You can overflow in faith and love!

“15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 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, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Ephesians 1:15-23 New King James Version (NKJV)
 
The apostle Paul is penning a prayer for the saints in Ephesus. For many people, prayer is something that we do when our backs are up against the wall and we feel like we have no hope, or someone we know is in a tight spot and needs some help. Paul is not praying for them because they are in bad shape, on the contrary, he commends them for their reputation of faith in Christ and the evidence of their faith through their love. Think about this: Paul had heard about the Ephesians’ faith in Christ and of their love for all the saints. This must imply that someone saw their faith and love in action, and rumours of it reached Paul.
 
The way you think determines the way you are (Proverbs 23:7). You can only consistently behave in a manner consistent with what you believe about yourself. These Ephesians must have had a great revelation of who they were in Christ; so much so that it resulted in a demonstration of their faith and love in a manner which caught people’s attention enough for it to start good rumours which eventually reached Paul. What we really believe determines how we’ll eventually live which will determine our reputation.

James 2:17 confirms this saying that faith without works is dead. True faith is the root of godly works or fruit.  It is impossible to have a relationship with Jesus and not naturally start producing Jesus-fruit. The Mirror Bible puts this verse as, “It is clear then that without corresponding acts of kindness, faith on its own is fake.” Ultimately, what’s inside comes out!

When we start seeing ourselves the way that God sees us, we will start to change and become more like Him in action and thought. Inside of you is a reservoir of life and fruit waiting to spring forth! The root (source) of this is Christ in you!

If you read through Paul’s prayer and think about what Paul is asking for, you’ll recognize that His prayer is very different from the many prayers prayed in churches across the world, today. Paul isn’t asking God to send a revival and he isn’t asking God to give them more blessing or power; Paul is praying that they would have a revelation of what’s already theirs through their relationship with Jesus.

I encourage you to think about who you are in Christ. Think about all the spiritual blessings that are crammed into you. Think about the amazing truth that you are full of God. Start to see yourself as God does: you’re in Christ, holy, pure and blameless. You are 100% right with God every day of your life because of your new nature identity, and not because of any performance on your part.