Powerful Passages for Powerful Living, Pt. 9(c)
Study Guide, August 16, 2026
Pastor Clay Olsen
This would be interesting. You know how fellow believers often ask us how they can pray for us? What if you were to answer by saying: “Well, like in Col. 1:9-14, could you pray for 1. Spiritual insight, 2. A worthy walk, 3. Abundant power, 4. A thankful spirit, and 5. Resting in our secure future? Thanks a lot!” That would be a surprising answer to them, right? But as we have been seeing in our exploration of this powerful prayer by the Apostle Paul for these Colossian believers, and for us, this is a great set of things to pray over our fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ. And how thankful we can be for these recorded prayers in the Scripture, for they become ‘blueprints’ for our own ministry of ‘intercessory praying’ for one another. So let’s conclude our examination of this powerful prayer that we can all use in our own prayers for each other.
There actually is a Bible that has guided prayers about the Scriptures throughout the Old and New Testaments. It’s called Pray the Scriptures Bible…show… Like when you come to the Book of Colossians it has notes in the margins that say: “Increase my faith in You and my love for Your people. Your Good News produces real results in me. Let it do the same all over the world.” And: “Fill me with insight into Your will so I can live a life that proves I belong to You and please You in every way. Strengthen me to patiently endure everything with joy.” And then: “You rescued me from the power of darkness and brought me into Your kingdom. You paid the price to free me, forgiving my sin.”
And all throughout this Bible there are more than 4,500 Scripture guided prayers like these, including an index of prayers that are found in the Bible. It’s really encouraging and helpful in growing your prayer life. Strangely enough, you can only get this Bible now at Thrift book companies, as they are out of print. You’ll have to pray you can find one…
But back to this ‘powerful prayer by the Apostle Paul.’ And, how about this…it starts at the end of Col.1:11 and on into verse 12. “…joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” Actually, some Bible versions link the word ‘joyously’ with verse 11, and others link it with verse 12. And that’s because the early manuscripts of the New Testament contain almost no punctuation, so the ‘joyously’ could be related to either the ‘endurance’ of verse 11 or to the ‘giving thanks’ of verse 12. But since verse 12 is a continuation of the same sentence it can apply to both!
Original biblical manuscripts contained no chapter or verse divisions, capitalization, or punctuation. Chapters and verses weren’t assigned until the early 13th century…around 1205-1227 for the chapters, and then into the mid-16th century for the standardization of the verses! It was the Geneva Bible in 1506 that was the first English translation to include both chapters and verse numbers together. And this quickly became the universal template for all Bible printings, with the King James Bible following.
That would be odd, don’t you think…reading the Bible without chapter and verse? They do still make these editions of Bibles without chapters and verses. Although, they are a little tricky to find, and a bit pricey, like the Bibliotheca Clothbound Editon…a five-volume set that you can get for $240.00! I like my Ryrie New American Standard study Bible just fine!
Anyway, as in the prayer, the most reasonable way to give thanks to the Father for our great salvation is to ‘joyously give thanks!’ And the motivation and the reminder to us to ‘give thanks’ joyously about our salvation is by first ‘giving THINKS’ about our great salvation. That’s right…give ‘thinks’ about it all! First, give some effort to ‘thinking’ about it! Paul was continually ‘thinking’ about the fact that Jesus came to him, knocked on the door of his heart…actually knocked him down…although not knocked off his horse as some Christian art depicts, but he did fall to the ground of his own accord in awe of seeing Jesus on that Damascus Road. Still, that fact that Jesus saved him, or in Paul’s words…saved a ‘chief among sinners’, continually brought constant relief and joyous thanksgiving to his mind and heart.
One of the darkest parts about our old sin nature is this ungrateful bent and bad habit we have of continually taking good things for granted…taking blessed things for granted…even taking our great salvation for granted. We have to fight that dark habit. And the way to fight that dark habit is by ‘giving THINKS’ about God’s amazing grace… “…how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…I once was lost, but now I’m found…was blind, but now I see.”
Remember…There are people all around you going through this same harsh world of hardships and struggles and sufferings and such. But many are going through it while still lost and unsaved and still under the condemnation of sin and eternal separation from their Creator, and will remain so when this brief and temporal life is over. But as for you, not only have you been found and saved and freed from any and all condemnation, but you are also already ‘Born-again’ into the forever family of God and you are eternally united to your Creator and Redeemer…and all because of Christ’s love for you and His mercy and grace given to you by His grace and through your faith in Jesus Christ, your Savior! And as a result, your brief and temporal life, which is all that all the lost around you have…your brief stay on this Earth is going to be continued with an eternal and everlasting life on God’s New Earth and in the midst of God’s New Heavens forever and ever!
So fight against the tendency of our old nature in taking even our great salvation for granted, and instead, think about God’s amazing grace each day and your great salvation and your great reservation in Heaven and your great life ahead in the Kingdom of Heaven. That’s more than enough reason to ‘joyously give thanks!’
And here’s another reason: Because God Himself ‘qualified’ us for Heaven! Look at verse 12 again: “…joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” “Qualified!” This Greek verb appears only twice in the New Testament. The other place is in 2 Cor. 3:5,6 – “It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of His new covenant.” NLT Now, in connection with ‘qualifying’ to share in the inheritance of the saints…or here of being counted among the saved citizens of Heaven, note carefully what this word ‘qualified’ means. It does NOT mean to make deserving or of meriting a place in Heaven. On the contrary, this ‘qualification’ is solely of God’s doing! It is also in the aorist tense, meaning that this salvation is a completed act of Divine grace. And since this ‘qualification’ is done by God on the merits of Christ’s completed works of obedience and atonement on our behalf, it is therefore a ‘gift’ from God to His own ‘Born Again’ children!
Now then: Since God needs to ‘qualify’ us in order for any of us to share eternal life with Him in His Heaven, it also reveals that before God qualifies us for Heaven that we were ‘unqualified’ to enter Heaven. We were unqualified because our sins made us unqualified for Heaven, as well as dead…separated from God in our trespasses and sins.
Note carefully here: This word that the Apostle Paul uses here is one of the most
underused biblical words in people talking about religion and Heaven, and even in having a relationship with God. Now, why do you think that would be the case, since the Biblical truth is that either a person has become qualified for living in Heaven or they are still unqualified or disqualified for living in Heaven? Again, who would be behind such a strategy to keep one of the most clearly stated and understood realities of the Gospel, one of the clearest Biblical words, as explained by the Apostle Paul, from being stated and shared with people the world over? Exactly! Satan does not want people to understand what the Bible clearly states about what all people need to understand, and that is that no one on Earth is qualified, in their own merits, to live in Heaven, nor can be. In fact, what the Apostle Paul is saying in Rom. 3:23, in saying that ‘all have sinned and have fallen short of God’s standard of righteousness…he is saying that because of their sins, everyone is ‘disqualified’ from Heaven!’
That is the first part of mankind’s problem. Apart from Christ, every person of Earth is disqualified in and of themselves to enter Heaven. And the second part of mankind’s problem is that NO ONE, in and of themselves, can ever become qualified to live in Heaven in and of themselves…or in their own merits or works! Eph. 2:8.9 – “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” In saying that no one can work or earn a place in Heaven is to also say, in Paul’s own words, that no one, by themselves, can qualify for a place in Heaven. Only one Person ever qualified for a place in Heaven, and that Person is Jesus Christ alone! 2 Cor. 5:21 – “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” NLT
Understanding this Biblical concept of ‘Qualification’ for Heaven changes everything! Some may hesitate to use the wording of ‘qualifying for Heaven’ as they think it might sound a bit religiously competitive, as the word is often associated with competition. But that is just another reason that when we talk to the unsaved about the truths of the Gospel that we need to talk Biblically in order for the unsaved to understand Biblical realities. We need to talk as the Apostles taught us to talk. Again, as in: “When Paul stated that all of us have sinned…and we all fall short of the righteousness of God”, he was stating that ‘because of our sins, all of us…all people everywhere…all people who have ever lived…have become disqualified to live in Heaven.’ And on top of that, no one either now or who has ever lived could become qualified to live in Heaven based upon their own works or merits. And that is why everyone needs to ask Jesus Christ to be their Savior…their Qualifier! For Jesus alone qualified for Heaven in His sinless obedience, and Jesus alone, took our sins to the Cross…our sins that disqualified us from living in Heaven, and Jesus alone paid the full price and sentence that our sins justly called for…death and separation from God. Jesus alone is qualified to live in Heaven. But He is willing to share His qualifications with anyone who will ask Him to qualify them to live in Heaven with Him.
Rather than the good question often asked of: “Are you going to Heaven?”…it would be even better, and even more clear, if we were to ask: “How do you plan to qualify for Heaven?” For now they can understand that the real issue is; either a person is qualified for Heaven or they are not qualified. And you could also ask: “And how does anyone qualify for Heaven?”
Realize that not many people have thought about ‘Salvation’ in that clearly of Biblical terms. The enemy of souls does not want the unsaved, for sure, thinking ‘Biblically’. And, he is trying to keep the saved from thinking and speaking ‘Biblically’ as well! Therefore, you will need to be Biblically prepared to explain the realities of what we just shared. As in: “Sin has disqualified us all from going to Heaven…and no one can qualify themselves because our sins have already separated us from God. Therefore, we can only qualify for Heaven by asking Jesus to qualify us…to cover us in His own qualifications…to crediting us with His qualifications of His sinless life and His sacrificial death on our behalf.”
And then remind them that the only reason that you can know that you are going to Heaven is because you asked Jesus to qualify you by clothing you with His qualifications of His sinless life and by pardoning you of your sins by His sacrificial death on the Cross for you. You have asked Jesus for His gift of being qualified for Heaven through your repentance of your sins and your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your God.
Plus, this understanding of being ‘qualified in Christ’ will also help you to better understand your own saved condition and your own eternally secure position, as you joyously thank God for qualifying you for living in Heaven when you had no hope of qualifying yourself. This ‘Doctrine of Qualification’ is both consoling to us and it is glorifying to God…for Jesus alone qualified for Heaven by His sinless life and sacrificial death, but now He is ready and willing to credit each of us with His qualifications!
So, however you have been sharing the Gospel, I encourage you to inject this doctrine of ‘Qualification through Christ Alone’ into your sharing. It could be the breakthrough you need to help clarify the Gospel to a culture that is clouded in religious confusion and stuck in using distorted religious terminology, thinking they are already qualified to live in Heaven based upon their false beliefs about their good works outweighing their bad works. Heaven is not based upon the curve…it’s based upon the Cross alone! And everyone is equal before the Cross…equally dead in trespasses and sin and equally disqualified from living in Heaven… and equally in need of Jesus to qualify us for Heaven. Every person equally needs Jesus to qualify us by His own sinless life and His own sacrificial death to pardon our sins in order for any of us to qualify to live in Heaven.
And then Paul says that in our position of being ‘qualified’ before God we are then going to ‘share in the inheritance of the saints!’ Did you know that you have an ‘inheritance’ awaiting you in Heaven? Again, how gracious of our ‘God of all grace’ to have a ‘family inheritance’ to give to each of His children. And what is this ‘inheritance’ that is awaiting us? Actually, this Heavenly Inheritance has two different aspects to it. One is the Heavenly Inheritance of our Heavenly Father Himself! This is found in many places in the Scriptures, but one example is Ps.16:5 – “The Lord is my inheritance and my cup. You are the One who determines my destiny.” GWT What a beautiful description of our God. This of course, speaks of our ‘Salvation Inheritance.’ It’s a ‘relationship inheritance’ in which we have eternal life, adoption as God’s own children, eternal dwelling in the Kingdom of Heaven…and more.
The second aspect of our Heavenly Inheritance has to do with our ‘Sanctification Inheritance.’ And this a ‘reward inheritance’ based upon our obedience and our faithfulness to our Heavenly Father on this Earth, which then determines our inheritance rewards and privileges of service assignments and experiences in the Kingdom of Heaven. And again, how gracious of our ‘God of all grace.’ For although God owes us nothing, and we owe God everything…in offering Him our worship and service for the rest of our lives, still, our benevolent Father wants to reward His children for every act of worship and service that we choose to offer to Him in thanks and for His glory. God has big plans in granting special privileges in His Kingdom to those sons and daughters who make it their goal to serve and please their God in their faithfulness to their Heaven Father. Eph.6:7,8 – “With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord.”
Again, how great to have this powerful prayer of the Apostle Paul to guide us and help us as we join in powerfully praying for one another. I would love to have people praying this prayer for me, and I’m sure you would, too. In fact, let’s read that last part of Paul’s prayer together as our prayer and doxology to our great God. There’s actually more, but we’ll close with this:
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Col. 1:13,14
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