Corporately Praying the Word (continued)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as He has chosen us in Christ - actually picked us out for Himself as His own in Christ - before the foundation of the world (before the foundation of the cosmos, of all created order seen or unseen) was laid, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless before Him, in love predestinating us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His Will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: in Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor, which He lavished upon us in every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence), making known to us the mystery (secret) of His Will - of His Plan, of His Purpose. [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure (His merciful intention) which He had previously purposed and set forth in Him (in Christ), [He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in The Christ, the things in the Heavens and the things upon the earth; in Him (in Christ), in Whom also we were chosen as [His] inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of the One Who works all things according to the counsel of His Own Will, that we should be to the praise of His Glory, who first trusted in The Christ; in Whom also ye, hearing the Word of truth, the Gospel of the salvation of you, in Whom believing ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the earnest, the guarantee, of the inheritance of us to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of His Glory."
[And as was Paul's manner, when he spoke of the unsearchable riches and glories of Christ, he burs into "praying in the Spirit" for those to whom he was writing; and in doing so he continued to reveal the Mystery of God Who is Christ, for the Word says that "in Spirit he speaks mysteries," because only the Holy Spirit can reveal that which is hidden in God].
"For I always pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may grant, give, you a spirit of wisdom and revelation - of insight into mysteries and secrets - in the [deep and intimate] full and thorough knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand 1. what is the calling, 2. [and] what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 3. and what is the immeasurable, the unlimited, the surpassing greatness of His power, of His might, of His inherent power, toward us who believe, according to the working of the (by the) operative energy of the manifested strength of His might, which might was wrought, was operative, in The Christ When He Raised Him from among the dead, and He set Him down at His Right Hand in the Heavenlies, far above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named - above every title that can be conferred - not only in this age, but also in that which is to come; and hath 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.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 32)
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