More Than You Can Imagine

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”

Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)

Most of us are extremely well informed about what we cannot do.

We know our limits, our history, our resources and the precise size of the problem in front of us. That knowledge feels like realism, and much of it is accurate.

Paul points us somewhere else entirely: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

The Greek here is extravagant, and deliberately so. The phrase translated “immeasurably more” is huper ekperissou, a stacked construction that is almost untranslatable. Paul takes the word for abundance, adds a prefix meaning out of or beyond, then adds another meaning above or over. He is piling prepositions on top of one another because ordinary language will not stretch far enough. “Far more abundantly beyond” is about as close as English gets.

Notice too the two limits Paul names and then exceeds. God is able to do more than all we ask, which is the boundary of our praying. And more than all we imagine, which is the boundary of our conceiving. So even the most extravagant thing you could picture is still short of the category God operates in.

But the most important phrase in the verse is the one we tend to skip: “according to his power that is at work within us.”

That phrase does two things simultaneously, and both are essential.

It keeps us humble. The measure is not our natural ability, our talent, our platform or our resources. If the promise ran “according to what you can manage,” it would be no promise at all.

And it keeps us expectant, because that power is not distant. It is at work within us. The Greek energeo is where we get the word energy; it describes power actively operating. And Paul has already told us in Ephesians 1:19-20 exactly which power he means: the same power God exerted “when he raised Christ from the dead.” That is the measure. Resurrection power, presently at work in ordinary believers.

Now, context matters enormously here, because this verse is regularly detached from what precedes it and turned into a promise about circumstances.

Ephesians 3:20 is the closing doxology of a prayer. Read what Paul has just asked for in verses 16 to 19. He prays that they would be strengthened with power through the Spirit in their inner being; that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith; that they would have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ; and that they would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Every one of those requests is about spiritual depth, not material outcome. Then Paul says: and God can do far more than even that.

So the “immeasurably more” is not primarily a promise that your business will exceed its targets. It is a promise that God’s work in the human heart goes beyond anything you would dare to request. That is a bigger promise, though it is not always the one we want.

And notice the final clause of the doxology in verse 21: “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.” The purpose of the exceeding power is God’s glory in His people, not our personal advancement.

We do not become extraordinary by convincing ourselves that we are amazing. That is a modern gospel and it collapses under pressure. We become fruitful because the Holy Spirit works through surrendered people. God can take ordinary obedience and produce results far beyond anything we could manufacture.

Church history is largely a record of exactly that. Ordinary people, mostly unrecorded, whose obedience God multiplied in ways they never saw.

So do not let your imagination be limited by yesterday’s experience. What you have seen so far is data about your past; it is not a constraint on God’s future.

For years many believed a human being could not run a mile in under four minutes. In May 1954 Roger Bannister, a medical student, did it on a track in Oxford. Just forty-six days later John Landy ran faster still, and within a few years others were doing it regularly. Very often the limit had been in the belief rather than in the legs.

But hold two things together. Pray bigger, and obey faithfully. Expect God to move, and let Him define what the answer looks like.

That last point is where faith must be carefully distinguished from presumption. Faith is not controlling God. It is not composing a specification and requiring Him to deliver it. Faith trusts His power, His goodness and His wisdom together, and that means being willing to receive an answer different from the one we requested. Paul asked three times for a thorn to be removed and received grace instead; the God who did “immeasurably more” in his life did it through a refusal.

So as you step into today, stop staring only at what you have. Take an honest inventory of your limitations if you must, and then remember who lives in you.

Look again at the phrase “at work within us,” because it locates the power.

Paul does not say God’s power is available to us, or near us. He says it is at work within us, using a verb that describes ongoing, active operation.

That means the question is rarely whether the power is present. It is whether we are cooperating with what is already operating.

And that reframes prayer considerably. We often pray as though we were asking a distant God to begin something. Frequently we are asking a resident God to be allowed to continue something we have been obstructing.

Ask Him this morning what you have been resisting. That may be the shortest route to the immeasurably more.

Your limitations are real, but they are not the limit of God’s power. Stay surrendered, stay obedient, and expect Him to do more than you could produce alone.

Reflection

1. What have you stopped asking God for because your past experience made it seem unrealistic?

2. Paul’s “immeasurably more” follows a prayer for spiritual depth. What would it look like to pray that kind of prayer for yourself this week?

Prayer

Father, You are able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine, and the measure is Your resurrection power at work within me rather than my own ability. Forgive me for letting yesterday’s experience set the limit on my expectation. Strengthen me in my inner being by Your Spirit. Help me to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Make me bold in asking and faithful in obeying, and give me grace to receive an answer different from the one I requested. To You be the glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Declaration

God is able to do immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine, by His power at work in me. My limitations are real; they are not His.

Pastor Ras
All Nations Community Church

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