Enlightenment

Over the years, I have spent quite a bit of time in prayer meetings – and quite a bit more time paying by myself. I am beginning to realise that I have been praying for the wrong things! When I compare my prayers with the prayers of Jesus and the apostles, I have been praying for the wrong things! A number of writers have said the things we tend to pray about are virtually absent in the Bible and the things the Bible writers prayed about are virtually absent in our prayers.

What might happen if we identified the biblical prayer priorities and we started praying them for our church and our family and our friends? For example, Paul often says, in a letter to a church, “I never stop praying for you. I pray to our heavenly Father that…” That what? What were the things Paul wanted to see in these churches? What were his prayer priorities?

Let me see if I can name some of the most common prayers I pray. I often pray for:

·       People’s physical wellbeing, their healing, their safety.

o   A common prayer is for “travelling mercies”.

·       When I pray for my children and grandchildren, I pray for their health, finances, relationships, jobs…

·       When I pray for our church, or other churches, I pray for our programmes and attendance and finances.

None of that is wrong. We are told to pray about those things. We should pray about those things. But it is just interesting that those things do not really crop up at all in the prayers we find in the New Testament.

All of those things are physical. They are about our life in this world. Jesus and the apostles prayed primarily about the spiritual. Our physical concerns do matter to God but they are secondary. The temptation for us is to elevate the physical into top place and to focus on the physical.

Now, I do often pray that God will “be with” – be with this person, be with that person. That is spiritual, isn’t it?

Well, one author has said that Jesus has promised to always be with us anyway, so it is a pointless prayer. It is praying for something that is already true, so it is achieving nothing!

In my defence, I think when I pray “Please be with…” I want God to be actively involved, doing things in the life of that person. So, maybe I should pray not just “be with” but what I want God to do. The prayers of the New Testament are not only spiritual, they are spiritually ambitious. They apostles have a big vision for what they want to see God do in people’s lives.

You remember Jesus said, in Matthew 6, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.”?

Should we apply that to prayer? Do not focus in prayer on material things – the things of this world. Instead, focus your prayers on the Kingdom of God and on spiritual realities, people’s salvation. And note that Jesus says, “When you focus on God, God will provide the other things you need.” Is it possible that if we prayed about spiritual realities, many of our physical concerns would be resolved anyway?

Let’s look at one of those New Testament prayers: Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:13-19a.

The Ephesians had become Christians. They had heard the gospel and believed in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. Paul says, “For this reason… I have not stopped giving thanks for you.” He referred to their faith and their love. Ah, faith and love are important. That is no surprise. There are two priorities – two biblical, spiritual priorities - to pray about as you pray for our church: faith and love. We will probably come back to those in future weeks but notice what Paul said that He prayed for, for the Ephesians.

v.17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation…

v.18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…

“The Spirit of wisdom and revelation” and “the eyes of your heart enlightened”. What did Paul want for the Ephesian church? He prayed that their eyes would be open to the things of God. Revelation – those aha moments when God speaks. Remember the aha moments Rod talked about last week when he was making his porridge and reciting Ps 23?

When I am preparing to preach, I frequently pray for revelation, conviction, and action. Revelation – that God would reveal some truth. That people will see something. Conviction: that people will be gripped by it. Action.

But Paul’s prayer here is not just for momentary revelation. It is for ongoing depth of understanding – wisdom, enlightenment, insight, knowledge.

This is not an isolated prayer. This is a priority in many of the New Testament prayers.

In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that his readers will grasp the width, and length, and height and depth of God’s love. May they see it; may they understand it; may they know and experience that love.

In Colossians 1, he says, “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.

This is a priority. Pray for eyes open to the things of God – a spiritually alert and discerning people.

In 2 Kings 6, the prophet Elisha was in the town of Dothan. The king of Aram was pretty angry with him and sent an army of horses and chariots, during the night, to surround the city and to capture Elisha. In the morning, Elisha’s servant went outside and saw that they were surrounded by this enemy army. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?”, he asked Elisha.

Do you remember Elisha’s response? He said, “Do not be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then he prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” God opened the servant’s eyes and he saw what he had not seen before. The hills were full of horses and chariots of fire.

Elisha did not pray that God would take away his servant’s fear. He prayed that he would see the spiritual realities. That dealt with his fear. Spiritual realities cannot be seen with our natural eyes. Spiritual realities are understood only when God reveals them to us. Paul wanted Christians to have that revelation and understanding. Open their eyes.

Psalm 119:18  Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.

Just about every time I read my Bible, I pray that prayer first. I can read and not see. I want God to reveal to me the wonderful truths of His word.

This is a Holy Spirit thing. The Ephesians 1 prayer asked that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. The Greek text does not have upper case letters. We cannot know if that is the Holy Spirit or a little-s spirit. Either way, the Holy Spirit is the One who gives revelation and understanding. When we pray “God open the eyes of their hearts”, we are praying for Holy Spirit revelation.

Paul’s purpose in praying that was “so that you might know Him better” (v.17). His desire was that the Ephesians would know God very well because God had revealed Himself to them. They would know the character of God, the love and mercy of God, the provision of God, the will of God, the mind of God because God had opened their eyes and revealed Himself to them. This is a deeply spiritual prayer.

Would that be a powerful prayer for our church – that we are a people who know God very well because God has revealed Himself to us?

Over the last two weeks, when I have been conscious of this prayer for enlightenment, I have been amazed at how relevant it is. When I pray for my grandchildren, what a great prayer to pray that God will open their eyes to spiritual things. When I pray for another church, may they understand the truths of scripture; may they know God’s will. If I pray for our government what better prayer than that their eyes will be opened to God’s truth? May they all know God better.

Likewise, he prays “may the eyes of your heart be enlightened in order that you may know three things:

·       The hope to which He has called you

·       The riches of His glorious inheritance in His saints

·       His incomparably great power for those who believe”

Again, I think we will come back to those things another week, but do you see how Paul’s prayer is for awareness of huge spiritual realities –heaven, the inheritance we have received (at least in part), and the power of God that is for us? What is the impact of having our eyes opened to those things?

If we know what God has for us in the future, then we need fear nothing in this world and nothing will distract us from persevering and striving for the finishing line. When God has revealed heaven to us, that changes us. If we do not know with certainty the hope to which He has called us, that is why we need to pray this prayer – and why we need to pray it for each other.

What about “the riches of His glorious inheritance in His people”? Our inheritance awaits us in heaven. Having an assurance about that changes how we live. The things of this world are less important. We store up treasure in heaven rather than worrying about treasure on earth.

But we have also received our inheritance, at least in part, now. Ephesians 1:3 says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Chapter 1, verse 13 and 14 say that the Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. May God open our eyes to the inheritance we have received from Him:

·       The Holy Spirit. The scriptures.

·       All that the Bible says about who we are in Christ.

·       All that Jesus has achieved for us through His death and resurrection.

For example, would we worry less if we understood what it means that God is our Father. Maybe we shouldn’t pray that a friend will not worry. Maybe we should pray that he/she will understand the fatherhood of God.

Paul also prayed that we would know God’s incomparably great power for us – a revelation of the power of God – the power that raised Jesus from the dead – knowing that God is powerful and His power is for us. Maybe we should pray for a revelation of Jesus the ascended, powerful King.

Would we be much bolder if we understood the power of God? Would we use our spiritual gifts more if we understood the power of God? We can make disciples knowing Jesus said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples.” If we are fearful about obeying Jesus, we need to pray this prayer about knowing the power of God – and pray it for others.

This is one example of a New Testament prayer but do you see how the focus is on the spiritual and that it is spiritually ambitious? Paul’s desire was for revelation and wisdom so that people would know God better and know the hope to which we are called, the inheritance that is ours and the power of God for us.

What might happen if we prayed that prayer, every day, for our church? Ephesians 1:15-19.

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