Dear Ones, join us every Tuesday at 6am PDST (1pm, Accra, Ghana; 4pm Kampala, Uganda) for an hour for our English language ZOOM video conference. Make friends with saints all over the world! Contact Yahna at admin@lightbearers-ministries.com for all the details!
Veuillez-vous joindre à nous le jeudi pour notre vidéoconférence ZOOM en français à 19h30, heure de Paris. C’est merveilleux ! Veuillez contacter Yahna à admin@lightbearers-ministries.com pour tous les détails !
Join me daily for Facebook Live! Monday through Friday at 10am PDST @LightbearersMinistries. This month we are digging in to SUPERNATURAL YOU! Be there! Ask questions, make comments, have fun!
SUPER SCRIPTURES will be an occasional series we will pursue on Living Waters From Lightbearers. Hope you enjoy it!
SUPER SCRIPTURES: EPHESIANS 3:20
I thought it would be fun to study one of the great New Testament verses.
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, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Eph 3:20, 21 NKJV
Perhaps the greatest challenge to walking in the miraculous is believing that the miraculous is possible, and that’s only the beginning. You have to go from ‘possible’ to ‘absolutely certain,’ which is a growth process. John G. Lake was so certain of the miraculous that he advertised that there would be miracles in his services, and he delivered on his promises. Can you imagine how his ministry would have been destroyed, his reputation ruined, if he couldn’t deliver on those promises? The social media of the day would have crushed him. And yet, he was certain. Are you certain, or is it just possible?
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Gen 1:26 NKJV
Authority over all the earth! Jesus as a man of flesh and blood, walked on water. So did Peter! Miracles don’t break but rather supercede natural laws. Jesus commanded the storms, the winds and the waves. At Lightbearers we don’t get excited about miracles. Thankful, but not shocked. We expect miracles. I get excited when I don’t see miracles. Miracles are supposed to happen. If miracles aren’t happening, something is wrong. God gave Adam authority over the earth. The ‘second Adam’ gave that authority to the church.
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Eph 1:22-23 NKJV
One of the great yet underappreciated attributes of speaking in tongues is the continual awareness of the miraculous. Every time you speak in tongues it is a miracle. You are speaking in a language you have not been taught. That is impossible by natural means. Therefore, it is a miracle. We have seen attested proof of this over and over again over the years.
One time a dear young girl spoke in tongues for the first time in our meeting in a southern Uganda town. She spoke a language that she did not know but was known to a team member of ours. He translated for me what she said. Do you want to know what was said?
“I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Israel. I am here in your midst to do great things. I pour out My spirit upon you all.” And indeed, He did. Everyone there got filled! You can go from ‘possible’ to ‘absolutely certain’ of the power of God. When you do, you are going to see miracles.
Ephesians 3:20 comes as a benediction, a culminating blessing and praise of God, to one of the great New Testament prayers. If the Church had not lost the gifts of the Spirit early in its history, I believe the prayers in Ephesians 1:17-23 and 3:14-21 would have had the same weight among believers as the Lord’s Prayer.
“Now to Him who is able to do”
An axiom of faith that may shock you is that whatever God is able to do, He is willing to do. This is not true of men! Many times we are able but not willing, or willing but not able. This is never true of God. The Lord is able and willing to fulfil any of His promises in any persons life at any time, and every time.
Why are we deceived into thinking that salvation is available to anyone, anywhere at any time but not the other promises of God?
Think that through, and you won’t settle for less than God’s best in your life. We live at the level we accept, not the level we desire. The devils whole plan is to get you to accept the circumstances he has imposed upon you. If you refuse to accept his plan, and wholeheartedly seek the plan of God for you, then you will see the manifestation of that plan. What God is able to do, He is willing to do.
‘Able to do’ is the Greek words DUNAMAI POIEO. DUNAMAI is the verb form of DUNAMIS, the inherent spiritual power of God in you that created the universe. POIEO is the root of POIEMA, meaning workmanship or masterpiece. God is able, and willing, to make a masterpiece of any person, situation or circumstance where He is allowed to work. Roll that around in your head for awhile! God is able, and willing, to make a masterpiece of that miserable circumstance you are dealing with right now. Maybe your spouse is a total loser. Masterpiece! Maybe your employer is the devil himself. Masterpiece! Maybe…what? Masterpiece.
The nastier the situation, the more it gives Him glory when He turns it all around, when we let Him work.
“exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”
As I thought about this statement, I had to ask myself, “Why did God say this?” I think it is to get our vision up. The devil loves it when he presents you with a problem where he controls, or thinks he controls, all the options available to that problem. There is a record in John eight where the scribes and pharisees KNEW they had Jesus trapped. He was going down, right there! If he chose one option, the woman would die. If He chose the other option, He would deny God’s Word. But He knelt down and stayed His heart on the sacred name of God, and the Holy Spirit gave Him the perfect answer, the divine third option, unbeknownst to the enemies. That’s ‘exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think!’
“according to the power that works in us”
Here is the crux of the whole verse. ‘According to’ is a mathematical term, literally ‘A = B.’ The first part of the verse, the fruit of it, hinges upon the power that works in us, which we can infer to mean ‘the power WE ALLOW to work in us.’ The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. How do we allow God’s power to work in us?
First of all, we take down the walls in our minds to allow the power of God to move. Reason is a good servant, but it is a lousy master. Your reason, your intellect, will always deny the power of God because its ‘un-reason-able.’ We have to start to move from ‘possible’ which is head knowledge, to ‘absolutely certain’ which is heart knowledge. I’ve ministered miracles many times before I ever allowed my reason to catch up. If it ever did, I was out of business.
The second great reality is love. Love will get you ‘over the top’ when every other emotion and rational thought will dry up half way up the slope. Any other emotion or ideal or principle will turn on you and become your enemy before love ever fails. Loyalty will die, integrity will crash, duty will fail before love ever fails. If real love is alive, you will see the power of God.
Finally, the great activating power of praying much in tongues comes into play here. One of the craziest miracles I ever saw came after a day of praying in tongues. Funny how that happens!
“to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Have you ever wondered why the devil hates the gifts of the Spirit so much? Because when the gifts of the Spirit are in operation, and God is doing ‘exceedingly abundantly above,’ then who gets the glory? He does. We don’t just sing about the glory. Our lives become a testament to the glory of God, which is what it means by ‘glory in the church.’ The church has become increasingly irrelevant in the USA because there is so little ’glory in the church.’ But we are here in love to change that reality!
‘By Christ Jesus’ He is the Author and Finisher of it all. The reason why I believe so fervently in the gifts of the Spirit is because Jesus does. He so desires to make a masterpiece of your life, of your circumstances, and all that you are in now because He loves you and knows it will bless you, and the glory will go forth to attract all the world to Him. Amen? Love you!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…