I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he will grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,
Paul took an action of prayer.
People who pray are taking spiritual action.
The natural man does not see the point because they are spiritually dead,
but the spiritual man sees the point and takes it seriously.
Paul takes prayer seriously.
He tells people to take prayer seriously.
He treats prayer as a normal thing.
It's something native to Christians.
Paul does not want to have what he wants to remain in the realm of wishful thinking.
He does not want to be a complainer when something he wants does not happen.
He does not want to be a finger-pointer,
but someone who prays about what he wants.
Paul realizes that unless God takes action, nothing will be done,
especially when it comes to what only He can do,
such as strengthening someone through His Spirit in the inner person.
Note that he just told them not to be discouraged by his suffering on their behalf, which shows he was concerned they would be.
And the antidote was not to tell them to buckle up, or to call them names to try to shame them into becoming strong, but to pray for them for the activation of the inner strength by the Spirit.
We are now introduced to the inner person, the core of who we are. That tells us we have a duality in the person.
Somewhere else, Paul will say the outer person is wearing away, but the inner person is being renewed (2 Corinthians 4:16). In a way, the outer man is running out of time, but the inner man can access another world, the world of the Holy Spirit’s strengthening.
We need this inner strengthening. We need to pray to be strengthened with power through God's Spirit in the inner person. So what comes from God is power, and what it results in is strength. People would not see the power, but they will see the result of that power: strength in our lives.
Paul does not want these people to have a natural reaction,
but rather a spiritual one, enabled by God.
So this spiritual strength is ours for the asking.
And we definitely should ask for this so that we can become unstoppable.
What seems to be so limiting will no longer be with that strength.
That is the truth.
What is discouragement if not something to stop us?
Like a barrier put in front of us?
But rather than saying the situation should be changed or the barriers removed,
We want to grow taller so we can step over them.
We want to be stronger so we can jump over the barrier.
But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication will rise with healing wings, and you will skip about like calves released from the stall. You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
The point of being strong is to make the opposition feel like nothing. You might find it hard to break a plank of wood, but against the strength of a properly made metal woodcutter, it will feel the same way as a broomstick in your hands.
That is the prayer Paul is praying. Almost zero exertion, and everything will be crushed. That is what we are talking about.
And Paul said it is a grant. It is not something you pay for, but something God gives freely.
Prayer is definitely the opposite of giving up.
Especially the prayer in which we ask God to strengthen us by His Spirit in our inner person and to grant us wisdom.
And there is no scarcity with God.
Hence, Paul wrote in this verse about the wealth of God's glory.
So we are praying to a God who has no limits.
Jesus made that plain when He said with man it is impossible, but not with God,
For with God, everything is possible (Mark 10:27).
The point is that we are guaranteed to be strengthened with power through God's Spirit in the inner person.
This is the second time we have seen the Holy Spirit mentioned in this letter. The first was Ephesians 1:13-14.
And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
That was a passive experience of the Holy Spirit, like a code in us waiting for activation at a time and place of God’s choosing, specifically now at the second coming.
But this verse is different. It is about an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the now.
The seal points to the full expression of our inheritance in Christ Jesus. But in the verse, we are told that he is also the means by which God operates within us now.