Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, Pauls prayer (inner man: the human spirit), part 23.

The inner man; soul, spirit, heart, and mind are to be unified under the will and purpose of God.

Heb 4:12

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Soul, spirit, and heart have all the same characteristics, but their nuance: soul is the type of person, the spirit the passion for that type, and the heart the hidden type.

We continue to focus on the human spirit, which has the distinction of motivation and passion, or the breath that moves us in the direction of our desire.

We are to rule our spirit and keep it refreshed with the word of God and obedience to the will of God.

When the human spirit comes in contact with the divine spirit, or as Paul puts it, “the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” holiness of life is the result. God commands us to be holy as He is holy. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” For that to be true, we must have a passion for it, remembering that holiness is of God and not of man, and so the identity of holiness can only be found in the word of God.

We could express passion of the human spirit as how deep is the desire to see the life of Christ? What are you willing to lay aside, be rid of, that might be blocking that view? How long and how hard are you willing to knock so that all doors will be open to you. We read Heb 12 last week, “laying aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.”

Heb 12:1-4

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;

All doors have been opened. The door of love, the door of joy, the door of peace, the door of strength, etc. Are we willing to walk through them and see what is on the other side?

And in reality, for all who are in Christ, all the doors have been open. We do not work to open them. Jesus opened them when He died for us. The question for us is are we willing to walk through them and see what is on the other side, walking by the Holy Spirit?

Heb 10:19-22

Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Mat 7:13-14

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. 14 "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.

This is not legalism or works, it is a matter of faith, as Heb 11 reveals.

Faith makes me go where God desires, not knowing exactly where it will take me, but knowing that His will must be followed. I must go and see.

Heb 11:8-10

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; 10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Seeing more of Christ’s love, peace, joy, strength and all other of His virtues is like constantly exploring a new land. We will see things about Him that we have never seen before.

Eph 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,    3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,    3:18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,    3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.    3:20 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,    3:21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.    

Eph  4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.  

This is the life of holiness. And although God calls all believers holy, meaning that they are all completely and eternally set apart unto Him, the discovery of holiness is progressive throughout life. It is the most daring experiment God has ever attempted; to make new men within while keeping their old bodies and the old world they live in. This is the reality of the age of the church. Because the holiness of God is hidden within men, hidden within the church (the body of Christ, not so much the ecumenical religion labeled Christianity), much of the world is very deceived.

Such a life of holiness, which can be termed “spiritual” has been what God has always meant for mankind.

And God accomplishes this in different ways in different ages or dispensations. Imagine the contrast of this age compared to the ages to come. Imagine what is placed before the eyes of the unbelieving world, what is termed the ethnos is the NT, translated Gentiles, but really meaning the heathen.

In our age the heathen see people claiming something invisible, which is the life of Christ within them, and they offer this invisible thing to the world in the form of the gospel received by faith.

In the Tribulation the people see the greatest loss of freedom and the greatest extent of oppression in the history of man. They see 144,000 Jews to whom no harm can come professing the same gospel that was told in the prior age. They see the greatest concentration and force of natural disaster in the history of the world. They see amazing creatures, demons and fallen angels who have been released from the Abyss. They see a world leader and his right hand man, a world religious leader. They see two witnesses (perhaps Moses and Elijah) standing in the Temple preaching that same gospel. They see them murdered and then see them come to life again, to which they will all marvel, not knowing that in a short time they will actually hear a loud voice from heaven say “Come up here” and the world will watch them ascend bodily into heaven, and they will marvel more. I could go on with much more of the fantastic that will be seen in this time, and all the while the gospel will be preached for the salvation of any man who will believe it. This is what will be before the eyes of the heathen in that time, and we must remember, the prophecy of it all in both the OT and the NT will be among them.

In the Millennial reign of Christ, still the heathen exist, but now they hear that same gospel, for there is only one, while the resurrected Christ physically and obviously sits on the throne of David. With Him, all around the world are the resurrected saints of the church, the patriarchs, of Israel, in a perfect world with a perfect government and a perfect economy. Israel will be restored to the capacity of the fulfillment of all covenants made to her by God. This too is copiously prophesied, and the word is all around them. This, and much more, is before the eye of the heathen for an unchanging one-thousand years.

There is much about the human race that I don’t understand, but what God makes clear in His testimony about us throughout our history, is our great capacity to be deceived. Do not marvel at the current situation that we face. Be a light to the world. Be spiritual. See more of Christ that you have not seen while you project what you have seen to the world around you. Satan is definitely working overtime right now. God is also working, but God’s work will prove to be the fulfillment of goodness, so much so that He will use the work of Satan to the same end, frustrating Satan’s plans as always. It is also true that God is patient while Satan is always in a rush. God will allow Satan’s plans to unfold, and during that time there will be greater suffering upon man and upon the church, but be of good courage: