The Power of God is a Family Gift

Ephesians 1:15-23

You ever find it challenging to give family gifts to groups? Even though the giver was trying to do something for everyone, it often didn’t land, but when the right gift did, everyone loved it! My parents knocked our socks off when my brothers and I were gifted a Nintendo for Christmas long ago. One of the main things that makes giving family gifts challenging is that we often focus on ourselves before the community. Yet, in God’s eyes, it is always community first. His gifts are uniquely designed to be enjoyed TOGETHER.

Paul is writing in hope that as we internalize the plan of God being for ONENESS in Christ, we would start taking away the lenses we use to see differences and begin to see each other as true family, appreciating what makes each of us distinct, but focused on being together as ONE. To that end Paul lists out his prayer requests for the Ephesian believers; the things he wants them to fully receive in their faith.

Confidence in the Spirit (v17-18)

First, Paul focuses in on the individual gifts – things a little more internal in nature (such as hearing the Spirit and having the eyes to see). We can only be effective communally if we are confident in what we are getting from God. We can see a focus on the individual in this section, as Paul is direct with his usage of YOU pronouns. The result would be that our inner-eyes would receive the wisdom to truly and fully understand what we are seeing from a spiritual perspective.

When the Spirit is communicating with us and we can see the reality of what is going on in a spiritual sense, we gain wisdom and can understand everything on the spiritual level – which should give us boldness to act.

Boldness in the Power of God Toward Us who Believe (v19-21)

Paul shifts his language and goes back to shared pronouns, which changes the emphasis from individual to corporate. This next gift Paul wants us to receive is a family gift – to be used together. There is a growing concern over the course of this letter to the idea of and need for God’s power. This culminates in 6:10-20 with the reality of the spiritual warfare we face. Paul says to be bold in the power of God by looking at all God did (resurrection, etc…). We know and have seen God’s power at work – therefore we should be able to trust acting in that power.

We can act boldly in our faith when we have confidence in the Spirit and fully trust the power of God in us as a gathered unit – a team. The last piece to this communal power is the team lead, our head, Jesus.

Fullness in Christ as the Head of the Church (v22-23)

Power needs direction, as shown by old warfare where if you took out officers, the soldiers wouldn’t know what to do. This great power of God has elevated Jesus through the resurrection to be the head of everything with it all under his feet. Jesus is the lead. This resurrected and all-powerful Jesus, in his current state, is a gift to the church. It is Jesus who will help us utilize this power and wisdom in the fullness with his strategy working everything together.

He is the one who pulls all our distinctives into a beautiful symphony. With Christ leading us together, the symphony comes out incredible!

Next Steps

Karl Marx called religion the “opiate of the masses” and most people today face the meaningless and oppression of life by distraction (movies, memes, gossip…). Everyone is looking for a distraction – a way to face the evils of life. God gives us the perfect family gift to use to counter with his love and grace – the wisdom to see, the power to act and the leadership to make it all work together. With that, we can be confident, bold, and strategic. Let’s step into that this week.

1. Visit a pre-believer this week and listen to them talk about life while praying for the eyes to see the reality in which they live.
2. Gather with 2-3 other believers and brainstorm ways that you could utilize God’s power together to do something in His name (such as start a piano teaching ministry or prison ministry, etc…)
3. Find a pre-believer that you can tangibly serve this week.

Let’s team up and step forward with eyes to see and ears to hear and trust in where Jesus is leading us together. This is a family gift that will do incredible things! Ask God to give you eyes to see and ponder that as you watch this video.