Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 253, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1915 — Strengthened With Might [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Strengthened With Might

Br REV. WM. WALLACE KETCHUM

Dincltv of «!»• Practical Work Coune, Moody Bibia babtnt* cf Qucmo . |

TEXT—That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit In the inner man.—Ephesians 3.16. This is one of four petitions which' constitute Paul’s prayer for the Ephe-

sian Christians. It teaches us for one thing that God intends his people to be people of power. One speaking of this prayer says: “Paul’s prayer is God’s purpose.” By this he means that what Paul prays we may have and may be, God intend s w* shall have and shall be. "Before every Chris ti an God places potential-

ly this blessing of power. That is. every Christian may have this power if he desires it and makes it possible for God to give it to him. For God never purposes for us to have anything, that he does not make it possible for us to possess it. To do otherwise would be to tease and tantalize us, and God never does that. When he exhorts us to ‘‘be strong In the Lord, and in the power of his might,” he makes it possible for us, if we make it possible for him, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. The expression “Inner man” undoubtedly means the soul —the t inner self —as distinguished from the visible material body which it animates. Peter calls the inner man, “the hidden man of the heart” (I Peter 3:4). And Paul in another place speaks of it as “the inward man,” contrasting it with “the outward man,” which, he says, perishes daily (II Cor. 4:16). It is very evident from this that the strength which may be ours is not physical power, nor even mental power which many strive to attain, but inner spiritual strength. It is strength of Christian character and nobility of soul. The one possessing this inner strength is fortified against temptation. It was this strength that enabled Joseph to maintain the integrity of his character in the face of the temptation of Potiphar’s wife and prompted him to reply to her evil suggestion: “How can Ido this, great wickedness and sin against God?” It is the strength, which when possessed, makes one mighty in holy service. Paul without it, would never have been the mighty apostle; and without it Peter would have remained the vacillating cowardly disciple. Without it there would have been no Martin Luther, no John Knox, no Charley Wesley, no William Carey, no Charles Spurgeon, no Dwight L. Moody. These men were what they were and did what they did, because they were strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. Again, this petition teaches us that God is the one who Imparts this inner strength through his holy spirit. The petition is, “that he would grant us to be strengthened with might by his spirit.” So while in another place we are exhorted to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might,” we learn here that the strength by which we are to be mad# strong comes from God. He is the one who empowers us. Yet, if we are to be strengthened by God, we must place ourselves before God in such a way that he can. give to us the strength of the Lord. We of ourselves are impotent, but God has made every provision for impotent people to be people of power. He is able and waits only our willingness for him to impart unto us his strength. The laws that govern the imparting to us of his strength are the laws that govern the reception into our lives of the holy spirit in power. It is tha holy spirit who is spoken of in the word as spirit of might.” He it ia then, who must have his place of power in us if we are to be strengthened with might in the inner man. The early church was commanded ta tarry in Jerusalem for the power necessary tor service, and on the day of Pentecost while they tarried the power came, when the holy spirit descended upon them. Ever since that day "the spirit of might” has been in the earth ready to take his place of power in every believer’s life. Ready and willing is he to empower the people of but ready and willing only as we recognize him as the power we need to make us strong, ready and willing if we will surrender ourselves to God, and by faith receive the holy spirit to be in us what he desires to be, “the spirit of might." Then there will be fulfilled in our lives the apostle’s prayer which, while primarily for the Ephesian Christians, is also for us that we might be strengthened with might in the inner man. The greatest truths come not by reason but by Inspiration. —Arthur S. Wilshere.