Unleashed Power
How do I get more out of prayer?
God is able!
unto him—contrasted with ourselves and our needs
according to the power—the indwelling Spirit (
3:20 Now to the one Jewish prayers often ended with a blessing to God (compare
Able. There is no limit to what God can do
Able. Paul frequently emphasizes the ability of God to perform what He has set out to accomplish (
God in his sovereignty may choose to do whatever he wills. What he can do far exceeds anything we can dream or imagine, must less ask for. God’s sovereignty means our prayers can be answered far beyond even what we ask.
What does Scripture say God is able to do? He is able to rescue from a fiery furnace (see
God’s expertise goes beyond our expectation
Translate, “that is able above all things (what is above all things) to do exceeding abundantly above what we ask or (even) think”: thought takes a wider range than prayers. The word, above, occurs thrice as often in Paul’s writings, as in all the rest of the New Testament, showing the warm exuberance of Paul’s spirit.
Middle voice (αἰτουμεθα [aitoumetha]) “we ask for ourselves.” Or think (ἠ νοουμεν [ē nooumen]). The highest aspiration is not beyond God’s “power” (δυναμιν [dunamin]) to bestow.
All that we ask or think. How limited we often are in our asking, thinking that God will not do some particular thing for us. He is able to do far more than we can ask; indeed, more than we could ever imagine
Here he points to a superabundance, above and beyond fullness, and overflowing (cf.
Paul is giving added stress to the thought of the superabundance of God’s grace and giving. There are resources of spiritual power available to us beyond our farthest thought. We do not tap them as we might.
There is no limit to his power; only human words and thoughts about it are limited.
The object of the prayer was a lofty one; but, lofty as it is, God is able to give more than we ask, and even more than we understand.
Neither the narrowness of our knowledge nor the feebleness of our prayer will limit the richness of His gifts.
In thinking of God it is as if we thought of space—however far our conceptions may travel, there is still infinity beyond.
He is saying God’s ability to answer prayer far transcends not only the spoken petitions offered, but even such thoughts as are too deep to utter due to their very vastness [Ea, EGT, El, Ho, WBC].
This clause is saying that God is not restricted by the feebleness of men’s prayers or the narrowness of their knowledge [Ho, ICC]. God’s power, not men’s prayers nor their highest conceptions, is the measure against which Paul puts his anticipations and desires [Ho].
God’s strength supersedes our limitation
according to the power—the indwelling Spirit (
Paul uses several Greek terms related to power and work in Ephesians, including dynamis (“power”) and its related verb dynamai, and ergon (“work”) and its related verb energeō. In this verse, Paul praises God both as “the one who is able” (tō dynamenō) and as the “power” (dynamis) that is “working” (energeō) in believers (
according to the power that worketh in us. That is, we have been strengthened by his Spirit. Consequently, this power is being energized in us.
3:20, 21 These two verses form a doxology, or praise, to God in which Paul points out that God can do exceedingly abundantly above anything we may ask. Neither God’s love nor His power is limited by human imagination.
This power, moreover, Paul will repeat, is the power ‘according to’ which (NIV and see on v. 16) God acts, and that not as an external force, but as that which is at work within us. It is present in human lives when Christ is indwelling (v. 17), and when the Holy Spirit is operative in the inner being (v. 16), energizing them there (energoumai—see on 1:19).
This power is already at work; ἐνεργουμένην (for the word see on 1:11) may be (see Moule, 26) either middle, middle with an active sense, ‘working’, or passive, ‘which is energising you’, with God as the real subject; the last is preferable in view of AE’s continuous emphasis on God’s might (Barth).
According to the power that worketh in us, which is none other than the power “which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead” (
The power that is actually at work in us has only to be exerted a little more to accomplish wonders of sanctification, and confer on us immense spiritual strength.
according to the power that works in us. God in His power can do anything. In times of distress it comforts believers to know that whatever they might request or imagine, God is able to accomplish it if it is in line with His will for them.
according to the power that works in us. God’s power works in accordance with a believer’s spiritual strength, intimacy, and capacity—everything for which Paul prays an increase.
A fire hydrant is small, but it can gush water in volume and force that is out of proportion to its size. That’s because the water isn’t in the hydrant. The hydrant is connected to a reservoir that is always full. When the church is in sync with Jesus Christ, it has a connection to a reservoir that is always overflowing. When God’s people’s internal connection to him is tight, they will gush out the power of God in and through their lives individually and collectively.
