A lot of people want to walk in spiritual authority. They want to cast out devils, destroy the kingdom of darkness, and see God move in power. But there's a progression, and if you skip step one, you're going to get beat up.
The scripture is clear: submit to God first, then resist the devil (James 4:7). That order is not negotiable. You can't skip straight to step two and wonder why the enemy isn't fleeing.
Spiritual authority follows a specific order: submit to God first, then resist the devil. Skipping submission means the enemy has no reason to flee.
So what does submitting to God actually look like? Ephesians spells it out, and it starts with becoming one in Christ.
That means reconciling with people in your church, being patient with the Baptist church down the road, and extending grace to your brothers and sisters who don't have every revelation you have. Ephesians 4:2 puts it plainly: we become one in Christ by being patient with each other's faults.
And honestly? That pretty much covers most of the division in the church right there. We get impatient with people for not knowing what we know, even though we spent most of our lives not knowing it either.
Becoming one in Christ doesn't mean everyone thinks the same way. It means being patient with each other as you all move toward the fullness of Christ together.
God gives me one part of a picture and gives someone else a completely different part. And our parts don't look like they go together at first. But if we sit down and actually talk it through, we realize we're seeing the same thing from different angles, and together we get the full view.
God gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers specifically to mature believers (Ephesians 4:11-12). If you won't submit to his way of maturing you, you simply will not mature.
There's a whole movement out there that says you don't need any of that, and it sounds super spiritual. But that movement is doing the devil's work and honestly believes they're doing the Lord's work, and that's one of the most dangerous places to be.
Don't get tangled up in that. Don't even entertain those YouTube videos.
When you commit to the process, something starts to happen. The things that used to have a hold on you just don't anymore. You used to gossip and now when someone starts gossiping around you, you're changing the subject. That's not willpower. That's maturity. And maturity is what keeps you walking as a child of the light instead of falling back into your old life.
In Revelation 2:1-7, Jesus praised the Ephesians church for their hard work, patience, and sound doctrine, but warned them about one thing: they had lost their first love. That warning is just as relevant now as it was then.
He told them they didn't love him or each other the way they did at first. And his instruction wasn't to work harder or do more. It was to turn back and do the works they did at first.
Here's what happened to the Ephesians church and what can happen to us. They became so serious about truth that they forgot about grace. They forgot about God's patience with them before they were saved. They were full of the right doctrine and completely empty of mercy, and Jesus called that out directly.
We don't have to choose between truth and grace. Jesus himself was full of both at the same time (John 1:14). The goal isn't to soften the truth. The goal is to make sure love is the thing driving it.
That's the guardrail for a church like this. We're not people who give up. We endure, we push through, we don't quit. And God honors that. But toughness without love eventually turns into impatience and hardness, and Jesus says that's the thing that can take a lamp stand out of its place.
Stay full of truth. Stay full of grace. Keep going back to your first love.
The mystery Paul reveals in Ephesians 3 is that the Gentiles and the Jews would become one in Christ, something no previous generation knew and that even the principalities and powers didn't see coming.
Paul opens Ephesians 3 by saying he's about to tell us something no previous generation knew. The principalities and powers didn't even know about this. God had kept it a mystery from the very beginning.
Verse 6 is where he lands it: both Gentiles and Jews who believe the good news share equally in the riches inherited by God's children, both part of the same body, both enjoying the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6). And verse 8 says Paul, who calls himself the least deserving of all God's people, was the one chosen to carry this news to the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:8-9).
That is staggering. The Gentiles were total outsiders. They had no hope of connection with God. And Paul, a Jew himself, is the one carrying this news that they're in. Can you imagine his assignment? Going around telling people something they'd never heard, something that sounded completely impossible, because God had kept it hidden until that moment. No wonder Paul was in prison so much.
Ephesians 3:10 says God's purpose was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. The principalities are watching your church.
Not just his wisdom. His wisdom in its rich variety.
God is not stiff and rigid. He is not a single denomination. He's got swinging Pentecostals and sit-down Lutherans and everything in between, and he looks at all of it and says, "Look what I made." Old me would have criticized all of that. But God is displaying his rich variety, and I have learned to rejoice in it.
Paul prays in Ephesians 3:14-19 that believers would be strengthened from God's rich treasury of glory, rooted in love, and filled with the fullness of God so that he can do "super abundantly far over and above" all they ask or think.
You've been given access to that treasury. It's already stocked. The question is whether you're going to go in and get what's there or just sit with your arms folded saying, "Sure would be nice."
It's not enough to just hear something good at church on Sunday and say, "That was good," and then never think about it again. You have to take it in, write it down, meditate on it throughout the week, and let it become one with you. That's what it means to partake.
According to Ephesians 3, you experience the love of Christ through the saints, not just in private prayer. The gathered church is where God's love becomes tangible and real.
That stopped me. The amplified version describes the saints as the place where you actually experience that love. Not just your prayer closet. Not just a private moment with God. Here. With these people.
They're going to know us by our love for one another (John 13:35). That's not just an evangelism strategy. That's how we actually experience God's love ourselves. We need each other for that. And the enemy knows it, which is why he works so hard to keep us focused anywhere but here.
You can't claim the "super abundantly above all you ask or think" promise of Ephesians 3:20 without first experiencing God's love through the saints the way the earlier verses describe. The power flows from the foundation.
Paul closes the prayer in Ephesians 3:20-21 by saying God is able to do super abundantly far over and above all we dare ask or think. Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. But that's the end of Ephesians 3. And you don't get to claim the end without working through the beginning.
You have to experience his love through the saints first. That's messy. People are imperfect, and sometimes they hurt your feelings, and sometimes it's the person you least expected. But the answer isn't to dwell on it. Choose to believe the best. Let them off the hook. Move on.
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the faith. It's actually that simple.
What did Jesus warn the Ephesians church about in Revelation 2? In Revelation 2:1-7, Jesus acknowledged the Ephesians church for their hard work, patient endurance, and rejection of false teaching. But he warned them that they had lost their first love, meaning their love for God and for each other had grown cold. His instruction was to turn back and return to the works they did at first. The danger for a church that is strong on truth and endurance is becoming so serious about being right that grace and love get left behind.
According to Ephesians 4 through 6, spiritual authority follows a specific order: become one in Christ, submit to the leadership gifts God gave the church, mature into a life of light, and then operate in authority against the enemy. Skipping the earlier steps means the enemy has no reason to respond.
Why does submitting to God come before resisting the devil? James 4:7 and Ephesians make clear that submission must come first because rebellion against God puts you on the same side as Satan. When you're in rebellion and try to resist the enemy, he sees you as no different from himself. Submission is what gives your resistance authority.
What is the mystery Paul reveals in Ephesians 3? The mystery Paul reveals in Ephesians 3 is that both Jews and Gentiles would share equally in the riches of Christ and become part of the same body. This had been hidden from all previous generations and was unknown even to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
What does Ephesians 3:10 mean? Ephesians 3:10 says God's purpose was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. In other words, the principalities and powers learn about God's plan by watching the church. The church is not just a gathering place; it is a display of God's wisdom to the spiritual realm.
How do you experience God's love according to Ephesians 3? According to Ephesians 3, the primary place you experience the love of Christ is among the gathered saints. It's easy to assume that happens in your private prayer closet, but the text points to the community of believers as where God's love becomes a real, tangible experience. This is part of why Jesus said people would know his followers by their love for one another (John 13:35): the saints aren't just recipients of God's love, they are the expression of it.
What does "exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think" mean in Ephesians 3:20? Ephesians 3:20 describes God's power as able to do super abundantly, far over and above all we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. But this promise is connected to the power that is at work within us, which Ephesians 3 roots in being strengthened by the Spirit, rooted in love, and filled with God through the community of saints.
Why does God use the church to mature believers instead of just working individually with each person? Ephesians 4:11-12 explains that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers specifically to equip and mature the saints. The body of Christ has different parts with different functions, and maturity happens as those parts work together. Critically, the pastor made clear that this is God's chosen method, not one option among many: if you won't submit to his way of maturing you, you will not mature. Pulling away from that process doesn't produce independence; it produces immaturity and leaves you vulnerable in spiritual battle.
