Prayer For Revelation Of God's Glory

Ephesians 1:15–22 NKJV

15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 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, 18 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, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,

Since the opening of this letter Paul has not ceased to praise God in what the Hebrews call a Berakhah which means blessing. It is a prayer of praise to God remembering all His abundant mercies and graces towards us. But how can we bless God when it is God who blesses us? As we discussed last week, God does not need anything from us, we have nothing that we can give to God, It is God who is the great giver. He does not need the sacrifices of lambs and goats, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

As Paul says in Rom 11:34-36

Romans 11:34–36 NKJV

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” 35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?” 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Yet Eph 1 teaches us that the purpose of God’s will that we praise His glory. Not because He needs our praise but because of our need to praise Him. No one can fully experience the blessings of God without praising Him. The fullness of our joy in God is found in praising and blessing His name.

This first chapter of Eph can be broken into two halves. The first is Paul’s praise in verses 3-14 and the second is his prayer in verses 15-23. In these 2 parts of this chapter Paul gives us and beautiful example of the ...

Balance of Praise and Prayer

Often we fail to maintain this balance. Some Christians seem to only focus on praying for new blessings. Always asking for more and yet never acknowledging or realising that God has already blessed them with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Sometimes even asking over and over for blessings which our already ours in Christ. For example,

1 John 1:9 NKJV

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

and

Ephesians 1:7 NKJV

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

And yet how often, because of misplaced, guilt do we continue to ask for forgiveness for a particular sin instead of rejoicing and praising God for the forgiveness that he says we already have.

Or perhaps we pray for victory over sin in our life over and over again not realising that in Christ we are dead to that sin and we have been redeemed from living in sin. Victory is already ours in Christ so reckon yourself dead to that sin and lay aside that sin that so easily beset you. A better prayer would be that God would give you wisdom and understanding of your victory in Christ and increase you faith so that it becomes a reality.

Then there are others who rest so much in the blessing of Christ that they seem to have no desire to go deeper in their understanding and experience of their Christians blessings. They miss one of the great blessings we have in Christ which is that we have God as our Father who is a good Father willing to give good things to those who ask. As James says, “you have not because you ask not.”

So there must be a balance in this. Paul gives us a wonderful example of this in that he first praises and blesses God for all the blessing we have in Christ and then prays for a deeper understanding of these blessings that they may be experienced to the fullest.

So what was...

The Occasion for Paul’s Prayer

Ephesians 1:15 NKJV

15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

So he is speaking here of those who he knows already in Ephesus who came to faith under his own ministry there as well as those who had come to faith through the ministry of those who continued there in the faith.

Churches are living organisms they grow and change over time.

He had already spoken of this faith in general terms in Eph 1:12-13

Ephesians 1:12–13 NKJV

12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

And now here more specifically he says he had heard of their faith and after hearing of their faith he has no cease to intercede for them.

And no faith only but faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints.

Faith in Christ and love for the saint go hand in hand. One does not truly exist without the other.

Colossians 1:3–4 NKJV

3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;

Galatians 5:22 NKJV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

1 John 4:20–21 NKJV

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

So Paul’s prayer comes from his hearing of their faith and love for all the saints.

So what is...

The Content of Paul’s Prayer

Firstly he says I Eph 1:16

Ephesians 1:16 NKJV

16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

So firstly thanksgiving. But who does Paul thank? He’s not thanking them for their faith and love. In fact Paul never thanks others for their faith or obedience. Paul thanks God. Thats who he is praying to when he gives thanks. So why does Paul thank God for their faith and love? Because he knows that if anyone comes to God by faith or obeys God serving Him and loves the saints that it is God who had done it and is worthy of thanks for it. As we will see later on in Eph 2:8-10

Ephesians 2:8–10 NKJV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So our faith is a gift from God and any good works are those which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them because we are His workmanship. So then what ever faith or good work in us is the work of God alone and he is worthy of all thanks and praise for it.

He then goes on to pray

Ephesians 1:17–19 NKJV

17 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, 18 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, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

So Paul is praying that God would give us the spirit of Wisdom or the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of truth and knowledge. Not because we don’t have the Holy Spirit already because if we have trusted in the Word of truth who is Christ, then we have receieved the Holy Spirit of promise as the guarantee of our inheritance. But rather that we would have more experience of the Spirit particularly in the enlightenment of the eye of our understanding or the eye of our heart.

So essential Paul’s prayer here is that we would come to fully know and understand all of these blessings that we have in Christ. See you and I have been given a treasure trove of blessing in Christ but will not be blessed by these blessing if we remain ignorant of them. The victory that we have, the forgiveness the joy, the love, the inheritance, the assurance. It’s all there but you will not know of it in your experience until the Spirit of wisdom and revelation opens the eyes of your understanding and God grants you the faith to believe it. But then, when He enlightens you then by faith you accept all that you have in Christ, then you will live in the experience of the victory over sin, the forgiveness and the joy and freedom and the home and assurance of your inheritance. This is why Paul’s prayer is so important and so relevant. He first tells us of all the blessings in Christ and then prays for us to see it that we might live it and see the glory of God and praise and thank Him.

You see only God can do this work of opening the eyes of our understanding. Paul knows that simply telling us isn’t enough. God must reveal it to us. And so our prayer should be the same for one another. We should pray that God would give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. That we might know the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance and the exceeding greatness of His mighty power.