He gives us Immeasurably More than We can Ask or Imagine

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20, 21 (NIV)

Isn’t that an awesome passage? Is God doing amazing things in your life? If you believe, then Gods power is alive and at work in you. I love this verse but it has been taken out of context over and over and used in a way that it was never intended to be used.

If we separate this verse from its context in Ephesians, it is easy to make this passage, especially verse 20, into the basis for what is known as the prosperity gospel. The proponents of that theology would claim that this verse means that God is able to give you more than what you could ask for or even imagine. So they link spiritual & material possessions together. So if you ask for a Hyundai, God will give you a Lexus. If you ask for a $250,000 house, God will give you a million dollar house. In other words, they’ve used this verse to make God into some big ATM machine, Santa, or Genie in the bottle.

That’s not what this verse is about. The Greek for Immeasurably more only appears here in Ephesians and in 1 Thessalonians 3 & 5. God’s capacity to meet our spiritual needs far exceeds anything we can either request in prayer or conceive by way of anticipation. It is actualized through his power (dynamis) which operates (energoumenen) within us.  This power is within us so we can serve God and live this life to its fullest! 

It’s not about money and material possessions. You cannot put lipstick on pig and expect to get anything but a pig with lipstick on it. Jesus made it clear we cannot “serve God and money.” But we can serve God by how we use money and our possessions. That’s called stewardship. Jesus taught us to be good stewards. Stewards are managers of something that belongs to someone else, that someone being God. We brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing out of it. We are to be stewards of all God puts in our charge.

The spiritual capacity to do all this comes from the belief that “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”  He is working in your life, and this leads us back to verse 19, so you “know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the full measure of all the fullness of God.”

It isn’t our goal to live for material things, but spiritual things. Material blessings come from God to those who are good stewards of the wealth God allows through hard work and discipline. One of the spiritual things we do is become good stewards. About giving, All God is asking us is to give the portion to him that he’s asked. To be a cheerful giver as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 9:7. It’s a part of our life of worship. Worship is intentionally living a life that honors God (putting Him first in all we do.)

But God is obviously far more than just an ATM machine who grants our prayers when we punch our security code in. But understanding how God wants us to live our life is huge.

Taken in its proper context, this verse is far more significant than just being the basis for us to receive material blessings from God. In fact, I would suggest to you that this passage is the key passage in the entire book of Ephesians.

It provides us with a bridge, or a transition, from the doctrine contained in the first three chapters of Ephesians to the more practical application of that doctrine in the last three chapters. It causes us to look back and see how the power of God has already been at work in our lives. And it causes us to look forward to see how that same power gives us the ability to live a life that brings God glory.

When Paul writes that God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power at work within us, he is not making some general statement about God’s power or His ability to work in our lives. I’m convinced that when Paul writes that, he is looking back at everything he has written up to this point. The next three days we will be looking at our what God has done, and looking at how we can learn to glorify Him as we live this life...you are loved!