As an apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul had a passion for God’s people to come into greater knowledge of the Lord and understand their position in the Kingdom of God. He regularly instructed the believers in the truth that God had revealed to him, and at times, he corrected the churches for some of the false teachings or practice. In addition to all the teachings and exhortations, Paul’s letter to the church of Ephesus contains powerful declarations and prayers that we can use in our devotional time!
As we begin the New year, let’s pray some of these scriptures and invite the Lord to take us to deeper places of intimacy and growth in Him. We all know that there are deeper places to go with God, but sometimes we don’t know how to get there. We also recognize that those around us need a deeper revelation of God and greater freedom in Christ. Below is Paul’s prayer for the people in the church of Ephesus. This is a good prayer to pray over ourselves, family, friends, pastors, other believers, or even backslidden believers.
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He 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. Ephesians 1:15-22
Currently, the body of Christ is struggling with lack of Bible knowledge, false doctrine, distractions, disunity, and relational issues, and we need to pray for the body to grow in maturity, in unity, and in strength. It is easy to criticize a church for its shortcomings since there is always room for growth and transformation in every congregation. However, we should lift up our churches in prayer and ask the Lord to change and grow them in His ways.
Below scriptures were penned by Paul to explain how God intended to establish and grow the body of Christ. Those with the gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastors, and teachers are called to fully operate in their calling and gifting. If the people of God utilize their gifting with a pure heart, with no selfish ambition, and no fear of man, the body of Christ has the potential to grow in health and strength. Use below scriptures as a declaration to pray over your church and the body of Christ as a whole.
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
(Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:7-16
