MAY GOD GIVE US THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND MAY OUR HEART BE ENLIGHTENED

Proclamation:

“I keep asking The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you The Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.  I pray 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 His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. …”  Ephesians 1:17-19 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written by the apostle Paul, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God, to the believers in the church at Ephesus.  After his opening greeting and introduction, Paul praised God for the spiritual blessings that they had received through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:1-14)  Then he offers a prayer for the believers so that God would bless them with The Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, and revelation, that they would know Him better.  He also prayed that they would be enlightened and know that to which God called them, know the riches of His glorious inheritance that He has for His people, and know His incomparable great power.  Paul ends by telling them about the authority and dominion that Jesus, The Christ, has over everything in this world and in the world to come. (Ephesians 1:19-23)

Application:

Paul recognized that without the help of God, the people would not understand that the church is the body of Christ and that God, The Father, planned it, God, The Son, paid for it, and God, The Holy Spirit, protects it.  Paul prayed for the believers in his day and we should pray for believers today.  We all need God’s help with understanding His Word, none of us knows everything.  We all also need to feel the almighty power of God working within us.  Additionally, we all need to develop a greater appreciation for the hope of blessings that He has called us to receive by His Word and His Spirit. 

OPEN MY EYES THAT I MAY SEE THE WONDERFUL THINGS IN YOUR WORD

Proclamation:

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.  I am a stranger on earth; do not hide Your commands from me.”  Psalm 119:18-19 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  In this the third part, Gimel, of this twenty-two part psalm, David is continuing his conversation with The Lord God.  David refers to The Word of God as God’s law (Psalm 119:18) God’s commands (Psalm 119:19) God’s statutes (Psalms 119:22) and God’s decrees. (Psalm 119:23)  Earlier he had also referred to them as God’s precepts (Psalm 119:4 and 15) and later he refers to them as judgments (Psalm 119:52) and testimonies. (Psalm 119:46)  One can only speculate as to why he chose to use so many different words to refer to one and the same thing.  Regardless, he begins this part by asking The Lord God to deal bountifully with him, to bless him with grace and mercy so that he can obey God’s Word. (Psalm 119:17)   He wants The Lord to increase his understanding and appreciation of God’s law and to enlighten him with respect to discerning the spiritual things contained therein.

Application:

Many of us read things and do not get very much out them.  The Bible is not an easy book to read and many people get only bits and pieces out of it.  Believers should delight in The Word of God and should want to know more about it.  We need to pray that The Lord God will open our eyes and enlighten us so that as we read and meditate on His Holy Word that we will be enriched and our understanding increased.  We need to study The Word of God so that we can rightly divide the truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)  We should not rely solely on our own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)  Sunday School, Bible Study, and Bible courses are designed to enhance our appreciation of The Word of God.  Anything that is not growing is dead.  If we want God to reveal more to us, then we must ask Him and let Him show us the way.  Like David was, we are strangers on this earth, we are in this world but not of it. (John 8:23 and 18:36)  We are on our way to our heavenly home, this earthly journey is just part of our preparation.  Let us allow The Word of God to show us the way and be a light on our path. (Psalm 119:105)

GOD ENLIGHTENS REWARDS AND PROTECTS US

Proclamation:

"For The LORD gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones."  Proverbs 2:6-8 (NIV)

Explanation:

King Solomon, who was granted great wisdom by God, (2 Chronicles 1:7-12 and 1 Kings 4:29-34) wrote these words under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  Solomon stated that God gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to those that He chooses, and He rewards, guards, and protects them.

Application:

As we live and breathe we are blessed everyday.  We are given many additional blessings daily for being a child of God.  While we are all blessed we do not all get the same exact blessings.  We are all enlightened, rewarded, and protected as He determines is fitting for us.  As we demonstrate that we will do the right thing with the blessings that we have received, then we will be blessed with more.  (Matthew 25:21 & 23)  Our intellectual abilities differ and so does our capacity understand the facts which are presented to us.  Therefore, our ability to utilize and apply the facts that we receive also varies and as our level of wisdom differs.  Some of us choose not to make the best of these God given gifts.  However, He still guards and protects all believers.  We just need to pray and ask for His help so that we can make the best use of the gifts which we have been given.

The Lord God Keeps Our Light Burning

"You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light."  Psalms 18:28 (NIV)  The King James Version of The Bible reads; "For thou wilt light my candle, The Lord, my God will enlighten my darkness."

King David penned this psalm as a song of deliverance.  In this psalm he records what God has done for His chosen people, and specifically what He has done for David himself.  Here he states that it was The Lord God who brought him out of trouble and darkness, and into His marvelous light.

When we were walking in darkness, we were lost, undergoing disappointment and discouragements, trials and tribulations, all without hope.  It was The Lord God who turned our darkness into light, showed us the right way, and provided a light on our path for our feet. (Psalms 119:105)  The moment that we believed, The Holy Spirit of God entered into us, and changed us. (John 14:17, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, and 2 Corinthians 5:17)  He enlightened our mind and our heart.  The light that He lit within us, was so that we could be a light to a world that is struggling in darkness. (Matthew 5:14-16)  He made disciples of us so that we could go forth and make disciples of others. (Matthew 28:19 in the ASV, ESV, NAS, NIV, NKJV, NLT, and  RSV Bible versions)  We were spiritually enlightened so that we could enlighten others.  He keeps our light burning only because He still has work for us to do. (Ecclesiastes 9:10 and John 9:4)

The Light Of The World

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, 'I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.' "  John 8:12 (NIV)

The Apostle John again records the words of Jesus, The Christ, as He spoke to the people gathered in the courts of the temple.  Here Jesus spoke the second of the great "I AM" statements and said "I AM the light of the world".  In this metaphor Jesus said that He eluminates and enlightens the way for those who believe so that they will not be lost in the darkness of ignorance or lack understanding.  The scriptures also refer to The Messiah as a light. (Isaiah 9:2, Isaiah 49:6, and Isaiah 60:1-3 & 19-20)

In this second "I AM" statement, Jesus declared that He is "the light" to show the way for the world so that we would not have to continue to be lost in darkness. (John 1:4-5 & 1 John 1:5)  Jesus is the "light" of salvation and the "light" of God.  He not only lights the way to salvation, (Psalms 27:1), He also enlightens us and gives us "the light of life" which is wisdom and understanding. (Luke 2:32)  He indwells those who believe, and it is His light that shines forth from us when we obey Him and do His will. (Matthew 5:16)  Because He is in us, and we are in Him, we should seek to do that which pleases Him, to follow Him, to walk with Him, and to avoid that which is darkness and sinful. (Ephesians 5:8-14)   We need to pray that He will help us to walk in His light.

Only Believers Will Understand

"The man without The Spirit does not accept the things that come from The Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."  1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul told the Christians in Corinth that non-believers cannot understand the things of God because they lack the gift of discernment which is given to believers by The Holy Spirit. 

There are those today who say that The Bible and belief in God is foolishness.  Non-believers are quick to question and discredit The Bible and those of us who believe it is the true Word of a living God.  The prophets said that there would be people who had eyes but could not see, and who had ears but could not hear.  (Isaiah 6:9-10, Jeremiah 5:21, & Ezekiel 12:2)  Jesus, The Christ, said the same thing when He explained why He spoke in parables.  (Matthew 13:13-17)  Wisdom and understanding come from God.  (Job 12:13, Proverbs 2:6, & Proverbs 9:10)  We only understand as God gives us insight and enlightenment, and He illuminates things for us.  In order to understand and accept the things of God, we must first believe in God.  We will only understand it all after we see Him face to face.

Once Enlightened Always Enlightened

"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in The Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of The Word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying The Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace." Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV)

The unknown author of the Bible Book of Hebrews made it clear that once a person was saved, they would always be saved.  Their future sins would not cause them to lose their salvation.  Only by willfully renouncing Jesus Christ could they ever be lost, and from that loss there could be no return. 

Once we are held in the palm of His hand, we can never be plucked out.  It is possible to be exposed to the gospel and walk among Christians for a while and not be saved. (Matthew 13:3-24)   Jesus said, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62) A number of people followed Jesus because of what He could do for them, not because they believed in Him.  Those people were not saved.  Once saved, always saved.  We may lose out on some rewards and miss out on some blessings by our behavior, but we can never lose our salvation.

We Are All Called To Serve God

"I keep asking that The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 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 ..." Ephesians 1:17-18 (NIV)

This was the prayer of the apostle Paul for the Christians in Ephesus.

We are not all called to preach the gospel, but we are all called by God to serve Him in some capacity. We are not all given the same gifts or abilities but we all have at least one gift that we can use in His service. We should all pray for each other that we would recognize our gifts and how we can use them for the glory of God.