Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him;
having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might
which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come:
and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou dost love us and gavest us Thy only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we are able to approach Thy throne of grace.
We do thank Thee that we may remember Thy beloved Son at Thy table. We thank Thee that we may gather again in Thy presence, reading Thy Word and listening to Thy voice.
Lord, we ask that by Thy Spirit Thou wilt open our hearts, that we may be able to hear what Thou hast to say to Thy people this morning. To Thee be the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In this short letter to the Ephesians, we find two prayers offered by the Apostle Paul. This very fact should attract our attention. Why is it that, when he is writing to the Ephesian believers—just a short letter—that he had to pray twice? And these prayers are recorded in the Word of God.
You know, in this letter to the Ephesians, Paul is trying to share with the believers the revelation that God has given to him concerning the wisdom of God.
You remember Paul mentioned how he was taken into the third heaven, and then he was taken to Paradise. He heard things that should not be mentioned. He was not allowed to tell us what he had seen and heard in Paradise.
You know what Paradise is? Paradise is where those who are the Lord’s, when they die, go. There they rest, waiting for the time when they will be called back into life to take up a resurrection body. So Paradise is a blessed place for those who are the Lord’s.
And Paul, in the Spirit, was taken to Paradise. He saw and heard things that he was not allowed to share with the saints. But he did not say he was not allowed to share with the saints what he had seen and heard in the third heaven.
You know, the third heaven is where God is, where the throne of God is. So, in other words, Paul was taken up in the Spirit to the very presence of God in the third heaven. He saw and heard something glorious and wonderful, and he was allowed to share it with his fellow believers.
So actually, you find in the letter to the Ephesians that he could not share with them what he saw and heard in Paradise; but, far better, he was allowed to share with the saints what he had seen and heard in the third heaven, in the very presence of God.
What is he going to share with the saints? The mystery of God, the wisdom of God, the very heart of God, the very purpose of God—what God has purposed in His heart even before the foundation of the world.
That is a glorious purpose, and all God’s working is according to that purpose. To put it very briefly, he is trying to share with the saints that the purpose of God concerns His beloved Son.
God wants His Son, His only begotten Son, to be the heir of all things. He created all things for His Son, to give to His Son as a gift, that His Son may be glorified.
Together with that, His purpose is to give His Son a life companion—to give His Son man. Man is to be the life companion of His Son: to be like His Son, to share His life, to share His glory, and to share His responsibility. That is the wisdom of God, the mystery of God.
So this is what Paul is trying to share with the saints. As he started to share with them, you remember, in Ephesians 1, he stopped, fell down upon his knees, and started to pray. That is his first prayer.
Then, after he prayed, he got up and started to share something more. Again, you find that he stopped, fell on his knees, and offered another prayer before he continued to share with the saints. So altogether, in this short letter, Paul prayed twice.
In the first prayer, he prays that God will give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God. In other words, he prayed that God would give them the spirit of wisdom, and with the spirit of wisdom they could know God in a real way.
Then, in the second prayer, he prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that God will strengthen our inner man by His Spirit, that Christ may dwell in our hearts, and that we may be rooted and grounded in love.
Then we may be able to apprehend—to grasp—what is the breadth and length and depth and height: the love of Christ that surpasses understanding.
So here you find that the first prayer is for the spirit of revelation, that with the spirit of revelation we may know. The second prayer is for the spirit of power, that we may be strengthened in the inner man to apprehend, to grasp, and to experience what we have known.
So this morning, I would like to share on these two points: to know and to apprehend.
Do we know God? Is it possible for people to know God?
You know, in the English world, people are not able to know God. Why? Because we were dead in sins and transgressions. Even though outwardly we are all living—we are moving around, we are talking, we are doing things—and yet the Bible says we were dead in sins and transgressions.
Our body is still living. Our soul is still alive. Yet our spirit is dead.
Now, God is Spirit. The only way to know God is by our spirit. You know, when God created man, He created us with a body, with a soul, and with a spirit.
With the body, we are in contact with the world. By our five senses, we know what is going on around us. With our soul, we are conscious of ourselves. We can think, we can feel, and we can decide things. We have our will, our emotion, and our mind, and by these we know that we exist.
But we have a spirit too, and God gave us a spirit that we may commune with God, who is Spirit. That is God-consciousness.
But when we committed sin, our communion with God was cut off. Our spirit was dead in sins and transgressions. That is the reason why the world does not know God.
They cannot touch Him with their hands. You remember the Russian cosmonauts? They went into space, came down, and said, “We looked around in space, and we could not see God.” Of course they could not, because God is Spirit. How can you see God with your naked eyes?
The Bible says that no one can see God and live. He is too glorious. Just as you cannot look at the sun—for if you look at the sun, your eyes will be blinded—God is more glorious beyond the brightness of the sun. So no one can see God.
The Bible says that by searching no one can find Him. That is the reason why the world does not know God. The philosophers can theorize, contemplate, and think of all things, but when they come to the things of God, they are blocked.
How do we know God? How can we really know God?
It is only by the spirit of revelation. God reveals Himself to us. When God reveals Himself to us in our spirit, our dead spirit needs to be quickened into life.
That is the reason why we must believe in the Lord Jesus. If we believe in the Lord Jesus, then our sins are forgiven, and the Holy Spirit brings our dead spirit into life. When our dead spirit is brought into life, immediately we are in contact with God, and we know that God is.
That is the way we come to know God. The Apostle Paul said, “It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.”
Now, brothers and sisters, I believe that you who have believed in the Lord Jesus all have this experience. Before you believed in the Lord Jesus, you may have thought, “Well, I believe there is a God.” But where? There was no contact.
But once you believe in the Lord Jesus, your dead spirit is quickened into life. Immediately you cry out, “Abba, Father.” He is your Father. He is near to you. He is real. He is living.
I believe everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus has this experience. That is how we come to know God: by revelation. God reveals His Son in our new spirit.
But this is only an initial knowledge of God. Paul says that he wants us to have the full knowledge of God—epignosis—not just some knowledge of God.
I believe we all have some knowledge of God, but he wants us to have the full knowledge of God. By knowing a little of God, we come into salvation. We are born again, but we are babies in Christ.
As babies in Christ, we are self-centered. God is for us. Everybody is for us. You know, we are self-centered. But God wants us to grow up, and to grow up, we need the full knowledge of God.
The full knowledge of God will deliver us from self-centeredness into Christ-centeredness. The full knowledge of God will deliver us from being need-oriented.
You know, we are all need-oriented. “I need this; I need that.” God has to supply all my needs. Thank God, He is our Father, and He does supply all our needs. But when we are need-oriented, we are self-centered.
God wants to deliver us from being need-oriented to being purpose-oriented. In other words, we begin to see the purpose of God, and that delivers us from ourselves and brings us into God. That makes us grow spiritually into maturity, and we become useful in God’s hand.
So, brothers and sisters, how do we come into the full knowledge of God?
The full knowledge of God is nothing but knowing the purpose of God. God has a purpose, and His purpose is that His Son may be all in all, that all may be filled with His Son. That is God’s purpose.
How do we come into that purpose? The same way as we come to the initial knowledge of God: by revelation. We need revelation.
The knowledge of God does not come by information. Usually, we gain knowledge by information. We are informed either by reading, hearing, or seeing. We look at the television and are informed. That is the way we gain knowledge.
But knowledge gained by information only comes into our mind. It does not come into our spirit, our heart. That kind of knowledge may puff us up, but it does not really build us up.
We need spiritual knowledge, knowledge in our spirit. But how does this knowledge come into our spirit? Not by information, but by revelation.
In other words, God has to reveal and unveil. By His Spirit, He unveils His heart to us. When He unveils His heart, the revelation comes into our spirit, and in our spirit we see something glorious.
There is a difference between information and revelation. With information, you can say, “Well, I hear it.” But when revelation comes, you say, “I see it.” That is the difference.
You remember Job? Job was a good man. He knew a lot about God. After God dealt with him, in the last chapter, Job 42:5, what did Job say?
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee.
There is a difference. He heard about God, and what he heard was true, but it was indirect. Now he said, “I see Thee.” When he saw God, it made all the difference. His whole life was transformed.
You know, when you hear and say, “Well, I heard something. It is good. It is something about the eternal purpose of God,” it may lift you up, and you may be proud of yourself. That is why it says knowledge puffs up.
So, brothers and sisters, what you have heard is just the beginning. It does not mean that because you heard, therefore you have it. You do not have it until you see it. Then you begin to possess it.
Now, we have heard a lot. But do we really possess what we have heard? We do not come into possession until we receive revelation.
Our lives should be a continuous revelation. By that, I do not mean that we receive some new revelation extra to the Bible. Of course not, because all the revelation of God is completed in this Word of God.
But this Word of God, logos, has to be transformed into rhema. In other words, the Holy Spirit must breathe again upon His written Word and make it living and personal to you. That is revelation.
So, brothers and sisters, when you are reading the Bible, it is the Word of God. But when you are reading it, you need to ask the Holy Spirit to quicken the written Word and make it living to you. Then it becomes power within your life.
The reason why we do not receive revelation is because we think we already have it. When we hear something, we say, “Well, we heard it. We got it.” And that hinders us from revelation.
So we need always to be in humility. We need to humble ourselves before God.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
We need always to have humility, a humble spirit within us: “Lord, show us. We do not know. We have heard something. We have heard about Your purpose, heard about Your wisdom, heard about what You desire to have.”
“We have heard that Your Son should have the first place in our lives, in all things. We have heard about this, but if there is no revelation, it does not work. It does not work. It does not transform us.”
So we need to pray and ask the Lord to give us the spirit of revelation, that all we have heard—all the information we have gathered through the years—may really be brought into living reality.
That is important. Paul prayed that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God. If the Ephesian believers needed revelation, surely we too need revelation.
When the Spirit of God begins to open up His mystery into our spirit, you see something. That something is real. It is spiritual.
How much, brothers and sisters, do we see? When we compare what we have heard with our ears—the information we have gathered—with what we have really received through revelation in our spirit, we find there is such a vast difference. It humbles us.
We really need to pray this prayer: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God.
When that revelation comes, you say, “Well, I see. I see it.” But strangely, you cannot explain it.
Sometimes when you can explain something very well, probably it is in the mind. But when it really happens in our spirit, it is hard to explain.
It is just like your first days when you believed in the Lord Jesus, were born again, and received the revelation of God’s Son in your heart. You were rejoicing in your salvation, but when you tried to tell people, you did not know how to tell it.
You have it. You know it. You see it. But you cannot explain it. The same thing is true when we receive some revelation from the Lord. We are very clear in our spirit, but we do not know how to explain it.
That is why, in that prayer, Paul continues: “That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that ye may know.”
What are the eyes of your heart? It does not refer to our physical eyes. The eyes of our heart refer to our mind. Our mind is the eyes of our heart.
Our minds need to be enlightened. In other words, the light that shines upon the spirit is now reflected upon the mind.
It is just like taking a photograph. When you take a photograph, you open the lens, click it, and the photograph is impressed upon the film. But if you show the film to anybody, nobody can see anything. It has to be developed.
Before it is developed, the picture is already there, but you cannot see it. When you receive a revelation, there is an impression upon your spirit, but nobody can see it. It needs to be developed.
When the film is put into the liquid and developed, then the picture shows. You can show everybody what the picture is.
This is what happens when the Spirit gives us revelation in our spirit. An impression is made in your spirit. You see it, but you cannot show it to anybody. It needs to be developed.
The way of developing is that the light reflects upon our mind, and our mind develops what we have seen in our spirit.
It is like a prism. When the sunlight shines upon a prism, the prism separates the rays, and different colors come out.
That is the way it is. When the Spirit reveals something in your spirit, it is a total thing. Then you need your mind to develop it in different ways. As you develop it in different ways, you begin to understand and really know what that impression is, what that revelation is.
So Paul says, “That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that ye may know.” What do you know?
The revelation is divided into three things:
His calling, His inheritance, His power. Before we receive revelation, it is all my calling, my inheritance, and my power. Isn’t it true?
“My calling: I am called to do this, to do that. My inheritance: my property, for my own glory. My power: my strength.” But after you receive revelation, you begin to see that it is His calling, His inheritance, and His power.
You are shifted from self into God. Now that is revelation. Only revelation can transfer us from ourselves to God—to His side.
What does Christ call us to? If you read the letter to the Ephesians, you will find that His calling is this: He called us to be the body of Christ.
He is calling all of us—not only the few of us here. He is calling all those from the first Christian to the last Christian, all over the world throughout the centuries. He is calling all of us out of this world to Himself, to be the body of Christ.
Now, that is a mystery, isn’t it? Two thousand years ago, God’s Son came into this world. He took upon Himself a human body, and in that human body He lived thirty-three years.
He did lots of works. He finished the work of salvation. He preached and taught the kingdom of God. Then He was crucified on the cross. His body was broken. He died and was buried.
On the third day, He was raised from the dead with a spiritual body. After forty days, He ascended to heaven. Now our Lord Jesus is in heaven.
But on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon one hundred and twenty believers who were gathered together in that upper room in Jerusalem. By the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the one hundred and twenty believers became one body—a body of one hundred and twenty members.
Not a congregation, but a body. On that very same day, three thousand members were added. Now, brothers and sisters, we do not know how big that body is. That body is a universal body. It has spread all over the world and has continued through twenty centuries.
The Head, Christ, is in heaven. The body is upon this earth, and in the same body He is still working and teaching.
That is His calling. He calls us to be His body. Now, brothers and sisters, how glorious that is. We are the body of Christ. We are His very members, His flesh and His bones. We belong to Him.
Not only that, but Paul speaks of the hope of His calling. What is the hope of His calling? The hope is that this body may begin to grow.
When this body has grown to full growth, Christ will come back and receive this body as His bride.
You cannot have a bride who is a baby. You need a wife who is grown up. The church is the body of Christ, and the church needs to grow up.
When we grow up into the stature of the fulness of Christ, we are like Him. Then He will come back and claim us as His bride. That is the hope of His calling.
Then, secondly, Paul speaks of the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Now, we always think that Christ is our inheritance, and He is. Our lot falls in good ground because Christ is our inheritance. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
So, brothers and sisters, no matter how poor we are in this world, we are rich, because Christ is in our heart. That is our inheritance. All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily, and we are complete in Him.
So Christ is our inheritance, the riches of the glory of our inheritance in Christ. But this is not what Paul says. Paul says, “The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
In other words, we, the saints, are to be the inheritance of Christ. This inheritance is to be the riches of glory. Now think of that.
Christ, the fulness of the Godhead, is our inheritance. What does He have in us? We are poor. We are naked. We are wretched.
But Paul says, “The riches of the glory of His inheritance.” We are His inheritance, and His inheritance is to be the riches of glory.
There must be some great transformation happening, right? Think of yourself. What inheritance does Christ have in you? How much does He get out of you—glory or shame? More shame than glory.
But Paul says, “The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” One day Christ will look at us and say, “Glory.” Why? Because it is Himself. It is Himself.
Every one of us—the Bible says—He whom He justified, He also sanctified; whom He sanctified, He glorified.
Thank God, we who are His are the work of His good work in us. He will never end until He finishes us in glory. Every one will be conformed to the image of His Son.
The whole church will become a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing—holy and without blemish. That is His inheritance in the saints.
That is revelation. That is what is to be revealed to us. Further, there is the exceeding greatness of His power, which works toward us who believe.
How can we, these poor people, become a rich inheritance to Christ? There must be some great transformation going on. Where is the power? We cannot transform ourselves.
It is God’s power. We think of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb—tremendous power. But, brothers and sisters, when you think of the power of God, these are nothing.
The very power that is going to transform us to be a glorious inheritance to Christ has already been demonstrated once on earth: in raising Jesus from the dead.
No power is greater than death, but there is a power greater than death: resurrection power. God has raised Jesus out of death—not only resurrected Him, but ascended Him into heaven.
He is at the right hand of God, above every principality, authority, and power; every name that is named. He is above everything. That is His power.
That power has been demonstrated in Christ, our Head, and it is now working in the body. So, brothers and sisters, let us believe it.
That power is toward those who believe. Let us believe that the power of resurrection is working in you. The power of ascension is working in you.
Oftentimes we feel we have entered into death. We are at the end of our wits, at the end of our strength. But, brothers and sisters, resurrection power begins there. He will take us through.
Not only that, sometimes we are so down, as if we are under everything. But the ascension power will raise us above all. Everything will get under our feet.
Whatever the circumstances may be, the power is working in us to transform us, that we may be a rich inheritance to Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, now you know what revelation is. Revelation makes us know the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power that works in us who believe.
That is the first prayer.
Then Paul continued to share. You know, when he wrote, he was in prison. He was chained to a Roman soldier, so he dictated. When he dictated a little more, he stopped again. He fell on his knees and prayed again.
He prayed to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that God, according to the riches of His glory, would strengthen our inner man with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Receiving revelation is one thing. Knowing is one thing. Apprehending—experiencing to the fullest—is another thing.
In other words, revelation is just a beginning. Do not think that when you receive a revelation, you have the whole thing. No. Revelation is just the beginning. It is an opening up, showing you the possibility.
Everything is now opened up to you, but now you need to enter in. Revelation does not mean that because something has been revealed to you, you have it all. You do not.
You have just begun to see it, begun to taste it a little. It opens the way to full possession.
After revelation, do not think that because you have revelation, therefore you have it. Lots of people commit an error here. They receive a revelation from God by His grace, and they think they have it.
What is the result? The result is that they become visionaries. They do see something, but they become visionaries. In other words, even though they see, it is still not their life.
So after you receive revelation, you need the spirit of power.
Let me put it this way: how do you know whether what you receive is revelation or information? There is an acid test.
If it is information, it lifts you up. It puffs you up. If it is revelation, it humbles you. Now, that is the difference.
With information, you think you know, and you are proud of yourself because you know something other people do not know.
But if you receive revelation, revelation always slays you, as it were. You remember, every time in the Bible when people received a revelation, what happened?
Look at Daniel. Daniel was the beloved of God. His life was so perfect that when the Lord revealed Himself to Daniel, Daniel fell down as dead.
He said, “My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.” He had to be touched by the Lord to raise him up.
The same thing happened to John the Apostle. You know, on the isle of Patmos, when he saw the revelation of the Lord Jesus in heaven, he fell down as one dead, and the Lord had to touch him and raise him up.
So, brothers and sisters, whenever we receive revelation, it always strikes us so that we fall upon our knees. It humbles us. Revelation humbles us.
Who are we that God would reveal something to us? It humbles us. But information puffs us up. We think, “Well, we know something.” That is the difference.
When you receive revelation, you are humbled before God. As you are humbled before God, you feel you have no strength. What you have seen is too glorious, too heavenly, too good.
How are you going to grasp it, to possess it in fulness? You do not have the strength to do it. You need strengthening in the inner man.
What is the inner man? The inner man is our spirit.
Revelation comes to your spirit. The inner man—your spirit—has received a revelation and has seen something very wonderful, very glorious. But you find that you do not have the strength to really apprehend what you have seen.
You need the spirit of power, the Holy Spirit. He is not only the spirit of wisdom; He is also the spirit of power. You need the Holy Spirit to strengthen your inner man.
As you are strengthened in your spirit, what happens? Christ may dwell in your heart.
Today Christ is in your spirit, in your inner man. Christ, by His Spirit, dwells in your spirit. But for Him to dwell in your heart is a different thing.
Let me use an illustration. In the temple, there was the holy of holies, where the ark was and where the glory of God was. There was also the holy place, but there was a veil separating the holy of holies from the holy place.
The glory of God was confined in the holy of holies. In the holy place, you did not see the glory of God. You had to use the light of the candlestick because you could not see the glory of God.
That veil was very thick. For the glory that dwelt in the holy of holies to fill the holy place, what needed to happen? The veil had to be rent.
When Christ was crucified on the cross outside Jerusalem, in the holy temple at Jerusalem the veil was rent from top to bottom in two. In other words, the way into the holy of holies is now open. The way to God is open because Christ is the way.
The same thing is true of us. The veil speaks of the flesh of our Lord Jesus. His body had to be broken in order to open a new and living way for us to go to God. He dedicated this way.
What is this way? This way is the way of the cross.
Our flesh must be broken. That is the cross. We all love our flesh, but our flesh has to be broken. That is the cross.
Only by denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following the Lord, will you find that the glory of God comes from your inner man into your heart and fills your heart.
So, brothers and sisters, when you receive a revelation, on the one hand it is so glorious, as if it lets us go up to the third heaven. On the other hand, it is so fearful.
With that kind of revelation, the veil has to be rent. The flesh has to be dealt with, so that Christ may dwell in your heart. It is a fearful thing.
Revelation, on the one hand, is glorious; on the other hand, it is fearful. You do not have the strength. You are afraid that you will draw back, just like Peter.
You need to be strengthened by the spirit of power in the inner man. Because of the strengthening by the power of the Spirit in the inner man, you are able to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Lord.
As you do that, Christ, as it were, comes from the inner man and sets up His throne in your heart.
When this happens, Paul says you are rooted and grounded in love.
The heart is where our affection is. Not only in the mind—your renewed mind—but now Christ has come and dwells in your heart, in your affection.
You not only know, but you love. You are rooted and grounded in love. The love of Christ fills your heart.
Brothers and sisters, when you see what God is going to do, what God has done and is going to do, it is love. It is love. Behind it is love.
So knowledge is now transferred into love. Your heart is filled with love, and you are able to apprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, depth, and height—the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
Not until your heart is filled with love is what is revealed a reality. But when your heart is filled with love, you have apprehended it, because God is love.
You begin to realize that it is something beyond your individual self. You have to apprehend it with all the saints.
With all the saints, you apprehend what breadth, what length, what depth, and what height is the love of God. With all the saints, you are filled with all the fulness of God.
Now that is what is going on. Brothers and sisters, we need these two prayers.
We need to pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may know. We need to pray for the spirit of power, to strengthen our inner man, that we may be filled with love.
Christian life is love. Church life is love. Everything just comes out of love. It is the love of God that fills us.
So the world will look at these Christians and say, “See how they love.” That is our testimony.
Because real knowledge is love. That is the fulness of God.
So let us pray these two prayers. Not just let Paul pray for us, but let us all pray these prayers: that we may receive revelation to know, and that we may receive power to apprehend.
May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, how we do thank Thee that Thou hast revealed Thy Son in us. We know He is our Savior, our Redeemer. But we do praise and thank Thee that there is so much more Thou dost desire to reveal.
Thou wantest to show us Thy Son as all in all. Thou wantest to show us that we are to be His life companion, to be filled with Him.
O Lord, we do pray that Thou wilt continue to reveal Thy Son in us, that we may know Him to the fullest with all our brothers and sisters.
We pray also that we may not only know, but that we may apprehend. Lord, we do open our hearts to Thee. We ask Thee to come and dwell in our hearts, and set Thy throne in our hearts, that we may be filled with Thy love.
O, that love may flow and overflow, that the world may see Thee because of that love. Lord, may these two prayers be answered in our lives and upon Thy people, Thy church all over the world, to the praise of Thy glory.
We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.