Should Christians seek after spiritual enlightenment?

In 1:17, the prayer begins by asking of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Originator of all that is truly glorious, that He will also impart the full knowledge of it. Every word and phrase of the opening section underline the fact that, although this kind of knowledge can be learned, we are dependent on God for this learning by His Spirit. "May give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" is closely parallel with Isaiah 11:2 about Messiah: "the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." God has given His Spirit, but this request is for the wisdom, revelation, and knowledge, which are some of His mighty works. We ought never to be afraid to pray for knowledge, the right kind of knowledge, coming to us from the right source.

A very special light is cast on this knowledge by what follows: "the eyes of your heart being enlightened." It is idle to make anatomical distinctions between head and heart and the approximate distance between them. All knowledge must in fact involve the brain, that is, in the popular phrase, be head knowledge. The bearing of "the eyes of your heart" can only be, following the insistence that it comes from God by revelation of His Spirit, that this knowledge is also in a special way bound up with the affections. In other words, the meaning is akin to the condemnation of knowledge in 1 Corinthians 8:2 and 13:2 as well as in 1 John 4:8. Knowledge separated from divine love in the heart, is knowing nothing as we "ought to know."

The brightness of the "excellent glory" is now become the temple of inquiry for Christian faith. To know God in His perfections, as He declares Himself in Jesus, is the portion of His children; while the means of that knowledge is the active power of the Holy Ghost. Accordingly, we find that both in this prayer, and in that which follows in chapter 3, the Spirit, in His Divine operations, is the primary Object of the Apostle's desire for the saints. This is a fact of much practical interest; and which the Christian will do well to ponder. Spiritual blessings can only be apprehended by the Spirit. Nor does our being definitively sealed by that Spirit, as the earnest of our inheritance, set us above the necessity of seeking, through prayer, the several manifestations of His gracious energy. Such prayer, instead of ceasing with our knowledge of complete acceptance in the Beloved, properly commences then. For all true prayer is in the Spirit, and with the enlightened understanding. The natural tendency of the renewed mind is towards the God who has created it.

Seven Spirits are before the throne of God; and all are in the power of the Lamb (Rev. 4:5; 5:6). It is according to the varied perfection of Divine energy, thus symbolized, that the Holy Ghost now works His blessed work as the Comforter and Teacher of the saints. Accordingly, the Apostle, whose present aim is the advancement of His brethren in the truth, desires, as his first request on their behalf, that God would give them "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (verse 16). He had before spoken of the wisdom and prudence in which God has abounded in the manifestation of His grace towards the Church. The Spirit of wisdom is now sought for, that those treasures may be more completely made our own.

While Jesus, tarried upon earth with His disciples, they received from Him the blessing of His doctrine, chiefly by means of question and reply. Yet He dwelt among them, and His presence with them was their security and their delight. And it is in a manner somewhat analogous to this that the Lord, who now dwells in His chosen by the Spirit, has still to be inquired for and sought, that the varied and blessed activities of His grace may be practically apprehended and enjoyed. It is with reference to this that the Lord appears to speak when, in Luke 11:13, He assures His disciples of the Father's readiness to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Thus, prayer in the Spirit, may also be praying for the Spirit; for those special operations of His power, which we feel to be needful for the progress of our souls in the knowledge and service of the God with whom we have to do. As to the particular manifestations of the Spirit here desired, it is well to remember, that a saint is a learner from the date of his conversion. Disciples must, in order to become such, have been first summoned, by the voice of Jesus, from their previous condition of spiritual darkness. Ignorance of God being characteristically our state by nature, we begin to know only when we taste the sincere milk of the word. And it becomes us to desire that word, that we may grow thereby. It would fare but ill with that Christian, who, under the delusive idea that, because he has all in Christ, he therefore knows all that he is called to learn, should cease to sit lowly at the feet of Jesus. It is because we are called to know God, and not the letter of His doctrine only, that we need these manifestations of the Spirit. He only can reveal Himself. Our knowledge at the best is but inceptive here below; and the more wisely we have appreciated the riches of the grace in which we stand, the more conscious we shall be of the deficiency of our knowledge, and the more eager in our desire for its increase. Nothing, indeed, is a stronger proof of spiritual dulness, and practical distance from God, than when we flatter ourselves that we have yet learned anything as we ought to know (1 Cor. 8:2).

Several of these subjects of petition I feel are too much forgotten; for instance, that He might give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I suppose it is not the Holy Ghost. As a believer, I cannot pray to receive the Spirit, because I am in the place where the Spirit is; but if I am there, and know I am there, I must seek the spirit of wisdom from God.

Several of these subjects of petition I feel are too much forgotten; for instance, that He might give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I suppose it is not the Holy Ghost. As a believer, I cannot pray to receive the Spirit, because I am in the place where the Spirit is; but if I am there, and know I am there, I must seek the spirit of wisdom from God.

Having unfolded the wonderful counsels of God for the glory of Christ and for the blessing of His saints, the Apostle Paul prayed for the saints at Ephesus, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (Eph. 1:17). It was not enough for the Apostle to unfold the truth to the saints; to understand what he had made known there had to be the spiritual state to enter into it, and this state is that which is capable of apprehending what has been revealed. To receive the things of divine wisdom, we must have the spirit of wisdom; to receive the things divinely revealed we must have the spirit of revelation. It is God that gives this spiritual state, to those who are desirous of it, those who are in communion with Him regarding the things He has made known by revelation.

Every true believer in Christ is born of God, and so has his eyes open. Believers also have the indwelling Spirit of God who gives the power to apprehend divine revelations, the revelations that are found in the Holy Scriptures. Something more is required for entering into God’s wonderful counsels, and for this the Apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17. He desired that the saints might have the spiritual state, that affinity of soul with the divine revelations, “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of” God as found in these wondrous heavenly unfoldings by the Spirit. With this state of soul we shall indeed be able to enter into the wondrous things of the law, the wondrous things made known in the Son on earth, and the wondrous things made known by the Spirit in connection with God’s eternal purpose in Christ.

Paul first desires that the Father of glory would give the saints the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him. This belongs to the spiritual state necessary for the reception of the divine communications vouchsafed. It is altogether impossible to apprehend the wisdom and intelligence in which God has abounded to us in the revelation of the mystery of His will apart from having this spirit of wisdom; nor can we truly enter into the blessed revelation that God has made of Himself in His wonderful purpose unless we have the spirit of revelation. This spirit is surely the spiritual affinity, produced within us through communion with God in regard to the communications He has made. We are often content to go on in a low spiritual state in which we cannot enter into God's highest thoughts for us; and the precious things pertaining to the full knowledge of God lie unexplored and unknown. Our knowledge of God largely depends on the character of our communion with Him. Most pray to God for their needs, and about their troubles; others will also pray for the prosperity of the Gospel, and it may be for the whole field of God's interests in the world; but how few comparatively go to God to speak with Him about His purpose and the glory of His Son. It is this last that will give us from God the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him. Depend upon it, if we are absorbed with present things, even if it be with things that are right in themselves, we are not likely to be much concerned with God's purpose, and the great wealth of blessing which is ours because of it. It is not that we may not know the terms of the full know-ledge of God as revealed in these preceding verses; the eyes of our hearts being enlightened would indicate that it is necessary to have the light of them in terms* before there can be the true knowledge in the heart. Two things are therefore essential for knowing these things; first, the spiritual state to apprehend the truth; second, the light brought before us through ministry from God.

That God should give His saints the spirit of wisdom and revelation is not referring to the gift of the Spirit of God personally, for verse 13 declared them already to be sealed with the Holy Spirit. But just as "the spirit of meekness" (Gal.6:1) refers to an attitude characterized by meekness, so this is an attitude characterized by both wisdom and revelation. Wisdom is that which applies rightly whatever knowledge we may have learned. But the spirit of revelation is that attitude of soul that is ready to receive directly from the Lord whatever thoughts He may reveal to us. Thus, as we meditate or think about Christ and His Word, precious things may suddenly come to us which are not the result merely of learning and wisdom. Though having always been in His Word, they had not been formerly revealed to us by God. Wonderful are the gracious ways of our God and Father!

The first prayer is addressed to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, "that he may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him; the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that ye may KNOW." Now that is of first importance. There must be the intelligence of the mind of God as to the wonderful position the believer and the church has before God and the Father, before there can be any intelligent appreciation of a walk according to it here below. This, then, is what he seeks for the saints, that there may be the full knowledge of Him who is the object of all God's thoughts and counsels — but heart knowledge; not merely the eyes of the understanding, but "the eyes of your HEART [as it really is] being enlightened, that ye may know;" and then follow the three great subjects of the prayer: first, the hope of His calling; secondly, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints; and lastly, what is the exceeding greatness of the power that has wrought, to put us into the calling, and to make us heirs of the inheritance.

Thus we have the prayer that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him." There might be a little difficulty if it were simply "the knowledge of him." The proper meaning of the word is "the full knowledge of him." They already knew Him, but Paul prayed that they might know Him more. He wanted them to be fathers in Christ, and what constitutes a father is a deep and growing knowledge of Christ Himself. The Spirit of God alone could give them this entrance into it; but it was in the full knowledge of Him. "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe." We have three things here brought before us, which call for particular consideration.