Ephesians 1:17
“that the God of our Lord JesusChrist, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
Last time we spoke of the spirit of wisdom. Today we'll address the second part of Paul's prayer, for us to have more revelation of the knowledge of Him. God wants us to know Him. Part of us craves this. Romans 8:15 says, 'For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!"' However, before Christ, we were afraid of Him.
Adam and Eve demonstrated this as they hid from the Lord. We instinctively know we're guilty. That's why many are uncomfortable with the topic of God, it reminds them of their guilt. The bible goes far to say we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10). We wanted nothing to do with God.
God has a big problem in trying to draw us to Him. He loves us and wants to be in a healthy relationship. How does He convince us that He means us well? He has His ways.
We all know that God is all powerful and can help us. He uses that. We all experience difficult situations. It may be our own or those of loved ones. We pray for His assistance. We may be very desperate. We've all heard of the bargaining done with God. "Lord, I will do this if You intervene here." We probably all do that to some degree.
As we make these desperate pleas to God, we learn that He's not so bad. A small bridge is built. It's almost like the person feeding a timid squirrel, trust is built. God is doing that on a world wide scale. This experience is a small revelation of God.
Many come to Christ and accept His forgiveness and become part of the family of God. Now we are on His team. We are born again and have a new spirit that cries out to Him, "Abba! Father!" Unfortunately, while we are still on earth we still have some fear in us. The longer we walk with Him the more we learn of His goodness.
Unfortunately the world and the evil one are committed enemies of God who are on a constant campaign to malign Him. We have many of those lies ingrained in us. Walking with Him and being in His Word untangles those crooked thought and replaces them with His truth. This is more revelation of Him.
This is part of our job as believers is to be witnesses of Him. We've been converted and are now His children and we want others to know Him. At first we clumsily tell everyone, but we become wiser and more affective witnesses.
Proverbs 4:18 says, "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday." This is us growing in revelation of Him. The more we learn of Him the more we love Him. This is Paul's prayer.
All of the dark emotions that we felt aren't as dark. While we still have problems, we know we have a God who regulates the things that enter our lives. We know that He won't give us anything too difficult (I Corinthians 10:13). More than that, He allows us to experience these difficulties so we can grow in character, grow in relationship to Him and to have opportunities to share Christ with others.
Lord, thank You for Your goodness. Thank You for the revelations of You and the blessedness that is the result.