Praying to Comprehend and Know God’s Love

David W Palmer

Yesterday, we looked at the first four verses of the Prayer the Holy Spirit gave us in Ephesians 3:14–19. The focus on the foundation we need so we can go on to the next part of the prayer; we need to be strengthened by God is our inner man and have the roots of our life growing into his love for anchorage and nutrition.

Let’s now look at the other outcomes of this prayer—especially as it pertains to love, and how it can help us fulfill God’s expectation for us to live with his perfect love:

(Ephesians 3:18–19 NKJV) “May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; {19} to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Here, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul shows some outflows, or consequences, of his inner strengthening and grounding in love.

A. Comprehending Love

A result of having your roots grow down into God’s love is that you will comprehend, grasp, and apprehend the width, length, depth, and height of the love of Christ. These are the dimensions of love’s fullness—note that the Holy Spirit gives four dimensions—something we cannot visualize. Comprehending this would be impossible without revelation from God. This is why prayer for love is so important. Prayer connects us with the supernatural; and comprehending God’s immeasurable love requires supernatural help.

B. To Know the Love of God

The Holy Spirit shows us that not only will we grasp the dimensions of God’s love, but that we will “know” his love—or know him who is love. This is a full knowing, a personal relational experiencing, and a deep inner assurance of God’s love for us and through us to others. 

The apostle Paul says that this type of knowing “passes knowledge.” In English this is a little unclear and confusing—how can knowledge pass knowledge? The best way to understand this is that normal knowledge is only a natural level obtained as we look at, study, and even memorize what God in his love has done and promised to do—his acts. But it is a completely different level to know him who is love, and to have a revelation of his love. Then, through intimate acquaintance, residing in his secret place, and an ear close to his heartbeat, we can be privy to his wisdom, intentions, and inner thoughts. This is knowing “the love of Christ which passes [ordinary or even scientific] knowledge.”

Again, this requires a supernatural revelation and enabling that can only come miraculously to us from God through believing prayer. This is why praying these Holy Spirit given prayers is essential.

C. Filled with All the Fullness of God

God is love. His “fullness,” being all that he is, is therefore love. When we, by his supernatural answer to prayer, comprehend, know, and operate in his love, we will be filled with “all the fullness of God.” We almost find it unimaginable that we could be filled with “all” of God’s “fullness.” In context, it obviously includes being perfect in love—God’s love filling us and overflowing through us. So being “filled” with “all the fullness of God” is a huge statement; but at the very least, it seals the point that God’s objective is love. With this answer to prayer manifested in our lives, we will be graced and enabled to live Jesus’s high expectation:

(Matthew 5:48 DKJV) “Therefore, be completely perfect in love, just as your Father in heaven is completely perfect in love.”

Today, as you pray this prayer, you are inviting God to do the impossible in your life. By his supernatural ability that is exceedingly abundantly far above all that we can possibly imagine, you can comprehend his love, know his love, and be filled with all of his fullness. You can begin in this right now. Remember, what’s not possible with man is possible with God:

(Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power tha