The Eyes of Your Understanding

(Reading Time: 5:30) This is kind of a recent thought, yet I hope it comes out the way it is intended. I say recent because I was in the Prayer Tower this morning and God began showing me some new things about prayer. I guess to put that a better way, I began to understand some things I hadn’t realized before. I was asking God how to pray for people who were going through certain things. These are things they go through over and over again and never seem to overcome or get beyond them. You know what I mean, things we repeatedly do to ourselves over and over again.

I talked with the Lord about two aspects. One, the fact that he cannot directly move upon our hearts without turning us into robots by controlling us. Two, that to directly act upon a person’s circumstances to control them would be manipulation. God does not control us. “So how does changing our hearts and using the circumstances apply?” I asked the Lord. I directly heard that inner voice tell me to turn to Ephesians and he would show me. Since I was asking the Lord how to pray for people, I turned to the first chapter where Paul said he continually prayed for the Ephesian believers.

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 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. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, 
the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably 
great power for us who believe.”

Ephesians 1:15-19, NIV.

The first thing I added to my prayers was the fact that Paul said he continually gave thanks for the people he was praying for. The second thing he said was he kept on asking. This shows us the perseverance of prayer that Jesus taught us in Luke 11. Then Paul dives right in and tells us what he was praying for—“the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” (v. 17) Then my eyes began to open to what God wanted to show me. He does not control our motivations, nor does he manipulate our circumstances. He persuades us with his voice of wisdom and revelation. As we see the truth in his Word we become convinced of its validity and there is a change in us.

“The entrance of your Word gives light.”

Psalms 119:130

This can happen in a natural way, but is also happens in a spiritual way, as we begin to make sense out of the things God reveals to us through his Word. Parables become principles to live by and truth gives traction to our will to begin living God’s Word. Regarding my plea to know how to pray for people who keep falling into the same problems over and over again, God was saying, “Keep asking for them to get the wisdom and revelation that comes through the knowledge of my Word.”

Not only did this excite me to “keep asking,” it emboldens me to keep preaching as well. Sometimes it take multiple exposures to his Word for the truth of it to finally dawn on us. The dawn of the day is when light begins to bounce off of objects and you begin to understand what you are seeing. It was happening to me right there in the Prayer Tower as God was opening the understanding of my mind regarding how Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers.

In verse 18 Paul said he also prayed, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” Why? “In order that you may know.” These two words, enlightenment and knowledge, have two very different, but critical meanings.

Enlightenment is the Greek word photizo. We get the word photo from it. It is when light hits an object and it reacts to the light. Do you remember the old Polaroid camera which had photo-sensitive chemicals built right into the paper? It developed immediately after being exposed to the light. In the same way, when we are exposed to the light of God’s Word a reaction takes place when we understand what is being taught. God does not act directly upon us, we react to the knowledge we receive from his Word. So until we know how to apply this knowledge to our lives, we do not yet have true illumination.

“When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, 

the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.”

Matthew 13:19, NIV.

The knowledge Paul spoke of in his prayer is the Greek word eido, meaning to perceive with the senses. You could literally say it means to focus on something until you figure it out. Exactly like I was doing as I meditated upon Paul’s prayer in the Prayer Tower this morning. There is a definitive difference between having the knowledge of something and truly understanding what you see. This is why we say, “Do you see what I am saying?” Knowledge is light to our souls.

The light God gave me this morning transformed my discouragement in prayer to excitement. He was telling me to keep on praying that the Word would begin penetrating the minds of people until understanding occurs. Only when people understand the Word preached to them will they have an actual ability to receive it or reject it. This applies to the gospel message of salvation and to every other revelation God enables us to receive. Until we understand the message, we cannot apply it to our lives.

The Lord is a great teacher. As I asked him about how to pray for people, he not only explained to me how people come to embrace the truth through prayer, he demonstrated it to me as he gave me wisdom, revelation, understanding, enlightenment, and knowledge through his Word.

“Calvary exists to demonstrate the love of God to the families of our community!”

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Calvary Assemblies of God | 720 N Plum St Union City IN 47390 | Pastor Brian P. Jenkins |  (765) 964-3671 | www.calvaryassembliesofgod.org