Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 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.
A woman wrote to her pastor, saying, “I have a daughter and she is still not saved. I pray for her, but often I can’t. She is sliding down the prodigal son path. I suppose that I’m angry. After hearing the Gospel for many years, she isn’t responding and I feel incapable of helping her. Sometimes, I feel like giving up. At times I feel such sorrow, thinking she might go to hell. What can I pray for on a daily basis so that she will come to Christ?”
That is the cry of many Christian parents, and it must be hard not to get angry when you see your children repeatedly showing no interest in the Gospel and making bad choices. We keep praying, sharing the Gospel, and nothing seems to be happening. It finally becomes overwhelming. What do you do then? Some of us may not have prodigal children, but some have prodigal husbands, wives, parents, or relatives who are rejecting the Gospel. Moreover, we also have prodigal believers—though saved, they are not growing, are backslidden, and are losing their first love. They are busy in the world and have no time for God, church, or the Gospel. If we were to ask them what progress they have made in the last 5 or 10 years, they couldn’t say anything. What do we do? Today, we come to a marvelous prayer of Paul that tells us what their problem is and how to pray, not only for them but even for ourselves.
There has been a gap of three weeks since we looked at Ephesians, which seems like a long gap. After presenting a panoramic view of the amazing salvation blessings from verses 3-14, for which we used the acronym EPRAIS as a memory aid, Paul moves to pray for us. These are infinitely glorious and tremendous blessings—deep things of God that no human mind can fully grasp. So, after listing them, Paul prays that the Holy Spirit may enlighten us to grasp these truths.
In verse 15, we began to see two things about this prayer:
- What is his prayer? In verse 17, it is for the gift of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
- What is the sphere or extent in which the gift is to be given? It is in the knowledge of Him.
- What is the manner in which this gift is operative? In verse 18, it is the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, so that you may know.
Today, we will see the operation of this gift in three parts.
- In verse 18, “the eyes of your understanding/heart being enlightened.”
- That you may know three things.
- Why should they, or we, know these three things? Okay, so your eyes should be enlightened. Why? So they should know three things. Why should they know these three things? It’s simple.
The Eyes of Your Heart Being Enlightened
The gift of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God will enlighten the eyes of our heart. This enlightening of the eyes is a prerequisite to knowing these three things. So, let’s understand what “enlightening of the eyes of the heart” means. You can read the phrase in two seconds, but it implies several deep truths of the Bible. What does “heart” mean? Does our heart have eyes? Let’s first understand the word “heart.”
When we take a word from the Bible, we should not assume our own 21st-century meaning. For us today, the heart is primarily about emotional life. We use a heart emoji to show we liked a message or were touched by something; it’s mostly related to emotion. The biblical word for heart is far broader.
Amazingly, when you do a word study, you find the Bible uses “heart” for a person’s mental intellect. For example, in Isaiah 6:10, God says to “make the heart of this people fat, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart.” Here, it refers to mental intellect. The heart is also used for conscience. We see in some places that David’s heart “smote” him or was “pricked” because he did something. It is also used for volitional will. Acts 11:23 says the apostles exhorted the young believers that “with purpose of heart, they should cleave unto the Lord.” Then, as we use it today, it can refer to emotional life.
So, when Paul wrote, “having had the eyes of the heart enlightened,” he wrote the word “heart” not as a 21st-century person but as a Jew, steeped in this rich biblical concept of the heart. The heart stands for the whole soul—all the faculties of a person: their thinking, their conscience, their emotions, and their will. As one person said, the biblical heart is the center of a person’s soul, where their spiritual life pulsates. In this heart, God the Holy Spirit dwells. For unbelievers, this is where the devil himself dwells and controls. It is the central control room of a person. This is why the writer of Proverbs says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Now, picture the heart: that seat of a person’s emotional, intellectual, and volitional life, including the conscience, imaginations, affections, and will. That is the center of a person’s being. We can call it all the senses of a person’s soul.
And Paul says the heart has eyes. It’s a beautiful figure of speech. The eye is an organ whose value we don’t realize until we slowly lose its power. How does the eye help us? It’s only through these small holes in our face that we are enabled to perceive reality in its true shape, color, and quality. Imagine if you were sitting here with no eyes. You would only hear a voice; you would have no idea of the shape, quality, or color of the creature from which the voice came. So, we perceive the reality of things with our eyes.
We need two things to see clearly: healthy eyes and light. A thin film, called a cataract, can grow over the eye, hindering eyesight. If it becomes thick enough, it will even blot out sight. Secondly, you can have a good eye, but if you are in a room after 7 PM and the lights are off, you can’t see anything.
Notice that Paul isn’t praying for their eyes to be opened; he is praying for their eyes to be enlightened. The word “enlightened” simply means to illuminate. If you’re sitting in a dark room and you don’t know what’s there, suddenly a spotlight is switched on, and you can see clearly. That is illuminating the room. So, Paul’s prayer is that God, by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, would enlighten our soul’s senses. That is what the words say.
Four Implied Biblical Truths
Implied in this phrase are four biblical truths.
- Every person created in the image of God has a heart with eyes, in other words, a soul with eyes. Notice he does not say, “Let God create new heart or eyes.” You already have heart eyes; Paul is praying that God may give you light.
- All human soul eyes have been blinded not once, but by a triple blindness: first by the Fall, then by Satan, and then by the love of sin. These are three levels of a “cataract”: the Fall, Satan, and sin. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, it says, “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” The mind is blinded. The mind and the heart are used interchangeably in Scripture. Not only the Fall and Satan, but the love of sin also blinds the heart’s eyes. John 3:19 says, “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Neither will they come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved.” Also, notice in this same epistle, Paul talks about this natural blindness in people (Ephesians 4:17-19): “you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” See, the reason people live such a lifestyle without sense is because their soul eyes are darkened. He ties the blindness of the mind with the hardness of the heart. Every person in the world is not once, but triply blinded by the Fall, Satan, and the love of sin. They do not see things as they really are. Let’s say next week you can’t see. If you come to church, and we hang this keyboard up and the pulpit above your head, at any moment to fall on your head, you will have no idea. You will imagine from memory that it’s all in the right place. You cannot see things as they really are. In the same way, a natural person cannot see the glory and beauty of Christ. They can sit in the best church in the world; they can hear the best sermon about Christ; they can see people singing of Christ’s glory with joy in their faces and voices. They will scratch their head and say, “I can’t see why these people are so joyful and excited.” Why? The “god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.” In the depths of their being, in their heart, out of which all the issues of life flow, what’s the problem? The eye to the heart has a cataract. So they don’t see God as their creator and the glory of what God did through Christ to save them. They don’t see the beauty of God’s law as they ought to, as a way of true happiness and freedom. What will cure that? This triple blindness is cured in steps: first salvation, and then continual illumination.
- The third truth we see implied here is that such natural people’s eyes are opened when they are born again. Our Lord said, “Unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It’s the same word, “see.” That is why the Bible equates conversion with opening the eyes. The Ephesians were converted, and their eyes were opened. But what do they need now? They need continual enlightenment.
- Fourthly, we learn that we have to continually pray for the growing enlightenment of our heart’s eyes. The story of Jesus healing the blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26) illustrates for us the gradual nature of spiritual enlightenment. When Jesus lays his hands on the man a second time, his sight is fully restored. This represents the need for continued spiritual illumination, a journey of progressive revelation. Paul knows these people are saved and their eyes were opened by regeneration, so he prays that God would increasingly enlighten them.
Without our eyes enlightened, we cannot know things as reality. Most of our knowledge is just hearsay, a notional, theoretical, or imaginary conviction. But when our eyes are enlightened, we will know things as never known before. This divine illumination will give us a true sense of the superlative excellence of divine things and the ability to see their reality.
There is a big difference between having an idea that honey is sweet by reading books and knowing how sweet honey is by taste and direct experience. In the same way, you can have the opinion that God is gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that grace by tasting it is different. Similarly, you can have the opinion or rational belief that God is holy and that holiness is a good thing, but it’s different to have a sense of the loveliness of God’s holiness. You will get a sense of how beautiful and lovely the law of God is, and how it alone can lead us to freedom. You get that kind of sense of excellence when the Holy Spirit illuminates the eyes of our hearts. You will not think of God as speculatively good, but you will have a true sense of how amiable, beautiful, and desirable God is.
That is spiritual illumination. You will know as if you saw it with your own eyes, as a certain, undeniable, infallible, 100% reality and 100% assurance without any doubt. It is far from just theoretical knowledge. Such knowing will inevitably have a transformative impact on our soul. When your soul has a sense of the excellence of divine objects, you will always love to think of God, come to God, meditate on his truths, and dwell upon them with delight. The powers of the soul—the mind, heart, and emotions—are more awakened and enlivened, exerting themselves more fully to think, believe, enjoy, worship, and serve God and his kingdom. The beauty and sweetness of the objects we see will draw on the faculties of the soul and draw forth their exercises. So Paul prays for this.
Three Things You May Know
When your heart’s eyes are enlightened, you may know three things. Again, the word “know” here means to have a certain, infallible, enlarged, accurate, and spiritually perceptive view of three things.
- First of all, the hope of his calling.
- Secondly, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
- And thirdly, the exceeding greatness of his power.
All of this prayer for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in His knowledge, and the enlightening of the heart’s eyes, is so that you should know these three things. All three are connected. When God effectually calls people to Himself, one of the things He implants within them is the Christian hope. That hope resides in the heart of the believer. The object of that hope is the inheritance, and the means by which a believer will attain that inheritance is by the power of God that has already been operative in the heart and life of the believer.
In other simple words:
- The hope of calling is what it means to be saved now.
- The riches of the glory of his inheritance are the glorious blessings that await me.
- The exceeding greatness of his power is what brought us to this state and will bring us to that final blessing of inheritance.
He wants our eyes to be opened through spiritual illumination to see these three blessings. Paul prays they might obtain an enlarged, accurate, and spiritually perceptive view of these three things. Your heart’s eyes are enlightened to know the excellence, attractiveness, and real sense of the beauty, glory, and taste of these things. We will take these up one by one next week.
Why Paul Prays for This
Why does Paul pray for this as a top priority? And why so earnestly? He says, “unceasingly I ask for this.” Having prayed it, why does he write it in a letter? Why are you so earnest, Paul, about this? Aren’t there greater needs than this? Why didn’t he pray for sanctification? That is a great need. Is this greater than that?
Yes, for Paul, there is no greater need for us as believers and as a church than this prayer. In a way, all our needs can be met if this prayer is answered. This is the greatest petition for a Christian and the church. If we don’t see this, this will just be another good sermon and we will move on. We have to understand with Paul why this is such a great need for us, so it becomes the greatest unceasing prayer for ourselves and others.
Let me give you three reasons:
One: Danger of Subtle False Religion ⚠️
Without this illumination, you’re in danger of being drawn into subtle false religion. This is the great difference between all false Christianity, perversion of Christianity, and true Biblical Christianity.
False Christianity preaches a message of self-improvement: “Become something so you can obtain something from God.” It encourages you to seek new things in God, new blessings. “If you do this and that, God will be more pleased with you and give you new blessings.”
Notice that Paul did not pray that they might have some new hope, new or increased inheritance, or get new and more power. He’s saying, “I’m praying that you may know what that hope is that you already have, that you may know what the inheritance is you are already given, and that you may know the exceeding greatness of the power that is already operating in you.”
You see, he is not praying that they get something new. He’s praying that the Spirit may enable them to have enlarged, accurate, and spiritually perceptive views of what they already are.
False Christianity says, “Become something so you can obtain something from God,” which is a performance-based relationship with God. It says, “Seek new things in God.” In contrast, true Biblical Christianity says, “Once you have believed in Christ, your greatest need is to understand the glorious riches of the treasures you have in Christ.” It is only that understanding that will help you to live worthy of it.
See the difference? In one, the direction is, you move up to God and get the reward—a completely wrong direction. The other is, God has moved down to you in grace, and when you understand what he has done in grace, you will respond in love and live properly.
Second: Foundation of All True Christian Growth and Fruitfulness 🍎
The foundation of all true Christian growth and fruitfulness is discovering and knowing what grace has done for us in Christ. Until the Holy Spirit enlightens you and gives you a real sense of its excellency, you can never live a proper Christian life.
Church after church, preachers will get up and tell people what to do: “Be dedicated, be consecrated.” They give all kinds of pep talks or pressurize people with guilt every Sunday, or whimsically pump people up and down emotionally, but they never teach them why they should live like that. And all of this bypasses the real motive for living the Christian life.
Christians all over the place are frustrated trying to live a life without understanding their identity in Christ and what God has done for them. This is basic to Christianity. You must understand who you are in Christ. That, and that alone, is the foundation upon which you operate. The real heart of it, the real base, the real foundation, the real central thing, the one thing needful to live the Christian life, is simply understanding who you are in Christ.
Our old forefathers would call it “Position and Practice.” The order of “Faith and Practice” is so important. First, understand your position, understand all these resources, without that, you can never have proper practice. The whole direction of Scripture is: Positionally you are in Christ; you are perfect, positionally complete, you have everything you need. Understand your position first, only then will your practice move toward your position.
This is the pattern everywhere in the New Testament. That is why Paul first taught what God has done for you in chapters 1-3. Only when you grasp these truths, all the wheels of faith, love, devotion, and worship will start working in your soul. So, the mature Christian is one who understands his privileges, his possessions, his resources, his identity, and lives consistently with who he is. Only then will you be able to live the kind of life he calls us to in family, work, and society in chapters 4-6. That is why Paul spends three chapters describing the calling, and now he says, “Therefore, here is how you live.” This is the same pattern in all the epistles. Our greatest need is the discovery of what grace has freely given us.
Do you see? Here is the answer for your struggles in Christian life, struggles with sin, struggles in growth, and fruitlessness. Here’s the principle: Obtaining more enlarged, accurate, and spiritually perceptive views of the privileges and a real sense of the excellency of the blessings God has conferred in grace is one of the principal means of growth and fruitfulness in the Christian life.
Now, do you see why Paul is praying, “O God, give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation that they may know what is the hope of their calling, inheritance, and power”? The more they see these things, the more they will believe you, the more they will love you, the more they will obey and serve you.
Third: Blessings of Illumination 🙏
We should earnestly pray for illumination because of the blessings it brings.
- It is the Most Excellent and Divine Wisdom: This is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is capable of. It is more excellent than any human learning; it is far more excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or statesmen. Yes, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Christ does more to exalt and ennoble the soul than all the knowledge of those who have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity without grace. We achieve the highest doctorate in divinity when our eyes are enlightened.
- It is a Most Sweet and Joyful Experience: This knowledge is, above all others, sweet and joyful. Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in the study of natural things, but this is nothing compared to that joy which arises from this divine light shining into the soul. Think of it: if low-level animal pleasures that come from senses give such pleasure—such sweetness—in the world (food, money, drink, sex, drugs), then the excellency of divine things must have much more pleasure and sweetness. This light gives a view of those things that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of delighting our whole being. This spiritual light is the dawning of the light of glory in the heart. There is nothing so powerful as this to support people in affliction and to give the mind peace and brightness in this stormy and dark world.
- This is Transformative Knowledge: This light is such that it effectually influences the inclination and changes the nature of the soul. It changes the soul into an image of the same glory that is beheld. As 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This knowledge will wean us from the world’s love and raise the inclination to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of good and lead us to choose him as our only portion. Nothing mortifies the lusts in the heart more than the delights that come from this illumination. This light causes the entire soul to agree with and embrace the truth. It makes the soul trust it completely, love it fully, and willingly give itself entirely to Christ.
- It Leads to a Life of Holiness: This light, and this only, has its fruit in a universal holiness of life. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines of religion will ever bring this about. But this light, as it reaches the bottom of the heart and changes the nature, will effectually dispose one to a universal obedience. It shows God’s worthiness to be obeyed and served. It draws forth the heart in a sincere love for God, which is the only principle of a true, gracious, and universal obedience; and it convinces us of the reality of those glorious rewards that God has promised to those who obey him.
Application
Do you know God with his divine illumination? Remember, this enlightenment comes in the sphere of an experiential knowledge of God.
Only when we really know how glorious, big, majestic, excellent, and infinite God is do we realize the glory of the calling, inheritance, and power of such a God. So this is all rooted in knowing God. Do you know God by spiritual illumination? An accurate, precise, exact, experimental, immediate, and direct knowledge of God? That we have a real acquaintance with God? Paul is concerned that we should meet with God. We should have a personal and intimate encounter with God.
It’s almost impossible to explain this in words, but it does mean something like this: It means that God should be real to us, and that we should be conscious of him and conscious of his presence. Have you ever known that? Is God real to you? When you get on your knees and pray, do you know that God is there? Do you realize his presence? That’s the thing the apostle is speaking about.
He means, you see, that we know and realize something of the glory of God, in his ineffable glory. To know something of that glory, to be conscious of it, to feel it, to be aware of it. That’s what he means by knowledge. Have you ever felt and sensed something of the glory of God?
Do you know anything of what Jacob said when he said, “This is an awful place”? Eternal life itself is knowing God like this. Anyone who knows anything about this has a sense of privilege, a sense of wonder, a sense of praise, and a sense of glory. Do we realize that this is what Christianity really means, coming to such a knowledge of God?
This knowledge makes you yearn to know more of him. Do you cry like Moses? He was not satisfied with this knowledge. Rising with great daring, he turns to God and says, “Show me thy glory.” That’s it. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt that desire? That’s the thing the apostle prays for, that these Ephesians may begin to hunger and thirst for that, that they may see and know the glory of God, this Father of glory. “Show me thy glory.”
The Psalmist expresses it so perfectly in that 42nd Psalm: “As the deer pants after the water brooks, so my heart pants after thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God,” not the head knowledge, a dead textbook, but for the living God, the direct, immediate, personal God.
He says in John: “If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.” “We, the Father and the Son.” That’s Christianity, the life of God in the souls of men. The Father and the Son coming and making their abode within us.
That’s the thing for which the apostle prays for these Ephesians: that they may have this spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. This is a knowledge that is possible to all Christians. He’s not praying for apostles. He’s not praying for elders only. He’s praying for them all, that they all may have this spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
Oh, may we pray for enlightenment.
Importance of Daily Prayer for Enlightenment 🤲
Since our Christian growth and fruitfulness depend on the Holy Spirit enlightening us and giving us enlarged views of the blessings of salvation, we must learn with Paul to cry to God that he may open the eyes of our hearts. Most Bible examples—Joseph, Daniel, and other passages—reveal that the spirit of wisdom and revelation is given to praying souls. Without the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, we may know a lot of things from reading and hearing messages, and it will only make us proud Pharisees.
If you come to hear the sermon just believing in the Pastor’s ability to make the message clear to you, without praying for the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, you may understand the words and letters, but that understanding will not open the eyes of your heart and lead to any spiritual fruitfulness. God is going to send you away empty.
We must carefully learn to cultivate this spirit of dependence upon the Holy Spirit, crying with David in Psalm 119, verse 18: “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”
Oh, let us learn to cultivate this prayerful dependence not only when we read but also when we hear a sermon. Do you know when a pastor is preaching something with excitement that’s very real to him, and you’re missing it? What should you do? Consciously lift your heart up right there in your seat, saying, “God, light, light, light, light, light, light. Enlighten the eyes of my heart. I am so blind.” Do you know what it is to pray while you’re listening? Learn to have direct dealings with God as I preach his word. “Lord, this is your word. Teach me more. Open my eyes so the wheels of my heart rise in love, worship, faith, and obedience.”
That is a worshipping congregation, having direct dealings with God not only while praying but also when hearing the sermon with a prayerful spirit. This is a great area of weakness for many of you. That’s why you fall asleep, you lose your train of thought in the middle of a message, your mind wanders. You allow Satan to take the word, not just after, but even during the sermon.
Importance of Regular Scripture Meditation and Reading Christian Books 📚
The wheels of my obedience will run fast in direct proportion to my understanding of the truths of God’s word.
Some of you, we have been telling for years, do you understand why you cannot grow and become fruitful unless you learn the discipline of meditating on God’s word and reading other Christian books? Because your personal Christian life, family, and witness will not change by just coming to church on Sunday. It depends on how much you are growing in your understanding of God’s truths. The Holy Spirit doesn’t open our heart’s eyes in the air. Read how David, always meditating on God’s word, pleads for his eyes to be opened. The Holy Spirit always enlightens people who regularly meditate on God’s word. That is why you see Christians who read and meditate keep growing in grace.
“Oh, I cannot read, no time.” We have 20 years of audio messages, weekly Tuesday 8 p.m. 1689, and Friday prayer meetings. Unless you make use of all that, how are you going to grow? Don’t expect any dramatic change, improvement, or growth in life unless you learn the discipline of growing in God’s truth.
This enlightenment, these enlarged, accurate, and spiritually perceptive views, come to the understanding; we must spare no mental pains to attain them. Think of these: the hope of his calling, the riches of his inheritance, the exceeding greatness of the power that works in us. Those are profound concepts. You don’t understand those biblical words just sitting there doing what comes naturally. You’ve got to gird up the loins of your mind and think, and I mean think hard, until there’s mental sweat. The Holy Ghost was never given to put a premium on mental laziness. The Christian life is predicated on what you know.
One unbeliever observed and said, “I’ve seen the difference between the true Christians and the false Christians. The true Christians are those who are really heavy into studying the Bible.” What he was really seeing was that when somebody is heavy into studying the Bible, they gain the revelation of God that is applied in life as it ought to be, you see?
Serious Application for Those Who Are Not Saved
If a man who is already sealed by the Spirit needs further illumination to understand these things, what hope is there for you? With cataracts, Satan, and sin over your eyes, no wonder you don’t understand anything. “These things go right over my head.”
Scripture says, “The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Hope, inheritance, power—these are spiritual truths, and there is no faculty, no capacity in you to understand and receive them.
That is why our Lord said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The same word, “see,” to perceive the kingdom of God. That should, firstly, humble you and, secondly, give you hope. God doesn’t ask you to create your own sight, but to stand with that poor blind beggar and say, “Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me. That I may receive my sight.” The work of the Messiah in this world is primarily to open blind eyes. Plead with him, he will open your eyes, and you will see marvelous things.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 