Ephesians 1:15-21 New American Standard Bible 1995
15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and [a]your love for all the [b]saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the [c]knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart [d]may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the [e]saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
God’s Desire for Me
Ephesians 1:16-17 GOD’S WORD Translation
16 I never stop thanking God for you. I always remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the glorious Father, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Christ better.
First and foremost on Paul’s spirit is this – To Never stop thanking God!
Second is this – to Never stop praying to God for wisdom and revelation!
Third is this – to Never stop praying to God for His saints, for their faith or their lack of faith, or for their troubled faith to gain a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Our own growing in wisdom is about cultivating a character that is Christlike.
If we desire that much to be growing and maturing into that spirit of wisdom, then the words of Ephesians 1:16-17 are a great discovery and encouragement.
What is striking about these verses is how they tell us we don’t have to figure this all out on our own. It’s not a project for which God gives us a textbook and tests us with a final exam at the end of life. God is not a “hands off” teacher.
In Ephesians 1:16-17 Paul explains that he prays for people to have wisdom, he prays, God to be involved in the process—because that is what God promises.
Apostle Paul goes on to mention “the Spirit of wisdom,” and he isn’t asking only for the Spirit to help us; Paul asks that the Spirit of wisdom be given to us.
Why? So that our desire is that we may each come to know God better.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, this matter of gaining wisdom is not just about learning some Christian way of living.
Try to fathom this miracle: it is about an interactive God who wants to live in us, make His home in us and be part of our faith growth by becoming part of us.
We can simplify all that to this: God wants us to have wisdom.
So we can each make this incredible prayer our own, saying to God, “I want to have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation because I want to know God better.”
Getting to Know God Better
The Apostle Paul has been teaching the great facts underlying the Christian faith in Ephesians 1, and we turn now to his prayer.
This is a helpful revelation of the place of prayer in the Christian experience, especially in believers who are maturing, and in relationship to the study of Scripture – the revelation that this brings prayer and the Scriptures together.
Having finished a great passage in which he has set forth what the three-fold God is doing for us, now adds these words addressed to the Ephesian Christians.
That is really the major objective of a Christian life — is to know God better.
We need to ask ourselves,
Is this happening with us?
Are we really getting to know God better?
There is a principle in the Scripture that is very important for us to understand.
We are all familiar with the phrase that says we are made in the image of God, which means in some way that humanity reflects God.
But this fact means that we cannot learn who we are until we begin to know and learn who God is.
It is the revelation and understanding of the nature of God that will tell us what we are like.
I believe that this is one of the major reasons why many people today never seem to discover who they are.
They never learn what they can do, what possibilities lie within, and what potential is theirs because they have never discovered who God is.
We reflect Him, and therefore it is extremely important that we come to know God better.
Remember that Jesus said this in his great prayer to the Father:
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
(John 17:3)
John 17:1-5 The Message
Jesus’ Prayer for His Followers
17 1-5 Jesus said these things. Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said:
Father, it’s time.
Display the bright splendor of your Son
So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor.
You put him in charge of everything human
So he might give real and eternal life to all in his care.
And this is the real and eternal life:
That they know you,
The one and only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
I glorified you on earth
By completing down to the last detail
What you assigned me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor,
The very splendor I had in your presence
Before there was a world.
This is the reason that we exist — that we may know God better.
I both hope and pray this is happening to you, young and old alike.
You never get to the end of knowing more about God.
He is such a fantastic being that revelations about his character and nature keep coming to us, keep being revealed unto us, we truly discover that as we all come know him better, we suddenly blink our eyes, realize what our God is revealing is that we’ve come to a place in our spirits where we know ourselves better too.
So Paul prays for these people.
He doesn’t know their circumstances – he can’t pray for their daily problems and pressures as you can when you know somebody personally – but he can pray, does pray, they may know God better. That will take care of everything.
Will you make it your top priority to know God better?
Will you pray to this end on a daily basis?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 100 The Message
100 1-2 On your feet now—applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
4 Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.
Heavenly Father, please give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Open the eyes of my heart to know the hope and power by which you want me to live. Open my souls eyes, Lord, so that I may see more of who you are. For my Jesus; sake, Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 