My hearts desire

Ephesians 1:15-20

My prayers are so shallow, I pray for your health, or your family that you will have the joy of fellowship with God and be open to His direction.  Today I am going to piggyback on the apostle Paul’s prayer for each of you.  I like Paul have you in my thoughts because the love you have shown to me, and others, in this vast family of God.  But unlike Paul, I often forget to pray for you, but this prayer of Paul’s, is the prayer I desire for each of you who are in the faith.

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your hearts be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he as called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, . . .” (Ephesians 1:17-30

I’ve known very few people who when you shared that you were praying for them, it was as if you were insulting them.  Prayer is the most unselfish and the hardest work a person can do for another.  If otherwise the Lord would not have given us the example of the eleven disciples who loved Jesus and left all to be His disciples, yet could not or did not pray for Him in the garden at a time of his greatest need.  They were followers of Christ, they were under His protection, but they did not have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, it was at Pentecost that they became new creations in Christ, it was there where they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  And all who are in Christ have that filling of the Holy Spirit and like them, we can stand and proclaim what God is doing in the last days.  We also have the power of prayer, but without the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, without spiritual eyes that are enlightened, we will not understand the riches of his glorious inheritance to us, or the great power for us who believe. 

Our prayers will be no different than the eleven disciples who followed Jesus into that garden.  I’m sure they loved Him, and I’m sure they wanted the very best for Him but they did not have the Spirit of God living in them, it was not needed they had Jesus, but they did not ask Jesus to give them the power they needed that night, to stand before the Father in prayer, but after Pentecost they learn to pray in the Spirit. 

My prayer for you is the same one I’m praying for me, I need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that I may know Jesus better.  In Jesus, in His divine power, He has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him.  We have become partakers of His divine nature, and when the eyes of our hearts are enlightened we will be mighty in our prayers.  We are the light of the world, and the apostle Paul gives us this insight, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice