Ephesians 1:15-19 “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 … (19) what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.”
We have seen thus far that we all have hardened hearts when we come into the kingdom of God. So what does the scripture mean when it says that we have hardened hearts? It simply means that our mindset is completely contrary to what God’s word says on any given subject. The bible calls it carnal thinking, which is actually hostile toward God and toward His word (Romans 8:7). So how do believers overcome the problem of having mindsets that are contrary to God’s word? The starting point is prayer, for as we have already seen it is only God who can open our understanding to His word so that we can see things as God sees them. The apostle Paul understood that concept very clearly, which is why, as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, he prayed that God would open the understanding of the saints in the church at Ephesus. Obviously Paul prayed that same prayer for all the churches. But I want to draw your attention to the desired outcome of Paul’s prayer, i.e. that the saints would experience the exceeding greatness of God’s power. Paul goes on to mention that the desired outcome would only be experienced by the saints who choose to believe however, for he says that God’s power is “toward us who believe”. That is exactly what the doctrine of faith toward God is all about, i.e. experiencing the power of God being made manifest through the exercising of our faith in Him. And so the sequence we have discussed thus far is as follows; we pray and ask God to open our understanding to His word on any given subject. God then answers our prayer by opening our understanding to His word. Once we have understanding of God’s word on the topic in question we are then able to exercise our faith in His word, which in turn causes God’s power to be made manifest. As an aside, I need to mention the importance of the saints praying for fellow believers to gain understanding of God’s word. Clearly Paul understood this concept, which is why he prayed for the churches in this manner. So why is it important for us to pray for our brethren to have the eyes of their understanding enlightened? The reason is because very often the saints do not even realise that it is because of their lack of understanding of God’s word that they are prevented from experiencing God’s power in their lives. Think about the unsaved for example. If the saints do not pray for them to see the light of the gospel they certainly won’t pray for themselves, for they do not acknowledge that they need salvation. I’m convinced that God uses His saints to pray for the unsaved in this exact manner, which is why Jesus said that when we share the message of the gospel with the unsaved, that we reap that for which others have laboured (John 4:37-38). In the same manner, unless we pray for fellow believers to have the eyes of their understanding enlightened to the truths in God’s word, many will not pray for themselves and thus never experience the reality of God’s power in their lives.
Michael E.B. Maher
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