This is going to be an encouraging message because I want to get to a verse in Ephesians that shows just how great God is and the treasures that He has waiting for us…
But first, I want to briefly set things up by going over Ephesians, chapter one. For anyone that still believes in the complete nonsense of human free will, I’d like you to read these versese carefully and ask yourself: Is it God or man that does this?
I am just going to quote Ephesians chapter one verses 1-12 and will bold every mention of God’s action and underline every mention of man’s action. Here we go…
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to all the saints who are also believers in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who blesses us with every spiritual blessing among the celestials, in Christ,
4 according as He chooses us in Him before the disruption of the world, we to be holy and flawless in His sight,
5 in love designating us beforehand for the place of a son for Him through Christ Jesus; in accord with the delight of His will,
6 for the laud of the glory of His grace, which graces us in the Beloved:
7 in Whom we are having the deliverance through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses in accord with the riches of His grace,
8 which He lavishes on us; in all wisdom and prudence
9 making known to us the secret of His will (in accord with His delight, which He purposed in Him)
10 to have an administration of the complement of the eras, to head up all in the Christ — both that in the heavens and that on the earth —
11 in Him in Whom our lot was cast also, being designated beforehand according to the purpose of the One Who is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will,
12 that we should be for the laud of His glory, who are pre-expectant in the Christ. -Ephesians 1: 1-12
Notice that I have highlighted 10 separate phrases that show God chooses and does the saving and not one phrase is underlined. Why? Because man does nothing and only has what God has given them. Man only does what God has ordained for him to do…and not do.
Where is human action here?
-Paul is an apostle according to the will of God, not his human will (verse 1).
–God chooses us before the disruption of the world (verse 4). How could it be our free will if the choice was made before we were born?
-God designates us beforehand for a place of a son (verse 5). Before we do anything good or bad.
-We are chosen in accord with the delight of His will, not our will (verse 5).
–We are chosen for the glory and laud of His grace, not us earning it in any way (verse 6).
–He (God) lavishes this grace on us, again, we don’t earn it (verse 8).
-This is done in accord with His delight (verse 9).
-He (God) purposed this in Him (Christ).
-We were designated beforehand (before we were born, before we did anything good or bad).
-God is operating ALL in accord with the counsel of His will, and is not subject to our will (verse 11).
–We are pre-expectant in Christ (verse 12). This means we are chosen by God to taste these treasures.
It’s all God and not man. God chooses who will believe beforehand, before man has any life or capacity to make choices. God works out the circumstances of those He has chosen so that they come to belief at an appointed time during their life. If God did not choose for a person to believe then as their life unfolds, they will not believe. Don’t worry, God has a specific plan to bring them through the cross at their appointed time as well…only through judgment. All is of God.
There is so much in the first three chapters of Ephesians, I encourage my readers to go over these verses very carefully. Now, that we established this action is of God, on to Ephesians 3:20.
20 Now to Him Who is able to do superexcessively above all that we are requesting or apprehending, according to the power that is operating in us -Ephesians 3:20
I don’t know about you, but my dreams are far higher than reality. In other words, I dream of things that are so far above and beyond in joy, greatness, love, etc….that reality can be very dissappointing at times. Reality is no match for the height of my dreams or my thoughts…or even my requests.
I think of being more loving, more successful, more spiritual, and those dreams and what I can think go far beyond what I am in reality. Why is it that I can think greater than what God can do? Why are my requests not fulfilled as I desire? It won’t always be this way and this is part of the evil that we have to experience in order to know what it is truly like when God is our all. We have to have an experience of what its like to be without God in order to truly understand what its like when God fills us up (paraphrasing A.E. Knoch).
Ephesians 3:20 says that God can do superexcessively above all that we are requesting or even can think about! I don’t know about you, but I can think on and request some pretty great things.
The point is: There will come a time when this verse will be fulfilled in every creature. There will come a time when what we can ask and think can’t come close to the reality that God provides. The opposite of what occurs today in this experience of evil. As I said before, reality today is no match for the height of my dreams, thoughts and requests. In contrast…my dreams, thoughts, and requests in the future will be no match for reality when God is our All.
I know there are many, probably religious folk, that would say God has already done this in their life. I’m sorry, but what a lolipop life you must live and this message probably isn’t for you. In fact, religion would probably say that God only saving a fraction of His own creation and sending the rest to eternal hell or annihilation is doing ‘superexcessively above’ what we can ask or think.
I would think if the topic was salvation then God doing supperexcessively above what mankind can request or think would involve saving all His creation and not just a fraction of it. That is exactly what scripture says and I would contend that people rejecting the salvation of all through Christ’s cross actually like that people are in eternal hell or separate from God forever. God doing superexcessively more that what they can ask or think involves God burning and bruttaly torturing MORE people for ever.
What a trajedy to believe in eternal conscious torment or eternal annihilation. What a trajedy to believe that God doing superexcessively more than we can ask or think doesn’t involve saving each one of His creations.
The fact is that He saves each one of His creatures and SO much more. We will all step into this reality in God’s timing.
Grace and peace to you all!
Saved ignoble 
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