We are engaged in a study of prayer for the purpose of determining just how and what we should pray for. At the moment we are examining Paul's prayers and we have seen in that his major focus has been for the believer's advance in God's plan for their lives. His Prayers in Ephesians focused on the believer's enlightment and empowerment and his prayer in Phillipians focused on the believer's spiritual growth.
In our present study we are examining Paul and Timothy's prayer in Col 1:9-12; which also focuses on the believer's spiritual growth.
9- Because of this, since the day we heard (Epaphras' report) we have not stopped praying for you asking specifically that you would be completely filled up with the knowledge of God the Father's intent in the sphere of wisdom and spiritual understanding.
10- to the end that you would conduct yourselves with conduct becoming the Lord to please Him completely (Conduct that imitates the pattern established by the Lord in his presentation and conduct that is empowered by the Lord in the age of his re-presentation) while being prolific by divinely good activities and growing in
the knowledge of God,
Paul's prayer for their being filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding was for them be able to walk and persevere in the Christian way of life in their regenerate identity (the "new" man) as a members of the new spiritual species who are the Royal Family of God members of the church and the body of TLJC.
Paul's prayer was for them to "keep on plugging” in their spiritual advance by means of Bible Doctrine and the power of God the Holy Spirit for the purpose of pleasing him in all respects.
We are now examining just how it is that the believer pleases or displeases God.
We saw in Heb 11:6: that recall and application of Bible Doctrine was pleasing to God and we are now looking at Rom 8:8; where it describes those who cannot please God.
We must understand that those in the status quo describes as "the flesh" are not hostile their own idea or concept of God, what they are hostile toward is the Truth that the Word of God reveals about God and his Grace because they prefer to retain their own ideas about God rather than have respect for what word reveals is the truth about God.
John 3:19-21; Describes this.
Those who are functioning under the control of their OSN may in fact be very religious 2Tim 3:5; and performing a lot of human good works. Col 2:22-23;
Rom 8:8; begins with a transitional conjunction, "de", translated "and or but” This is followed by the nominative plural definite article of "oi", translated as the pronoun “those” referring to anyone whose soul is under the control of the OSN in the context.
In the Original Language, the verse is an ellipsis which emphasizes it's message.
A direct word for word translation with the original word order would read "but those in flesh being God to please not are able"
The present active participle of "eimi" translated “who are”can be inserted to fill in for the ellipsis, making the translation " but those who are in the flesh being God to please are not able"
This states that anyone who is functioning under the control of the "flesh" or the OSN produces the action of being powerless to please God.
The action of the present participle: eimi, translated “who are,“ plus sarx “in the flesh,” occurs simultaneously with the action of the main verb which is the present middle indicative of dunamai, dunamai plus the negative conjunction "ou” which means “are not able.” or "powerless".
The Greek verb "dunamai" is the same verb that concluded verse 7 which states that the unbeliever and the believer controlled by the "flesh" or OSN is not willingly subordinate to the policy of God because they are not able. In verse 8 it is pointed out that because they are “in the flesh” they are “not able” or powerless to “please God.”
Both uses of the verb dunamai have to do with the delegated omnipotence of the Holy Spirit which is made available to every believer at the moment of salvation.
This power is designed to facilitate the believer’s spiritual growth under the filling, teaching, and recall ministries of the God the Holy Spirit.
A believer cannot fulfill the commandment to “grow in grace” 2 Peter 3:18; without the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, in fact, as we have seen, it is only through the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit that the Bible can be understood. 1Cor 2:10-16; 2Tim 2:7;
Col 1:10; The next phrase in our passage is "Bearing Fruit in every good Work"
This describes the Divine Good (agathos) produced in and by the believer who is functioning inside the PPOG and advancing in the Grace and Knowledge of TLJC.
We examined the production of Divine Good at length a while back but a brief review is useful.
The power and the production of divine good is taught in John 15:7,
Three concepts are revealed in this verse:
1) The believer in fellowship. (The filling of God the Holy Spirit)
2) The believer in doctrine. (The thinking of TLJC in their stream of consciousness)
3) The believer in prayer. (Obeying the mandate for prayer)
Abiding (or remaining) in Christ is a reference to the Church-age believer in fellowship with God. The word abide is used because the filling of the Holy Spirit only occurs when the believer resides inside the PPOG.
Being filled with the Spirit which is the First Spiritual Skill is synonymous to living inside the PPOG.
The believer has fellowship with God on the basis of the fact that the Holy Spirit controls the soul, and as a result can perform good deeds and Christian service with the proper motivation and the proper power system.
The phrase, My words abide in you, is a reference to the second spiritual skill which is the result of consistent perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine and results in the thinking of TLJC residing in the soul of the believer.
The third spiritual skill is the execution of the PPOG by advancing through the three stages of spiritual adulthood (spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity) by the application the 10 PSD's to life's situations.
Spiritual maturity results in the believer bearing maximum fruit in three categories:
1) Visible Production of divine good, which can be seen by others who observe the believer's Christian service.
2) Invisible production of divine good, which has maximum impact in life.
3) Prayer- part of the believer's function before God in their priesthood.
Invisible impact can not be seen by others, and it is the basic function of the pivot of mature believers who preserve their nation through their faithfulness to God's Word.
This production has the greatest impact because it always re-presents TLJC thereby manifesting an invisible impact in the historic phase of the angelic conflict.