Ephesians 2:11–22 - Christ is our reconciliation. Just as he has rent the veil between us and God, he has broken down the wall of hostility between individuals. It has been God’s eternal desire that man dwell in a loving Trinitarian community. Paul concludes this passage with a practical application of how the people of Ephesus dwelt in peace and unity.
Our fallen nature can cause us to form an image of ourselves that doesn't represent Christ. The church that forms a false image will not endure when hard times come and they will abandon the journey of Christ to follow their own agenda. God in His mercy will allow this false image to be broken in pieces so we can go back to God and do things His way. When we are left with an empty shell and a cry in our heart that says, "God I am nothing apart from you", God will respond by filling us with His glory. If ever there is a time to cry out for the Holy Spirit to fill us it's now!
Whatever measure we use in giving, the same measure will be given back to us. When we do something good for someone we are doing it for ourselves. The same is true when we do bad, it will come back to us. This is God's incredible law of harvest. What we sow we will reap. We must give with pure motives and in God's time we will reap a harvest.
When there is not an honest seeking of God the church will begin to turn inward and lose her focus on Christ and become a counterfeit religious system with no answer. True value is not in embracing the things of this world but embracing the life of Christ and doing what He has called us to do. In these last days God will bring the truth of Christ back into focus through His church. When this religious system sees the children of God who are empowered by the Holy Spirit and walking in the joy of Jesus, then many will turn back to the Lord in this generation. Religion will forever bend its knee when there is a God-gripped people in the midst.
Spiritual vision is not an easy thing to have. It requires deep dealings in our life and an openness of heart. When God is longing to visit His people He must find a people that would give Him total access and would cry, "God show me all that hinders the flow of your presence in my life." God wants to give us a vision of His holiness and He wants to speak to us about all that is unlike Him. It is the mercy of God that lets us hear what we need to hear. There is something beautiful about a heart in total agreement with God.
What is it like when the Lord visits His People? This sudden appearing will come as a strong inner voice of conviction. When the Holy Spirit comes we become aware of the ungodliness of our speech. The closer we get to the presence of Christ the more undone we feel and we are made aware of the grace and mercy that continually covers us. This visitation comes to gives us a heart for the poor and when the Spirit of God is flowing through us spiritual poverty is broken. Christ inside of us will heal us and give us fresh vision of the future.
Ephesians 2:1–10 – As Christians many of us believe that we were mostly dead before we got saved. We believe that when Jesus came into our life he encouraged us a little bit and made us feel better, but the truth is we were completely dead in our sin. We were in total depravity, with stony hearts, incapable of hearing or responding to God, deserving of His wrath. But God in his mercy and love sent Christ to be our redeemer. Through Christ the dead are made alive and our stony hearts are made flesh. Our salvation and faith are not of our own doing, but a gift from God. We tend suppress these truths in one of two ways. Either we don’t acknowledge how completely lost we were before Christ, or we don’t fully understand that the imputed righteousness of Christ has totally set us free from death.
If everyone truly understood God's mercy there would be a continual praise in all the earth. God's mercy reaches out to the hungry, thirsty, lonely longing soul. His mercy reaches out to the fool that says in his heart there is no God. His mercy rescues those who think commerce and money satisfy the deepest longings of their souls. When God's people fully understand the tender mercies of God we will begin to cry, "God before your judgment comes let your mercy be known again!" God is stirring His church to stand between the living and the dead, and ask God to one more time to honor His name and save the lost.
If we as Christian people are going to pray for mercy in our generation we must first be recipients of God's mercy. The more convinced we are of God's mercy the more we can pray with conviction. God's covenant mercy manifests itself in the salvation of our souls. When we embrace this wonderful salvation we can begin to pray, "God show the world your saving power, your covenant of mercy and your powerful protection." When God chooses to be merciful to a generation the devil is powerless and people are saved!
The fool says in his heart there is not an absolute sovereign God, and God does not have the right to govern our lives. The fool cannot see the work of God or the value of a soul. We can have all wisdom and knowledge and still reject the truth of God's Word. The wise man however, sees God above all that exists and allows His Word to begin to shape and mold the very fibers of our being. The wise man acknowledges that God chose us to display His justice and mercy in the earth so that the destitute would come to know there is a God who loves them. God's work in the earth is ALL ABOUT PEOPLE.