What Can You Expect?
Part VII—That He Can Do More Than We Can Ask or Think
“The One who is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all things which we ask or think, according to the
power that works in [energizes] us” (Ephesians 3:20).
What could you possibly ask Him
for? He can do more. What could you possibly think about Him? What could you
possibly think about asking from Him? He can do more. This statement is so old
that we subconsciously relegate it to the realm of religious fantasy. For
simple human beings like ourselves, it is beyond reach. This, of course,
provides the religionist (including Christians) with ready leverage for the
accomplishing of whatever programs and projections that they wish to
accomplish. The logic is something like this—“If you are not getting things
abundantly from God, there is obviously something wrong with you.” And of
course, the religionist (not excluding Christians) apply the statement to this
material world. They have a habit of treating the Deity as some sort of “cosmic
superman” who plays with the building blocks of the earth to suit the whims of
His children. And so you hear the childish prattle—“Jesus can do anything, and
I just know He is going to do this for me.” It is like the child at Christmas
who just knows that he is going to get that new dolly or bicycle. The truth of
the matter is we don’t know anything of the kind, in spite of our human
feelings about the matter. Although many religious groups traffic in the
currency of misguided assumptions—so many pounds of answers for so many pounds
of positive feelings. Such attitudes or assumptions have nothing to do with
true faith which is from the Spirit of Christ within us and does not always or
often touch base with our brains—the seat of emotions. Uneasy feelings, which
are normal expressions of the human brain, do not of themselves hinder God’s
work through us and for us. Remember the anxieties of Mary and Martha regarding
Lazarus. Jesus raised him anyway.
Usually, the religionists identify
the phrase—“Above all we ask or think”—with this material world. The common
phrase—“What has God done for you lately?”—reflects this misguided application
of the text.
But what is more than the things of
this world? What is more than houses or lands or healing or blissful circumstances?
Is it not to be possessed with the very Spirit of God? Is it not to be one with
Him through all eternity? Is it not to know unbroken oneness with Him in the
midst of life’s afflictions and pressures, resolved or not? Is it not to climb
the rocky crags of human adversity and run the gauntlet of earthly frustrations
and problems; and know that “nothing
shall separate us from Him?” (Romans
8:37-39). He too ran the gauntlet; climbed the crags; withstood the tempest;
bore the toil and heat of the day and the darkness of night.
But what is the real impact of this
passage? What is the exceeding abundance? What is it that is beyond our
imagination? Is it not to be lifted beyond the material and earthly into the
realm of the eternal and infinite—into that which is so far beyond the material
as to defy all human concepts of time and space?
Paul speaks of this to the
Corinthians—“Eye has not seen and ear has
not heard, nor has it arisen upon the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His
Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (I
Corinthians 2:9-10). This has nothing to do with the splendor of some heavenly
residence, however palatial and magnificent. Therein we are back again to the
prison of space and time—to the chains of human expectations and desires. It
cannot be so. Such limits are unworthy of God “who rides upon the wings of the
winds and numbers the stars and calls them by name.” Riding with Him in His
celestial chariot is infinitely more than any human fantasy can conceive.
So doesn’t He do great things for
us on the earth? Yes, He does these things for us—as it pleases Him. But who
knows to what extent or on what basis, that some will have great deliverances.
Others of equal merit are left to languish in affliction. Who can truly
comprehend God? The mysteries are locked in His infinite purposes for His
creatures. They come together in the realm of the Spirit. It is futile to
attempt to justify Him with human reason in the realm of the finite. If we
could justify God in our human minds, then we would be greater than He as the
judge is greater than the plaintiff. Just so for the human creature to reduce
the creator to logic and pieces of evidence in the effort to “prove” Him is to
lock the infinite in the finite.
But what of the phrase—“According to the power that works in us”?
Is that power not limited by something of ourselves? Is His power limited by
some conditions? The text does not say so. The text does not go on to say that
the power that works within us is limited by some human factor, as, for
example, personal faith or piety. If God’s power to work within us is limited
by human conditions, then we are all hopeless. The text reads, in the original
Greek, “According to the power that
energizes us.” Plainly, the Spirit of Christ within us provides for us the
source of power to identify with God and function with Him throughout eternity.
Chapter 1 gives us the same truth—“And what is the surpassing majesty of His
power in us who believe, according to the energy of the might of His strength
with which He energized Christ when He raised Him from the dead”
(Ephesians 1:19,20). In that statement, there are no conditions or limitations.
There is no way to be connected with God without His energy. Salvation brings
us that energy. It is for all “who believe.” If you are a believer you are
energized by the Spirit of God. And this takes us immediately out of the realm
of any human imagination into the limitless realm of God.
So what can you expect? You can expect that through salvation you are
imbued with the energy of God, in the presence of Christ in your spirit. You
can expect that your life is in His hands, according to a grand design that
goes far beyond our powers of understanding. You can expect that the problems
He solves and the problems He may not seem to solve are all within the
framework of that grand design both for you and the world that He created. You
can expect that while He works out that design in your life, there will be much
that you will not understand, but at the same time He does not need your
understanding, or your feelings of confidence, or your pious exercises to
accomplish His will for you; no more than He needed it from Mary and Martha in
the raising of Lazarus. Remember—your faith is in Him and not in your feelings
of confidence about Him.
David Morsey
August 1989
Next month “Part VIII—God Glorified In Us”