Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Reinforced With Power
Ever wondered how to spiritually armor yourself against life's toughest trials? Discover the profound insights drawn from Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3, as we unlock the mysteries of being spiritually fortified by the Holy Spirit. Join us as we explore why spiritual nourishment is crucial in standing firm against adversities, examining Paul's deep concern for the Ephesian church and his prayer as a preventative measure against life's inevitable challenges.
and wave them around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Let's get into the word together and let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I am glad for Wednesday night. It comes right on time. I want to top off the tank, I want to replenish the fuel, I want to be over the top filled with the Holy Ghost and the Word to give me the victory over every circumstance in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 1:All right, let's turn in our Bibles tonight to Ephesians, chapter three, and we're going to read one of the wonderful, powerful Holy Ghost prayers that the Holy Ghost authored through Paul for the church, ephesians 3, starting with verse 13. And he prays Wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations. For you, which is your glory, and for this cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith and that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end, amen. And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled reinforced with power. Let me read you verse 16 in the amplifiedplified Bible. That's where I get the title. May he grant you, out of the rich treasury of his glory, to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man, by the Holy Spirit himself dwelling in your innermost being and personality. Isn't that powerful, strengthened and reinforced with mighty power? So you know why did Paul pray this prayer? For the Ephesians, and of course it's in the Bible, so it's for us, and it tells us right away. He was concerned that the Ephesian church would faint, that they would be worn out or dispirited because of the trouble that had come on Paul, I mean, you know, he's their apostle, he's their father in the faith. He's imprisoned, he's persecuted, and so he began to pray for them.
Speaker 1:You know, many times we pray about things just from the outside. Sometimes we get busy praying after circumstances are already well advanced and things are lined up against us, and that's not wrong to pray, but but, uh, you know, this prayer is kind of like, like what I like to say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I mean, if we like what I like to say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I mean this prayer is different. This prayer is relating to our spirit and how it can be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power, and it deals with the inner man. It deals with who we are. That's what we are. We're spirit beings. We live in a body. We have a mind, will, an intellect, which is our soul. The second Corinthians, 4.4, says you know, though, the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day, and so, really and truly I mean any battle that we have, any circumstance that we have we need to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in our inner man. I mean, if we're not, then we're just. You know we're going to be victimized. You know we're no match for the devil in the flesh. We need that spiritual underpinning, we need that spiritual reinforcement.
Speaker 1:You know, years ago, in 2008,. We had Hurricane Ike hit the area, decimated Galveston especially, and other parts of Houston, and it was really a powerful storm and we were able to pray against it and cause it to go up. We were able to get it down to a category two and otherwise it would have been just really terrible for Houston. It was bad enough as it was. But you know, haiti had suffered that same storm when it was a category four, and God spoke to my heart. He said you know, I want you to help Haiti. And so we started helping Brother Max Manning there. He's an apostle to Haiti for many years now 50 years plus and has over 2000 pastors that he relates to across that nation. And and and that's when we got involved in helping him and sending him supplies and sponsoring, you know, cargo boxes full of goods and all kind of things over the years.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, after Hurricane Ike, then they had the huge earthquake and it was just so devastating because not only were they hurt with the hurricane, but then Port-au-Prince, their capital city, just almost destroyed. It collapsed and their buildings there in that old city are concrete and it's poor quality concrete and it's not reinforced with steel, it's just and it cracked and many people died in the crumbled buildings and they kept. They had aftershocks and people were killed in the aftershocks. It was a terrible, terrible thing. And you know, in Southern California, where they have earthquakes, originally the buildings were not designed to endure the power of an earthquake. The ground actually undulates, it's a sine wave. It's actually a sine wave. It's like a wave of the sea only goes through the earth and a building is just there's. It's very difficult to design a building that won't be affected and won't come down. And so what they did in Southern California, many of the buildings, they retrofitted the buildings with a cable system and they draped the cable over the top of the building and tensioned it and everything, and it allows the building to sway without actually collapsing.
Speaker 1:And so Paul didn't want the church to collapse over these circumstances. You know, in John, chapter 14, verse 16, jesus told the disciples. He said you know, I'm going to send another comforter. The word comforter there is the Greek word paraclete, paracletus, and it's translated comfort. But comfort is not quite accurate. I mean, when you get into the greek, uh language of barclay, uh, you know, when you, when you look up the the definition of paraclete. It means to urge or exhort, like a general does his troops. I I think about General Patton. You know I love that movie and I've watched it many times. And he gets out there in the beginning of the movie and he addresses the troops before the Normandy invasion and he's exhorting them and encouraging them. And you know that's what it means.
Speaker 1:It's not like poor baby patchy on the head. It's more of a strengthening, it's more of a challenge. Barclay says it this way. It's the kind of comfort and consolation in distress that keeps one on their feet when, if left to themselves, would collapse. It enables one to pass the breaking point without breaking. Isn't that good? I mean, he's a Greek scholar, barclay has his own translation of the New Testament. And it enables one to pass the breaking point without breaking. And you know, we have that Holy Spirit on the inside of us, you know, and we can cooperate with his strengthening and reinforcing us with mighty power in our inner man. You can see how, yeah, we can pray over circumstances, we can rebuke them, we can pray for wisdom to get through them. But when we stay strengthened and reinforced, I'm telling you we won't collapse, we won't faint when we're under attack. We'll. We'll face the enemy, we'll face the circumstance, knowing that we're going to overcome, knowing that we have the greater when greater is he that's in us, that he that's in the world. So you know, when I see these verses?
Speaker 1:A few years ago I was watching this movie American Sniper. It's the story of Chris Kyle and he had the most kills in Iraq. You know he was a sniper, a Navy SEAL, and when 9-11 hit man he volunteered, he wanted to get over there and he wanted to defend our nation. And he was the oldest one in his SEAL class. You know he's way past the other young whippersnappers. And so in the movie you know they've got him and he's got his legs up. He's laying on his back and his legs are up and his shoulders are up, so he's only got his lower back laying on the ground. That's real hard to hold your way that way with all that weight. And they're squirting him in the face with this water, just a continuous stream of cold water. And their training is in San Diego. That that Pacific off the coast of San Diego is frigid and they often I mean they have to fight hypothermia on a constant basis in their training. They have to be trained in the most treacherous conditions to be able to get through the toughest kinds of circumstances. When they're training because they get the toughest jobs, the SEALs do. So here he is, and so they're trying their best to get him to quit, they're trying their best to wash this old guy out.
Speaker 1:And so, well, how are you feeling now, kyle? And he said I'm feeling dangerous. And when I heard that I've been saying that ever since, whenever the pressure's on, I just say well, I'm feeling dangerous. Now I'm dangerous to the devil. How about you? Are you dangerous to the devil tonight? Amen, we all are, because we have the greater one in us. So I just wanted to give you some encouragement tonight.
Speaker 1:I know that many of us go through things. It's not uncommon. Many of you are just coming out of a trial, some of you are in the middle of a trial, some of you are about to go into a trial. It's kind of how life is, especially in these last days, and so I wanted to give you four ways that you can cooperate with the holy ghost to strengthen and reinforce your inner man. I mean, we, we have a part to play in this. You know, yeah, I pray this prayer every day. But it's not enough just to pray the prayer. We have our part. We have our part to cooperate with the answer to the prayer. And so that's what I wanted to talk about four ways that you can answer to the prayer. And so that's what I wanted to talk about four ways that you can cooperate with strengthening and reinforcing your inner man. And so the very first one is Jude, verse 20,.
Speaker 1:Praying in other tongues, build up yourselves on your most holy faith. Praying in the Holy Ghost, you build up yourselves. What is your self? It's your spirit. In the Holy Ghost, you build up yourselves. What is your self, your spirit? You're a spirit being. When you pray in other tongues, you are being built up, you are getting exercise, you're getting strengthened and reinforced by praying in other tongues.
Speaker 1:And you know, praying in other tongues takes discipline because most of the time when we're praying in other tongues, our understanding is unfruitful. Bible says your spirit, praise your first, corinthians 14,. But your understanding is unfruitful. So we, we kind of think it's a little tedious, we kind of think it's not, you know, not satisfying. We don't really understand what we're saying and what we're praying, and it's easy. It's easy to get distracted. So I'm just encouraging you let's develop your prayer life to where you can pray uninterrupted in other tongues for 30 minutes to an hour at a time. I mean, it makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1:You know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14 that he that prayeth in an unknown tongue edifies himself. Again, who's the himself? It's your spirit, you. You're edified. How can you edify anyone else if you're not edified? Edified means very similar to like recharging a battery. It's like you know you're gaining power. You know, have you ever tried to start a car on a weak battery? You know it won't quite turn over. And if we don't do anything with our spirit, that's where our spirit becomes lethargic, it becomes dull and it's in need of reinforcement. Amen, and yes, we can pray this prayer, but we've got a part to play and our part is to pray much in other tongues. So build yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:Of course, the second obvious way to cooperate with strengthening and reinforcing your spirit is feeding on the word. Matthew, chapter 4, verse 4,. Jesus said man does not live by bread alone, but by every rhema of God. The word word there in Matthew is rhema, word. God breathes word. So we read the Logos and many times the rhema comes off the page. And when we get a rhema, we need to feed on it, we need to meditate on it, we need to get it in our spirit. Yes, read your Bible. Yes, feed on the living word, but you need to meditate on the rhema and you get it down. And you know Jesus talked about the living bread, eating the flesh of the son of man and drinking his blood. That's what's involved.
Speaker 1:If we just finished a three-part message on that, and so this is kind of ties into that, it's real critical because when you do that, you're cooperating with the Holy ghost who's strengthening and reinforcing your spirit, and the stronger you are, the more upright you will be. Through every difficulty you will not collapse. You will not collapse, you will not faint when times get tough, but you'll stand your ground and you'll resist the devil. You submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Amen. So you know, pray much in other tongues. Feed on the word. And then this third one.
Speaker 1:Let's look at Colossians a few pages over to the right, ephesians, philippians, colossians, chapter two, and we'll read verse 19. Holding the head, I'm going to skip and not, I'm going to just say holding the head, and it can. A head is capital H. Who is that? That's Jesus. Jesus is the head of the body, holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment, ministered and knit together, increases with the increase of God. So my point here is develop divine association. See, that's the joints and the ligaments, and the joints and the ligaments are other members of the body of Christ. Develop your divine associations. You know, hang out with people. Iron sharpens iron. You know, the best people to hang out with are members of this church, because you're all drinking from the same spiritual fountain, you're all eating from the same trough, you're feeding on the same word and you all are going through things by each other. You can encourage one another and so it's the best way to meet the conditions of Colossians 2.19,. You receive nourishment. You receive nourishment from the body of Christ, and it's not always just hearing the preaching, it's not always just you know, it's fellowship and getting to know people and coming along beside them.
Speaker 1:I like Hebrews 10. Let's keep your place there In Colossians. Turn over to Hebrews. Hebrews 10. Let's keep your place there in Colossians. Turn over to Hebrews. Chapter 10, verse 24. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Well, we do see the end times. They're coming fast.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, this is talking about coming to church, but it's talking about more than that. It's talking about fellowship and it's talking about divine associations. I like the Message Bible, spurring each other on, see, spurring each other on in the Message Bible. So when you, when you fellowship with people at Glorious Way Church the reason I mention them besides someone else, because in the you know, 30, this church is going to celebrate its 30th anniversary, and then before that I was ordained minister for eight years before that.
Speaker 1:So I've been in the ministry a long time, 38 years ministering to people, pastoring people, helping people, and what I see is people sometimes give more emphasis to friends for which there is no godly purpose in their lives. They spend a lot of time around people that don't really spur them on. They find themselves trying to minister to people who aren't really interested in what they have to say. So it's kind of a dead end. It's kind of a dead way.
Speaker 1:I believe in witnessing to people, but when it comes to fellowship, when it comes to being friendship, when you're going to eat with people, when you're going to spend time with other people, it ought to be people of like precious faith, especially now, because, once you, I'm not against witnessing to people, I'm for it, I'm not against, you know, ministering to people. They need it. But I'm talking about fellowship. That's a whole different ball game and over the years I've just seen people they get caught up in friendships, neighbors, they get club, they go in, you know, they're members of clubs, you know, and it occupies a lot of their time and they're not really church clubs and could be any kind of club, rotary club, you know, any kind of club, you know. Look, that's just not the best use of your time. You need to be hanging with people of like precious faith so you can spur each other on these divine associations.
Speaker 1:You know, I knew a man when I first got saved. He was instrumental in my, in my discipleship early on, because he knew the ropes and I didn't, and I spent a lot of time around him and, uh, you know, but I was going to lakewood and he was going to some denominational church. I never did quite understand it and then years later you, you know, I knew him and he started going to a Baptist church. Now he was filled with the Holy Ghost. He believed, and he believed like I did, but he wasn't really word of faith. He wasn't like Brother Osteen, brother Hagen, he didn't feed on their teaching. Instead, he'd be more charismatic, he believed in the gifts. I don't know how much time he spent praying in other tongues, but I knew him over a period of many years and what I saw was that and I observed him and I finally figured it out that he wanted to be the go-to guy. He wanted to go to a church where he was the most spiritual, that he knew things that nobody else knew, and they would come to him like bootleg Holy Ghost. When you're in the Baptist church and you speak in other tongues and people find out about it, there's two ways it can happen. They'll either distance themselves or they'll be real interested, and so he was always playing that role and really that's kind of a form of pride. I'm sorry. I mean that's not the right motive for going to a church. You know you're not there to be the go-to guy. You're there to feed on the word of God. And if you're what the pastor's preaching is not feeding you, what are you and you're giving out? You see, you just start going down, down, down, down. And that's just one example.
Speaker 1:I've seen many examples. Other examples I've seen. You know, I had a couple come into the church. They had a lot of problems in their marriage, problems with their kids, and I, you know, back in those days I would try to help people. I'd meet with them and talk to them and she kept talking about her prayer partner. I'd say you know, you need to come to church more. You've got a lot of problems. You ought to be coming Sunday night, wednesday night. You just come Sunday morning and you're not even here every Sunday morning. Well, you know, I have a prayer meeting with my prayer partner.
Speaker 1:She's kind of like my mother in the faith. I said, oh well, where does she go to church? So-and-so Methodist church. And I looked at her and I said, well, how can she be your mother? She doesn't know anything. Ichabod is on the Methodist church. I mean, they're ordaining homosexuals. I mean, what does she know about the word that's going to help you? And she didn't like that.
Speaker 1:See, and that's the thing about me, I tell people the truth, whether they like it or not. I mean, when you're hanging around people that know less than you do and you're thinking that they are so spiritual, what are you thinking? I mean, that's again, you're just better off finding a person here that can be your friend, that you can, that you can agree with and you know, sometimes you're a supply, for you're nourishing them and sometimes they nourish you. It's a two-way street. I hope this is helping you. So develop divine associations and that way God can use those to strengthen and reinforce your spirit.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, the last one, psalm 8. And let's look at that one, and then we're going to do a little exercise together. Psalm 8. Number verse 1, o Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Who has set thy glory above the heavens? Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, as thou ordained, strength because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger, and Jesus. When Jesus quoted this verse, he said out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, has thou perfected praise? Have you perfected praise? And so my last point about cooperating with the Holy Ghost, strengthening and reinforcing your spirit with mighty power, is praising God with his word. Praise God with his word.
Speaker 1:So, for instance, let's go back now, turn all the way back to Ephesians, chapter three, and get this prayer in front of you, and we're gonna go down this prayer. Because what do we do when we pray, when we pray something like this prayer, when we get to the end of it, what do we say? We say well, when we pray, we believe we receive it and we shall have it. Isn't that what we say? Mark 11, 24, what things? So, wherever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them. So when you're praying this prayer, this Holy Ghost prayer for God to strengthen and reinforce you with mighty power in the inner man, then you believe you receive that strengthening. And then what do you do? You praise him for it, you thank him for it. So let's just go through this verse, these verses, one verse at a time, and let's just see how this does in our spirit. Let's just see, when we finish, what it does for our spirit. So, um, so we'll start here with verse 14.
Speaker 1:Father, I thank you that I have access to bow my knees to you. To you, you're my heavenly father and you're the father of my Lord, jesus Christ. I'm so glad I'm saved. I'm so glad I'm named for the whole family of heaven and earth. I've been named with a brand new name, lord, according to verse 15. Thank you, lord, for my new name.
Speaker 1:I thank you, father, for the, according to the riches of your glory, that you have strengthened me with might by your spirit in my inner man. You've strengthened and reinforced me with mighty power, and thank you for that, lord. I believe I receive it right now. I'm so glad that Christ dwells in my heart by faith, that he has a happy home. I go around all day long, god inside minded. I never lose track of the fact that I'm saved and that you live on the inside of me, and I'm so glad to be rooted and grounded in your love. I'm so glad that you put in me a comprehension of how great is your love, the length and depth and breadth and height of it, that you so love me, that you died for me, that you paid this price for me. I'm so glad for it, father. I'm so glad that you love me so much that it just passes all human understanding. And Father, I just thank you that you're filling me with all the fullness of God. You know you might stop there and just start shouting a little while. Lord, I thank you that you're filling me with all the fullness of God. And Lord, I just thank you right now that you're able to do exceeding abundantly, above all, that I even dare ask or think, according to the power that's working in me. I'm so impressed with your word and I praise you over this word and I pray that glory and honor will be in to you in the church, through Christ Jesus, throughout all ages.
Speaker 1:In fact, that last verse, verse 21, it says you know, it's glory in the church. You know, may we see his shining greatness in the church? The NLT says his shining greatness in the church. You know, uh, may we see his shining greatness in the church? The NLT says his shining greatness in the church. So this word glory that we're given thanks for, I mean you probably know what it means, but I want to just you know, in in the new Testament it's the Greek word doxa and the old Testament it's kabod, and they mean about the same thing. Let me read some of the meanings of the word glory See, this is what we're praying. We're thanking God for the glory in the church and we're the church. When you pray this, you've got glory in you. There's a glory upon you and in you everywhere you go, because you're filled with the fullness of God. So what is that glory? Wealth, numbers, commerce, wisdom, promotion, dignity, power, superiority, authority, splendor, nobility, valor, magnificence, extraordinary privileges and advantages. Isn't that powerful, extraordinary privileges and advantages To him be extraordinary privileges and advantages in the church throughout all ages. You see, god wants to increase the church, and that includes you personally and us corporately. He wants us to be shining examples. He wants us to be shining greatness. He wants to be the shining greatness of the church. Isn't that great?
Speaker 1:I think about Peter when Peter in book of Acts. It says that when the sick, they would line the sick up because Peter couldn't get to everybody, the apostles couldn't pray for everybody. They'd line the sick up in the streets. And when Peter walked by, his shadow would be cast on sick people and they would be healed. Now what does that mean? Does it mean his shadow healed him? No, his shadow didn't heal anything. A shadow is nothing, but it's his proximity to the person. I mean. He had such glory in him. He was so strengthened and reinforced with might in his inner man that the anointing, just somebody coming into his presence, into his proximity, they were healed. They were healed and he didn't necessarily stop and pray for them, he didn't lay hands on them, he was just walking by. So their faith, they had faith to say, look, if I can just get close enough to this man of God, I'm going to be healed.
Speaker 1:I believe we're coming into that day now. We're coming into the day when the church is going to be so glorious and it's going to be carrying the glory in such dimension and such power that people won't even you, won't even have to pray for people. They just get around you and get healed. They just get around you and get delivered. Oh, praise God. So you know, god's plan is to use the church to demonstrate how great he is, how good he is, and that we'll see these works and glorify God. So we're reinforced with mighty power. Come on, lift your hands tonight and receive the word of God. Hallelujah, glory to God. We started praising God all the way through Ephesians. I got happy. I hope you did too. Amen, praise God, hallelujah.