His Manifold Wisdom

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eph. 3:10 - 11

This view that Paul gives us through the Holy Spirit is amazing.  God has so many things going on all at once, all interconnected and contingent upon each other and ultimately upon Himself.  He is working all of them out to His goal.  Here we see that we are not the ultimate.  The church is not the ultimate.  Rather the church and each of us in the church are used as His instrument whereby others are shown the multi-faceted wisdom of God.

Who is He showing this off to?

KJV: "...unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places..."  (Literally in the Greek, "in the heavenlies").
NIV: "...to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms..."

Who are these "principalities"?

• Eph 1:21  Christ is above them all
• Eph 3:10  they are in the heavenlies
• This is where Christ is seated.  Eph 1:20
•  This is where we are blessed in Christ.  Eph 1:3
•  This is our goal, where we are going.  Heb 11:16
• These "principalities" are good angels and evil demons and are thus much more powerful than we are.  Yet God makes the good angels to be ministering servants to us who inherit salvation (Heb 1:14).  And there is nothing that the evil demons can do to thwart God's purpose nor remove us from His Love in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:38 - 39).

This is all sure and secure because He has eternally purposed this in Christ Jesus (Eph 3:11).  See how secure His purpose is and stands?

This is what the Lord says,
  he who appoints the sun
    to shine by day,
  who decrees the moon and stars
    to shine by night,
  who stirs up the sea
    so that its waves roar—
    the Lord Almighty is his name:
  “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
    declares the Lord,
  “will Israel ever cease
    being a nation before me.”
Jer. 31:35 - 36

This Mighty God works out everything in conformity to His Plan (Eph 1:11) and His Plan is to make us holy and blameless (Eph. 1:4), thus holy and blameless we will be.  Therefore it is in our best interest to get on board and be part of His Plan and submit to His purpose and undergo that work of sanctification and be changed into the likeness and image of His Son!

But just because God is wielding His church as an instrument, showing off to the heavenlies His great wisdom, doesn't mean that God thinks any less of us at all.  In fact Paul emphasized to his readers just how great God's love for us is.  Eph 3:18 - 19 says that the love of Christ is wide and long and high and deep and surpasses knowledge.  What encouragement!  God loves us and is using us for our good and His glory.  And nothing will undo nor thwart His loving purpose for us!