Rick Joyner - A Message to the Glorious Church, Vol. 1: A Verse by Verse Study of Ephesians, Chapters 1-4

Pauls Epistle to the Ephesians is considered by many to be
the most extraordinary, interesting, and powerful book in the Bible. While that may be debatable, the fact that it contains the most clear and detailed account of what individual Christians and the church as a whole are called to be, is not debatable. There is simply no other book in the Bible that comes close to Ephesians in this matter.

This is Volume I of a verse by verse study of the book of Ephesians, which concludes at the end of Chapter Four. This Epistle has three main themes and several other minor ones, which could have each been a complete study. Even so, I felt that it should be combined into just two volumes so that there would be a strong bridge between the two.

Even though this is a verse by verse study of Ephesians, I do not consider this to be an in-depth study of the Epistle. There are numerous individual verses in Ephesians that are worthy of an entire book. In fact, I did write an entire book on just one of those verses entitled, The Surpassing Greatness of His Power, and I still felt that it was handled superficially when it was finished. This is certainly a great glory of the Word of Godthere seems to be no end to the depths of revelation and knowledge that can be mined from it.

I know that those who would pick up a book like this are already true spiritual treasure hunters. Ephesians is the source of many of the greatest treasures that I have ever found in the Bible, but more than just conveying these to you, I pray that you do not settle for them, but are inspired to go even deeper into studying this great and expansive Epistle of vision and hope. However, our primary goal is not just to find the treasures, but to cash in on them! By this I mean that the treasures do not just inspire us, but we want to walk in them.

Someone is going to walk in everything that Paul saw the glorious church becoming. Why not us? Regardless of your present condition, there is nothing keeping you from becoming the person who will walk closer to God than anyone else, with the exception of the Son of God Himself. There are no limitations put on anyone in pursuit of our full purpose in Him. We are only limited by our own faith and patience, which in Christ also relates to our discipline.

Overall, it seems that there has been a meltdown of faithfulness in the church over the last few decades, especially in the Western church. This has been happening to such a degree that some have called it the great falling away, and others the time when the love of most will grow cold. This may be true, overall, but in the midst of this time there is something very encouraging happening. There are an increasing number of individuals who are resolving to walk in their full purpose in Christ. These have counted the cost, and are willing to pay any price. They are sacrificing all worldly ambitions and dreams, and enduring any hardship, to know and walk with God. As the times make this more and more difficult, this makes these faithful ones even greater treasures to God.

This is your reason for being on the earth. You are not here just to find treasure, but to be a treasure to God. What makes something a treasure is that it is either rare or hard to find. This is true of the great souls for which Ephesians was especially written. It is right that we lament for those who backslide and fall away from the faith, but for those who have the true faith, their encouragement does not come from what other people do. Our encouragement to keep going comes from the knowledge that if we spent our entire lives to bring our King pleasure for just a single moment, it would have been a life of such glorious success that no amount of earthly treasure could ever compare to it.

Ultimately, our success in Christ comes down to thisnot the blessings that we have received or what we have gained, but the blessing that we have been to the King. We all start by looking for treasures, and for those who pursue the true treasures of the Spirit, it is sometimes a very lonely pursuit. Even so, there is a point at which we must rise to an even higher goal of being the treasure. There is a point when our vision must be fulfilled and we attain to what we have seen. That is our quest. As we are told in Ephesians 4:15, this is nothing less than the fact that we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.