I have been giving a lot of thought in the last eighteen months of what a great revival in the 21st century would look like in our corner of America. I am believing for a truly great move of God that will prepare Christ’s Church, His people, in America for the final stage of history.
I also want to put that message in context: to put it in a relevant, meaningful way that will impact the lives of men in this prison and bring revival right here. A revival that occurs only out there, and not in here, would only fill my cup of joy just so far. A great revival that impacts this prison and the Puget Sound region, such that people came from far and wide to see what God is doing here… that will make my cup run over.
So what is a revival, and what would it look like both here and out there? What does God want to do for us, in us and with us, and what should we be hoping for and praying for God to do?
Last month I spoke on the theme of Jason Gray’s song “Remind Me Who I Am”, on knowing and claiming our identity as children of God. I concluded that message by sharing from the first chapter of Ephesians on who we are to God, the position that He has made for us in Christ. I want to continue looking at this theme as Paul developed it in his letter to the Ephesians, by examining his prayer for the Church in the last eight verses of this first chapter.
I believe Paul gives us milestones for us to gage our prayers to God, to measure what revival might be like, and what it could do in us that would make us more of God wants us to be. I believe Paul captured the essence of revival prayer when he asked God to give us “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of” His Son, Jesus Christ. Today, I’m going to focus on “The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation.” So let’s read Ephesians 1:15-22.
Ephesian context. Paul precedes his prayer by praising the Ephesian Church for their faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints, that is, God’s people. Paul took great pride in the Ephesian Church. Ephesus is merely an ancient ruin and tourist vista today; but in the first century it was the largest city in the eastern Roman Empire. It was the principal Mediterranean seaport into Asia Minor, and therefore, a major crossroads of traders, artisans, migratory workers, and soldiers.
Ephesus was also the center of the cult of the goddess Artemis, daughter of Zeus, and supposed healer of feminine diseases. An image of her supposedly fell from heaven, and silversmiths had a substantial trade in selling Artemis images as good luck charms.
Paul had been there repeatedly on his missionary journeys and had spent two years teaching at the School of Tyrannus. According to tradition, he taught in this school from about 11 AM to 4 PM, in the heat of day, after Tyrannus finished his instruction.
In Ephesus, Paul trained the first generation of Christian leaders, who went throughout Asia Minor preaching the gospel and planting new works. Later, the Apostle John lived and taught in Ephesus for much the same reason. It was a center of influence in the Eastern Empire.
The Beauty of our Faith. So when Paul begins this passage (v.15), he effuses with praise and thanksgiving for the Ephesian Christians’ faith in the Lord Jesus and love for their fellow Christians. The most essential virtues of Christian living are faith and love. Faith in the Lord and what He accomplished for us on the cross is what makes us righteous or justified in the sight of God. Jesus paid for our redemption with His blood, Earlier, in v. 7, Paul taught that we have redemption through his blood, or death, and with it the forgiveness of our trespasses that releases the lavish generosity of God’s grace or unmerited favor toward us.
Paul also shared, in v. 5 how God predestined us, how He planned and orchestrated from eternity past for us to be adopted as His children. Then in vv.11-12, we learn God predestined His children to have a glorious inheritance so that those who hope in Christ would be “to the praise of His glory.” Hoping in Christ and believing in Christ are interconnected, since it is our hope for heaven and to know God’s love forever that animates our faith.
Right before Paul begins his prayer, he further explains in vv.13-14 the beauty of this faith which he found in the Ephesian Church: “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise [or promised Holy Spirit (ESV)], who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Our faith, Paul says, brings the Holy Spirit into our spirit who then seals us, or permanently marks us as God’s redeemed possession. The Spirit is also a living, divine pledge of our heavenly inheritance. Clearly, if God seals His own Holy Spirit within you, he intends to take you into heaven with Him forever. Our new standing as a prized possession of God’s heart brings the highest praise to God’s glory. His glory is His beautiful, brilliant, loving heart and vision for eternity.
Notice that Paul repeats that phrase “to the praise of His glory.” That is really important, because God’s will to glorify Himself, that is, to reveal and celebrate His unequalled, infinite greatness and beauty before the Creation is the driving force of God in creating us in the first place. Put it this way, God takes the highest pleasure in glorifying God; and since we were emphatically made for “the praise of His glory”, we are what gives God the highest pleasure. John Piper, the pastor and self-described Christian hedonist, is famous for saying that “God is most greatly glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.” Revivals are special seasons of divine grace when God supercharges our experience of His glory and satisfaction in His wise ways.
Does that grab you – that you are part of what gives God the highest pleasure in this awesome and magnificent universe of creation? The sheer vastness in space and raw power of a hundred billion galaxies of stars is far beyond our comprehension; but all those galaxies don’t give God as much pleasure as a living soul that yearns to be to the praise of God’s glory. Only living, worshiping creatures can genuinely express God’s glory to God in love, the way He wants. God is by nature, a living, supremely conscious Spirit who is relational and loves every person who bears His image.
As a result of this astonishing inheritance, we are liberated to love. Faith in the Lord Jesus frees us to love God’s people, the saints or “holy ones”. We are holy not by our blameless conduct, but by a free gift of righteousness that makes us holy to God. One day He will transform us into sinless, eternally perfect reflections of God’s love.
In Paul’s time, being a Christian was not mainstream. The early Christians were actually accused by the pagans around them of being atheists because they taught that the Greek and Roman gods were not real. Most of the early Christians were modest artisans and laborers, along with a few more affluent people. It took courage to stand for Christ, because the Roman Empire was catching on that this was a new religion, not just a variant of Judaism; and new religions were illegal in the Empire. The slander of being atheists and legal opposition spurred recurring, violent campaigns to suppress Christianity for the next 250 years; but the Roman Empire failed to crush this faith. Why? Because God empowered the early believers to practice sacrificial love one for another, and love never fails. God also protected His flocks, even while permitting them to suffer for Christ. He made them more than conquerors through His love.
Jesus taught His disciples shortly before he was crucified, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Mutual love is the hallmark of a genuine community of believers, and without love, as Paul taught the Corinthians, we are nothing. The Apostle John later taught, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love… God is love, and the one who abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him.” Revivals always generate a wider and deeper sense of love between all Christians and their varied churches – a “catholicity of spirit.”
A Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation. The love that the Ephesians had for one another greatly encouraged Paul, who was writing this letter as a Roman prisoner destined to be beheaded by the Emperor Nero. Paul was continually giving thanks to God for this church and was moved to pray for them. His prayer brings to a crescendo all the extraordinary truths that Paul had described about our inheritance in Christ.
Paul prays: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so 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 surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” (vv.17-19)
Paul’s phrase “the spirit of wisdom and revelation” recalls the Messianic prophecy about Jesus in Isaiah 11: “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”
Paul asks that the same Holy Spirit who enlightened Jesus and empowered Him for His supernatural, prophetic ministry would rest upon these believers, and by extension, upon all of us. What are the differences between wisdom and revelation? I like to think of wisdom as the ability to make right choices and actions in light of what you know to be true or best. Revelation is the ability to know or understand truth that was hidden to you before. It’s an “eye opening experience” or that “Ah ha” moment when something hazy becomes clear.
Paul specifies that the “spirit of wisdom and revelation [IS] in the knowledge of Him”, that is, in knowing Jesus personally. The Greek word for knowledge here is epignosis, and the prefix epi adds a sense of transcendent knowledge, or ultimate knowledge. Paul declares the significance of knowing Christ: It is the highest possible knowledge, a living knowledge that takes us into the God’s heart forever.
Paul wrote the Colossians that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” That’s a lovely way of saying that Jesus, who is God incarnate, is always right and omniscient; but also that His wisdom and knowledge are precious treasures, intended to enrich us.
When you invite Jesus into your heart as Lord and Savior, God becomes resident in you, and then patiently unfolds His wisdom and understanding, revealing more about Himself and His ways through the ordinary circumstances of life. Every experience of God in your life becomes a life lesson of wisdom and revelation. It shows you how to live the highest life – life as God intended, and then promises even more insights into God in the future. The spirit of wisdom and revelation then becomes a continuing river of life that brings out deeper insights from God’s word, God’s ways and God’s people. When a community of believers are flowing in this river of divine wisdom and revelation, that’s revival!
The word spirit means breath, and so is intimately connected to life. God is self-existent, infinite spirit, and Jesus said “those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Real worship is a living, breathing, true expression of reverence toward God, that becomes a way of living. To live out worship you have to have a God-given spirit, or living energy, to be a worshiper. That’s what a spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Jesus will produce; and this spirit is entirely a gracious gift from God. It can’t be earned, but only humbly received. True revival is marked by heart-felt, energized worship.
The spirit of wisdom and revelation that penetrated Paul on the road to Damascus, was then sealed by his baptism in water and in the Spirit. This spirit turned Paul from a vindictive, self-righteous Pharisee into a humble, yet powerful apostle and ambassador for His King, Jesus. It prepared Paul for the most extraordinary life of service, suffering and authoritative revelation that we know as New Testament epistles. It helped turn this new Way into a movement that would penetrate the Roman world, and now the entire world. He experienced revival and then brought new life or revival wherever he preached. Revival also empowers us to be Christ’s witnesses to a lost and broken world.
It is thrilling when God uses you to touch someone’s life and bring them closer to God. I was talking with a young man locked up in long-term segregation the other day. He told me he had begun seeking the Lord in a juvenile facility before coming to prison, and said he didn’t know why he was in the IMU. I assured him that if he is truly seeking God that God will use every circumstance in his life, including long-term segregation, to perfect Christ’s character in him and prepare him to receive heaven’s highest rewards. Therefore, nothing can keep from him receiving heaven’s best, as long as he is surrendered to Christ. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. An inmate locked up in segregation is in one of the most barren places on earth; but Christ can turn it into a place of great reward in discovering the real riches found in God’s heart and God’s word, the Bible.
Paul had experienced Jesus supernaturally on the road to Damascus and then was privileged to be taken to heaven to see things so glorious he was forbidden to speak about them. His experience of revelation came out of intimate relationship with his Lord. This is what thrilled Paul so much, and I hope will thrill you, too, when you draw closer to God. Revival in the 21st century will bring a deeper intimacy with Christ among His people, many of whom will experience the supernatural in a way they hadn’t before.
Paul understood that with a spirit of wisdom and revelation, a supernatural intertwining of the divine and human could operate in us. We experience the joy of knowing “it is God who is at work in [us] both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). God became a man in Jesus, so that men and women could become a part of God. God indwells all of Jesus’ brethren, the Church. In v. 23 it says we are “His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
For Paul, a pious Jew who had been trained to revere this awesome, transcendent, and holy God of Israel, this was a mind-blowing revelation. The Torah’s command to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength” became much more than obedience to rules and regulations. It is a romance of love with an infinitely beautiful and wise Lover; and that is revival!
Paul also experienced how God could suddenly turn an ordinary donkey ride into a supernatural, life-changing encounter. His revelation of Christ led him patiently to reproduce Christ’s life in others, even as he patiently made tents to earn money.
We see the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in John’s gospel: Jesus promised in John 16:13-14 that the Holy Spirit would come to guide us and disclose what is of Christ to us: “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” Being guided into the truth is like having the spirit of wisdom; and for the Spirit to disclose Christ’s spiritual riches to us is the spirit of revelation.
So what did Paul believe this spirit of wisdom and revelation would bring to us? It brings enlightenment. In vv. 18-19 Paul asks God to enlighten the eyes of our heart to reveal three things: the hope of our calling; the glorious riches of His inheritance in the saints; and the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
These three things are interconnected truths. Our calling (klaysis in the Greek) is our response to God’s call to us to come out from this world and be separate. Paul told the Corinthians that they were saints by calling, and the very Greek word we use for “church” is ekklesia, which means “the called-out ones.” Calling is similar to the word for being chosen (elekto). We were chosen from eternity past to be God’s children, and then made saints by calling.
Both God’s election and calling are sovereign acts of God’s grace and mercy to draw unworthy, sinful human beings like us into the eternal embrace of his holy love. Once you realize that your calling is purely an act of divine grace, you are liberated from the pressure of trying to measure up to the high calling of God. You can’t live up to His high calling, but you can love up to Him in humble gratitude and service in response to it. You have a real and sure hope because it is God who is the guarantor of your inheritance. He will providentially guide you every step of your way, even when you think He’s not around, to ensure you get it. What a great deal!
Our calling ties into the riches of divine glory that is our inheritance as His saints. Heaven and the heavens to come are part of our inheritance, but so are deeper dimensions of God’s own soul that He may allow us to partake of or enjoy with him. I can imagine being caught up in God’s presence in Heaven to explore some dimension of God’s infinite creativity like a symphony of spiritual beauty.
We can’t really imagine all that our inheritance will be, but we can have fun trying! Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has set eternity in our hearts, Our imagination of the supernal, the highest and best, fuels hope into our sense of calling.
Katie Souza was a severely drug addicted, gun toting collector for dealers, who repeatedly kicked in people’s doors and forced them to pay their drug debts at gun point. When she finally got arrested, the federal prosecutor was intent to nail her; and she got ten years.
In the holding pen in jail, she went through withdrawals, aggravated by diabetes, in a cold, stinking room with other down-and-outers. It was there that she realized that she was hopelessly addicted and needed God. She demanded the jailer give her a Bible. Before then, she had screamed and tried to verbally bully the officer; so he just laughed at her now that she wanted a Bible. But in the bottom of a laundry bin that day, Katie Souza found a Bible and started to read it.
She came to believe that Jesus was the One who could save her; but still had temper tantrums at the C/O’s, especially when her blood sugar went down. But gradually, she gained wisdom and revelation in Christ by spending time reading and meditating on God’s word. Jeremiah 29:11 changed her life: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” God enlightened her heart and she discovered the hope of her calling.
Katie Souza later wrote a book about her experiences and insights from prison as it connected with Israel’s experience of captivity and deliverance. The Captivity Series is one of the most insightful books I’ve ever read as regards the spiritual realities of being a prisoner. God gave her a spirit of wisdom and revelation that is helping liberate thousands of prisoners through His word.
And what about the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe? Paul later writes in ch.3:20, that God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think.” Now, I know conceptually that an infinite God can do infinitely more than I can, and so beyond what I can conceive.
I cannot possibly comprehend the vastness of space that we measure in trillions of quadrillions of cubic light years. Nor can I fathom the power that is in all those billions of trillions of stars in all our galaxies. But God can, and controls all of it without taxing his abilities in the slightest. It’s simply His pleasure, His pastime!
If God can spin out a universe as vast as ours and run it smoothly, while all the while paying infinite attention to all that is going on in this earth, don’t you think He has a good idea of where you are and need to be? Can you trust Him with your future? You surely can and be assured that nothing that hurts you will cause you lasting harm from an eternal perspective. Everything that Providence directs towards God’s children is intended for eternal gain.
Paul writes that God put all things in subjection under Jesus’ feet and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body. If we are His body, and all things are under His feet, then they’re under us as well. Every problem, every sickness, every cunning scheme of the devil, every adversity or relational crisis – they’re under our feet in Christ. Have you thanked God for making you part of His body, and giving you an eternal inheritance? Is your life an expression of gratitude and reverence toward God and toward people who are all made in His image?
Are you trusting in Christ today to keep you secure in His love until the day when you can claim that inheritance in heaven? If you are unsure at all about your status as a child of God, of whether you are truly forgiven and accepted as one of His own, I would like to pray with you after this service.
Let us pray.