A Prayer That You Would Know

When I prayed that God would give you "a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened" (Ephesians 1:17-18), I did not mean mere cleverness. The word for knowledge there is not a bare acquaintance with facts, but a deep, personal knowing — the kind a man has of a friend, not of a rumor. And "the eyes of your hearts" means the seeing is not with the mind alone; it is the whole inner person waking up to what is already true. Then I heaped up words for God's power — I called it "the immeasurable greatness of his power" and reached for might and working and strength (Ephesians 1:19), because one word could not hold it. The same force that raised a dead man is the force at work in you.

I take up this same thread of the eyes being opened where I write that "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers," and that God who said "Let light shine out of darkness" has shone in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:4-6). And the resurrection-power at work in the believer I press again: "if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies" (Romans 8:11). And Christ's headship over all things, filling all — I return to it when I say "in him all things hold together" and "in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:17-19).

I write these words in chains, in Rome, under guard — and yet I begin not with my troubles but with thanksgiving, because I had heard of your faith and your love (Ephesians 1:15-16). These were saints in Ephesus and round about, Gentiles mostly, brought near by blood they once had no part in. They needed to know how vast a thing had happened to them, lest they think themselves small people with a small salvation. So from a prisoner's lodging I prayed that they would see the size of it — that the One seated far above every rule and authority (Ephesians 1:21) is the very One who counts them his own body.

You may ask: if Christ has all things "under his feet" and is head over all (Ephesians 1:22), why does the world go on so cruel, and why am I not delivered from what grieves me? It is a fair question, and I will not paper over it. Look closely at what I wrote — I did not say all things now feel subdued, but that God "raised him" and "seated him" and "put all things under his feet." It is already done in the Head; it is not yet finished in the members. That is why I prayed you would need eyes to see it, for it does not yet lie plain on the surface of your days. Hold the two together as the text holds them: he reigns now, and we wait for the reign to be shown. Do not let what your eyes see unseat what he has sworn.