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 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 really 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 evidences 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 actually
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 to 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”