We describe our mind as possessing emotional parts, intellectual parts, volitional parts. Brooks. It must be "the inner man." How is it to be attained? The prayer of the text must be our prayer, because it asks for the power which is our perpetual need, which is the perpetual need of our children and brethren.IV. This is our prime concern. Then, thoughts — those little springs that swell into oceans, those germs of everything. We have, then, an ear for the word which says, "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." You must take care that your conscience is a true conscience, an active conscience, and a conscience rooted. )The inner manA. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. W. Dale, LL. Oh that we might all know the strength that gives that might. But the sad thing is that in some instances that is all that you will see, even when you meet, nothing but the dress. The moment a man comes to himself, all these things begin together, and go on together. He was rich in love; and His goodness overflowed. He recognizes it distinctly, but of course very imperfectly, if yet the inner man, under all this moral action going on above it, lies in the main asleep. There are others who seem spiritually weak, though their vision of spiritual truth is very keen and penetrating. For his own wants he would have an immediate supply. It gives no definition of what the term includes. They will not go to the Bible and give heed to what God Himself says. They attempt to feed their starving souls on the imperfections of Christians — poor feed enough they find it! He alone has enough and to spare.2. Everything will go to give "strength."III. Oh that we might all know the strength that gives that might. And, above all, the inner working of the Holy Spirit, which goes on low down in the innermost chambers. 1. Not after them, but with and in them. Ephesians 6:4 – The Spirit-Filled Family: Parents. How is this to be discovered? III. It must be a supernatural power. There is a supernatural influence, and energy of the Divine Spirit in our spirits, which may become so real and manifest within us that the physical miracles of Christ rank beneath it. III. Rich as is the patience of God, man could not be saved by the mere lapse of time. Rich as is the power of God, man could not be saved by mere power. What else could it be to be sufficient? From all eternity God was sufficient for Himself, full of life and joy, and under no obligation, either from without or from within, to create a single world. It matters not that many say, "We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"; not knowing that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. THE TEXT SPEAKS OF "THE INNER MAN." Having dwelt thus far on the supreme importance of spiritual life, and of the extreme need of its Divine strengthening which is occasioned and evinced by falls, let us in the next place seize a truth which we have barely touched yet. Now, God has the power to create. Ephesians 3:16 The measure of God's power J. H. Rogers, M. A. Let our attention dwell next on this — the apostle's prayer for his fellow Christians at Ephesus is a prayer for a gift of power from the Spirit of God to the spirit of man. Just as life is to some all dress, so it is to some all manners.3. God comes to fill up the sorrowful void with His own rich heart. Vaughan, M. A.To those who have the misery of weakness — who never keep their better resolves, whose hearts are so divided, who are not really happy, because they have no concentration — to such it may be of immense comfort to know that real religion always gives strength — strength of character. We are too apt to conceive the religious life as consisting in a series of consecutive exercises, the beginning of the one waiting for the completion of the other. LET IT BE CERTAIN TO US THAT THIS GIFT OF STRENGTH TO OUR SPIRITS BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS OUR PERPETUAL NEED. They attempt to feed their starving souls on the imperfections of Christians — poor feed enough they find it! It is the gift of God: not by growth and development within itself, or adaptation to its circumstances merely, but through the direct influence of the Holy Spirit.III. There is a supernatural influence, and energy of the Divine Spirit in our spirits, which may become so real and manifest within us that the physical miracles of Christ rank beneath it.(J. All the active powers of the man, the woman, are concerned chiefly about that — the dress of life — what to wear on the person, in the house as furniture, in the garden as adornment, on the road as equipage. How is this to be discovered? The rich gift lies in the possession of the faculty to invent or make. What marvellous exhibitions, then, has the future still in store of the riches of the power of God!II. He alone can hold forever that which He now possesses. Oh that we might all know the strength that gives that might. Every man in himself is poor. A man is known — a woman is known — by the dress. It wants a strength which will not lie idle, but will be diffused through our whole man, and be available for our whole life. Do not begin by trying to change the life outside; change the motive spring.(J. We describe our mind as possessing emotional parts, intellectual parts, volitional parts. Oh! This is, for us, "the glory that excelleth." L. Cuyler, D. D.)Vigorous spiritual lifeR. And the point to mark is that the whole inward region which makes up the true man is the field upon which this Divine Spirit is to work. The whole surrounding world is to them a mirror in which they see only themselves.2. Now notice, next, THAT THIS DIVINE STRENGTH HAS ITS SEAT IN, AND IS INTENDED TO INFLUENCE THE WHOLE OF THE INNER LIFE. Scriptures: Ephesians 3. Scripture: Ephesians 3:14–21. This is not to be confounded with "the new man." THE INNER MAN. Let not a bone of Him be broken, but let us take in a whole Christ, up to the full measure of our capacity. John 3:16 tells us, “ For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We are too apt to conceive the religious life as consisting in a series of consecutive exercises, the beginning of the one waiting for the completion of the other. These must be pure. All that we know of God, as compares with that which lies hid, is but as the first yellow streak of dawn which breaks the darkness of night to the full brightness of noonday. Known only by those in whom it dwells. But the riches of God are seen in the preservation of all things in existence as well as in their creation. All this may be with a slumbering inner man. The first thing one human being sees of another, when they are approaching each other, is the dress. Happy are they who receive a few crumbs from this rich table, or a few glimpses of this glory! It is our need not only in that extremity of which we have spoken, but it is a need inherent in our nature, which was in us at birth, which will abide with us through death. The whole universe and the plan of redemption is summed up in love. Does it mean by "the inner man" all the parts of our being which are not bodily? The Holy Ghost must enter, and He will do it. Christ loving and living, Christ dying, Christ risen, Christ ascended, Christ coming again, Christ triumphant over all His foes — the whole Lord Jesus Christ is ours. 4. To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; The Christian needs to be strengthened with might in the inner man.2. There is a spiritual Divine touch, which is such as Christ's touch that healed leprosy and raised the dead. The glory of God is the forthshining of His being, the necessary splendour of His revelation of Himself. Yet "the spirit" has a special place in "the inner man," for it is the crown and glory of our being. 4. They are controlled, in a measure absorbed, by that central grand something which now becomes the ruling power. The man himself is wanting in force, though there are spiritual forces at work in him. Through this process of faith, love, and comprehension, WE REACH A MARVELLOUS KNOWLEDGE; the knowledge of the unknowable — "to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. It is to the riches of the love of God, therefore, that we owe our very existence. We wish one another blessings; He gives the blessings.II. Christ loving and living, Christ dying, Christ risen, Christ ascended, Christ coming again, Christ triumphant over all His foes — the whole Lord Jesus Christ is ours. This is, for us, "the glory that excelleth." But the riches of God are seen in the preservation of all things in existence as well as in their creation. But it is not in the deepest sense life. God is revealed in nature, and therefore the heavens declare the glory of God. Something more had to be given, something more had to be done, and God gave that — God did that. In every one of these cases, to use language which suggests rather than expresses the truth, the vigour is not derived from the central fountains of life, but from springs that are more or less distant from the centre. Faith and love lead on to COMPREHENSION, or taking in; a comprehensive survey of something very vast; and vast in all directions. He who was rich became poor for us (2 Corinthians 8:9).4. And, in union the hidden mystic union of God, which is the secret of it all; in which He is, who makes life, the essence of all which is worth the living; a real life, the life of your being. Indirectly through the believer obeying the impulses and directions of the Holy Spirit.(A. It is this inner self, then, in which the Spirit of God is to dwell, and into which He is to breathe strength. And now, lastly, let me point you still further TO THE MEASURE OF THIS POWER. CONSIDER THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BLESSING ASKED FOR. Other topics may be compassed and disposed of in a certain way, but who shall grasp and estimate this? I look first to conscience. He created them, because He saw beyond the dark sin of man, and knew that His love could snatch from sorrow and the grave a new creation still. THE LIFE OF OUR SPIRIT, HOWEVER, BEING BEGUN, MAY BE IN THE FEEBLENESS OF INFANCY. But perhaps these things, or something like them, will be found in all.1. When he was hungry he would create bread. The glory of the sun is the effulgence of light which it pours forth from its golden urn, revealing itself and all the worlds around. But there are so many outer men put on by some — one, another, and another yet — that the real inner man might seem to be hopelessly buried.I. Then each yields, is altered, combines, and makes the one grand product that is sought. Paul writes (3:18-19), that we may be able to comprehend “what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge….” It is a deliberate paradox. He needed not to create anything in order to consummate His own happiness; but, if we may so speak, the joy and love of God's being were so great that He could not keep them to Himself. LET US LOOK, NOW, AT SOME OF THESE OUTER MEN PUT ON, WORN FROM YEAR TO YEAR, SO AS EFFECTUALLY TO ENCLOSE, IMPRISON, BURY OUT OF SIGHT, THE INNER MAN WHICH GOD AND ANGELS WAIT FOR, AND WOULD BRING TO THE LIGHT WITH REJOICING.1. Ephesians 3:16-17 list, in a bewildering array, several things that seem to be the content of the author’s prayer: that the church would be strengthened inwardly, that Christ may dwell within the church, and that the church may be firmly founded upon and growing in the soil of love. All the attributes of God culminate in love. "Might," true might, ever increasing might; might in prayer; commanding prayers; might in the spiritual battle, might in the battle with that wicked heart; might with the devil; might over daily self, might, might in work. If we have strength, we shall be able to run in the way of God's commandments (Isaiah 40:31). He recognizes it distinctly, but of course very imperfectly, if yet the inner man, under all this moral action going on above it, lies in the main asleep. We glorify God by this fuller strength. They cease to have a separate and independent existence. But the sad thing is that in some instances that is all that you will see, even when you meet, nothing but the dress. 3. The machinist would be wise who could invent and construct a machine which, by the simplest movements, could produce mighty results; but he would be rich in wisdom, who, out of that same machine, when marred and broken, could produce still mightier results. THE RICHES OF HIS WISDOM. There is the measure. He created them, too, although He foresaw their fall, rebellion, and ingratitude. He alone is the true possessor of everything. So does all the lifting power of a Christian come from the currents of spiritual influence which flow into his heart from the Living Jesus. They cease to have a separate and independent existence. So great is the capacity of the soul, that if a man had the whole universe he would still be poor, being destitute of God. And I ask anyone who has ever fallen into such misery and confusion of inward strife after he had tasted the peace of Christ's salvation, whether he did not learn in it his powerlessness to recover himself, and did not perceive that the best resolve and effort he could make would be no more than the galvanising of a dead limb unless another strength should be given him, and given him by the same Divine Spirit who before quickened him into a spiritual birth, unless God would hear the prayer which is no more than a broken wail of wretchedness and a struggling desire for healing? We describe our mind as possessing emotional parts, intellectual parts, volitional parts. It is limitless with the boundlessness of God Himself. AND WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT? The might which the Christian needs is conveyed through the agency of the Holy Spirit.3. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches. The might which the Christian needs is conveyed through the agency of the Holy Spirit.3. We wish one another blessings; He gives the blessings.II. This is seen in the power to create. More of Him, More Like Him (Part 1) Spirit At Work: Devotions From Time of Grace. Let a man labour ever so hard, let him pile his earthly treasures ever so high, he can never with his own puny hand fill the dark and sad abyss within himself. The manners are beneath the dress, come through the dress, make the dress more or less expressive, impressive, and beautiful. God comes to fill up the sorrowful void with His own rich heart. These must be pure. It is a mountain of gold, and we have no arithmetic to compute its value. Notice, first, THAT IT IS ALL "IN THE INNER MAN." There is a spiritual Divine touch, which is such as Christ's touch that healed leprosy and raised the dead. It lies open to His touch; all the paths of its deep things can be trodden by Him. The next thing is, the conscious relation to God. THE LIFE OF OUR SPIRIT, HOWEVER, BEING BEGUN, MAY BE IN THE FEEBLENESS OF INFANCY. Help Quick Nav Advanced Options. It is not any one aspect of it that is to be strengthened, but it is the whole intellect, affections, desires, tastes, powers of attention, combination, memory, will. The riches of the Divine power are seen not only in creation and preservation, but in recreation. While each of those things prayed for are good for the individual, they are particularly appropriate for the church as a whole. He created other beings that He might lavish upon them the grandeurs of His mind and the felicities of His heart. This ought to be our prime passion. The glory of a king is seen when he sits upon his throne, crowned and sceptred, surrounded by his nobles, and canopied with banners, that speak of his victories. How little do we know of the greatness of that gift, and of the depth of that sacrifice! 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