"I pray out that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Eph 3:16

What is the "Inner Being?"

Is it your heart? Is it your soul? Is it your spirit?
We know that it is not the outer being, our physical body. We know that it is more important than the outer body, even though the outer body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Sam 16:7 "The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

The "Inner Being" is simply the real you.

It is you either being fully alive with the fruit of the Spirit flowing out of you; full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

Or it is you being empty or lacking the fruit of the Spirit - empty or lacking love, empty of joy, empty of peace, empty of patience, empty of kindness, empty of goodness, empty of faithfulness, empty of gentleness and empty of self control.

What causes the "Inner Being" to be empty?
The stresses, challenges, problems of every day life as we live in this fallen world deplete our "Inner Being." Being hurt by others as they say things or do things to us deplete us. Circumstances of life deplete us. The negative thoughts and emotions that seek to keep nagging at us deplete us. Our physical body as it gets older depletes us. Giving into our temptations clearly depletes us.

The real question is what refills and energizes the "Inner Being?"
From the context of this passage, prayer; Our own prayers for ourselves, and asking others to pray for us. Praying that God, through the Holy Spirit, would strengthen our inner being with power! Is this a spiritual habit and spiritual skill that you do regularly? Who is praying this request for you? Who is praying this for me?

One of my favorite passages of Scripture and that I share regularly with others is the following.
"We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." 2 Cor 4:16

According to this, daily time with God renews our inner being. "Early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place to pray."

How important is the private time with Jesus...
Pouring out your heart.
Wrestling with pain.
Asking questions God is silent about.
Letting the Word wash over your mind, heart, soul.
Pleading for God to rescue others from problems, pains and struggles.
Pleading for God to rescue loved ones from eternal separation from Him.
Memorizing the Word.
Singing. Praising. Worshiping. Giving. Waiting. Interceding. Fasting. Listening. Responding.

The list of life giving experiences as we daily meet with Jesus can go on and on.

How is your "Inner Being" today? Tomorrow?

Memorizing and praying this powerful prayer together,
Pastor Chris

How is your 2019 going so far?

As we start off this new year, we are focusing on walking into the presence of God, letting Him do what He wants to do in our lives, through our lives and around lives. How is that going? What are you experiencing?

Our memory verse for this first three months is the powerful Ephesians prayer found in Chapter 3. In order for me to memorize a passage of Scripture, I need to know what it means. So, let's dive into it.

Eph 3:14 "For this reason I kneel before the Father..."

When was the last time you kneeled before God?
As we get older, we try to say to God, spiritually, relationally and emotionally I am on my knees because physically it is too difficult and perhaps painful.
What does kneeling mean?

It is an act of humility. It is acknowledging who God is and who we are. It is reminding ourselves that we are not God and we need God in every aspect of our lives and in the lives of everyone we know and encounter. What else does kneeling mean to you?

As we memorize this first phrase it is easy to picture kneeling before God...
What other postures could we do before God?

-Lying prostrate before God... (massive humility, revealing our total unworthiness...)
-Bowing before the Lord... (expression of reverence and honoring of The King of Kings...)
-Standing... (expression of our position in Christ, ready for service and battle...)
-Sitting... (a position of authority. Seated with Christ. Ready to minister and forgive others...)
-Looking upwards... (face to face intimacy. Confidence in being with Jesus...)
-Raising our hands... (expression of love, worship and seeking God's mercy...)
-Jumping for Joy... (expression of absolute confidence in the Lord and His ways are priority...)

We see so many examples of each of these postures in Scripture. They all have rich meaning in each Biblical circumstances. Try to look them up sometime this week.

"For this reason..."
What reason? What reason are we kneeling before the Father?
Read Eph 3:1-13.
The Gentiles are invited too!!!! 
That means you and I and anyone else who is not Hebrew is included in God's gift of salvation. That is great news. Anyone and everyone is offered God's gift of adoption into His family through Jesus Christ. Anyone and everyone who believes in their heart and calls on Jesus to be their Savior and Lord will be miraculously adopted into God's family.

So, "for this reason" we pray the following beautiful and life giving prayers on our "'knees."

Next week we will look at the next part of this prayer.

Memorizing and praying this prayer for each other,
Pastor Chris