Every human heart, whether knowingly or unknowingly, searches for significance and meaning to their life. But living a life of significance comes from a strong sense of identity and purpose, and identity and purpose comes from revelation, and revelation comes from seeing, and seeing comes through faith.
I’ve said this before but it bears repeating here. In our rationalistic culture, “Seeing is believing” but with anything that has eternal significance, you won’t begin to see until you believe. Faith opens the heart and mind to revelation that neither the heart nor the mind can comprehend on its own.
9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (1 Cor.2:9-10 NKJV *)
I’ve been looking at the first two chapters of Ephesians to see what it has to say about us and the good news that brings great joy. Here’s the passage we will look at today. This is Paul’s prayer for you and me:
17 I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know him through your deepening intimacy with him.
18 I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones! (Eph.1:17-18 TPT)
You’ve probably heard that some things are better caught than taught. This is one of those things. Paul is not praying that we would grasp something through human reasoning but that the “Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation” would be imparted to us. So, first we must understand that this knowledge is spiritually perceived.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor.2:14 NKJV *)
Again, this is because no matter how much we can imagine about our life, God wants “to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Eph. 3:20).
Second, this knowledge only comes “through your deepening intimacy with him.” It’s relational knowledge. You can only know this through knowing Him.
My question, beloved of God, is this: have you experienced “the full revelation of the hope of his calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones”? Have you been looking for this treasure in earthen vessels?
27 Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it! (Col.1:27 TPT *)
God wants everyone to know it. Do you know it?
Of course, none of us fully understand this wonderful mystery about us, but a mystery is not never knowing, it’s ever knowing. So there’s great joy in this journey!
Here’s my point. God doesn’t want you to live a wasted life. That’s what Jesus came to rescue us all from. He wants you to discover the deeper things of a life that doesn’t end when they eventually put you in a dirt box.
16 For this is how much God loved the world—he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.
17 “God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it! (John 3:16-17 TPT)
Precious sought out one, the mystery of your life is waiting for you to uncover its hidden treasures. Follow Paul’s example: “lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of you” (Phil.3:12).
Oh, a big amen to that! We used to a have pirate party here and this guy would bring a couple of dump trucks full of sand and make a mountain. In the sand we’d buried all these new toys. So we just gave the kids plastic shovels and they would treasure hunt all day. That’s what our faith, our inheritance is like, this eternal treasure hunt, and you can never find them all because there are just so many.
I really appreciate the idea that some things are better caught than taught. That the,“Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation would be imparted to us.” I work with a lot of people who are addicted, homeless, in dire circumstances, and they just can’t be saved by reason or by providing material things. They need to be caught up in the Spirit of love, have the revelation that God wants good things for them. I have a lot of fun with them now, we share a lot of joy and celebration, rather then what I used to feel, which was more like anxiety or despair or frustration.
Love the idea of the kid’s pirate party. I was a pirate most of my childhood. 😊
What you were saying about working with homeless people is a good point, because we all learn better in a relational setting. Our Western style of “book learning” is really a poor way to know something and, unfortunately, we’ve made it that way in Christian discipleship, but real joy and transformation happens in the context of relationship and doing it. If you were talked into something then you can just as easily be talked out it, which sadly does happen.
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A wonderful article to help us build that faith again to find the yet undiscovered.
Thanks! Finding the yet undiscovered about us truly is an exciting journey. 🙂 Blessings.