That’s why the apostle Paul prayed so fervently that the true identity of those first-century believers would be unveiled in their hearts. Hear that again: He wasn’t asking God to make sure the early believers received these things. They already had them. He was praying they’d realize they already had them. It wasn’t a shopping list; it was a packing list. They didn’t need to buy them, didn’t need to manufacture them. They just needed to recognize that they had access to them and could now receive them as their own to take full advantage of them.
