Please turn to the Letter to the Ephesians.
I will read it through in English, and then I will ask my brother to read it through in Chinese.
Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is in you,
and the love which ye have towards all the saints,
do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you at my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him,
being enlightened in the eyes of your heart,
so that ye should know what is the hope of His calling,
and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what the surpassing greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of His strength,
in which He wrought in the Christ, in raising Him from among the dead, and He set Him down at His right hand in the heavenlies,
above every principality and authority and power and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age but also in that to come;
and has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Our Father, we want to thank Thee again for gathering us together at this time. We do gather in Thy precious name, and we believe that Thy presence is here with us.
We pray that Thou wilt open Thy Word to our hearts, because Thy Word is living and operative. We pray, Lord, that Thy Word will not just pass us by, but by Thy Holy Spirit Thou wilt plant Thy Word into our hearts, that we may be transformed and conformed to Thine own image, to the praise of Thy glory.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
The theme of this conference is spiritual sight. We would like to approach this theme through the two prayers of the Apostle Paul.
We know that in his letter to the Ephesians, he prayed twice. The first time is recorded in the first chapter, and the second time is recorded in the third chapter.
Now, we know prayer is the voice of the heart. Therefore, you find that Paul, out of his heart, prayed for the saints in Ephesus. His prayers were according to his own experience.
He had experienced the Lord in this way, and he prayed for the Ephesian believers that they too would experience the same.
This morning we will consider together the first prayer. It is the prayer for the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Now, we know Paul, when he was a young man, was named Saul, which means “asked for.” He was named after the first king of Israel.
He was a most unusual youth. He was brilliant and capable, and most young people of that sort will seek after the world and the things of the world.
But he was different. He saw through the world, and he sought for things spiritual.
He saw that the world was temporary, and he sought for the eternal. So, when he was a young man, he studied the law and became a Pharisee.
He was more advanced than his contemporaries. He was a very zealous young man, and he really had a heart to serve God.
But unfortunately, he was trained according to the tradition of the fathers. Even though the tradition of the fathers of Judaism is the best tradition in the world, according to that tradition he persecuted the church, because they considered our Lord Jesus an impostor of Judaism. Therefore, He must be persecuted and wiped out.
Paul became a leader in such persecution. He thought he was serving God, but he was spiritually blind.
But thank God, God looks upon the heart. God saw that this young man was sincere, because he really wanted the eternal, and he really thought he was serving God.
So God looked upon his heart and had mercy upon him. While he was on the way to Damascus, Saul persecuted the Christians not only in Jewish cities, but even into the Gentile cities.
He got documents from the priests to go to Damascus, to seize those who believed in the Lord Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem to be condemned.
While he was nearing the city of Damascus, suddenly a brilliant light, brighter than the noonday sun, shone upon him. He was smitten by that light and fell upon the ground.
That light was so bright that it blinded his naked eyes. But thank God, that same light opened his inner eyes.
He saw the Righteous One. He thought that Jesus was an impostor, that He was unrighteous. But now he saw that the same Jesus is the Righteous One.
Jesus was the only Righteous One who could return to heaven and see God, because no one could stand before God, because we were not righteous.
But here he found that Jesus is the Righteous One. He recognized that He is the Son of God, sent to the earth because God was pleased to reveal His Son in him.
We find that in Galatians 1:16. And he heard a voice from heaven:
Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute Me?
It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
It was not an angry voice. It was a voice full of sympathy: “You do not know what you are doing. You are hurting yourself. Why do you kick against the goad?”
“Do you not understand that you have a Master? Do you not understand that you are like an ox? Do you not understand that you are yoked?”
“You are supposed to do the work of your Master, but you are stubborn. You are naughty. You kick against the goad. You want to go your own way.”
“I try to touch you with the goad, to remind you that you have a Master. You cannot do your own will; you should do My will. But you kick against the goad, and you hurt yourself.”
This heavenly vision on the road to Damascus delivered him from spiritual blindness. He saw the Lord, and that transformed his life.
Instead of being Saul the Pharisee, he became Paul the apostle. We know Paul means “little.” Formerly, he was the one asked for by the world, but now he recognized himself as little, as nothing. His whole life was transformed.
Out of that experience, he prayed this prayer for the Ephesian believers.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is one thing that we must recognize: when we come to spiritual things, we are blind.
No matter how brilliant you are, no matter how intellectual you are, you may be able to understand many, many things. But when you are faced with things spiritual, you are totally blind.
Do not think that you are able to understand spiritual things. Do not think that you can experience spiritual things, because the Word of God tells us very clearly.
If you turn to 1 Corinthians 2:
But the natural man doth not receive the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are folly to him;
and he cannot know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
Here the Word of God tells us very clearly concerning the natural man. Now, the natural man is the soulish man. The natural man refers to an unregenerated man.
You remember, after Adam sinned, the Lord said, “On the day that you eat the forbidden fruit, you shall die.” But we find that Adam and Eve lived hundreds of years, and they begat sons and daughters.
Yet the Word said, “On the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” What was dead on that day? The spirit of man was dead. The spirit of man was cut off from communication with God.
Man then fell into his soul and body. He became a natural man, living by his soul and his body, by his lust and passion. He became a man of the flesh, governed by that unregenerated, created, fallen life, without the spirit.
This refers to unregenerated people. But you find in the Bible that it is sometimes applied even to believers, because a believer who does not walk after the Spirit, who does not walk according to the mind of the Spirit, still lives according to the natural.
He still lives according to himself, as if he had no spirit. Even in 1 Corinthians, you find that Paul says, “You are still carnal.” Even though you have been saved, you do not live by that new life in your spirit.
You still live by your own life, your natural life in your soul. You are still carnal, and being carnal, you are still natural.
So, brothers and sisters, do not think that the natural man refers only to unbelievers. If you do not live according to the Spirit of God, if you do not live according to the new life in your spirit, and you still live in the natural life, then you are still carnal—the natural man.
A natural man does not receive the things of the Holy Spirit. He cannot receive them, because they are folly to him.
Things of this world become wise to him. They seek for the things of the world and look down upon things spiritual. They cannot receive it. They cannot know it, because spiritual things have to be discerned spiritually.
Dear brothers and sisters, I want to make this point, because lots of God’s people do not understand this. They think that because they are saved, therefore the whole spiritual world is open to them.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if you do not live according to the Spirit, you are no different from the people of this world. You will look down upon things spiritual. You will think that those who seek for spiritual things are foolish, and you will think you are wise by seeking things of this earth.
So, dear brothers and sisters, when we are faced with spiritual things, no matter how small they are, we are completely blind in our natural life.
I hope this will really sink deep into our understanding. Do not think that because you are brilliant, you can grasp spiritual things quickly. You may grasp them intellectually. You may think that you understand, but you do not understand.
You are still outside of the spiritual realm unless there is revelation.
Brothers and sisters, think back to the days when you were saved. You may have been brought up in a Christian family.
I was brought up in a Christian family. My father was a pastor. He loved the Lord, and we had family altar every evening.
Our father would gather us children together in the drawing room, and he would read to us from the Word of God. Then we all knelt down, and he prayed for us.
I was brought up in that kind of atmosphere. From kindergarten upward, I always studied in Christian schools. I read the Bible myself. I prayed too. I attended church very faithfully. I knew all about the gospel.
But I did not receive it. I believed that the gospel of Jesus Christ was true. Yes, He came to save sinners—but I was no sinner. So let Christ save sinners. I was too good to be saved.
That was my condition before I was saved. I was totally blind to things spiritual. I was completely shut out from heaven.
People looked at me and thought I was a Christian, but I was not. I even served God during those days. I even preached.
The way I preached was that I took a good sermon from a famous preacher, memorized it, and repeated it. But I was cut off from heaven.
God was a distant God to me. There was no communication.
Not until one day He opened my inner eye. A living Word was spoken to my heart:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Suddenly, all the burdens were gone. I was freed. I could look up to heaven and say, “Abba.”
We need revelation.
You remember when Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord said:
This is not something that flesh can tell you.
It is My Father in heaven who reveals it to you.
Brothers and sisters, as you recall your conversion, did it not happen this way? Even though the details are different, the principle is the same. Naturally, we were blind to spiritual things, but it pleased God to reveal His Son in us.
When the spirit of wisdom and revelation is given, suddenly your eyes are opened. You can testify, just like the man born blind: “Once I was blind, but now I see.”
This is our testimony. But, dear brothers and sisters, remember: what happened at that time is a principle that applies to your whole spiritual life.
In every step of your spiritual life, it begins with the spirit of wisdom and revelation being given by God. Without that spirit of wisdom and revelation, we are completely blind, shut out from things spiritual.
Now, what is the spirit of wisdom and revelation? Wisdom refers to the content of revelation.
That is to say, God’s wisdom, God’s purpose, and God’s way—what is in God—is now being revealed to us.
You know, our God is the greatest mystery in the whole universe. No one knows God naturally.
The Athenians were very clever, and yet they had to have an altar called, “To the unknown God.” God is unknowable unless He reveals Himself.
If God should hide Himself, no one would ever know God in any way, because He is far beyond us.
But we thank God because, out of His love for us, it pleases Him to reveal Himself—to reveal His heart to us, to reveal His mind to us, to reveal His way to us, and to reveal His beloved Son to us.
Dear brothers and sisters, everything begins with the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
When God reveals, something happens in our spirit. He reveals Himself in our spirit.
Thank God, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, this dead spirit is quickened and renewed into life. The Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit, and there He is able to reveal Himself to us.
Brothers and sisters, you will find that it is all in the innermost part of our being.
We thank God because He gave us His Word. This Bible gives us the whole revelation, the full revelation, of God. Throughout the centuries, God has given us His Word, and now we have in our hands the Bible, which is the full revelation of God.
The wisdom of God is all there. But when you read the Bible, does it mean that because you read the Bible, you have the whole revelation of God? No.
The Bible is the full revelation of God because it is God-breathed. It is the breath of God. It is the Spirit of God, and it is eternal truth.
It never changes. It always works. It is not affected by time or space. It is eternal truth.
This eternal truth should become living and operative in each one of us.
The same Spirit who breathed into these words is the same Spirit who will speak again to us by the Word.
When this happens, the Word becomes living and operative. Eternal truth becomes your personal, living experience.
That is what is meant by Logos becoming Rhema. It is the same Spirit who brings this written Word to become a living Word in our hearts. When this happens, you receive revelation.
Revelation is not something completely foreign to the Word of God. If anyone says that he has received a revelation outside of the Word of God, it is false.
But revelation is what has been written being quickened into our life. Suddenly, a light shines in our spirit, and we can shout and say, “This is true!”
That is the spirit of wisdom and revelation. The whole thing begins within our spirit. It is from God. God will grant you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God.
This is the only way to know God.
But, brothers and sisters, when we receive such revelation, something happens in our spirit. There is light in our spirit. We know something has happened. What God has spoken is real. There is power there.
We can see, but we cannot explain it. In our spirit, we know. But our mind needs to be enlightened.
Therefore, you find in the prayer of Paul that he not only says that God will grant you the spirit of wisdom and revelation; he also says, “being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know.”
In other words, what you have seen in your spirit needs to be understood and known, so that you can explain it.
First, in your spirit there is light. Then the Holy Spirit works in the eyes of your heart.
Now, what are the eyes of the heart? They are our mind, our understanding.
You remember our Lord Jesus, after His resurrection, appeared to His disciples and tried to tell them how the Old Testament prophesied about Him. In Luke 24:45, our Lord opened their understanding, and they began to understand the Bible.
It is like taking a picture. You use a camera and take a shot. An impression is made on the film, but you are not able to see it.
You have to wash it with liquid, and then the picture comes out.
This is the same way. Revelation is in your spirit, and then your understanding is enlightened. Then you begin to know and understand, and you are able to explain it to other people.
What is revealed? What is it that you have seen? What is it that you begin to know and understand?
In the following verses, there are three things. Wisdom and revelation begin to be understood in three ways.
Being enlightened in the eyes of your heart,
so that ye should know what is the hope of His calling,
and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what the surpassing greatness of His power towards us who believe.
What is the full knowledge of God? How do we know what is in God’s mind? How do we know what He is doing? Here you find that our God is doing three things.
Number one: what is the hope of His calling?
When we come to calling, we often think of my calling or your calling. “I am called to be a doctor. I am called to be an engineer. I am called to be a housewife.”
We always think of calling in terms of ourselves, and we always think of calling as doing something. What are we to be occupied with?
But when you have revelation, you begin to see that it is not your calling; it is His calling.
God has called us. He has called us with a holy calling, a heavenly calling, and an on-high calling.
He has called us not so much to do, but much more to be. God’s calling is concerned with our being. He calls us to be something.
Brothers and sisters, what is it that God has called us to be? What is that supreme calling, that calling far above our personal calling?
There is this calling that we share together. According to Ephesians, it is to be the Body of Christ.
As you read on to the end of the chapter, you find that we are to be the church, the Body of Christ.
There is no higher calling than this calling. You may be called to be the president of the United States, but what is that compared to being in the Body of Christ?
We are called to be in that Body. We are called to be the fullness of Christ. We are called to be His glory.
Dear brothers and sisters, have we ever understood this? Is it not the calling with which we should be occupied?
Notice the hope of being called to be the Body of Christ. What is the hope of the Body?
When the Body is fully matured, that Body is to be the Bride of Christ. This is our blessed hope. This is what we are all looking forward to.
This is why we need to be matured. If we are not mature, that Body cannot be the Bride.
This is why we must pay every cost to see that it is done. The hope of His calling—that is the first revealed thing.
The second thing is: what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints?
When we think of inheritance, we think of our inheritance in Christ. Oh, how rich, how glorious, is our inheritance in Christ!
But we have not been delivered from ourselves. We always think of ourselves: “What do we have? What is He for us?” We are self-centered.
But when the heavenly light comes upon you, you are delivered from yourself, from your petty self, and you are delivered into that immeasurable realm.
You begin to think of His inheritance. Do you not know that we are given by the heavenly Father as a gift to His beloved Son?
God gave His Son to us as a gift. At the same time, He gave us as His gift to His beloved Son. You find that kind of thought in John 17.
It is true that Christ is to be our inheritance. He is the land flowing with milk and honey. But at the same time, God has made us His inheritance.
God is to inherit us. And what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance? Can you imagine that?
When we think of Christ as our inheritance, that expression is true: the riches of the glory of our inheritance in Christ Jesus. But Paul says, “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
Can it be? Is it possible? With man, it is impossible; with God, it is possible.
Where is the power to transform such a poor, desert wilderness into a land flowing with milk and honey? How can it be? Where is the power?
In this revelation, he tells us:
And what the surpassing greatness of His power towards us who believe.
He wants us to believe there is a power. It is a surpassing power. It is a power greater than nuclear power.
That power has already been demonstrated. It was demonstrated in the life of our Lord Jesus.
It is the power that raised Christ from the dead. It is the power that put Him at the right hand of God in the heavenlies.
It is the power above every principality, authority, and every name named. It is the power that put all things under His feet. It is the power that made Him Head over all things.
We have already seen this power demonstrated in the life of our Lord Jesus. God has put all things under His feet. He has become Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
What happened to the Head is going to happen to the Body. The Body is to experience the same power.
That power delivers us from all the things that have control over us. It delivers us not only from sin and the power of sin, but from the world and the things of the world.
It delivers us from the flesh, even from our self-life. It delivers us from all temptations and trials, that we may be filled with Christ, who fills all in all.
When God comes to see His inheritance in the saints, He sees Christ in His fullness. That is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
He who has called us is faithful.
Dear Lord, we bow ourselves before Thee, realizing that Thou hast far beyond what we ever think of.
We are willing to lay ourselves at Thy feet and pray, “Thy will be done.”
In Thy precious name we pray. Amen.