The Apostle Paul's prayer for the Ephesian saints begins with a request to God to give them THE HOLY SPIRIT. The ESV translates this "a spirit of wisdom and revelation." Which is it, capital "S" or a little "s"? There are no capitals in the Greek. The determination regarding "Spirit" or "spirit" has to be made from the context or from the teaching of Scripture taken all together.
We know that believers are graciously given the Holy Spirit at conversion (Ephesians 1:13; Romans 8:9) to INDWELL them. So Paul could NOT be asking for the Spirit to be given to indwell the Ephesian saints. But the Scriptures DO speak of the Spirit being given for special tasks (e.g. Acts 4:8; 4:31) and Jesus did teach His disciples that the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those (those CHILDREN of His) who ask (Luke 11:13). In this sense, being "given" the Holy Spirit would mean to be given His HELP, to RECEIVE HIS MINISTRY.
The Holy Spirit is the One whose ministry is to TEACH believers and to make them KNOW TRUTH (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 John 2:27). HE it is who opens our eyes to see God as the One who calls us to hope, makes us His inheritance, and works in and for us with immeasurable power (Ephesians 1:18-19). And so...Paul constantly asks for God to give the "Spirit of WISDOM and REVELATION" to the saints.
Note:
- REVELATION: means to make known what could not otherwise be known. What is revealed in this sense could never be known by human investigation. A picture of this would be a pot cooking on the stove with the lid on. You wonder what is in the pot, but you will never know UNTIL the lid is taken off. The Holy Spirit TAKES THE LID OFF so that we may see and know WHO God is, WHAT He has done for us in Christ, HOW much He loves us, and HOW to reciprocate. If the Holy Spirit does not "take the lid off" for us, we will NEVER know these things. This is why if we GRIEVE the Holy Spirit by our sin, all of a sudden we stop SEEING like we used to. The Word of God becomes dry and new insights stop. Even what we DO know shrivels. We are absolutely dependent on the Holy Spirit to KNOW God. We must, as Paul did, for ourselves and others...keep asking for the Spirit to be given us to minister His revealing and teaching in our lives through the Word.
- WISDOM: Wisdom deals with PRACTICAL knowing. Without REVELATION, we cannot know God truly. Without WISDOM we do not know HOW to respond to our knowledge of God. That is, how is knowing God supposed to affect my life? How do I respond to Him? How do I live out a relationship to Him?
- KNOWING HIM: This word for KNOW deals with DEEP, CLEAR, FULL, INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE. This knowing is personal and relational knowing. It is knowing UP CLOSE. It is glorious to know that this kind of knowing is not only POSSIBLE for us, but PROMISED to us, if we seek to know Him and have the Spirit's help. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ and the FIRST and FOREMOST of them is knowing HIM!
Nothing is more important than personally, intimately, life-changingly knowing our Father and His Son. This has been provided for through the redeeming death of the Son and the indwelling, revealing presence of the Holy Spirit. And so, as the prophet wrote:
"Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3
1 comment:
Mike--Thanks for sending me your blog address--I check it every morning and am refreshed by it. Don't stop writing--you are appreciated!
Greg
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