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Faith is having trust. Faith is a gift we receive from God, and God gets the credit. We have faith, because God is trustworthy. Faith is like sitting on a chair believing it will not break.

We were created to do good works, so that God might be glorified in us. These works we do because of our faith, but Paul talks about works that we do because we do not have faith in verse 9.

We have been rescued from punishment. Everybody deserves to die, because we go against God's principles. We are not worthy enough to be with Him, that is why it was necessary for someone perfect to die for us, so that we can share eternal life with God.

. Because it is for free, undeserved. It demolishes the principle that we have to earn credit. We get something that we did not deserve. But we get it because of the love and goodness of the Giver.

Q4. (Ephesians 2:6) What does it mean that we are seated with Christ in "the heavenly realms"? What does this say about God's grace? What does this say about our spiritual authority? How should this knowledge affect our prayers and our boldness? We have been given authority We did not deserve that place since we have fallen, but God has seated us with Christ even though we misbehaved We are not slaves anymore but we can exercise authority now in the spiritual realm We can pray in faith, because what we ask we know we have. Our word is powerfull through the authority that Christ has given us

His great Love is the motivation and His richness in Mercy and Grace describes His character. We were made alive and are saved

Q2. (Ephesians 2:1-3) Few people would knowingly follow Satan. How can people unwittingly follow Satan? In what sense are we responsible for unwitting rebellion against God? How can God, in all fairness, blame us? People think they are following their own ways and righteousness and do not know they are following satan. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth, so we have no excuse. God is a righteous God and wrong is wrong, whatever the reason may be. Every act has consequences, and each sin has to be cut off through righteous judgement

They are only living for their own pleasures, but without a sense of eternity. It's like walking on a dead end road, you do what you need to do, try to live your life as good as possible, maybe investing even in others, but there is no real sense of fruitfulness that will last. We live the life that Christ gave us and everything we do in Him has fruit that will last. Living a life apart from God is a sin which leads to death, but living a life of faith in God is our righteousness that will lead to eternal life. For that reason we must be living examples of Jesus and draw others unto Him, so that they will know the Truth and have a revelation that God is real and not a phantasy.

We miss out on the fullness that we have in Him, we are not complete on our own, but we will expereince the fullness of authority when we stand together for Christ complete work is un unity and not in solidarity. Each part is important in the community, so if we do not take part one powerfull tool is missing since God uses each individual different and together we fill each other in. Unity is powerfull, since we function as a body

Q4. (Ephesians 1:20-22) Why do we so often take a "pass" when it comes to spiritual warfare? Why is Christ's exaltation, demonstration of complete victory, and superior rank over all spiritual powers important enough for Paul to mention it to his readers? Why do we tend to feel powerless in the face of spiritual enemies? What was Paul assuring the Ephesians of? What does this encourage us to do? Because we have a wrong understanding of spiritual warfare and are not aware that we are hidden in Christ and that He gave us power and authority. Paul wants to encourage the believers to live a life of victory. We often feel powerless because we focus on our failures and not on the power that Christ has given us. Paul was assuring the Ephesians that He has everything under His control and that encourages us to live a confident life as christians and to break the lies of the enemies and take back our ground.

We are powerless sometimes cause we do not understand the amount of power that is within us. In that way our faith is lacking, we have more than we perceive. Some congregations see giants, others see a promised land there to take; your focus is your destination Focus on Jesus and His Words that are Faithfull and True and led the Spirit lead you and not strongholds; They aren't going anywhere unless you use your God given power to remove them

10 milion$ would give me hope for finally doing some things i always wanted to do and make me excited just to think of it even though I would come short at the moment. I would just wait patiently for the grand gift and live with a positive attitude We may hold on to a promise that whatever is hard now will pass since His joy comes with the morning We should involve people in our lives and work on relationships and welcome others in our hearts even though they think different

We look forward to Christs return We may experience the excitement of knowing that everyday is a day closer to Jesus return and draw us closer to Him It should make us step out in faith in the things God has called us too and multiply our giftings and prepare our hearts Our hope is a certain hope of eternity, a non-christian does not know any other hope than the hope/wish of earthly accomplishment

That we will grow and mature as Christians and be able to take our position as true sons and daughters of God for Him to delight in, to be blameless before Him. We need to walk in the Spirit and have a humble heart so that God can do His purifying work in us. When we seek God and learn more from His Word and take it to heart, we allow God to speak through us. As well as in our relationships to others which God uses to form us and build each other up. God's greatest command; Love God with all your mind, heart and strength and love your neighbour as yourself is what will get us there. In order to love God and eachother we must truly know ourselves loved by Him. It relates to Matt. 5:13-14 in such a way that others can see that we are not of this society but that we stand above that through the grace of God. The more we mature in Him the more people will see the difference. We do not have to try to act as Christians, but we must be, as natural as salt is and as light can not hide itself because it is just there. So we must grow in character, that without trying to act religious we will spread a natural pleasing aroma that can be attractive to others.

When Jesus comes back and we will take our inheritance will be the end of our term. The Holy Spirit guides us in all truth and helps us discern what is from God and what is not. We are sealed with Gods Spirit so that marks out that we are Gods children and covered by Jesus blood which protects us from harm. Having the Holy Spirit brings ushope and comfort since we know that we will receive our inheritance and that we can look forward to that.

All traditions and cultural values will fall away and Christ will remain. Heaven is something that seems so distant and spiritual, but in Christ we have received the Holy Spirit as a deposit before being fully united with the heavenly kingdom so tat we can already experience and understand the deeper meaning of things and have a better grasp of Gods purpose for us. The Creator as being the First and the Last, He has everything under control. What He has purposed in the beginning will be accomplished in the End. 'His Word is Faithful and True'. No kingdom can be divided against itself, so all the walls are being broken for the purpose of Gods kingdom and that can only happen under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that can open our eyes and discern to see eah other as God sees us. So through the blood of Christ we can be united with God and each other and we are covered by His grace and will stand therefore under His authority untill all evilness is demolished, so that there will be one kingdom left, over which the Father shall reign. 1 cor. 15:24-28

I am no longer a slave to sin. The debt has been paid for. My life would be about achievement and a lot of dissapointment. My future would be without hope.

We are part of His family. Encouraging; Adopting implies investment and God is willing to invest in us even though we are so strongly influenced by a wrong environment. He walks alongside us to adapt to His standards with love and patience. He makes the deliberate decision to close us into His heart and care for us as His own, even though we were once far away.

To put off selfrighteousness and be in the covering of Christ's forgiveness and grace. He makes us holy through His blood and in that way we can stand before God as a people set apart for Him, because we have been bought with a price. Practically that means to be cleansed time and again by Jesus blood and knowing that I have free acces to God through Jesus atoning sacrifice and not through my sacrifices or my effort in righteous living.

It is a comforting feeling for me, because He is the one that will mold us and form us, because He chose us before we were even formed. Also it takes away the feeling of striving, but I come to the place of surrendering to His will and let Him work out His purpose for me. But it does make it very clear that we can only please God by submitting to His will and trusting His plan for our lives, so it is important again to remain in Him. If we only work for Him according to our ideas and do not seek Him, then we are missing the goal. So it is a warning not to live in our own vanity as Christians, because God is mercifull but in the end He does not relent to our own plan for our life. We can only bear fruit if we remain in Him and He commands us to bear fruit. I guess since the Ephesian church has pagan past, the fact that they were predestined helps them to keep on looking forward to Gods plan for them and not to look behind. They are not a coincidence of pauls evangelism, but God had chosen them before the creation of the world to worship Him. He praises God so to fix their eyes on the Author of their faith, because they did not chose Him, but He chose them, us:), to bear fruit. Living a life of being content and gratefull in Gods plan and destiny even at moments when their worldly desires seem more appealling.

It means that I am no longer vulnerable for sin, but that I am hidden in Him. That means that I must focus on Christ each day and not on distractions and dwell in His Word and learn His ways and search His will. In that way I have nothing to fear of sin, because His love covers me and the spiritual blessings that I receive then will satisfy me more than enough. Learning to walk in His intimacy and drink from Him daily and not focus on my own abilities and failures but be Christ centered.

Hey! I'm Rebekka from Amsterdam (26 years), the Netherlands. I am part of a team that is pioneering a multicultural house of prayer and worship in the redlight district of Amsterdam called "Tabernacle of the Nations", a ministry of ywam. Our small team of four is focusing first of all on intimacy with God and study of the word since our prayer focus is from the scriptures; apostolic prayers. That is why I am gratefull for this online Ephesians study help. Bless you all!