We'd like to welcome you again to Rise and Shine with Tony Melissa Hurst, still talking about the power of God in the life of a believer. We believe that through God's Word you can discover who you are and discover that everything that you need, every need in life is down on the inside of you. God has placed it down inside you, and He wants us to be able to extract that out any time in our lives that we need it. So, Beach Bibles, and let's look into what God's Word says, and I believe that we can see things in a light that we've never seen before, and have a greater understanding and walk in victory at a level that we've never walked before.
God bless you. Please connect with the Rise and Shine by visiting our Facebook page at facebook.com slash a Rise and Shine TV show, or emailing us at a Rise and Shine TV at gmail.com. We look forward to connecting with you. We're going to start in the book of Ephesians today, and Ephesians chapter 1, and there's a prayer here that Paul recorded that was obviously inspired by the Spirit of God.
If it's recorded in God's Word, then it obviously has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. And it's an amazing prayer when you begin to understand what's being said. There's primarily three things in this prayer that God wants every believer to understand. Now this letter was written to the churches that are in Ephesus.
It wasn't written to the 5th Old Ministry. It wasn't written to pastors, anything like that. It was written to the congregations of these churches. And these letters, obviously, evidently were circulated among all the churches so everybody, every individual got the opportunity to read them.
So this prayer here is written to the church. So if you are born again, truly born again by the Spirit of God, this letter was written to you. And this prayer is a prayer that has been made available to you. And in this prayer, there's three primary things that, and it's amazing that God used this is the three things that God wanted us to see and understand.
Number one was he wanted us to understand what his plan for our life is. God has a plan. He wants you, you know, but not only does he have a plan, he wants you to discover what that plan is so you can walk it out. Number two, he wants you to understand the provisions that he has provided for you because you're going to need things in life to do what God's called you to do.
He's not going to ask you to do something that you can do on your own. It'll be something that's going to far exceed usually anything that you have the capability of doing. So number one plan, number two, he wants you to understand the provision. He wants to supply your need.
And number three, it's power. The power to do what he's called you to do. It's the plan. It's the provision and it's the power.
And we'll see that in the scripture. And we're going to read from the amplified. If you've got the King James, you can follow along with us. But I'd encourage you to get your classic amplified.
The King James and the amplified are the two that I use primarily the most. I'll look at others, but these two are the ones that I personally, and there's, you know, and there's others out there that are good. There's nothing wrong with them. But let's start with verse 17.
Yeah, 17. Well, I'll read verse 16. He says, I do not cease to give thanks for you talking to those who's writing to, making mention of you in my prayers. Now, this is, and he goes on, and he gives us a prayer.
He said, for I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that he may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation of insight into the mysteries, into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of him. In other words, in the first thing Paul said, he said that you'll be able to understand God himself, the Father. He wants you to know him. See, and that's really where all true revelation comes from.
We sometimes if we're trying to obtain things by passing that, there's no loopholes. You're only going to get it through him. And the better you get to know him, the more able you are to receive from him. Because that's just what faith is.
Faith is not in some abstract thing out here somewhere. Faith is in a person. And God is a person. He goes on and says, he tells us how the dish will come to pass.
He said, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light so that you can know and understand, number one, what is the hope? He has called you to the hope that he has called you. And how rich is his glorious inheritance in the saints, he said, apart once. That's the provision.
But number three is when we want to focus on them. And so that you may, that you can know and understand. Now listen to this. What is the immeasurable, unlimited and suppressing greatness of his power in and for us who believe.
Now that's amazing. Now notice in the King James, it says, what is the exceeding greatness of his power? The Amplify just gives us a better definition of what those words literally mean. Now what he's saying is here that he wants you to understand and to know that power that lives and resides on the inside of you.
And he said, now notice he said to us who believe, if you're a believer, you have that power. And a lot of times we're going through life trying to get answers and trying to find help. And there's nothing wrong with having people pray with you, but really people cannot pray with you effectively to the point that you can only receive beyond your own faith. So no matter what anybody else, just a gift of the Spirit operates in you and God just gives you something to do totally bypasses your faith and where you are and what you believe.
And that doesn't happen too often because God wants us to walk by faith. And faith only comes by hearing God's word. And faith grows as you're understanding and your knowledge of your heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ expands and as it grows, your faith grows. And then you begin to have experiences.
And God begins to do things in your life. And with all those things together, you begin to get confident about God's love for you and about what he will and will not do for you. And I'm telling you, and then you begin to discover that, see a lot of times we want somebody to pray something for us, but all at a time you have it in you. You have it in you.
You know, we watch that old movie. It's an old Disney movie that Dean Jones is in, you know, and he inherits this property and he's got this old hotel on it, old rundown hotel I had been living in for years, just falling down and stuff. And it's really, there's one part in it though that when we were watching it, you know, that he said, I thought, oh my gosh, that is so true. So he gets out there, he sells everything he's got.
So he gets out there, this is all he's got. He got a whole lot of capital now because you know, just a little bit. And he gets out and he sees this hotel and he sees the potential he can have. Like, I mean, this is really was a nice hotel in his day, but now it's dilapidated, it's falling down.
And so he's trying to figure out how to make this thing go. Well, there's a guy in the bank, there's only one bank in town and this guy owns the bank and this guy secretly wants this property because this guy understands what he's got. But Dean Jones in this movie does not know what he's got. All he sees is a dilapidated building, you know, and no ability to make it go.
So he goes to this only bank, you know, and tries to get money and the guy that worms around don't want to give him the money because he wants it himself. And it's Dean Jones leaves because he didn't get the money and he's disappointed and stuff. And the secretary standing there and she kind of calls the guy out and says, you want that property for yourself, you know, you're not going to make a boy's home out of it. You know, you want it because of what it's worth.
Excuse me. And the guy standing there with the hands behind his back and he's watching him walk away and he says, this is the statement I want to bring out. He said, if he only knew what he had, he wouldn't be coming to me with his hat in his hand. See, because he didn't understand what he had.
What he actually had was hundreds of acres of prime property in an area where skiing was extremely popular and he had something that was worth so, so much more than he even knew. So but through the process of time in a movie, he finally was able to discover it. And once he discovered what he already had that he had got as an inheritance, then they became so very successful at what they were doing. And see, that's where Christians are so many times.
They don't understand who they are and they don't know what God has done for them and placed in them. And because of that, you can't exercise it, you can't call on it, you can't walk in it because you can't do what you don't know. And it takes time to develop that knowledge and that understanding of it. And it goes on in this verse here, I want to read that one again.
It says, verse 19, the last part of that it says, and that you might know what is the unlimited, the immeasurable, unlimited and surpassing greatness of his power. Now listen in and for us who believe. Now listen, he goes on and now he's going to describe it and he's going to give you something to compare it with, let's say. He's going to give you a comparison.
What can we compare this power to? How can we compare it to something so that you can grasp and have an understanding of just how powerful and immeasurable and unlimited it is? Okay, listen what he compares it to. He says, let me find it again.
According, 19, thank you. I lost my place. It says, now listen, it says, there to end it says, as demonstrated in his power, in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of his mighty strength, what mighty strength? Next verse, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand in the heavenly spirit far above every principality, every rule rather an authority and power and dominion in every name that is named.
Now, what he compared the power to that lives inside every believer is the very same power that he used to raise Jesus out of the pits of the hill and out of the grave and seated at his own right hand. The guy's that's power. Now in the King James, it doesn't just say his power, it said his mighty power. And we don't see that word in connection with the word power too many times, but that means that God used an enormous amount of power.
I mean, he busted into the gates of hell and he told Jesus who was innocent from all sin and was there illegally because of God allowed him to go into there and Satan was holding him illegally. So God legally could come in there and use his mighty power and bring him out of there. And in that transformation, Jesus was reborn. He was the first born from the dead and that same power he said, now he's inside every believer.
My goodness gracious. And we wonder, you know, and we go through life wondering what we're going to do. What's the answer? Guys, guys, guys, if we could only discover what's on the inside of us, if we could only become more internally conscious than externally, if we could only discover from God's word.
So you only can believe what you believe as strong as you believe it. And that's determined by how much time you've been thinking about it. See, we spend all of our time thinking about our problems, about our situations, about the sickness, about the disease, about the calamities, about what's in the news meeting, the best thing you can do is turn that off and get your Bible out and go to New Testament, especially the letters of the church and start reading. And every time it talks about being in Christ Jesus, circle that and say that means me and find out what it means.
What is he talking about? Prayerfully, thank God. You know, get your another translation, get your another translation and look at them and compare them and be studious to find out what, see, if we would do that instead of spending all of our time thinking about the other, then we would come to the place where we believe God's word, with confidence, and we could believe it more and more strongly and more surely than we do the circumstances around us. But see, we don't, we neglect God's word.
We don't spend the time. We don't understand that God's word is of an absolute total importance. And there is no other way that you can know him except through his word. You can't know him through prayer.
You get to know him through his word. Matter of fact, you learn how to pray through his word. He teaches us how to pray. Just because we say a bunch of words doesn't mean that we're praying.
Or it's an acceptable prayer that he can hear an answer. Because a lot of times we pray and we're in total doubt and unbelief and fear, he can't answer that. He can only answer when we pray in faith and confidence in his word. Right.
And our faith becomes more grounded in his ability and his willingness to use us than it is in our ability to hear him. And then go on and read the last part of this verse here where it says in 21. You mean King James. Far above all, principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but only in that which is to come and have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head of all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
So it's his willingness to do these things in us that gives us the strength and the courage to step out and do them. It's not and it becomes more in his desire to use us than it is in our ability to hear him and to do what we think he needs us to do. The more we're grounded, the more we understand the fact that it is his will, that what he has for us is beyond what we want to do or beyond what we think we can do and in his willingness to do. And again, it's not just for us.
We have to get our mind off of us and get it on the fact that we are his body that he was talking about. We are his hands, we are his feet and he wants to reach, like you said before, that percentage and that ability, that part of his body that hasn't heard the full gospel. And if we don't step out and do and be what he's called us to be, then those people are never going to hear. They're never going to come to the knowledge of what he has for them.
And like you've also said about Jesus coming soon, we operate, Lord, come quickly, come quickly. But he doesn't want to leave any of his family behind. No. See that selfishness on our part.
On our part. When we do that. We're over it. We're ready just to get out of here.
But he said, I know you don't like it, but I still got those that I'm unwilling to do without and he can't reach him without us. Let me let me read that last part to you down there because it talks about what God did. It talks about you guys plan for us. God's provision for us and the power that God's given us to do what he's called us to do.
Then he gives us the comparison, that same power that he put in you is the same power that he used when he raised Jesus from the dead. Okay. But now, let's read this part from the amplified here. It says, we'll start with verse 21.
He said, far above all, principality and authority and power and dominion in every name that is named. God did with Jesus. He is above every title that can be conferred. Not only in this age and in this world that we're in now, but also in the age and in the world which already come.
Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the Father and he will stay there throughout all eternity. In other words, and he has put all things, this is a part under his feet, under his feet. Has appointed him, now listen, the universal head, the supreme head, the universal and supreme head of the church, a head ship exercised throughout the church. Now listen, which is his body.
See, so we think that God gave Jesus all that power so he could sit on the throne and do everything he wants to do. No, he gave Jesus that authority and he gave him that power and Jesus said, on his great commission, he said, all power and authority and heaven has been given to me. He said, no, you go. See, and that insinuates that in verse that you go with that same power that he's given me.
See, his obvious power is not just locked up in his head. He has distributed his power throughout his body because I think what this goes on is says, he says, which is the first part of that, 23rd verse, says, which is his body. Now listen, his body, which is his body, the fullness of him. The fullness of him.
Think about that. The fullness, the full expression of him. We have the ability, the ability to be able to express all that he is. Now listen, and he who feels all in all, for in that body lives.
The full measure of him who makes everything complete and who feels everything everywhere with himself. So in that body lives the fullness of his power. So see that power is in us. It's in every belief.
And we need to learn that it's there. We need to discover that it's there and we need to be able to release that power. And we need to be able to do things in our lives and his hands are tied and he's incapable of happiness. And we think, well, he's gone.
He can't. He will not get over right. You're real. Now listen, and he will not and cannot do for you beyond what you believe.
See faith is what you believe. Faith is an expression of what you believe and he cannot move beyond your faith. See the level of your faith. So how do you fix that?
You spend time with him. You spend time in his word. You spend time in prayer. You seek the Lord.
You know, and you allow him and you don't ever say whatever he wants to do in your life. He begins to speak to you and he begins to instruct you. Don't push him away because you don't understand it because you don't know it. Trust him.
Trust him. He knows what's good for you. He knows what's best for you. You don't know what's best for you because you don't even fully understand yourself like he understands you.
See, he knows you. He knows everything about you. He knows what your future is. He knows what's ahead of you.
See, so trust him to do in your life. That's the reason when I got there with Spirit spoke with other tongues. I didn't find it. Thank God I didn't find it.
I just saw it as well. I knew it was him because I was already familiar with his presence inside me. And so I just cooperated with the process and I allowed him to do what he wanted to do. And it just when it did, now listen, when that happened, everything changed.
It was a totally different game now because now when I begin to do things and the power of God would come on me, it would come on me at different times and God would begin to use me long before I really knew really a whole lot and I really wasn't necessarily a creature out preaching and doing certain things. I'm just going through life. You know, when God begins to use me and it's because of his power and he wants us to understand that power. And when the book of Ephesians keep reading it, this whole book is about that body of believers and he goes into the next chapter talking about gentiles.
This was written in the Gentiles, you know, and he's talking about how that God's will was not only for there to be that few Jewish believers that would put their faith in Jesus Christ, but he'd also take all these gentiles out here that would accept and receive him and bring them into one body and that this body would be built upon the foundation and the doctrine of the apostles and the prophets and Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. He said, and that God would build up a body and this looks like Ephesians two. And let's just read something here. Verse 19, I'm going to read 19 through 22.
This is in the second chapter of the book of Ephesians. He said, now that therefore you are no longer strangers or foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. He's talking to those that are gentiles, those that are non-Jewish people that have been born again. He said, you're no longer strangers.
You've been brought into the household of God and you're as much as sun as any Jew is that is accepted Jesus Christ. He goes on and says, and he says, and you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets and Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. The chief cornerstone is the first stone you lay. Okay, that tells you where everything else goes.
Jesus laid the foundation and then the apostles begin to build on that foundation and they're built in the house. Are they building a natural physical structure? No, they're building a house of people. They're building a house of people.
God no longer dwells in houses or in buildings or in temples, but now he indwells people, individuals and the Bible says that we are lively stones. We are a part of a stone of a house and every one of us has a certain amount of the power of God in this. Now as you think you saw a great move of God in the days of the healing revival, you know when God would use men like Oral Roberts, you know, and Jack Cole and William Brandon or Kenneth E. Hagan or any of those men, great men of God, God used during those days of healing revival.
See that was just an ordinary one man. Guys, you get the whole church together. See, you get the whole church together. Now you not only got the anointing of the one individual, but you're combining it with the anointing that is on every individual in the house, in the building, in the room.
And when you combine that anointing, guys, it is astronomical. It is so far beyond any anointing that God could place on one individual. No wonder strife and no one division is such a big deal in the church. Why?
Because it divides. It destroys an anointing. The power, the power can't flow when that's there. Only in the atmosphere of unity, only in the atmosphere of being in one mind and one accord when we come together, when we come together and that continuity is there, the power of God begins to flow.
That's why every individual in the body of Christ is extremely important in its place. He is no less important than the speaker is. The speaker cannot do what you can do. And you cannot do what the speaker can do.
But when we all work together, the power of God is released. And if you go on and read this in the 20th verse here, it says, you're built upon the foundation of the cornerstone of K21 and in whom all the building, fitly joined together, groweth into a holy temple of the Lord. He's taught by the church. The church is a holy temple unto the Lord in whom you also are built together.
Now listen for a habitation of God through the Spirit. You think the presence of God was strong in Solomon's temple when God filled the temple and they couldn't stand a minister? You get the body of Christ together. Guys, the Bible says in the book of Corinthians that that old law is pale compared to what we have under the New Testament.
See, they had a measure of the presence of God. But see, we're in a new dispensation now where the fullness and the power of God has come not to live in the stones and in the house but in people. And when you get people together, they begin to flow by. Gosh, you can see great and mighty things happen.
See, that's what we are bringing unity and will accord to the body of Christ and teaching people who they are in Christ and that the power of God rests and resides in you and you are important. You are necessary. You are extremely needed. That's why the devil talks so many people don't go to a local church through all a bunch of hypocrites.
Well, sure. Yeah, keep the power of God out of the congregation and out of them all coming together. Keep them separated out over here. Sure, he wants to divide.
That's exactly why that happens because he knows if you ever get them all in one place and they discover who they are and what they have and they learn how to release it. The power of God will come in so strong every center in the house will get saved. Every backslider will come to the Lord. Everybody in the house is sick in any way will begin to be healed.
Why? Simply because of the manifestation of the glory of God. And guys, that's where we're headed. That's exactly where we're headed.
Now, if you're out there today and you don't know what I'm talking about when I talk about this power, that power belongs to you as much as it does anybody else. All you have to do is surrender your life and make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. Be willing to turn to him and give him your life. Say this with me if you're out there or if you've turned away from God in your backslade, say this with me.
And I say this with you. I take you today as my Lord and as my Savior. Sam, Satan, you are not my Lord. You are not my God.
I do not serve you. Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer and receiving me into your family because I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I make him my Lord today. And I thank you for filling me with the fullness of your spirit. Now, if you prayed that prayer today, then Jesus Christ is coming to your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You now have the power of God in you. Seek the Lord. You can be filled with the Spirit just like you are born again. All you got to do is believe that you receive it when you pray.
And he'll feel you with the fullness of your spirit. And then you'll be able to walk in that power and see God's power in your life, not only for yourself, but then you'll begin to be able to help to touch other people's life in the same way. So when they let us know, confess him, let us know, tell somebody around you what's happened, pick up the phone, text somebody, do something. You know, email us, text us, whatever it takes.
Text the station, let them know. It's real to them, to know when they hear people's lives that are being touched through the ministries that go on here. Thank God for this station. Thank God for the managers of this station, for what they do and for the owners and all of them.
I wish you, until we're able to see you again, may the power and the presence of God be so real in your life that you've never known it before. Please connect with the Rise and Shine by visiting our Facebook page at facebook.com slash a Rise and Shine TV show or emailing us at a Rise and Shine TV at gmail.com. We look forward to connecting with you. We look forward to connecting with you.