Good evening … Great is His faithfulness …
DAY 31: POWER
Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your [a]understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality[b] and [c]power and [d]might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
22 And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 1:15-23
St. Paul repeatedly uses this intercessory prayer – (seen in v. 16), and St. Paul is also asking his hearers to understand the redemption he laid forth and outlined in (vv. 3-14) … (v. 15) – is restating the TWO GREAT COMMANDMENTS: LOVE OF GOD AND LOVE OF OUR FELLOW PEERS, LOVER FOR ONE ANOTHER … UNDERSTANDING: according to the Orthodox Study Bible, should be translated “heart” … As Orthodox Christians, we pray this before we start the reading of the Gospel – “illumine our hearts, O Master who loves mankind, with pure light of Your divine knowledge …” We see as we finish up our readings, that Principality, power, might and dominion – (v. 21) is referring to the orders of angelic beings … Christ transcends all – (v. 21), everything is to submit to Him – (v. 22) … Christ is intimately united with THE CHURCH – (v. 22) as a HEAD TO ITS BODY – (v. 23), so the Church has the greatest glory of all creation … So, the Church is God’s masterpiece – (v. 23) … Christ as God is infinite, the Church never ceases becoming “FULL” …
Proverbs 16:21: The heart of the wise man shall understand the things from his own mouth, and he shall carry knowledge upon his lips …
The spiritual heart of a wise man is the key to understanding … It has eyes to see and the ears to hear the Wisdom and His instruction, - (in reference to Ephesians 1:18) … This type of person CARRIES KNOWELDGE UPON HIS LIPS … It is said that knowledge is power, the Lord gives us His Wisdom when fully heartedly seek Him in spirit and in truth, this is heavenly power my brothers and sisters in Christ …
Revelation -(see v.17- "Spirit of Wisdom and revelation")or"Apocalypse" -
means literally to unconcealed, unveil, or reveal … I will integrate things about the Book of Revelation when it fits, this evening is a good start …
Moving Forward
1: Write down a time when you felt better than someone else because of your religious status or choices, or their lack thereof … I don't think I ever had a thought like this because I have only been following Christ since 2021, even though I was chrismated in the Orthodox Church in 2019 … I pray daily and nightly that all come to Christ and not reject His free gift of salvation, and none of us are better than anyone regardless of our life choices we can learn from everybody we are all one in Christ …
2: What’s a rule or lifestyle choice you’ve stressed as important, perhaps the expense of a more direct or pure connection with Jesus??? These questions are deep, but this is simple for me … I’m all in for Jesus, and I’m always trying to find different ways in our studies to not only to help my own understanding, but I want to challenge myself, we are all students, and our learning is never complete when it comes to Our Lord, Christ our God …
3: We rarely must risk a lot to follow Jesus … But what are some things you’d have a hard time risking following Jesus??? I have a few weaknesses, my weakness is through Heather and the kids, and I’m sure the evil one knows this … Therefore, I keep building my foundation on the Rock – Christ, without His foundation the strong winds of evil will blow us down with no problems, so build a steady foundation … This is me building a strong foundation because I know things are getting worse around the whole world …
Prayer Focus:
Repent of the time you’ve valued status over humility, then ask God to bring you to your knees in gratitude and awe from the fact that He’s in relationship with you …
Psalm 23 (24): Part of this evening’s prayer focus …
Numbers 6:24-26
“The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord [a]lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’
In Christ love Jared W Campbell
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