AWAKENED EYES OF ENLIGHTENMENT
LIBERTY AND LOVE #100
Once the light of Christ comes into the heart of man, it can be said that another soul out of the darkness has come. This is true even for believers. Our facilities of understanding are inept. We do not comprehend the ways of God or his thoughts. No matter how much we may study or ponder the things of God, we are not going to advance in our mental appreciation of all that he has done unless and until God opens our eyes. This is what is so wrong with the church today. We are depending upon worldly human wisdom when we should be depending upon God to give us enlightened eyes.
In Ephesians 1:17, Paul prays that God would give the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. “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.” Of Christ, Isaiah said, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (Isa. 11:2). The one upon whom this “spirit” rests, is the only one who can impart it to others. “Wisdom” provides true knowledge of the absolutes that exist in the spiritual realm; “revelation” is that which is unveiled concerning the believer’s position in Christ. The purpose of Paul’s prayer was to assert the importance of God’s activity in our apprehension of spiritual truth.
This passage reveals that there is an on-going need for a revelation of Christ. It is not the extra-biblical “new” revelation that many cults and novel religions have been built upon. It is simply the inner workings of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man in allowing him to know more fully that which the Scriptures speak of as being his inheritance in Christ.
In the Greek, Paul is not speaking of intellectual knowledge about Christ, but knowing him intimately and personally. This explains why it is so common for someone to know the words of Scripture, and still not know the Lord on an intimate level. And notice what else Paul goes on to say: “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” (v. 18). This is the need for internal spiritual insight into the things of God.
We must keep in mind that the Christian is a pilgrim in two spheres, the human and the divine. In our physical lives, we live on earth, but in our spirits we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. These spiritual things are not experienced through the natural abilities. We know nothing of their reality apart from revelation—what God has decided in his grace to reveal to us. This revelation is in the Bible, but there are words in the Bible that make no sense apart from the operation of the Holy Spirit. The simple fact of the matter is that God has to open our eyes, not only to receive the gospel in the first place, but to move us into the depths of the realities of Christ.
The natural man is conformed to this world, but in Christ we are exhorted to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds,” and such transformation is the result of God creating in us a “clean heart” and a “steadfast spirit”. It was through Ezekiel the prophet that God promised, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” God said that he would do it. In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, Paul told us to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” It is to God that we must turn for the awakened eyes of enlightenment. That is perhaps the greatest need of the church.
Dewayne Dunaway
