' I bow my knees unto the Father that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye -may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. ' ' — Eph. iii- 14-17.

Here we have, in this wonderful prayer, the the fulness of God in revelation.  The Father granting the Spirit of power; the Spirit revealing Christ in the heart; that through Christ and the Spirit we may be filled unto all the fulness of God! As God dwells in heaven even so in our hearts.

In the prayer at the close of chap. i. we had the Spirit of Wisdom, that we might know God in the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. Here we have the prayer for the Spirit of Power to strengthen us with might; the exceeding greatness of God's power is to be the permanent experience in our inner life. Let us bow with deep reverence as we gaze upon this mystery of love.

Note first the expression, ' that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory,' Paul wants us to take time and think of the glory, and of its inconceivable riches, and then in faith to expect that God will do nothing less to us than according to the riches of that glory. What is to be done in our inner man is to be in very deed the glory of God shining into our heart, and manifesting the riches of His power in what He does there within us. Again I say, our faith dare not expect the fulfilment of the prayer until it enters into and claims to the full that God will do in us ' according to the riches of His glory.' Let us take time and see that nothing less than this is to be the measure of our faith.

And what is it now that we are to expect? ' That He would grant you to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.' The Spirit is indeed the mighty power of God. As the Spirit of Wisdom, He reveals the exceeding greatness of God's power in us who believe, nothing less than the power that lifted Christ from the Cross to the Throne. When He has taught us to see and desire and believe in this exceeding greatness of God's power in us, then, as the Spirit of Power, He works in us, strengthening us with might in the inner man. In His Word God continually calls upon his servants to be strong and of good courage. God chooses the weak things of this world; but when once they are truly weak, He wants them to be strong in faith, and strong in the power of His might, -with strength of will, ready to do al! God says, and strength of character, bold for any sacrifice. Just as in a healthy body the strength is not something separated from the whole, but fills the entire being, and permeates every fiber, as to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man simply means that our whole nature and being is under the sway of His mighty quickening power.

The object of this strengthening with might is threefold. First of all: 'That Christ dwell in the heart by faith.' The Divine power enables and emboldens our faith to claim this precious privilege of the fulfilment of the promise in John xiv. In the prayer in chap. i. the Spirit was to reveal to us Christ, through the mighty power of God seated upon the throne, and all things subject to Him, as the object of our faith. Here the Saviour comes nearer; the Spirit reveals Him dwelling within us, and gives the conscious- ness of His unceasing and omnipotent presence. Just as surely as God maintains the life of the body by supporting the heart in its action, will the Holy Spirit, by His Almighty Power, strengthen our inward man day by day to enable us to live the true spiritual life. Christ's dwelling in the heart is meant to be our portion.

Then comes the second promise. Where Jesus Christ is near, ever within us, we are 'rooted and grounded in love,' and comprehend something of the reality and the joy of the love of Christ that passes knowledge.

And this, again, leads on to 'being filled with the fulness of God.' The Spirit of Power filling the inner man, the presence of Christ filling the heart, the fulness of God filling all No wonder that Paul says, 'Now, unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, to Him be glory for ever and ever.' The faith in the promise of what the Father of glory will do, according to the riches of His glory, will teach us to worship in deep prostration, in which we can only say, Glory, glory to Him for ever and ever.

This doxology is in reality a revelation of what lies at the root of Paul's standard of prayer and expectation and attainment. He was filled with the one thought, that what he had asked in the prayer that believers might be strengthened with might in the inner man, according to the riches of God's glory, was an experience that could and would be granted. He knew how many would be ready to say that it was meant to be an ideal to stir our desires, but that its actual fulfilment in life in this world was beyond our reach. He felt how such a thought cuts away the very root of the faith in the supernatural power of God in our lives as being what is absolutely secured in the promise, and therefore possible in experience. He dares any reader to say that what he had asked for out of the riches of God's glory— the strengthening with Divine power, the continual indwelling of Christ in the heart, such a rooting in love as to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, and as to be tilled with all the fulness of God,— he dares any reader to say that this is too high and beyond what we dare think or ask. He knew so certainly that what the exceeding greatness of God's power had done and was doing in his own life, He was ready to do in any one who would give himself up with his whole heart and life to trust God. He answers every doubt, and encourages every sincere soul who is willing to trust God for the fulfilment of the prayer, to say with him : ' Now unto Him,'— let us pause and say with him humbly and reverently, — ' Now unto Him, Who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think the Spirit of power according to the power that worketh in us, be glory in Christ Jesus, world without end. Amen.'

Here is Paul's standard of the New Testament life. Is it ours? Do I believe it ?— with my whole heart and soul!  Does it animate my private devotion in the closet? Does it inspire my life's devotion, as indeed the best and the happiest thing there is in the world!

Let us return to the opening words: 'I bow my knees to the Father,' and plead for ourselves, for all in our charge, for all God's people, the strengthening with might according to the riches of His glory. God waits to do it. Who will wait to receive it?

And what is more, who will yield himself, like Paul, to be an intercessor, pleading not only with, but also for, the believers around him, that they may as learn to expect the almighty power of God to work in them, that what has hitherto appeared beyond their reach, may become the object of their longing desire and their confident assurance — a life of faith in which Christ in the heart shall live in them!

The Spirit of Power