Ephesians 3:14-21:
¹⁴ When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, ¹⁵ the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. ¹⁶ I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. ²¹ Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.


As I lead worship, I have the opportunity to see a lot of different faces as we worship God.  I'd love to say that it is easy to tell the Christians from the non-Christians, but it is not.  Often, I see people who I know profess to be Christians and there is no joy when they worship; no outward sign of gratitude for the things God has done for them, not to mention their salvation.

If we understand how wide, long, high, and deep is God's love, there should be a natural overflow of gratitude.  If we agree on this point, then according to Ephesians, there are a lot of Christians who do not have fullness of life.

Ephesians (3:19) says that as we understand Christ love we will be made complete with "fullness of life and power."  As I read the passage, it seems conditional; fullness of life and power follow (or flow from) our understanding of God's love.

I believe worship is one important avenue through which this occurs.  Many times worship is the channel God uses to strengthen, encourage, and direct our lives.  So, if there is no understanding of God's love, we will not worship God.  If there is no worship of God, the avenue by which His Spirit moves in our lives is obstructed.  Therefore, we do not have fullness of life and power.

This is understandable because, going back to my original comment, I see a lot of Christians I cannot tell apart from non-Christians.  It's a vicious cycle!

I am certainly not impervious to battling this issue!  When I've found myself in these situations, what has helped me is to remember what God has done in my life (He's saved me, provided for me, protected me, encouraged me, and blessed me).  That evokes worship.  Worship's posture brings God's blessing!

God has been speaking to me about prayer over the last 6 months.  It's interesting that he would begin stirring something within me months before he would take my family and me down a new path.

God first began speaking to me about prayer through Hebrews 5:7, which says, "While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death.  And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God." (NLT)

Any time I read something that explains the way Jesus lived his life, I try to pay attention.  The part that really caught my eye was that Jesus prayed with pleading, a loud cry, and tears.  Often times we turn to the Lord's Prayer to learn how to pray.  While it's true that the Lord's Prayer correctly teaches us what to pray for, Hebrews 5:7 offers great instruction about the manner in which we should pray.  It reminds me of James 5:16 where the Bible says, "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results."(NLT)

I don't think we typically pray like Jesus & James teach us.  At this point I should say that there are obviously different types of prayer and not all issues need to go to the deepest levels of prayer.  For example, there is usually no need to go into deep intercession over the meal you are about to eat; a simple, honest "thank you" is good.  Having said that, I've been in too many meetings at church and through too many situations where we really never got past the outer courtyard of prayer to truly seek the Lord's help for deep issues.  It's almost as if we are saying, "We should pray here because we are Christians and that's the way we start a meeting, but let's make it quick so we can move things along."

We need to learn how to earnestly pray for a situation that is troubling.  We need to know and believe, down deep, that God is the source of all help and blessing.  Is your marriage on the rocks, are your finances in the tank, are you struggling with a sin, are you addicted to something, do you need an answer…pray earnestly!  The Bible says that kind of prayer, from a righteous person, has great power.  (I might add that you are righteous if you have made Jesus your Lord…but that is a topic for another day).  I want to learn to pray like Jesus…with pleadings, loud cries (desperation), tears, and a deep reverence for God.

The second thing concerning prayer that God has been reminding me of is found in both Numbers 3 & Ezra 3.  Although it is a little subtle, both of these verses deal with setting a foundation of prayer.  Numbers 3: a year after Moses came down Mt. Sinai, to the sounds of pagan celebration and the "golden calf", he went back up the mountain and God gave Moses a plan.  Moses knew he needed to get alone to seek God for direction and a plan.  In his commentary on this book Jon Courson says, "Although the temptation is to reverse the order, we need to agonize in prayer before we organize a plan."  I love that quote!

Likewise, in Ezra 3 the exiled Israelites that returned with Zerubbabel didn't lift a hand towards rebuilding the temple until they rebuilt the altar and offered many sacrifices and celebrated the Festival of Shelters.  Before we lay a foundation for the building (whatever that building is), we need to lay a foundation of prayer.

Again, I have been around too many people (I, too, can be like this if I'm not careful) who have wanted to get a committee together, organize a plan, and set a course for a solution without one bit of earnest prayer.  They never built a foundation of prayer and so the foundation of the building is not set properly.  This could lead to great disappointment and devastation.

At this point you may be asking yourself, "Ok, but what does earnest prayer look like."  Maybe you think that I'm one that has to be shouting, jumping, barking or whatever else is the latest trend.  The answer is, it may look like that or it may look just the opposite.  Earnestness is not found in the volume of your voice, but your desperation for God.  When we are truly desperate and believe God is the only answer, we tend to pray with a little more fervency. 

When I pray I love to walk (or pace) and feel a burden for what I'm interceding for.  I can pray with a loud voice and cry out to God as much as the next person.  However, I have prayed for the last 5 years with a man who is in his 80's.  He is a bit frail, as you can imagine an 80 year old man would be.  He is soft spoken, but when he prays, he prays with earnestness.  His volume stays the same, but the intensity and heart in his prayer is sincere and obvious to all.  I believe that is the earnest prayer James was speaking of and Jesus epitomized.

My point in saying this is for us to remember to turn to God in prayer first; and when we pray, to pray earnestly.  Before we start planning, preparing, and organizing let's lay a deep foundation of prayer and intercession.  Let's turn to God with pleading and tears and believe that God is our only option.

I recently wrote a song called Let Faith Arise (lyrics below) that is the culmination of 5 years of experiences in ministry, books I've read, and personal growth.  One would think by the title that it's a song about faith.  That is not entirely true.  The song is a prayer for faith to arise in the hearts of the church as we gather together (and especially in corporate worship).

Over the past 5 years I've read a couple books and listened to a few sermons from Jack Hayford that have served as the foundation for this idea.  His thoughts on worship have convinced me that the singing portion of worship is intended to play a bigger role in corporate worship than we sometimes allow.  I'm not speaking of simply singing more songs or allocating more time in our services towards that, although in some instances that may be necessary.  I'm saying we need to understand that God has given worship to us as an avenue for God's presence to enter our lives in a greater dimension.

This is what I have learned the past few years.  I believe that "In the beginning" God created man/woman to have rulership over the earth (that is to say, God gave us the earth to manage -Gen. 1:26-29).  However, the power to manage came from the people's willingness to be 1) obedient to God 2) humble before God 3) dependent on God and 4) worship God.  When that was broken because of sin, our ability to manage the earth was also broken.  This is why we have high divorce rates, war, broken governments, broken relationships, and environmental problems.  Worship restores our relationship to God and therefore, our ability to function the way God intended, through His power.  Our ability to manage the earth (i.e., raise godly kids, be good stewards of financial resources, have healthy relationships) flows directly from a relationship with Christ.  Without worship there is no relationship with Christ.

In addition, over the past few years I have some friends whose health have deteriorated.  Our church has prayed for them faithfully for 5 years, however, things have gotten worse.  One day when I was praying for them and some other situations, I prayed the phase, "Let faith arise."  "Lord, we need faith to arise in us as we gather together to worship You."  I said this knowing that there are people who come to church who have serious needs (as mentioned above), and only God can help.

As I wrote the lyrics for the verses, I came up with four things we need for faith to arise in the church (this is not an all inclusive list; however they are the ones I felt most important).

Worship – we need to corporately exalt Jesus

Unity (specifically, but not limited to, our worship) – we need to be in unity (Acts 1:14, 2:1).  Division over music and worship styles is crippling the church.  We need unity!

Expectancy – we should come ready for God to work miracles among His people.

To surrender (lay down our burdens) – burdens weigh heavy on our hearts.  It is sometimes hard to believe God for a miracle when our hearts are heavy.  Surrendering these burdens to God will allow us to apply our faith to God's sovereignty.

The chorus mentions the kind of faith we need.  A faith to move the mountains, heal the sick, comfort the burdened, etc.  As we worship God in unity, come with expectancy, and lay down our burdens, faith can arise in our hearts to believe for things that would seem impossible.  According to Christ will, our friends can be healed, marriages can be restored, hope can be renewed, and souls can be saved.

Lord, Let Faith Arise!

For more songs: www.kevinwestmusic.net

Verse 1
As we lift up our hands
As we lift up our voice
Let faith arise in us

As we sing with one voice
Unified in our choice
Let faith arise in us

Pre Chorus
Let faith arise in our hearts
Let faith arise in all our hearts

Chorus
A faith that moves the mountains
A faith that heals the sick
A faith that Comforts those who are weary

A faith that brings strength upon us
And hears every promise
I will trust and obey
The author of my faith

Verse 2
As we come with expectant hearts
Left faith arise, Let faith arise in us
Laying down all our burdens now
Let faith arise, Let faith arise in us