Beloved you have at last learned this valuable lesson. You are surprised for you think back to so many times when you have not walked in it in perfection. I am your perfection, yours is only to offer your will. You come to Me asking what the next steps are in your walk. I have led you step by step, I have protected you even with the onslaught of the enemy. The battles have raged about you fiercely, yet you always cry out to Me.
You have always sought to lay down your own life so that others might live. You have been misunderstood and been willing to stand in humiliation. Though your actions and responses have not been perfect, you always tried to make sense of them in light of My heart. This is what has pleased Me.
When I led you, you obeyed and offered. When I inspired you, you created. Yes, My love, you can accomplish so much, and so many times your efforts were not received well, overlooked, and even devalued. My love, this was effort inspired by Me, I delighted in the moments you took with Me to create it.
In the following passages, the verse numbers are removed and I simply added bullets and bold typeface to provide a new perspective on the eternal truth of our position in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 1:3 – 2:10
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has:
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- Blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ
- Chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love
- Predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace
- Made us accepted in the Beloved
In Him we have:
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- Redemption through His blood
- Forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence
- Made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself
- that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him.
In Him also we have:
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- obtained an inheritance
- being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will
- that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed:
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- you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise
- who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
- to the praise of His glory
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know:
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- what is the hope of His calling
- what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints
- what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe
According to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power, might and dominion, every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
And you He made alive, who were:
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- dead in trespasses and sins
- in which you once walked according to the course of this world
- according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience
- among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh
- fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind
- and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses:
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- made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
- raised us up together
- made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
- that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.