Ephesians Lesson 35 of 39 part 5

Philippians 4:6a

"Be careful (worry) for nothing; but in every thing* by prayer and supplication (here is the key) with thanksgiving..."

*not just in some of the things of the Spirit, but in everything that is important to us, God wants to hear it. He wants us to know who we are in Christ and even of more importance who He is in us.

Most people today when they pray never think to thank Him. Most people do nothing but ask, ask, ask as if pleading with God as an unjust judge which He is NOT. We can tell you right up front, those kind of prayers are not very apt to be answered. Every time we pray, we preclude it with thanksgiving. "Thank You Lord for what You are going to do and are now doing." And when it happens for goodness sakes, do not forget to thank Him again. In fact thank Him before and after prayer, for just listening to you. 

Philippians 4:6b

"...let your requests be made known unto God."

How do we make our requests made known to God? We verbalize it. Do you see that? We know God can hear our thoughts, do not think for a minute that we do not know that. But does not God expect us to think something, and then He takes it as our request? No. No, He expects us to verbalize these things, "Lord this is what I need. This is what someone else's needs are." We usually open our day and study time with prayer, and regardless of what it is we know that God is concerned, and that He expects us to verbalize these requests. Talk to Him about what concerns you. Then in verse 7 we see that this is the answer to every single prayer that you have uttered. If you are a true believer, every prayer that you utter is answered in verse 7. Then the direct request may be answered in the way you expect. But whether He says, "Yes, No, or Maybe later", to your request in verse 6, He has already promised the response of verse 7, and what is that?

Philippians 4:7

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

What does that mean? Regardless of what we are praying for, whether it actually becomes a reality and is answered, that is moot. You know what is important? THE PEACE WITH GOD! Even if we lose that loved one that we are praying for, or possibly that new job, the peace with God puts us in a position to accept that, and to live with it. He may respond and answer exactly the way we hoped He would, but He is not bound to. He is bound to give us that peace that passes all understanding through Christ Jesus and that is all.

Because this all ties so beautifully with our walk in Christ, we will recap from verse 18.

Ephesians 5:18

"And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess*; but be filled with the (Holy) Spirit:"

*don’t respond to the spirits of alcohol to bend your thinking.

Of course that goes along with our concept that at redemption we get the fullness of the Holy Spirit. To this Peter in his second letter verses 10 through 13 of chapter 1. Reveals the steps in the process and this is especially seen in the Amplified Bible. My we just get a whole fresh start, but just like anything else it kind of wears down, and then periodically we have to be refilled. So according to Ephesians 4:5 and 1Corinthians 12:13 there is one Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that happens the moment we are saved, but after that you can have many fillings or refreshings. We think it behooves us then to continue to be being filled by the Spirit, which comes of course by the soaking up of the Scriptures, the study, prayer time, fellowship, and so forth, we need that constant filling or refreshing of the Holy Spirit. For He is given as a deposit, a down payment, if you will, with more refillings.

Then, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit as we look at verse 19, it is going to have an effect on our whole life style. He is going to be a life of speaking of songs and hymns, and spiritual songs. That does not mean we will never have bad times. Christians have just as many problems as the world around us. To which even Peter confirms this as our proof that we are in His Kingdom. The difference is we have the Lord to take us through those times. Do not ever accuse us of teaching, that when you become a believer, you are going to have a rose covered pathway, because it is just not going to happen, because we are enlisted in a spiritual army doing spiritual warfare but we do have the Lord to carry us through when it does happen.

Then in verse 20, that along with our rejoicing, and our happiness, we are to be constantly in an attitude of thanksgiving, and it is all to be given to God though the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have had people ask, "Are we still supposed to pray in Jesus name?" Absolutely. He is still interceding for us at the Father’s right hand, and so we pray to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we are now clothed in Christ or with Christ. We have His divine Eternal Life as ours we are, as a wife carries her husbands name, we carry Christ's name. So when we pray we are always praying in His name for He makes the intercessions for us. A thought just came to me, you know that there are allot of businesses and agencies that work by direct deposit into our bank accounts theses days. We have such an account with God through Christ Jesus, our account in His kingdom never runs down because He is ours without limit as our Mediator and Intercessor. We can draw on His power and Authority endlessly under the terms of His kingdom and Covenant.

In this same line of joyful Christian living, of all things what does Paul bring in? The marriage relationship, isn’t that amazing? In other words, at the very heart of a Christian community is the family and the home. No our bond goes much deeper than the external bond of a simple sample of expression of figurative language. And there is a lot of talk lately about family in politics, but unfortunately they are not using Paul’s approach to it, but rather they are using the secular world, and the world view. But in this lesson we are going to look at the marriage relationship according to the Scriptures. An unbreakable bond, a union of spirit's, with the Father of spirit's, Who is the Father of Life itself. The Father who makes Covenant through the Blood not of an animal but His Own Blood in Christ Jesus. A bond and union that only the fool would break or refuse to enter.