When I was a young woman, I visited Niagra Falls. I was struck immediately by the Sound! It was so huge a sound. It filled the area for a long ways around the massive wall of water. The power that was demonstrated by the sound alone was awe inspiring, even before you came in sight of the rushing volume of water cascading down the towering rock face. The Bible says we have access to a power that is even more amazing than the Falls at Niagra. It is the power that comes from our Creator Himself.
Paul, in Ephesians 3, is himself amazed by this power. You know the story of Paul don't you? As a young man working for the High Priest, he was traveling to Damascus in order to arrest the christians there. A Great Light surrounded him one night on the road. Paul dropped to the ground out of sheer terror at the immensity of this Light and afterwards he was blinded for a time. (Acts 9) God spoke to Paul out of that Light and the words God spoke changed his life. Paul did what we would call a complete 180, he went from arresting christians to witnessing for Christ. Paul knew the power of God first hand in his own life.
Paul became an evangelist to the Gentiles, to non Jewish people. He was an enthusiastic messenger and he spread the news of Jesus far and wide. God used him in a mighty way throughout the rest of his life. In Ephesians 3, he spends some time contemplating what he calls the Mystery of the Gospel. In his own words: "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ." (Eph. 3:7-8 NIV) Even years later, the power of God still creates a sense of awe and wonder in Paul.
Most christians never have a "Damascus Road" experience. But that doesn't mean that we don't have access to that same Power of God! In the verse in the picture above it says "being rooted and established in Love". Here we go right back to the "vines and the branches" analogy. We are rooted in Christ and by "tapping" into the strength of the vine, we have access to the power He himself had from His Father, who is now our Father. And all of this power can be summed up in one word: LOVE. In Love the Father sent His only Son and In Love Christ gave His life. Jesus not only taught about the Love of God but He exemplified it in His every action here on earth. The power of that Love drew people to Him and it is still doing the same thing today.
If we want to "tap into the Power of God" we have to understand that Love which Jesus demonstrated to us. Paul, in his prayer for the christians at Ephesus (Eph.3:14-21), asked that they be able "to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ". Then he goes on to say in verse 19: "and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God". Being able to understand the Love of God is not an easy task. The very length, breadth, height and depth of it is daunting. It is like hearing the mighty fall of water, knowing it's just around the corner and trying to contemplate the immense force that could generate so much sound. The power that is available to us as we try to wrap our minds around the Love of God is just as immense. As Paul said, it can fill us to overflowing.
Paul ends his prayer with these words of encouragement to his readers (you and I included): "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." As we try to grasp the true nature of God's Love, and the Power that is available to us through that Love, Paul reminds us that God is able to do more than we can even imagine Him capable of and... He is "at work within us" already!