Eph 1:17-20 "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places," NKJV
Whew! There is a ton here. This may take a few days to digest. Paul just got done telling the Ephesian church that after he heard of their faith and love, he thanked God for them and prayed for them. What did he pray? Here it is:
That God the Father, the Source of all things, the Maker of all things, the Ruler over all things would give them something. Here is Paul going to God and he is making a specific request…that God would give these people wisdom, revelation, knowledge, understanding, enlightenment in the most important thing to know…God, our hope, our inheritance, and His power.
Wisdom. This is full intelligence. This is the ability to use knowledge in every situation. This is, in fact, supreme intelligence that can only come from God. Just think if this happened in the church. Paul wanted this for the Ephesians, and I am sure that it is something that is available today as well. Is this outside of our reach? Is this just pie in the sky stuff? I don't think so. Paul talks about it. Solomon talks about it. James talks about it. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…" "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…" "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy". This is attainable stuff. Since that is the case, we should, I should be going to God all the time and begging for it…and He will give it.
Revelation. I think that this word scares some people. They think it is something spooky and impossible to get in this time period. Not so. This is just a disclosure of the truth. This is just an understanding in knowing what is right. If this is not attainable today, then we might as well hang it up. God wants us to know the truth. "You shall know the truth (revelation) and the truth will set you free." It is simply God revealing His truth to us. And how does He do that most often? His word. I can't expect to grasp the truth unless I am in it. That is where God reveals His truth. "Sanctify them in Thy truth, Thy word is truth."
Knowledge. This is precise and correct knowledge about everything ethical and divine. This isn't just smart. This is knowing how God thinks. That is powerful. That is amazing. That is something that Paul prayed that these people would have. That is something we all should pray we have.
Understanding. This deals primarily with the mind. That God would invade these people's minds, that God would invade our minds and allow us to grasp, to understand what He is like and what He is up to. Man, if there is ever a time to crave this in history, now is the time. God gives us your mind so we can know how to live our lives in this crazy culture.
Enlighten. This is to illuminate. To bring to light. To say: "Eureka…I get it!" This has to do with instruction, with teaching, with informing. Paul was saying to these people: "I am praying that you get it. That you will learn…and then maybe take it one step further and in your instruction you instruct. In your teaching you will be able to teach, in your informing you will be able to inform.
I kind of get the idea that Paul wanted these people to really grasp what they had. He wanted them to get not just their emotions, but their brains around the magnitude of what they had in Christ.
The point: Christianity makes sense intellectually because of an intelligent God.
There is a ton here…and more to come.
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