#DailyDevotion There Is A Mighty Power Working In Those Who Believe In Jesus
Ephesians 1:16–23 15That is why, since I heard how you believe in the Lord Jesus and love all the holy people, 16I never stop thanking God for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, to give you His Spirit to make you wise and reveal the truth to you as you learn to know Him better 18and to enlighten the eyes of your minds so that you know the hope He called you to, the riches of the glory of the inheritance He gives to His holy people, 19and the vast resource of His power working in us who believe. It is the same mighty power 20with which He worked in Christ, raised Him from the dead, and made Him sit at His right in heaven, 21 above all rulers, authorities, powers, lords, and any name that can be mentioned, not only in this world but also in the next. 22And He put everything under His feet, and gave Him as the Head of everything to the church, 23which is His body, having all that is in Him who fills everything in every way.
There is a power at work in us who believe in Jesus Christ for our salvation. Indeed, without this power at work in us we would not believe and we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins. This power raised us from the dead and gave us eternal life. It regenerates us and makes us God’s children who fear, love and trust in him above all things. This power is not an inanimate power but the power of the Holy Spirit who filled Jesus Christ at his baptism and work in and through Jesus during his visible ministry among us. It is the power that Paul says here raised Jesus from the dead. Now what we have here is proof that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are truly one but distinct in personhood. For in one place it is written the Father raises Jesus from the dead. In another place it is Jesus who has authority to give his life and to take it up again. And now here, it is the Spirit who raises Jesus and seats him at the right hand of the Father at the Father’s bidding.
Jesus then exalted to the right hand of the Father, as God and Man, is placed 21“ above all rulers, authorities, powers, lords, and any name that can be mentioned, not only in this world but also in the next. 22And [the Father] put everything under His feet.” Fulfilling what was promised in Ps. 110:1 “The LORD says to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right until I make Your enemies Your footstool.’” This is where Jesus is ruling now in the symbolic 1000 year reign in Revelation. Here he is exercising his authority to spread the gospel, strengthen his church of earth, overcome the devil and his demons in the hearts of men and intercedes for us. His exercising authority is not for his own name’s sake but for his Church of which he is the head.
From here he sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts so we may know Jesus better, the hope he has called us to and to make us wise. It is this Spirit that creates in us new hearts, makes us new people who believe in Jesus Christ and love all the holy people. The ‘know’ here is not simply book knowledge, but rather to know him personally as a wife knows her husband. As we live in his love and receive his gifts of grace the more and better we learn that Jesus is the name of God revealed in Exodus 34, “merciful and gracious, slow to get angry, rich in love and faithfulness, 7continuing to show mercy to thousands, forgiving wrong, rebellion, and sin, without treating it as innocent, but disciplining children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their fathers.”
Almighty God and Father, send forth your Holy Spirit into our hearts that we may know Jesus better and love his people more fully. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
If you think believing in Jesus is cheap, then you don’t know what believing means. It is trust Jesus at his word, to stake your eternal life with him. Indeed, that faith will produce the fruits of the Spirit.
It’s not my symbolic 1000 years. The whole book of Revelation is symbolic with few exceptions.
The birth pangs began with Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. The apostle Peter tells us in his Pentecost sermon we have entered the last days. We are ruling with Christ at the right hand of God. Is not Jesus seated at the right hand of God? Of course he is. We are seated with him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2). The peace we have now is the peace within ourselves. He indeed must shorten the days. We, his Israel, will go through the Tribulation as his Israel did in Egypt. As Israel experienced some of the plagues with Egypt and did not experience other plagues, so too his people experience the mundane plagues of these last days but not the spiritual plagues.