^{“If anyone is enfolded into Christ, he [or she] has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.”}

^{(2 Cor. 5:17, TPT).}

 Have you ever felt overwhelmed by what the Bible says about you, as a believer?

I do … constantly! … if I try to take it in with my human mind … instead of letting go and trusting the Holy Spirit to teach me.

It is utterly amazing to get up in the morning and know that God, the Mighty Creator of the universe, abides with us – personally – 24 hours a day, and will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). 

It is equally amazing to go one step further and reflect that “you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).

Then to go a step further still and try to absorb that “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Cor. 6:19).

Not to mention trying to comprehend the fact that: “whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in the Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). Meaning more than entwined - but actually in perfect union with God!

It is all totally brain-melting, isn’t it? 

And really, it is just as well that all this melts our brains!

Because, in any case, our brains are patterned by our old-Adam nature and absolutely need to be melted and re-moulded, if we are to discover our potential and who we really are.

The Bible urges to: “let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good” (Rom. 12:2 PHILLIPS).

This happens progressively as we lean into Jesus and learn about our New Life by reading and seeking to absorb in our hearts the Scriptures that describe our New Nature.

Oh Holy Spirit, I pray that you would teach us what it means to be “new creations” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17)!  Please teach us what it looks like to have God pour out His divine life into us, making us “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

Those truths right there are so beyond-beyond our human grasp that it’s tempting to think we cannot even begin to “go there” in any meaningful way.

Well, the good news is that we cannot – but that there is One who can, and, most importantly, One who passionately desires to do so for us and in us. That One is our teacher, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus said, “will draw on my truth and will show it to you” (John 16:15, PHILLIPS), will teach us all things (John 14:26) and guide us into all truth (John 16:13). 

 So as we read and ponder the wondrous Scriptures that describe our New Nature, we can fully trust the Holy Spirit to make them alive in our hearts and lives, and to re-mould our minds in the process.

To encourage us along the way, there is a wonderful, Spirit-inspired prayer in Ephesians which helps greatly in the process of re-moulding.

It is one of the apostle Paul’s prayers for believers in the Diana-cult-dominated city of Ephesus who were facing constant persecution for the name of Christ. In the circumstances, it would have been very understandable if Paul’s prayer for them had been, “Lord! Please protect my brothers and sisters in Ephesus from danger and pain!” 

But Paul’s prayer for them was nothing like that.

For Paul knew there was an infinitely greater prayer that he could utter for them. That is, that they would come to know, at the heart level, that Christ was constantly indwelling and active within them, in all His fulness and power. 

Here below is Paul’s prayer. It is a powerful prayer for all believers. We can personalise it for ourselves, and we can also use it as a beautiful means of intercession for others:

"[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 mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,

"By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),

"And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe"(Eph. 1:17-19, AMPC).

In this prayer, Paul’s phrase “the hope to which He has called you” is referring to Christ within us (“Christ in you, the hope of glory” - Col. 1:27). The implications of that truth are, of course, limitless!  

Similarly, Paul’s mention of God’s “glorious inheritance in the saints” also refers to Christ’s life in us, because Christ’s Spirit is the glorious inheritance that God places within believers.

In short, Paul was telling the Ephesian church – and all believers! – that within us we already have all that we need to fulfil and equip us for everything, every day of our lives.

Paul knew – from his own experience – that the more our inner eyes are enlightened to realise this truth, the more real and practical it will become in own our day-to-day experience.

I usually pray this prayer daily for myself and others; and often multiple times a day, especially if I’m stuck on an unhelpful rabbit trail in my old-Adam intellect!

And I can testify – together with others with whom I pray – that it does make a difference! It does cause Truth to become increasingly alive in our hearts and in our being-renewed minds.

We praise you, Lord!

By Ann Shakespeare   17 August 2021