BE MADE POWERFUL

[SW390] 8/3/2019 message notes by 

Pastor Susan J. Wynn ©2019

“Be Made Powerful”

 Text: Ephesians 6:10, 1:19ff, Revelation 3:17-18, etc.

I prayed on Monday night for the Lord to tell me what He wanted me to speak next. Tuesday morning, I awoke with this phrase, “Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might.” So I knew He wanted me to speak from Ephesians 6:10.

You may say, “Pastor Sue, can’t you speak about something else? You are always exhorting us to repent and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” But I must speak what He gives me. Wouldn’t you? So, for your sake, I will not keep silent until your righteousness goes forth like brightness, like a torch that is burning, and you become a praise in all the earth (Isaiah 62:1)!

The church and individual believers are commanded to work the works of God, which He has prepared in advance for them to do (Ephesians 2:10). But many of today’s churches and believers are unable to work the works of God — works that would glorify Him!

Why? They are sinning, in many ways. Their greatest sin is this — they have not obeyed Jesus Christ’s command to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so they would be permanently set free from sin! Because they are sinning, they do not possess His power.

But the Lord promises to make them powerful, if they will repent from their sin and agree with Him that they have no power.

The situation was the same among the believers at Ephesus. So, Paul gave them this final command, at the end of his letter to them —

Ephesians 6:10   Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

The NASB translation weakens Paul’s command significantly. So I will explain what those words really mean. Here is Ephesians 6:10, with the Greek words defined — 

“Finally, be made powerful by being bestowed with the Lord’s power and the manifested power and strength of the Lord.” 

Paul gave them this command because they did not have the Lord’s power, they did not possess the manifested power of the Lord, and they did not have His strength. Otherwise, it would have been unnecessary for Paul to command them to obtain it.

The situation was the same among the believers in Laodicea. Jesus said to them —

Revelation 3:17 “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched (miserable) and miserable (to be pitied) and poor (a beggar) and blind (spiritually) and naked (not clothed with power from on high, per Luke 24:49), ¹⁸ I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you be clothed (Greek-to-English), and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”

I tell you the truth, O sinning church, O sinning believer, you are like the believers at the church at Ephesus, who had not become powerful, and you are like the believers at the church at Laodicea, who were blind to their spiritual condition. Only from the Lord can you obtain what you are commanded to possess. He warns that if you remain as you are, He judges you as being lukewarm, and will vomit you out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16).

So, Paul and I command the church, “Finally, be made powerful by being bestowed with the Lord’s power and the manifested power and strength of the Lord.” 

What is this Lord’s power, and this manifested power of God? Paul prayed for the believers at Ephesus to see their need to receive it —

Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might . . .” 

Using the Greek-to-English word definitions and better sentence structure clarifies the meaning of this passage —

Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart be made to see, so that you will intimately know by experience what is the expectation of His calling, what is the praiseworthy bestowment of His inheritance given to His holy ones, ¹⁹ and what is the super-exceeding greatness of His miraculous power and the working of His manifested power and strength in us who believe.

Paul continues —

Ephesians 1:20 (His miraculous power and the working of His manifested power) which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²² And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (thorougly).

The manifested power of His strength was seen when God the Father raised His Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but the one to come.

Beloved, have you been made powerful by being bestowed with His power? Are you doing His works, so He is glorified? Is His power being manifested in and through you?

Oh, beloved, your Father in heaven is able to raise you from the deadness of your sin, and seat you in the heavenly places, with Him —

Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . . 

But today’s church and believers do not believe that the Lord can do what says He can do. So they muddle along, with their sin nature alive and well, and are powerless and wretched, indeed (Romans 7:24)! 

What is the cure? Paul alludes to it in the final two verses of Ephesians 1 —

Ephesians 1:22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness (the completion) of Him who fills (up) all in all (thoroughly).

So, His body — the church and all believers — must ask Him to complete them by thoroughly filling them up! Then they are cured of their blindness and sin. He fills all in all. He fills everyone who cries out to their Father in heaven (Luke 11:13)! He fills everyone who obeys Jesus Christ’s command to stay and wait (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5)!

But many teachers in today’s church say that you receive everything when you are baptized in water, but they teach that you will continue to sin because God cannot deliver you from your sin nature. But their teaching is proven to be false by Peter’s words —

Acts 15:8 “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them (Cornelius and his household), giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; ⁹ and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing (purifying) their hearts by faith.

And . . .

2Peter 1:4 . . . He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

If you are a partaker of the divine nature, will the sin nature still remain? No! 

Many of the believers in Rome were taught that the more they sinned, the more God’s grace would increase. Therefore, Paul strongly corrected them —

Romans 6:1   What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ² May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul says to the believers at Rome, “Do you not know you are supposed to die to sin?” He expected — and the Lord expects — all believers to die to the inborn sin nature! Then sin is no longer in you. Therefore, you do not sin any more.

Beloved, have you died to sin? This “dying to sin” is a crucifixion (Galatians 5:24), It a moment-in-time event that happens when you are filled with the Holy Spirit! 

Yet many in today’s church teach that believers will always struggle with sin, but gradually overcome sin more and more. That is simply not scriptural. You cannot purify yourself — only the Lord can do it! 

Now THAT is the manifested power of God, in you! You are bestowed with His power, in you, and His power and strength is manifested in and through you! And God the Father and God the Son receive the honor and praise they deserve!

Beloved, that is what you are called and commanded to do! Be made powerful by being bestowed with the Lord’s power and the manifested power and strength of the Lord!

What will you do with the truth the Lord has asked me to show you? I know what I did when I found out that Christians are called to know the Lord, experiencing Him in a holy, intimate way— I said, “Lord, I want to know you that way!” I prayed that prayer every day for six months, stretched out on the rug, face-down. I was hungry! 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6)! Six months after I had prayed to know Him that way, I encountered Him in the middle of the night September 1, 2001, and was healed of progressive multiple sclerosis, an incurable disease. And two months later, on November 1, 2001, He filled me with His Holy Spirit! 

Finally, I was bestowed with the Lord’s power and the manifested power and strength of the Lord. Finally, I was filled with His Spirit and His righteousness! Finally, He is glorified by what He has done in me, and what He now does through me!

I am nobody special. This is a requirement for all believers, a command from the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you obey His command and become powerful, or will you disobey His command and thus reveal that you do not love Him (John 14:24)? Repent and believe!

Lord Jesus, may these words pierce hearts like a double-edged sword, and judge the thoughts and attitudes of the hearts of Your church. So be it, I pray. Amen.