Grace and Truth
Bible Ministries

Col 1:11-12 Paul's prayer for believers happiness and their qualification by God for a share of the inheritance

We are continuing in our study of prayer as part of the PPOG or Predestination Eph 1:3-5; Rom 8:29; 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 the major focus in his prayers has been for them to appropriate by Grace the spiritual resources that God has provided and advance in God's plan for their lives.
In this segment, we are examining Paul and Timothy's prayer in Col 1:9-12; where Paul is praying for the believer's spiritual growth.
9- Because of this, since the day we heard Epaphras' report we have not stopped praying for you asking 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 while being prolific by divinely good activities and growing in
the knowledge of God,

11- because of the omnipotence empowering you in accordance with the power of God's glory for maximum perseverance and patience, accompanied by joy

12- Constantly being thankful to the Father, who has qualified us for a share of the assigned inheritance of the saints by means of the light.

This Divine enablement that Paul is praying for believer's to receive provides the power or capacity or enablement for "steadfastness" or endurance and "patience" with "joy" or the happiness of God in any and all situations of life no matter how difficult.
The word translated "joy" is the Greek word "Chara" which brings to a brief recap of of the doctrine of happiness so we are looking at some principles regarding God's enablement and his mandate for believers happiness.
The perfect happiness of God is related to metabolization of Bible Doctrine, Jer 15:16,

The perfect happiness of God is related to believers understanding God's grace policy, Psa 31:7; The word translated "lovingkindness" is the Hebrew "Checed" which means God's love as it is expressed in his grace. It is translated as "eleos" in the LXX which means "mercy" or "compassion"

Col 1:12; Constantly being thankful to the Father, who has qualified us all for a share of the assigned inheritance of the saints by means of the light.

The word translated "giving thanks" is the present active participle of the Greek word "eucharisteo" which means to be thankful.

Like happiness, being thankful is also a mandate to Church age believers Col 3:15; where the Greek word "ginomai” translated "be" is in the present middle imperative and could be translated as a command to "keep on being thankful"

Since it is in the middle voice, the believer participates in fulfilling the action of the verb through their positive volition to God's instruction as it is revealed to believers in his word through their consistent PMA of the word of Christ, which is the thinking of TLJC, and the source of the happiness. Col 3:16;

Thanksgiving is expressed to God through the believer's worship of God in prayer. Eph 5:20; 1Thes 5:18;

Capacity for thanksgiving comes from the believer's personal love for God and their impersonal integrity love for others. This capacity for thanksgiving increases as believers grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The believer’s thanksgiving to God is a part of the expression of their personal love for God and is directly proportional to one's level of spiritual maturity.

The more one comes to know what God has done, the more one loves God and the more one appreciates Him and what he has done, which results in greater expression of love to God through praise and thanksgiving. James 1:17; 1John 4:19;

The believer's reciprocity is their capacity to appreciate who and what God is and to give thanks for his grace provision.

Prayer is made possible by the Father, is empowered by the Holy Spirit, and is offered in the name of Jesus Christ who intercedes for believers God according to Heb 7:24-25;

The privilege of going to God in prayer is a provision of divine grace.

Being thankful is evidence of humility, the humble person realizes that whatever they have they have received it from God, 1Cor 4:7;b and they are thankful for it.

Gratitude is a manifestation of the humility of Grace Orientation. Only the humility of Grace Orientation enables the believer to appreciate what God has done.

Where there is appreciation and gratitude there is courtesy and concern for the rights and property of others. The humility of Grace Orientation is one of the first virtues to go when the believer exits the PPOG and enters the Kosmic System.

Thanksgiving stems from the believer's cognition of what God has done from them from eternity past through the provision of the 40 grace gifts that were conveyed at their salvation by Grace through Faith alone in TLJC alone which "qualifies us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light" Col 1:12b;

The word translated "qualified" is the aorist active participle of the Greek word "hikanoo" which means to "make competent for" or to "qualify one for" or to be "sufficient or adequate for".

The active voice indicates that God performed the action and the aorist tense indicates that the action occurred in a point of time referring to the point in time of the believer's salvation by grace through faith alone in TLJC alone.

This qualification of the believer by God at the point of salvation by Grace through Faith alone in TLJC alone includes the following:

The believer is qualified through Efficacious Grace.
Efficacious Grace is grace that God gives to anyone anywhere anytime who has made a non- meritorious momentary decision to believe in TLJC. In Efficacious Grace, God the Holy Spirit makes the person's faith in Christ effective for salvation. Salvation only becomes a reality when God the Holy Spirit makes a person’s faith alone in TLJC alone effective.

There is only the potential for salvation in common grace, whereby God the Holy Spirit makes the gospel understandable to the unbeliever.

Efficacious Grace takes place when the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit makes a spiritually dead person’s faith in Christ valid, or effective, for salvation, Eph 2:8-9, 2Cor 6:1-2;

Efficacious Grace is one of the seven Salvation Ministries of God the Holy Spirit which are contained within the forty grace gifts received at salvation and are as follows:

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 3/12/2008