You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
16 That[hina] he would grant[didomi] you,[humin] according to[kata] the riches[ploutos] of his
[autos] glory,[doxa] to be strengthened[krataioo] with might[dunamis] by[dia] his[autos] Spirit[pneuma] in[eis] the inner[eso] man;[anthropos] KJV-Interlinear
16 that He
would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with
power through His Spirit in the inner man; NASB
Riches is often times used to denote abundance, or abundances, or that which is inexhaustible and will never run out.
Of His glory, is a reference to the total essence, and character, and ability and person of God. Which essence is supplied through grace, which is inexhaustible and therefore infinite.
God has unlimited resources. He can invent and create out of nothing anything and everything. There is no limit to what God can do. There is no limit to what God can provide.
The last half of this verse narrows and defines how Gods glory and our access to His glory, is attained. Namely through power, which when referring to us, is His Word, or Bible doctrine.
That power or doctrine comes to us by means of the Holy Spirit, into the believer that has a functional spiritual life, and again, namely by being in fellowship, which is attained through confession of ones sins to God the Father.
To the inner man, is a reference to the soul, or the real you. Your real self is inside of you, not on the outside. Your real self is not your physical body. That is just a vessel that carries the real you.
And unfortunately most folks spend their time caring for the outer person with jewels or clothes and such, which is perfectly fine, but they forget their inner self, and that is where the failure in life comes into play.
Just as the outer you needs to be washed and cleansed and clothed and decorated and exercised and fed and nourished and so forth, so too the inner you, your soul, needs to be maintained as well.
And this will be explained further in the next few verses. But for the moment, we need to know that the real power and access for you, of Gods essence, comes through doctrine in the soul. And that doctrine cannot reside in the soul unless you learn and comprehend, and understand, and finally possess it. For that is the real power of the spiritual life.
We do not boast of our place in society. We do not pretend to others that we are, or are capable of, things that we are not. We do not promote ourselves before people. We do not presume that we have any sort of control over our life or future in this world. God possess all of those things. We are nothing and have nothing that He does not first grant us from above.
Without God, you have no power whatsoever, regardless of who or what you are in this world.
Only through doctrine, can you realize that it is God driving your life in a direction of His choosing, and it is that direction that is the best plan and path for you and for your life, a direction that you could never ever duplicate on your own.
