To Know Him More Fully

Transcript

GR 140
06/22/1975
To Know Him More Fully
Ephesians 1:15-23
Gil Rugh

Ephesians Chapter 1 and we finished the long sentence that Paul began in verse 3 which ran through verse 14 and in this statement of praise to God Paul has touched on the work of the father, the son and the spirit. Last week we looked at verses 13 and 14 where we were told that we were sealed by the spirit himself and the Holy Spirit of God is the seal that God has placed within us and upon us which guarantee that we shall receive the inheritance that God has prepared for us and the ultimate redemption of the body which will occur at the second coming of Christ first at the rapture for the church and then when we return with him and the curse is lifted from the creation Romans Chapter 8 is the section that ties to this and explains it in detail.

We noted this section verses 13 and 14 the work of the spirit gives proof that I am secure in Christ, that the work that father has done for me in his son is a work of eternal significance that I can never lose my salvation because it does not depend upon what I do, it depends upon what he does and what he has done. So I am secure in my relationship with God that can never ever, ever change or end. My experience in that relationship fluctuates, my enjoyment of that relationship fluctuates but my relationship is stable and eternal because I am sealed and I have the spirit as God’s pledge to me.

Now verse 15 begins for this reason and that ties back to everything he has said in this one long sentence in verses 3 to 14, for this reason because of what God has done, because of what Jesus Christ has done, because of what the Holy Spirit has done, because of the position now that you occupy in Christ, because of the work that God has done in your life for this reason I pray. It’s interesting that out of this doctrinal foundation Paul is motivated to pray for the Ephesian Christian. I think it points up an important aspect of prayer. The more you know about the word the better grasp you have on the doctrines of the word, the teaching of the word the more effective and vital you will be in your prayer life. If you do not know the word, if you do not know about the God that you’re talking to then your prayer life will be rather shallow and hollow.

It also interests to me that Paul has talked quite a bit about election and predestination. One of the things that we often read is that well, if it’s all predetermined, if God has elected, if God has predestined why pray. Well Paul says it’s just the opposite with me. Recognizing that God has elected, that God has predestined that motivates me to pray why. Because I am praying to a God who is effectively in control. Why should I pray to a God who is not in control, who does not have things under his power and authority so that motivates Paul to pray so for this reason. If you don’t have an effective prayer life maybe you have to go back and read verses 3 to 14 again. See if you have some grasp for the teachings of the word and if you do you’ll find this begins to motivate you in your prayer life with one other ingredient that Paul is going to bring in, in his discussion this morning. So for this reason I too having heard of the faith in the lord Jesus which exits among you and your love for all the saints do not cease giving thanks to you while making mention of you in my prayer.

Now the basis for Paul’s prayer ties to what he has said and also to what he has heard. What he has said in verses 3 to 14 and what he has heard about the Ephesians because he says that I give thanks and I make mention of you in my prayers having heard of the faith in the lord Jesus which exists among you. Then a number years since Paul had been at Ephesus now he gets word of their faith and he is encouraged. So, having heard of their faith in the lord Jesus that’s foundational for praying for them as believers, the faith that they have in Christ and your love for all the saints. Now that’s interesting that these two go together and they do other places in the word as well they are joined faith and love.

Faith, hope and love as Paul talked to the Corinthians about and first comes faith then comes love. I’ve heard of your faith in Jesus Christ and you love for all the saints because true faith in Jesus Christ will manifest itself in a love for other believers and it only says your love for all the saints. That what happens when you become a believer in Jesus Christ then you develop a family affection and love for other believers in him because you’ve become part of God’s family you have a relationship now which did not exist before. And it is just as unnatural and unhealthy for a Christian not to love another Christian as it is in the physical family for a brother to hate his brother or not love his sister and so on. In fact it is more unnatural in the spiritual context in light of what God has done and the work he is doing. So the evidence that Paul had that their faith was genuine was they loved other Christians.

And if you have no love for other believers, no desire to be with them, no concern over them that is a good indication that you do not have saving faith in Jesus Christ. You may have an intellectual assent to certain fact but if you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, have experienced the salvation that comes through faith in him then you will have a love for other Christians because he produces it and this is the evidence that faith is real. This is what Jesus talked about with his disciples on that last night with him by this shall all men know that you are my disciples how, if you have love toward one and other. Your faith in me will manifest itself in love for other believers and that’s the evidence that you’re truly my disciples.

Okay, I’ve heard of this and has motivated me in verse 16 not to cease giving thanks for you also Paul must have had some kind of prayer life because I take it in writing under the inspiration of the scripture he could not exaggerate his prayer life like sometime you and I do and he often writes how he doesn’t give up in giving thanks. He prays ceaselessly with thanks giving for believers and hearing of their faith and hearing of their love he says I don’t cease giving thanks for you. Now obviously that doesn’t mean he walks around in a daze thank you for the Ephesians, thank you for the Ephesians, thank you for the Ephesians. When he prays it was part of his prayer life to bring them before God and thank God for them and for the work that He has done in their life. You know it’s not all over I am afraid for them now they’ve been saved let’s pray about somebody else.

Now I got to continue to give thanks to God for this. I am praying the God is going mold them and mature them but every time I see a Christian and especially those who have the opportunity be involved with perhaps you led them to the lord you go to see things in their life that you can give thanks to God for. We often see the negative things and say is God is ever going to change that, is God ever going to refine them but Paul says I can give thanks for you all the time. I am thankful for you and for you faith in Christ and for your love for other believers. And I make mention of you in my prayers so I don’t cease giving thanks for you while I am making mention of you in my prayers. So the two elements of Paul’s prayer life basically his thanks giving and then his request.

As he lays them before God brings request before God it’s not just request but he balances that with thanks giving in appreciation for what God has already done in their life. You think of the Christians that you pray for. How much of your prayer time is spent in thanking God for what he has already in their life and what he is doing as well as what you would like him to do in their life. It’s easy to get negatively oriented even in our prayer life. You know we really get driven to prayer when something negative happens in our life or in the life of someone else. Paul balanced it with the thanks giving but the making mention of you in my prayer there is the positive side here not only of thanks giving but also of what he would desire that God would do because in spite what has happened to the Ephesians, in spite of their position in Christ they have not yet reached perfection in their practice.

There seems to be something of a concern that comes out in Paul’s prayer here that may reflect itself in the letter to the Ephesians from Jesus Christ in the book of revelation Chapter 2 that we looked at in our introduction. A danger that it would be becoming common place and rather mundane being a believer. We all know what’s like if you have been a Christian for any amount of time, you know how it is when the coldness sets in and you really don’t have any interest in studying your bible anymore and just somehow it doesn’t have the same vitality in life and there is a coolness there. They may know a lot of facts about the word but if you are honest within yourself you have to say I really can say I’ve got hunger for the word. There are lot of things I’d rather do than study the bible today. And there are lot of things I’d rather do than get together with some Christians this morning. But somethings you have to do and it becomes mundane and cold and there may be an inclination that this a danger facing the Ephesians.

He prays in verse 17, making mention of you in my prayer that the God of our lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory and note here the pattern prayer is addressed to the father by Paul through the son that the God of our -- the father the God of our lord Jesus Christ the father of glory we’ve seen this expression that God of our lord Jesus Christ in verse 3 we know that this ties to the humanity to Christ. In is humanity the father was his God, it does not do anything to play down the duty of Jesus Christ. It simply means as a man Jesus Christ looked to God the father as his God. He could not have functioned as a man if he continued to look to himself as God. Now he did not cease being God but he functioned as a man and thus acknowledged the father as his God. He uses this expression and we looked at some of them when we were in verse 3 earlier. So the God of our lord Jesus Christ interesting that Paul identifies in this way, he was Paul’s God as well but Paul’s relationship to Jesus Christ is what makes his relationship to the father meaningful and real. And so I am praying to the God of our lord Jesus Christ who is also the father of glory.

The Father is glorious and that would be involved here but it goes beyond that. He is the Father of glory, all glory resides in Him and He is the source of all glory. So He is the Father of glory there is no glory apart from Him. And so He is identified as the Father of glory. This might tie as well, in verse 3 he was called the Father of our lord Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the one who has manifested the glories of the Father to man. I’ll just read the one verse and He is the radiance referring to Christ of his glory referring to the Father. He is the radiance of His glory the exact representation of His nature and of all things by the word of His power.

Hebrews Chapter 1 verse 3, Jesus Christ being the One who is the express image and manifestation of the father’s glory and so referring to Him as the Father of glory would have a parallel idea to verse 3 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the one who did manifest the glory of this father. Paul wants the father to do three things for the Ephesians. He wants Him to give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him and order that the eyes of your heart being enlightened you may know what is the hope of His calling the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints by passing greatness of His power and then end up that the Ephesians might know the hope that is calling that they might know the glory of His inheritance, they might know the greatness of His power. For them to realize this and to know it they must have the eyes or they must have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him that their eyes and their hearts may be enlightened.

Now important here we’re talking about believers. We’re talking about those who have placed their faith in Christ. Paul said that in verse in 15, I’ve heard of the faith you have in the lord Jesus. These are Christians who are manifesting love to other believers so their faith is genuine but now he is praying that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. And it is possible to be a believer to manifest love toward other Christians and still not have the insight and understand and grasp of the person and work of God and his son Jesus Christ that is necessary and essential for a vital Christian life. He prays that he may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Now this could be translated capital S referring to the Holy Spirit I think it’s better small s as we have it here to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Now they already have the Holy Spirit that was verses 13 and 14 last week. You were sealed with the spirit. It was given to you as God’s down payment of your inheritance. So Paul can’t be praying to God in verse 17 that God would give them the spirit. Versus 13 and 14 is already clear that they already had the spirit but that they would respond to the spirit so that the spirit might in their spirit give them insight and understand a spirit of wisdom and revelation in other words the ability to know and understand wisdom and revelation, wisdom not just the facts but the ability to understand and grasp the facts in relationship to themselves.

Anyone can learn fact, anyone can study the word and get the facts down but the wisdom and revelation doesn’t necessarily come because you’ve assimilated some facts so that you can inherit back certain doctrine. It doesn’t even come if you can say that it’s the nearest active participle doesn’t mean that you really have wisdom and revelation. It means you have a certain intellectual grasp of an area. But Paul wants the Ephesians to go beyond this. He wants them to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The word knowledge here is the intensified word for knowledge the epiginosco, the full knowledge. Ginosco is knowledge, epi the preposition on the front of it denoting an increased or an intensified knowledge, a full knowledge as you have it in the margin a true knowledge that’s not true knowledge in contrast to false knowledge but a fuller. Now he wants them to have a real understanding and grasp of him referring to God.

So you can be a Christian as the Ephesians were and yet be falling short of really knowing and understanding about God. You know that he saved you, you know that salvation is through faith in Christ. But to really grasp something of his person in work and I take it to grasp something of your position in Christ accomplished for you by him as a work of the spirit within our spirit giving us wisdom and understanding. This would tie somewhat to First Corinthians 2 where we’re told that you cannot understand the things of God apart from the spirit of God. That’s the first step. An unregenerate man, man who does not believe in Jesus Christ can know nothing about God. He cannot understand God’s work and God’s dealing. Now you become a believer you have the spirit of God living within you. You have the potential for knowing everything that God has chosen to reveal about himself in the world. That does not guarantee that you will know everything because you may not have that insight and understanding that comes.

Note, as a result of prayer Paul is praying that God will give this to them. I think this ties to what I mentioned earlier about our bible study becoming rather cold and mundane because of your bible study your reading of the word degenerates the just collection of a set of facts, the study of some doctrines without seeing and grasping something of the person that they are revelation of, without seeing something of your relationship to that person then your study of the word will become cold and you will become disinterested. I take it one of the keys to keeping life in your study of the word is praying for a spirit of wisdom and revelation. When you come to the word to read it to study it you pause and ask God to really give you insight and understanding for what you’re reading not just that so you’ll know the facts better than someone else does but so that you will know him more fully and completely.

God help me know about you when I am done reading this chapter than when I started. Help me to grasp more fully my relationship to you, my position now in Christ as a result of my study today. You are often more satisfied just to jot down the facts that are there and we never do come to grasp more of him and more of what we are in him. If you don’t have that your study of the word is rather worthless and unprofitable. So we’re going through this whole time waiting it to get back is simply to pause and talk it over with God. God I need wisdom and revelation that only the spirit himself can give me. I want to know more about you as I study the word and thus the increase in my knowledge and understanding.

I take it this is why we have such as ignorance of positional truth which is the Ephesians greatly emphasis our position in Jesus Christ which is foundational to everything else. Yet many people who know many facts about the word are rather ignorant of their position in Christ. I take it is because they don’t have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. They really don’t know him in the fullest sense of understanding what he has done for them, understanding his workings on their behalf. I think that’s why we have such a problem with the doctrines of election and predestination because we don’t have a full understanding and appreciation of how he operates and works. And I don’t study the word with that as my goal to know more about him to understand more about him. Often we study the words so that we can confirm our preconceived ideas and that’s not the way we come to the word. All right so that’s the first things the Ephesians need that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

Verse 18 the eyes of your heart being enlightened foundational to everything I’ll tell you this is parallel. We talk about a spirit of wisdom and revelation that is the same things as the eyes of your heart being enlightened. I am not talking about the Holy Spirit we’re talking about the spirit of wisdom and revelation, we’re talking about eyes of your heart now rather pictures the expression, the heart referring to the seed of the personality, not just your emotions, not just you intellect, not just your will but all three, the eyes of your heart, the seed of your personality, being enlightened. So if you have a spirit of wisdom and revelation it will mean that you as a person dwell inside into the word and it will involve not only your intellect but your emotions and your will as well. I’d tell you this is the danger that we mention from time to time at Indian Hill that we forget about our emotions, we forget our will and are satisfied to fill our intellect and that we simply come here and pump our intellect full of the word the eyes of our heart have not been enlightened. Because when your eyes are enlightened you will see with the fullness of your person and that will draw your emotions into your study of the word and it cannot be cold and dry when I am emotionally involved.

You know most of you who have been in love at one time or another some of you still are, you are in love with someone but I thinking mainly of your relationship with the opposite sex or your wife, your husband they are opposite sex but now you are married to them. You know you weren’t satisfied just to have certain facts, you know well, yes I love her because she has brown eyes and brown hair and yes she is quite good and I couldn’t help to loved someone who is five foot tall. Yes, intellectually now what happens.

There are certain intellectual responses a knowledge you have of the person but what happens there as well. Your emotions are drawn in, in this relationship as well as your will because you make decision in light of what you know, in light of the feeling and that’s the way it is in your study of the word. If the study of the word is cold, if you can read the word and not become excited about it, not be moved by it that’s another indication that the eyes of your understanding of not being enlightened. The word of God does not move you emotionally as well as intellectually then you are not seeing with the eyes of your heart and if your will is not moved to act upon what you read in submission to the spirit the eyes of your heart have not been enlightened. You did not have the spirit of wisdom and revelation. You may be a believer that the first thing you need to nail down, you may not be a believer. That why the word leaves you cold.

But if you are a believer you need to sure that you are submissive to the spirit that you want the spirit of wisdom and revelation the eyes of your heart to be open in order that God can present the word to you in its fullness. The result will be that you may know that the hope of his calling. First area that is opened up is the hope of his calling. We’ve talked about this a number of times. I take it the hope as it does always what believers referrers to something in the future. Paul talked of the Romans about a hope that you can see is not hope, it’s something really realized. When you’re talking hope you’re talking about something is yet future and when we talk about the hope of his calling we are looking toward that time of the consummation of this call looking for the blessed hope even the appearing in glory of the great God who is our Savior Jesus Christ that is the hope of our calling, our calling by God. The hope of that calling is the ultimate realization of seeing him face to face, of having this body transform into consummating with his body of glory and sharing in his presence for eternity that’s the hope of his calling.

Now again that can become rather dull and mundane, fine that’s agreed I know I have that hope but what about today, I have to live today and I now Jesus may come today glad day, glad day but what if he doesn’t. I’ve been singing that song ever since I can remember and he still hasn’t come and this maybe jury day jury day, tomorrow maybe glad day glad day. Let me live in light of that. Well we fail to realize what the hope of his calling involves. Because yes it does point to that ultimate time when I am going to personally transformed in his presence but it also involves what is going on right now in my life today because I am to see everything as part of that process in bringing me to that point when I shall be brought into his presence.

Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16, the outer man is decaying the inner man is being renewed and strengthened. So when I talk about of the hope his calling it is not just the future point in time, but it involves the process that God is accomplishing in my life right now to prepare me for that point in time. So if I really know and grasp something of the hope of his calling that affects my conduct today because everything that comes across my path and into my life today I see it as part of that molding and transforming process that God is accomplishing in my life and order that he might prepare me for his presence.

Verse 18 of Chapter 3 of Second Corinthians why you are here. Second Corinthians 3:18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory justice from lord the spirit. The work that the spirit of God is doing in our lives as Christians in what molding us and so everything that comes into my life today is not why God is this happening but thank you God for the molding process. It’s not why would God allow this to happen to me but God is molding me and it may involve the increased deterioration of this physical body. But I am not looking at this physical body. I am looking at the work that God is doing within me to mold me and form and prepare me for glory in his presence. Paul wrote to the Colossians in Chapter 3 and he told them when Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with him glory. Now Colossians Chapter 3 and that said in the context of our daily lives living our lives in light of what we are because when Christ who is our life appears we will share in his glory.

So back to Ephesians 1, if you know what is the hope of his calling that ultimate goal toward which you are moving then you see everything in light of that goal and if you don’t see everything in light of that goal then you really don’t know what is the hope of His calling. Your of your heart have not been enlightened you might have the intellectual answer the hope of his calling refers to when Jesus Christ comes in glory and I am transformed to be like him. Fine, that’s the intellectual response. But if you really see and understand that that means that everything that comes into your life today will be seen in light of that in light of the molding process is part of what God is doing to prepare me for that point. All right, the second thing that they might know and see, what are riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Well we talked about his inheritance and being the heritage of God earlier verse 14 along earlier section in that long sentence I talked about being God’s heritage and we are God’s heritage and God’s inheritance as well as we look forward to an inheritance. We are heirs of God and join heirs with Jesus Christ and back to Romans Chapter 8 again for the details of this. But there we’re told that we might know what are the riches of His glory the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

Now I can be talking about our inheritance we’re heirs and join heirs with Christ. I think more probably in the context we’re talking about the glory of his inheritance in the saint. We’re talking about the fact still that is being talked about earlier that we are God’s heritage that I am his inheritance as well as the fact that he has prepared an inheritance for me and they go hand in hand because you’ll note the glory of his inheritance I think that is a strong emphasis for me. I am him his heritage, his inheritance and I know something of the glory of his inheritance. You know the reason we often live so mundane as Christians because we don’t know the position that we have in Jesus Christ. I talk about the fact that I am the heritage of God his inheritance do I know anything about the glory of his inheritance that’s me we’re talking about.

Do we know anything about the glory of His inheritance that is me? Do I know anything about the glory about the glory that is mine as His inheritance? Now you think of God, the God of all glory, the God of everything and He says that I am His inheritance. Now I do know something of the glory of His inheritance. I think in the earthly realm of a very wealthy person the inheritance he would leave the glory at would accrue to that I think of the God of glory the inheritance that his is and all the glory that it accrues to that that’s talking about me. I’ll tell you we’re talking about the position now that we have in Jesus Christ didn’t I know anything about that I know anything about the glory of God’s inheritance the inheritance is the saints then I cannot live on a mundane level that makes me a glorious person because I am the inheritance and I need to learn something of the glory that is mine is as his inheritance. Now it’s not mine because of what I am it is mine because of what he has done.

Paul says I’d like you to know something of the glory of his inheritance. We live like beggars, line mundane plotting along insignificant people, always # meet in no end, the Christian tells me well, you know I am really worth very much, I can’t do much. That aggravates me so if you said it to me now you know you aggravated me. I ran in and took two # and laid down in my couch because that is the cast dispersions on God’s inheritance, God doesn’t have any dull inheritance. He doesn’t say that do you know the glory of some of my inheritance. He says do you know the glory of my inheritance in the saints. They don’t tell me what you are not. Paul says I want you know what you are.

It is not being humble to say what we are not we all know what we are not. We live with each other. But it is important to know what we are so appreciate now the fact that the glory that is, is inheritance. I can’t tell you I am insignificant. I am overwhelmingly significant because I am his inheritance and he doesn’t have anything that’s un-glorious or insignificant as his inheritance why, because of what he has done for that which is in his inheritance so it’s not anything to do with me, no cause for pride for me it’s what he has done to me his inheritance that gives me all the glory. But I need to be careful that I am appreciating that that I realize it, that I am enjoying it. That’s why Paul says that the eyes of your heart maybe enlightened as you might know the glory of his inheritance, not functioning as though there were no glory as though we were insignificant, there is no such thing as an insignificant unglorious Christian because every Christian every saint is part of God’s inheritance and every little minute portion of God’s inheritance is just illuminated with his glory because of what he has done in that person in Jesus Christ.

Verse 19; first, they know what is the hope, second, the inheritance, third, the power and we’re going to be breaking off in the middle of this because the rest of the Chapter develops this idea of power Paul is at a loss for words to describe the power of God operating in the believers life and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. So I know something about the hope of his calling, know something about the glory of his inheritance and you have to know something about the surpassing greatness of his power toward us to believe. Again that they might realize and have some perception in their knowledge of God of the overwhelming greatness of the power of God operating in though and on behalf of those who are believers in Jesus Christ. I just cannot function just as normal human being by surpassing greatness of God’s power is operative in my life. That puts me in a different realm than an unbeliever. He functions as though his human resources were everything and they are for him. But for me my resources are infinite because it is God’s surpassing power, the overwhelming greatness of his power that is operating in through and on my behalf as a Christian.

I am afraid that the majority of us all of us to one degree or another just don’t grasp at all the power of God. We couldn’t live like we do the plotting defeated dragging Christian life. We realize something of the surpassing greatness of his power. We’re going to look at these words that are called build here running into the rest of the verse and then the illustration of his power through the of the chapter next week but to grasp something of his operative in my life. That will enable me to function in light of my position that I know something of the power that is operative in me it is infinite you say I cannot live as God would had me live I know that. But God’s power is able to make you the person that he wants you, to be to enable you to live the lives that he wants you to live, to able you to live in light of the hope of his calling, to live in light of the glory of his inheritance, the glory that is yours as result of being in Jesus Christ. His power is able to enable you to live in light of your position in Jesus Christ.

There is no reason that I cannot live my life in light of my position in Christ. The breakdown comes when I had a longer drop on the power that he has put at my disposal, the power that is operative toward us to believe it’s power that took a sinner on his way to hell cleansed forgave him made him a new person in a position a child of God on his way to heaven that power is the power we’re talking about let’s illustrate next week it’s the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead the very same power that operated in Jesus Christ is the power that is operative on the behalf of a believer and that is something to me. The very same power that was operative in life of Jesus Christ while he walked here on earth is the very same power that is operative toward me as a believer.

Now that means the resource is at my disposal are limitless. The opportunity for me are limitless the only limitation is the limitation I put on it, that’s all. Too often we are blind as believers in the area of our heart we don’t really fully know him and appreciate what we have in him through Jesus Christ the hope, the glory and the power made available to us in his son Jesus Christ so where are you this morning you know where you are some of you are here and you came here because it pleased your wife or it pleased your husband, you got to do it because of the kids but you haven’t been in the word week and you don’t have any desire to pick up your bible off the table when you drop it off after Sunday morning.

Well, you need to get back to where you belong. You need to ask God open the eyes of your heart and then get in the word and trust him to do it, allow him to reveal himself to you through the word. You don’t know that might become alive; you won’t be able to stand the way till next Sunday to get into the word. You couldn’t go that long, you’ll be starved. You’d be here Friday night waiting to get in Sunday morning. But you can take the word home with you can read it you can study it; you can allow him to open it up to you. If are here not a believer none of this applies to you, you have no hope, you have no glory, you have no power but it is available to you if you will believe in Jesus Christ. That simple step of placing your faith in Christ makes all the difference. It gives you hope, it gives you the glory of being his inheritance; it makes his power operative in your life. If you haven’t believed in him you ought to do it right now.

Let’s pray together. Father again we’re mindful of your total sufficiency for our finite minds it seems overwhelming in many ways. I would pray that indeed we might be enlightened in our hearts that our eyes might be opened in order that we might have a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of revelation in order that we might have a fuller knowledge and understanding of yourself. But we’re thankful for the privilege of knowing you, and we pray that we will not satisfied with simply surface knowledge, words with simply peripheral knowledge that we might desire a full and complete knowledge of you, of you power, of your working, of your glory, of the hope for that we would be in the word that would be open to the spirit in order that we might be enjoying our position in Christ or that we might be living every day in light of our position, in light of the hope, or in light of what you’ve done for us and in us.

Pray to God that our lives will exude victory and confidence not in the flesh, but in yourself. Pray for those are here that have not yet trusted you, they might do that right now that they might know what it is to be a new person to have a new relationship or to be your child and have all the glories of heaven awaiting them. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.