Submitted by admin on Fri, 23/10/2009 - 16:11

Paul's Prayer for Revelation (PDF Notes)

~ Ephesians 1:15-23 ~

Click here to download the PDF presentation (495KB).

Click here to listen to the MP3 audio file (25MB, 43 mins 44 secs).

The Passage:

“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s chosen ones, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Messiah when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Assembly of His chosen ones, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Coming home...

Key Elements:

The Apostle Paul is impressing on the Believers in Ephesus that they need the 'Spirit of wisdom and revelation' so that they may know the Father better, and also that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened, so that they might know the awesome power of God as a characteristic in their lives.

Knowledge and Revelation:

The study looks at how knowledge in Hebrew thought is so much more than intellect, and that intellect alone can be a dangerous thing.

We look at how the 'obvious' doesn't need revelation, and that Paul makes specific reference to 5 'mysteries' in his letters, all of which can only be understood with the help of the Spirit of Revelation - available to all in God's Kingdom (so is nothing to do with Gnosticism).

The Power Of God In Us:

We finish by looking at how these things lead to the reality fo God's power in our lives. How the same Spirit of God that brooded over the chaotic waters of Genesis 1 is the same Spirit that raised Yeshua from the dead, and is the same Spirit that lives in Believers, even today.

The attached PDF and audio presentation was first given at a church in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, on Sunday 5th October 2008.