The Spirit-filled life requires continuous spiritual growth so we will not become spiritual pygmies. During our last lesson, we discovered after Christ’s triumphant ascension back into heaven as Victor over Satan, sin, and death, He gave gifts to men (4:8). These equipping, or spiritual, gifts are given to us with great expectations on Christ’s part. He expects us to use them to serve and build up other believers (1 Pet. 4:10). Now, Paul lists four spiritual gifts, but many more are mentioned in the New Testament (Rom. 12:6–8; 1 Cor. 12:8–10; 1 Pet. 4:9–11). The gifts listed here are the different kinds of speaking gifts Christ has given us for the building up, or spiritual growth, of the church. To grow spiritually, you must receive, achieve, and leave and cleave.
Have you ever wished for more power in your prayer life? Do you sometimes have trouble figuring out what you should be praying for? Do you have problems with your mind wandering when you pray? In this passage, we find four elements of praying powerfully. Paul begins: For this reason I kneel before the Father (3:14a). The phrase for this reason repeats and picks up the prayer Paul began in verse one. He began a prayer and then parenthetically wrote about the mystery of the ages—the mystery of the church—in verses 2–13. Overwhelmed by the mystery of the church and his privilege of sharing the mystery, Paul exclaims, I kneel before the Father.
EXPERIENCING GOD’S AWESOME POWER – EPHESIANS 2:11-22
We can’t live a Spirit-filled life if we don’t fellowship with God and God’s people. Jesus saves individuals of all races, walks of life, and backgrounds and makes us one in Him. To live the Spirit-filled life, not only do we need to know who we are as individuals in Christ (as we learned in the last lesson), but we also must realize who we are together in Christ. In this passage, Paul explains four truths we must understand to experience God’s awesome power …
Finding God’s Purpose for Your Life (Ephesians 2:1–10)
God has a purpose for our lives even before we are born (Psa. 139:16). In our last lesson we found that God wants to use the same power He used to raise Jesus from the dead to transform our lives. God wants to transform us so we can fulfill His purpose for our lives. To find God’s purpose for our lives, we need to know three things:
ON ALLOWING GOD TO TRANSFORM YOU - Ephesians 1:7–23
As believers in Christ, we are like diamonds in the rough—some of us more so than others. Sometimes, before God completes His work of chipping off the rough edges of our lives, we wonder how we could ever be valuable and lovable in God’s sight. That’s when we need to remember what fact is found in Philippians 1:6?
This means God will transform us into the persons He wants us to be. It’s a process that takes a lifetime, and it’s all part of the Spirit-filled life. To understand how God can take “diamonds in the rough” like us and transform us into people who live Spirit-filled lives, we must do three things:
Beginning the Spirit-filled Life (Ephesians 1:1–6)
Pecos County in west Texas has a famous oil field known as the Yates Pool. During the Depression this oil field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough money ranching to pay his mortgage and was in danger of losing his ranch. Then, in 1926, an oil company asked Mr. Yates’ permission to drill a wildcat well on his ranch, and he signed a lease.
The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day and some subsequent wells at more than twice that. Mr. Yates owned it all and yet was living in poverty. He owned it, but he did not possess it. He was like many Christians today who have untold spiritual riches, but they don’t possess them.
One of life’s toughest problems is stress. The word “stress” relates to pressure applied either from the outside or inside. “Stress” is a term familiar not only to the medical field but also to engineering and architecture. When architects design a building, they are careful to calculate the stress-bearing capacity of the foundation, walls, and roof. They estimate the effects of wind, snow, and ice, and then allow a generous margin of stress safety.
God is the Divine Architect who designed you and me. He created us with a capacity to bear only so much stress, and He knows how much stress we can withstand (Psa. 103:14a). To strangle stress, we must know the causes of stress and the cure for stress.
