You Have the Power To STAND
by Rick Renner
When the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, the church at Ephesus was in a mess (see Chapter 4). They were entertaining malice, bitterness and backbiting—attitudes and actions that are not indicative of victorious people.
They had once walked in the power of God, their brains filled with information and knowledge and divine revelation, yet they were clearly living far below what they knew. They needed to wake up and receive a fresh touch of divine power. Paul told them they were:
1. Elected by God, adopted into His family and redeemed (Chapter 1)
2. Saved by God’s grace (Chapter 2)
3. Part of the eternal purpose of God in the Church (Chapter 3)
4. Able to operate in the fivefold ministry gifts (Chapter 4)
5. To “be filled with the Spirit” (Chapter 5, verse 18).
Then, after presenting all that, he began his closing thoughts to the Ephesians by starting with the word—finally. That may not seem important when you first read it, but in Greek it is vital. It means more than our understanding of finally. It means “to the last and most important matter at hand.” In other words, he’d saved the best for last.
A Divine Command
In Ephesians 6:10, Paul wrote, “Finally, my brethren, be strong....”
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