That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17, NKJV)
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith…” This is the absolute importance of salvation by faith. Christ is in us, not physically, but by faith He dwells in our hearts, the very Spirit of Christ… So here we see a difference between the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ… That when we receive Christ into our hearts at conversion, it’s not the Baptism of the Holy Spirit at that moment, so much as receiving the Spirit of Christ – the very likeness, the very character that was in Christ… So at conversion we receive the likeness, the character, the disposition that Christ had – it’s echoed in our lives, you will do what He would have done, you think, act as He would have done. That’s the sense of receiving the Spirit of Christ, when we become a ‘new creation’ – in His likeness.
And Paul continues, vv17-18, “…so that being rooted and grounded in love”, the Spirit of Christ in us enables us to “understand the length, breadth, depth and height of the love of Christ!” We like to talk in dimensions – a flat picture is in two dimensions, three dimensions and you can see the depth. But in our spiritual experience we have more dimensions! The four are the length, breadth, depth and height. It’s interesting, not just the heights of the love, but also the depths of the love of Christ! A love which, v19 tells us, passes all knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God!
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV)
Now we need to stop at v20, “Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think – according to the Power that works in us!” WOW! I’m beginning to see so much more of the Power of God! How can one describe it, exceeding abundantly… It’s almost beyond description, above all that we could even ask or think! One of my staff grew up in an Anglican tradition where it was taught that God didn’t actually answer prayer, it wasn’t proper to ask Him anything specifically, because you couldn’t know His Will, prayer was important, but a routine exercise, a repetition of written prayers… But Paul is saying, God is not only able to answer your prayers, whatever they are, but whatever you ask for, He is willing to give you MORE! MORE than you ask. ABOVE what you can imagine or ever expect.
I have seen this fulfilled in my life! I was reflecting on this. Both times I was healed of cancer, I was expecting that God would heal me. But with my throat cancer, back in 1964, not only did God heal me of the cancer, but the witness of the doctors was so SHOCKING! They said they could SEE that somebody had cut the cancer out and left SCAR TISSUE AS EVIDENCE! I was only expecting to be healed of cancer. I didn’t expect such a miracle with such dramatic evidence! It was the same with the lung cancer nearly 20 years ago. The miracle took place in Germany. I had been up my ‘prayer mountain’ late at night – I shouldn’t have done that with lung cancer – came back down exhausted, got into bed – and began to choke to death! My healing came suddenly as an explosion in my chest, and the whole cancer came out of my mouth until the whole bed was drenched. I was totally healed – but they had to burn the mattress! I hadn’t expected that! I just expected the cancer somehow to disappear…
It was the same when I was praying to be released from prison. That was also unusual! Yes, three days after my trial, when I was so discouraged, because I had been condemned to what could have been up to ten years in a communist prison, God gave me a dream in which I saw myself out of the prison and preaching in the Royal Albert Hall in London to the Easter Convention, which the Elim Churches held there in those days. But that was impossible! But after I had been in prison for nine months, I managed to smuggle my Bible into my cell – that’s another story – and when I began to read, I saw the confirmation in writing that God would do it!! God even showed me that I would come out on my birthday – that’s what I had asked for, He confirmed it in writing, and that’s what He did!! And I did speak in the Royal Albert Hall exactly as God had shown me in the dream. But the big and unexpected miracle was WHO came to get me out! It was British Prime Minister Harold Wilson who flew into Czechoslovakia to secure my release, and I flew home with him!!! And it was this experience with the Prime Minister that was to change my life – because after my release, I travelled all over the world, meeting Prime Ministers, Government leaders, Church leaders – who all asked the same question, “Why did Wilson do it?!” What an opportunity to explain the power of prayer!!!
So I have experienced something of that ‘exceeding abundantly’ above all that I could imagine, ask or think. Let this faith of God come into YOU in such a way that YOU can expect MORE! Not less. With God, it’s not a partial fulfilment, it’s ABOVE what we can think! GLORY! Verse 21, “Unto Him be Glory throughout the ages!”