23.What is the first aspect of Paul’s prayer to the Father on behalf of the saints in Ephesus?

That they would be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man.

The "inner man" of the saint is the new creation within him, the eternal blend of Christ and his personality. The inner man is the born-again being who is neither Christ, nor the old personality, but a new person who has been born of God through Christ.

The inner man of the believer, being newly born, must be nourished until he is strong—stronger than the old personality of the saint. The old personality of the Christian will keep attempting to work his will, to exert his influence, long after the new inner man has been conceived.

The victorious Christian discipleship consists of our cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He leads the old man to the cross and strengthens the new man who is in us.

The new inner man is the Kingdom of God. The inner man is full of resurrection life and cannot sin because he is born of God.

To be a disciple of Christ we must leave the desires of our first personality and follow the Holy Spirit as He builds the new inner personality—that which is born of Christ. Each believer, each day of his or her life, either is ignoring the new man and pleasing the old personality, or he or she is denying the old personality and working with the Holy Spirit in the nourishing and strengthening of the new born-again inner man.

It is important that we nourish the new man because the new man is our resurrection. Christ is the resurrection. When the trumpet of God sounds it will be the new personality who rises to meet the Lord in the air. If we neglect the new man so that he dies, then, when the trumpet blows, there will be no response within our personality to the call. We slay our own resurrection when we do not allow the Lord to create resurrection life in us. Notice how the Scriptures deal with the subject,

And that [the Word of God] which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience (Luke 8:14,15).

For if ye [saints] live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8:13).

Paul is speaking here of spiritual life, because we die physically whether or not we live after the flesh. He is referring to the eleventh verse (two verses previous), which is describing the resurrection of our mortal body into immortality. If we, having been born again, continue to nourish our old nature and ignore our new inner man, we will kill our own resurrection.

Becoming a room in the eternal Temple of God, which is one of the teachings of the Book of Ephesians, depends on our being "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." Our old personality is a fragile, earthen vessel that by no means is able to contain the mighty Christ of God. New wine requires new bottles.

Our destiny is to be "filled with all the fullness of God." Our old personality could no more contain all the fullness of God than a thimble could contain the oceans and seas of the earth.

Christ alone is able to contain all the fullness of God. Christ alone is the Kingdom of God, the Resurrection, the Life, the Way, the Truth.

The Holy Spirit is strengthening our inner man by forming Christ in us. The new inner man is Divine, having been born of God. He is not a resolve on the part of our old personality to try to be like Jesus. He is from Heaven, having been produced by the union of our spirit and soul with Christ. He is born to rule, being a coheir with Christ.

The saint is alive no longer. It is Christ who is alive in him. The creation of Christ in our hearts and minds is the new covenant.