So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. -Eph 3:10
I recently ran across this verse and it stopped me in my tracks. I was dumbfounded and had to read this one verse over and over again and still I thought there is no way this actually means what it is saying. How could the church make anything known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places? I figured that they would know more about what was going on than we could. And yet, there is was from the hand of Paul.
I had to go to google and see what people who are smarter than me had to say about this verse. After reading some different sources I was blown away by the power that the church holds in this world and in the spiritual realm. Apparently, the rulers and authorities in the heavenly place don’t even fully grasp the manifold wisdom of God and it is the responsibility of the church to show them.
Wow, ok, so how do we do that as mere mortals? Paul goes on to tell the Ephesians that Christ gives us that power through faith in him. Verses 14-20 sum it up very well;
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.
Paul’s prayer is that God would grant us the strength and power, through the Holy Spirit, to comprehend God’s love and know what is inherently unknowable for man and also that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Then he caps it off with an amazing truth: God can do far more than what we can even imagine. That right there is how we, as the church, can make known the manifold wisdom of God to the heavenly places.
Here2There so believes in the church’s responsibility to also make known this manifold wisdom of God to our world that those same powers are available to and placed inside of us can and should be used to glorify His name from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the Uttermost.
What are you doing allow God’s power to work through your life? Is your church doing anything to tap that power and unleash God’s people into this world?
Here2There can help strengthen your missions strategy. Our passion is to see more people going to more places to share God’s love and make disciples. For more information go to here2there.org.
Bryan Nicholson
Media and Marketing Lead
