Reflection on God's Word

HOLY INTIMACY AND POWER

by Tim Thomas

March 21, 2005

Ephesian 1:17-19

This is perhaps one of the greatest passages in the entire Bible! It is important to note that it is a prayer, which means that it is a request to God to act on our behalf, not a suggestion that we should take action. Paul prays for an impartation of the spirit of wisdom and revelation, which is really asking the Holy Spirit who possesses wisdom and revelation to impart them to the believers at Ephesus. He could just as well have prayed this for all believers everywhere, and so I will try to personalize it from this point on. The revelation that Paul prays for has a specific purpose: that we might know God deeply and intimately. That is, Paul is asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit to give us revelation of the nature and character and personality of God, so that we would indeed know Him at a very intimate level.

The Amplified suggests that this knowledge of God will come through the eyes of our hearts being enlightened, but the NIV, NASB, and NLT instead suggest that the structure is parallel, meaning that Paul's prayer is also for the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened, so that we could have a supernatural revelation of the hope that we have -- that is, as the NLT says, "the wonderful future he has promised" us.

As our hearts are "flooded with light" (NLT), Paul prays that we would also have a revelation of the "riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints" (NIV). It seems to me that we can interpret this in two ways. The first is that he is speaking here about the inheritance we saints have, which basically all the benefits promised to us. If this is the correct understanding, then it is simply rephrasing the previous item to be revealed, which was the hope that we saints have.

The alternative understanding -- and the one suggested by the wording of the Amplified, NIV, and NASB, is that Paul wants us to understand what a rich and glorious inheritance we are to God. That is to say, we are immensely valued by God, and Paul wants us to understand how much that worth is. After all, as John 3:16 so aptly describes, it was out of immense love that the Father sent His only Son Jesus into the world to give His very life for us. The verse says "love" not "pity" -- so while in a very real sense we were wretched in the state we were in before we put our hope in Christ, God could see through all that and love us. It seems to me that there is a great measure of truth in the adage "you love only as much as you are loved". If that is so, it is vital for believers to understand at a very deep level how greatly we are loved by God, and how valuable we are to Him, for that understanding empowers us to love Him at a much greater depth in response to the love that He has for us.

The final benefit obtained by having the eyes of our hearts enlightened is that we would have a revelation of God's power that is already working and is always available to be put into play on our behalf. In the last few verses of this chapter, Paul describes the magnitude of that power as exhibited in our Father's working on behalf of Jesus. In future commentary on those verses, we will explore the implications. There are, however, many avenues of God's power on our behalf described elsewhere in Scripture. It is impossible for me to include a comprehensive list here, but I will try to highlight a few that seem noteworthy. The first is that we are promised eternal life, which is something that begins now, and includes the promise of spending eternity in God's presence. The second is that He gives to each one a gift or gifts of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4). The third is that He watches over us and protects us (see Psalm 121 and others). The fourth is that He works on us from the inside out to change us into His image (consider the fruits of the Spirit, and the promise of His help in Philippians).

While I began my comments saying that because this is a prayer, it requires God to act rather than us, I do not want to suggest that we have no part to play. A good first step would be to eagerly pray these verses for ourselves and others. There is nothing wrong with praying this kind of prayer for ourselves: in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul instructs the readers to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the greater gifts. Receiving revelation and understanding from God is also a gift from God (though not one of the gifts Paul was addressing in the Corinthian letter). This indeed must be the kind of prayer that Jesus was speaking about in Luke 12 when he said ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking -- and that those who eagerly sought an impartation of the Holy Spirit would surely not be disappointed, because the Father indeed knows how to give good gifts to His children.

A second step we could take is to read over and over again verses from the Bible that deal with things that God has promised for those who love Him, including verses dealing with the ways He exerts power on our behalf. Most of us can also profit by reviewing verses that deal with how much God loves us. Finding and studying all of these types of verses gives us some head knowledge which will give the Holy Spirit raw material that He can turn into heart knowledge.