Faith for God’s Perfect Love in and Through Us
David W Palmer
We have been looking at the Holy Spirit given prayer in Ephesians 3:14–19. And we have been examining outcomes of this prayer—especially as it pertains to love, and how it can help us fulfill God’s expectation for us to live with his perfect love: praying for strength in the inner man, and praying to comprehend and know God’s love, leading to being filled with all of God’s fulness.
Now that we know, comprehend and understand that we can be filled and overflowing with God’s own love, we look again at his instruction to love perfectly. With what we have learned and prayed for in mind, it’s beginning to seem possible:
(Matthew 5:48 DKJV) “Therefore, be completely perfect in love, just as your Father in heaven is completely perfect in love.”
Do not be daunted by Jesus’s instruction in this verse. Be encouraged; we have seen in God’s eternal word that you already have the potential for fulfilling this edict within you—through the indwelling Holy Spirit (See: Rom. 5:5). Releasing his potential is possible through prayer (in particular, the prayers given to us by the Holy Spirit in his word) to activate his supernatural work—the “power that works in us”:
(Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
This whole process—that we can have God’s level of love working in our lives and that we can be filled with all of his fullness—seems too good to be possible; so in Eph 3:20, to conclude his prayer, the Holy Spirit underlines the great ability of our God. He says that God is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” I believe that this assures us and explains to us that God is supernatural, and that with him nothing is impossible (See also: Luke 1:37). Not even this that seems the most impossible—that humans could love perfectly with the love of God—is impossible with his help. He brings further clarity to this by saying that it can happen “according to the power that works in us.”
Yes, when we received the Holy Spirit into our lives, we received the one who can do the impossible. He lives within us, and the way to activate his power is through “believing prayer.” As the Holy Spirit says in verse 17: “that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.”
(Ephesians 3:21 NKJV) “To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Paul’s final verse in this sequence talks about God’s glory being in the church. I’m sure we all want to see this, so why does he talk about it here?
The context is one of prayer to supernaturally release the love of God. God’s glory is all that he is, and God is love. He will be glorified in the church—all that he is will be in manifestation—when we are operating exclusively in his supernatural love. Let’s pray this prayer for others and ourselves today; the outcome will not only be a revelation of his love for us, and an outflow of his love through us, but also that God will be glorified in his church. You could even incorporate the practice of praying it daily for the body of Christ worldwide like Paul did, but certainly pray it for yourself today and for others—especially where you see the need for a revelation of God’s love. Remember:
“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 NKJV)
“Father, in Jesus’s name, I ask you to grant me, according to the riches of your glory, to be strengthened with might through your Spirit in my inner man. Then Christ will make his home in my heart as I trust in him. My roots will grow down into his love and keep me strong. Then I will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that I may be filled with all your fullness. Thank you. I believe your answer is ‘yes,’ and that I received it by faith. This is because you are able to do exceeding
