Tonight,
I want to finish my teaching on praying with Paul. There are a number of other
prayers that Paul prayed which we won’t get to, but I think I’ve accomplished
what I set out to do. I wanted to make you aware of how easy it is to pray for
people when you pray for them like Paul would pray for them.
Paul’s
prayers were not just words. They were expressions from deep within his heart,
based on relationships of his desires for them because he truly loved them and
wanted them to have God’s best.
My prayer of course is that you have benefited greatly from this teaching. If you’d like to review them, they should all be available on the King’s Grace website. Tonight, I want to look at Ephesians chapter 1. It hasn’t been that long ago that Pastor Gordon touched on a few things in this chapter, so I think it’ll be a good thing to add another perspective on the things that Paul prayed, in this prayer for the Ephesians. So, let’s get in it tonight:
Ephesians 1:15–23 (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, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Paul
starts out by saying that since he had heard about their faith in the Lord
Jesus which was obviously evidenced by their love for “all God’s people” he was always praying for them. Just a side note
about a faith that is evidenced by love. We know that Jesus said that the world
know that we are Christians because of our love for one for another. Of course,
our love for non-Christians should be seen equally. Love really is what makes
the kingdom of God go around.
So,
what does Paul pray for the Ephesians? Let’s break it down and see how far we
can go.
The Spirit of Wisdom, Revelation & Illumination
Ephesians 1:17–18 (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,
Walter Liefeld in his commentary on Ephesians says:
The word Spirit in verse 17 could refer either to the spiritual aspect of our learning and being or to God the Holy Spirit, since orthography in Paul’s day did not distinguish between capital and small letters. In either case the work of God is needed to bring spiritual understanding, and it is God’s Spirit who would accomplish this.[1]Walter L. Liefeld, Ephesians, vol. 10, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), Eph 1:17.
And
again:
Anyone—whether a believer or not—with the ability to grasp the syntax and sense of a given portion of the Bible should be able to understand what it is saying. But it takes the inner work (some use the term illumination) of the Holy Spirit to comprehend the spiritual implications of the text in a discerning way (1 Cor 2:10–16).Walter L. Liefeld, Ephesians, vol. 10, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), Eph 1:17
