand new episode of Stories from the Storyteller drops this weekend. In Big Little Things, Bunny's birthday surprise feels too small until it becomes something much bigger. It all leads to a bedtime story about the mustard seed and God's power to grow great things from little ones.

Learn more about this faith-building series for kids at tonyevanstv.com. That's tonyevanstv.com. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us. But are we tapping into it? On Monday, Dr.

Evans unpacks more of Paul's powerful prayer and shows how we can access that strength in our own lives. Don't miss it.