Spiritual Power

Last week I talked about the mystery of the Church and that we are all one in Christ.

We close out chapter 3 with a prayer by Paul for the Ephesian church.

Ephesians 3:14-21

New American Standard Bible (1995) Chapter 3

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

This prayer is exactly what the church needs today.

Verse 15 he is saying that His creation, including angels are one family.

Then he begins praying for the Ephesian church to be strengthened in the inner man.

He wants us to be strong in spirit so we can overcome the resistance from...

Sin, the satan, and the world.

Paul wants us to have power as Christians to fight all that we are up against.

Paul says later in his letter to put on the full armor of God.

I think that most Christians in this country have it so good that most of them don’t even think about their spiritual safety.

their are too many bad things that happen and we chalk it up to oh what a mean person he was.

No...spiritual warfare participates in peoples decisions.

What about this Collin County student that stabbed and killed the other student.

I guarantee you spiritual issues had a part to play in that kids decision.

We are so numb to the things we hear and see in our culture.

If it isn’t happening on on our front porch we just say oh isn’t that sad.

Never given a thought to it being spiritually rooted.

Have you ever thought about the power you potentially have when you are walking in the spirit?

That’s Paul’s prayer.

When God is working in your inner being.

Not you doing it on your own without the H.S.

Let me go a little dark on you for a second.

I believe that most people that claim to be Christians today are probably not Christians or they’re so immature they don’t appear to be Christians.

It is not for me to salvation

I’m just making a general observation and its not directed toward any person.

So, bare with me for a second.

In 2021 a study by Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center found that despite 70% claiming to be Christians only about 6-9% of self-identified Christians possess an orthodox biblical worldview.

You know what a biblical orthodox worldview is.

It’s humanity’s fall,

man’s redemption by God’s grace thru faith by believing that Christ died for you and was resurrected.

It’s scriptural Truth.

We could add more but that is the essential orthodox belief.

You see, a lot of people claim to be Christians but they don’t even believe the fundamentals of the Christian doctrine.

For a lot of people Christianity is more like a social organization or activity, a club or association you can join.

In the Kaufman/Van Association there are 65 churches...

That’s only one association.

There are Baptist Churches all over Kaufman County not part of an association or part of a different association.

Simply there are are lots of Baptist churches.

That’s not even counting the Methodist, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, non-denominational and on and on we could go.

It’s like we have churches on every corner.

And we kind of do.

It’s like that everywhere.

So, why hasn’t a revival broke out?

If Jesus or Paul was transported to Kaufman County or anywhere USA today (June 7, 2026) what would they think...what would they say?

Even more out of this world...what if Paul came today...the Apostle Paul and sat down right next to you on the pew.

You knew it was Paul.

What would you say?

Would you freeze up?

Would you want to talk with him about your Christian walk.

Or would you be afraid he’s going to ask you questions.

Scripture tells us that we have power in Christ!

Scripture was written 2000 years ago, but I guess the H.S. has lost His power over that time.

H.S. hasn’t lost His power. You know that’s not true!

Something else is wrong.

We have no influence on others or our culture.

When your faith dwindles the Holy Spirit isn’t engaged.

When the Holy Spirit isn’t engaged...pretty much your on your own.

I think this is the crux of the problem.

Churches and leaders have disengaged from the power source...the H.S.

The H.S. is the life-blood of the church.

Drive around and look at these churches that are dying.

Paul is praying that you would be strengthened with power.

He wrote this letter from prison because the culture was so influential back then just like ours is today.

Paul says in verse 19, “you will know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge and you can be filled with the fullness of God.”

He’s saying this is what happens when faith fills you with the spirit.

When you possess the spirit and you put on the full armor of God.

I spoke to a pastor Thursday and asked him how his church is doing.

He said “I guess it’s ok. We have the same 20 people that come every Sunday. I don’t think that church will ever grow.”

Folks I’m not saying that every church is going to grow.

Some want… but surely not as many as we see should die.

In verse 20 Paul close his prayer by saying:

Ephesians 3:20 “20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us,”