What does it mean that God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine in Ephesians 3:20?

Here we are launched upon a shoreless sea whose depths no line has ever fathomed. In the knowledge of this love we shall be filled with all the fullness of God. The "fullness of God" is that with which God is filled. Christ is the fullness of God, as we read, "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9, N. Tr.). The Church is the fullness of Christ — "the fullness of Him that fills all in all" (Eph. 1:23). God alone can lead our hearts into the knowledge of Christ's love and thus fill us with His fullness. For He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. It is not doing things for us, however true that may be, but here it is doing a work in us. The apostle is not speaking of our circumstances and daily needs and all that His mercy can do for us; he is speaking of that vast universe of blessing into which He can lead our souls by a work in us. Nor does the apostle say, "Above all that we can ask or think," as the verse is sometimes wrongly quoted. One has said, "There is a great difference between what we do ask and think, and what we can ask and think. There is no limit to what we may ask." Nor can we limit what God can do in the saints for their blessing and His glory.

The apostle prays now, therefore, that God may give them "according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man." His glory is being manifested indeed in all its fullness. He desires that this should be realized by us in the heart, but for what purpose? Not that signs and miracles may display what God is working, but "that Christ may dwell" in the heart through faith. This Christ, in whom all God's purposes united and with whom we have been brought into such wonderful and tender relationship, well may He dwell through faith in our hearts, not be a Visitor, known, as it were, fitfully and imperfectly, but dwelling there so that we might be "rooted and grounded in love," that the love which has been manifested in Him might be that out of which we should draw continually and in which also we should be established, a perfect love, dismissing all fear and refusing all distance. "Rooted and grounded," — thus we are alone fitted to apprehend "with all saints," "the breadth and length and depth and height," He does not say of what. It is not of love, certainly, that he is speaking, for he immediately goes on to say that this is measureless, this surpasses knowledge. "Breadth and length and depth and height" naturally speak of God's ways, of what He is doing. The breadth of His work includes all His creatures. The length of it is from eternity to eternity. The depth of it could only be rightly known by that depth to which Christ has descended for us; and the height by that place which He has given us with Himself; but if we apprehend these things aright, they are, in fact measurements, in a sense, of that which cannot be measured, so that he immediately adds: "To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge" like those measurements which we take of the heavens from angles obtained on earth. They convey to us, — how much! but yet leave us to realize that we are incompetent in any full way to estimate what this love is; but even now the consequence of it will be, we shall be "filled up in all. the fulness of God." This is what is in Christ. "In Him," as Colossians tells us, "dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and it is added: "We are filled up in Him." This divine fulness then, though we cannot hold it, holds us. We are, as has often been said, like a vessel dipped in the ocean which cannot, of course, hold the ocean, but in which the ocean is, as well as round about it. Divine fulness, to be filled with that which is, nevertheless, infinite, how natural to think that here the apostle has in some way exhausted. the sober estimate of things! It is as if anticipating that thought, that he says immediately, "To Him that is able to do far exceedingly above all that we ask or think, to Him be glory." How wonderful the connection there! Think of what he has just been speaking of. It is not, however, that he means that God is able to do more than fill us with all the fulness of God, but that as to all that we might think about it, He is able to exceed any measure we can make. We may ask, but He can transcend all that we can ask for. We may think, but He will be beyond us still, and beyond us in a power which works in us too as the apostle says here, a power which is, of course, the power of the Holy Spirit. He has thus taken hold upon us for this very thing, and to make the Church the vessel of His praise, not simply for the present time, but in a way which nothing will exceed, forever: "To Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, unto all the generations of the age of ages." How he seems to contemplate there the whole history as it were of the future, filled with wonderful and new displays continually, to new spectators also of God's goodness and power, and to all these and in the midst of all these, the vessel of His glory will still be the Church. in Christ Jesus. Think of it, that this is what God has brought us into! Is it possible, one would ask, to add more to a revelation such as this?

68 The prayer in chapter 3 is wonderful, "that he might give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." He asks that the power of the Holy Spirit might work in the heart of the individual, and that Christ might be in the affections, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," that is, that Christ may be realised by faith. I have now got Christ - who is the centre of the whole universe of blessedness - dwelling in my heart. Thus I have the centre in me, and this is perfect love sure enough, for we are dwelling in God and God in us; and thus rooted and grounded in love. Being there my heart takes in all the saints, "rooted and grounded in love that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints." You cannot leave them out, for they form part of this plan of God, the nearest circle to Christ. Then, getting the whole scene of God's glory and purpose, we apprehend the breadth and length and depth and height, that is, the whole scene of God's glory. All the glory that God surrounds Himself with we have by having Christ in the heart, by faith realised in the power of the Spirit. But as we might be lost in this glory, we get back to Christ with whom we are familiar, and he prays that we may "know the love of Christ which surpasseth knowledge." We find in this galaxy of glory ourselves perfectly intimate with the Person that is the centre of it all. He dwells in the heart, and we know the love of Christ. Accordingly this does not narrow, but really quite the contrary, because it passes knowledge. Therefore He says, "to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God." We have what surrounds God in the glory, and now having known the personal love of Christ we have got to God Himself. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." This passage is generally quoted as referring to what God can do for us. People in their prayers say (piously no doubt; I do not attribute any harm) that God can do more than they ask or think. That is quite true, but it is not what is here. He says, "to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." Thus it is a very different thing. "To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages." We are carried out into all this of which we have been speaking; it is a power that works in us so that He is glorified in the church in all ages and of course now. That is where He sets us before He takes up the question of ministry.

Hence further, "Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." He does not say, above all that we can ask or think. The Holy Ghost takes particular care not to say so. There is some difference to be remarked between what we do and what we can ask and think. There is no limit to what we may ask, save that God is above anything that can be asked of Him; yet He loves to hear us asking more and more. He would exercise us in asking more abundantly.

"Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or think." There are times when our minds and hearts seem enlarged, and we then ask for great things — and we think more largely than we ask. Thoughts sometimes come into our minds which we should be afraid to put into words before the throne of grace. Has the question never come up, "May I expect God to do such great things for me? "Look at this word — "Able to do exceeding abundantly." His abilities surpass all our words and all our thoughts. It is not a question of what we are able to do; God is making known what He is able to do. His resources are infinite. We may feel as weak as water spilt upon the ground.

Eph. 3:20. "According to the power that works in us (is inworking in us), God is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think." God works in us in order that we may be filled unto all the fulness of God. If we are straitened, if we are, so to speak, hampered or shackled, this cramping of spiritual life and energy is in ourselves, not in God. We cannot exhaust the stores of His grace or power.

But we look a little further. We have seen the nature of the power — the same which wrought in Christ; we have seen the suited vessel for the display of this power — a vessel broken by the cross that the light may shine out. Now, let us see the working of that power in us practically. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory," etc. (Eph. 3:20-21). This is the doxology following the wondrous prayer of the apostle — a prayer for the very thing we are speaking of, power. He asks that they may be "strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." He sets no limits to the fulness of blessing, except the fulness of God! Then we are assured that the power which worketh in us is all-sufficient to do exceeding abundantly above all our desire or thought. We have the power; we do not have to get it.

(V. 20). The sixth request is that all the Apostle has been praying for the saints may be wrought in them by the power of God. God is, indeed, able to do exceeding abundantly “for us”, as is often said. Here, however, where the leading thought throughout the prayer is the spiritual condition of the saints, it is neither what God can do for us or with us that is in view, but rather His ability and willingness to work “in us” in answer to these requests, and to do this “above all that we ask or think”.

(V. 21). The seventh and last desire is that there may be glory in the church to God by Christ Jesus throughout all ages. Every request in the prayer leads up to this wonderful thought that through all the ages the saints should set forth the fulness of God, and thus be for His glory. The whole prayer clearly shows that it is God's desire that what will be true of the saints throughout the eternal ages should mark them in their passage through time — that all that God is should shine forth in His people.

In such experiences of the fullness of God we shall learn God's great ability to more than meet every need. He not only gives as we ask or think, but above all of this, and greater still, "abundantly above all, and yet greater, "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (v.20). Nor is He speaking only of power that works for us, but power which works in us. This power is certainly to be realized and enjoyed in present experience, though the full blessedness of it will require eternity for its display.

This display of glory will be seen in the Assembly collectively, not only in the millennial age when all things are first gathered under the Headship of Christ, but "to all generations forever and ever" (v.21). For Paul is speaking here of that which is based on the very nature of God and therefore eternal, rather than of God's dispensational, administrative counsels. "Forever and ever" may be translated, "to the age of ages." That eternal age outlasts all passing ages.

The contemplation, in prayer, of such heights of spiritual light and affections and blessing moved the heart of the Apostle to worship, and the chapter closes with a doxology ascribing glory to the Father. That which he had desired in his prayer would be impossible of accomplishment were it not that there is power that works in us, the Holy Spirit of God. By that Power the Father can accomplish that which overwhelmingly surpasses all our thoughts or desires. Many of us, reading the Apostle's desires for us, may have said to ourselves — Very wonderful, but altogether beyond me. Yet, be it remembered, not beyond the Power that works in us. All this blessing may be really and consciously ours: ours in present possession.