Being Enlightened

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

BEING ENLIGHTENED

Eph 1:15-23

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 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. 18 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, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 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. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

NIV

In addition to knowing him better, because we have been given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, we also should pray for others that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened in order that they may know the hope which he has called them to, which are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for those who believe. On the other hand, we would think that others are praying that we would have the eyes of our hearts enlightened. We do wonder if it is possible that without someone praying for us, and vice versa, we are praying for them, that we all might have the eyes of our hearts enlightened because we have the indwelling of the Spirit, who leads us into all truth. We would think that it is the Spirit who does the enlightening of our hearts, but it also looks like we have to have the eyes of our hearts open, to that enlightenment. We wonder if it is possible as believers, we can close the eyes of our hearts, and thus we would not be enlightened and not know the hope that we have been called to. The Spirit is within us, but we must allow Him full access and authority in our lives for Him to open the eyes of our hearts. If we keep wanting the self within us to have any authority, then the eyes of our hearts will never be enlightened. Why would we not what the riches of his glorious inheritance? Why would we not want his incomparably great power? It is his power that he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. If the eyes of our heart are enlightened then we would know this same incomparably great power as he exerts in us as he raises us from the dead. In addition, Jesus said in the revelation given to John that those who overcome would have the right to sit on his throne with him, just as he overcame and sat down with the Father on His throne.  Of course, we want to know the power of God working in us and raising us from the dead. Therefore, we always want the Spirit to continue enlightening our hearts with all the truth of God. Let us put to death that self within us and bury it. That is exactly what we were supposed to do that day we were baptized. If we try to resurrect that self and exert its power in us, then we are going nowhere fast. It is only the incomparably great power of God exerted on us that will take us somewhere incredibly wonderful. Let us never shut the eyes of our hearts to the enlightenment of the Spirit.