Why Do We Have the Spirit? (Eph. 1:15-25)

It is obvious here that Paul is describing the content of his prayers for the Ephesians. We might be surprised that he does so, but whether we are or not, the fact is that he was guided by the Holy Spirit to say what was on his heart as he prayed. It should be obvious to us that one reason for this is that Paul’s method is one that God wants us to imitate. Of course, this could be said of all the prayers in the Bible. God wants our prayers to him to be marked by spiritual intelligence, and the best place to find such information is in the Bible.

Why did Paul pray in this way?

Going by the context, there were four reasons why Paul prayed in this way. The first reason is that the Ephesian Christians were believers in Jesus. Paul mentions how he heard about their faith, which means that he is not referring to what he had known about their faith when he was present with them in Ephesus. Maybe he had been told about the current state of the Ephesians by Epaphras or by another visitor to Rome from the area around Ephesus. So Paul is praying for individuals who have a faith that others wanted to speak about. What should we pray for with regard to such? Paul tells us here.

The second reason is connected to their attitude to other Christians, which was that they loved all the saints. Paul could mean that they loved all the believers in Ephesus, but I think he means that their love extended far beyond them. Their spiritual affections embraced the people of God wherever they were. It included the believers on earth, and love would be shown to them by intercession and by providing practical help when possible. And their affections would include the people of God in heaven, the ones who have reached the Father’s house. After all, the ones there in heaven love the believers on earth and are interested in the progress of the faith. Its only real form of progress is in people who have faith in Jesus and who possess a mutual love for one another.

The third reason for Paul’s prayer is connected to what he had previously written in this chapter, in verses 3-14. In those verses, he praises the Father for what the triune God has accomplished in the plan of salvation, a salvation that will bring innumerable sinners to glory. Since God had the Father had chosen the Ephesian believers, since God the Son had redeemed them, and since the Holy Spirit had sealed them, it was Paul’s delight as well as his duty to pray for them. The evidence that we have grasped the wonder of salvation is that we will pray for the recipients of it. Paul was thankful for each of them and therefore he prayed for them. It is safe to deduce that if I do not pray for you, then I am not thankful for you, and if you do not pray for me, then you are not thankful for me.

The fourth reason for Paul’s prayer is obvious. Christians need to experience spiritual blessings. Moreover, they need to experience specific spiritual blessings, the ones identified by Paul here. It is possible to use spiritual language and not say or mean anything in particular. One such word is blessing, which is often used as a cover-up for spiritual ignorance. The next time someone uses the word in your hearing, ask the person what he or she means by it. Something similar happens when people say that what we need is the Spirit. That form of words is not saying what we need; all it is saying is that we have one, but it is not saying what the remedy is. In contrast, Paul here mentions specific spiritual blessings that believers should pray for and expect to receive when they are spiritually healthy.

Who did Paul pray to?

It is clear from verse 17 that Paul prayed to the Father, another reminder that there is a consistent pattern of prayer in the New Testament, a pattern that can easily be traced to the instruction of Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer that we should address the heavenly Father.

Yet we can also deduce from the way that Paul addresses the Father that we should not speak to him in a thoughtless way. Paul says three things about the Father and his example is a challenge to us to have something to say about God when we speak to him. Perhaps Paul spent a few minutes thinking about the Father before he spoke to him. Instead of rushing into his presence, he searched for a reverent spirit and spoke out of it to the Father.

The first detail that Paul mentions is the relationship between the Father and Jesus. We should observe that the apostle does not refer to Jesus as the Son of the Father here, which should cause us to wonder if the apostle wants us to think about the way he describes the Father and the Son. What does Paul mean when he says that the Father is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ? He is reminding us that in the plan of the Father it was his will that his Son, who is fully God, should also become the Mediator between God and man. The role of Mediator involved him becoming human as well as divine, and as a man Jesus could and did address the Father as God. Paul is indicating here that we come to the Father through Jesus the Mediator and that the Father will not deny acceptable requests made through the Mediator.

The second comment that Paul makes about the Father is to say that he is the Father of glory. It could be translated as ‘glorious Father’, but again we need to ask what that means. One way is to regard ‘glory’ as a general term that indicates his deity, the abilities that he has that his creatures do not have, such as his knowledge of everything, his presence everywhere, and his invincible power. Another way is to regard glory as having the meaning of ‘fame’ or ‘renown’, which would say to us that God is the originator of the greatest possible way for him to receive permanently the greatest degree of glory. It is the case that his amazing plan of salvation is the greatest possible expression of glory that even God could attain. Of course, we could combine the two options and say that God used and uses and will use all his abilities to bring about his great plan of salvation, for which he will receive glory for ever. It is helpful to think about who God is and what plans he has before we pray to him.

The third detail that Paul mentions about the Father is that he delights to give the Spirit. Of course, Jesus instructed his disciples to ask the Father for the Spirit and stressed that the Father would never refuse this request. So that leads us to ask how God will give the Holy Spirit and in what way he will do so.

Having the Spirit

Paul mentions two activities of the Holy Spirit here – wisdom and revelation – and he connects them to the knowledge of the Father. So he is indicating that the Spirit will give the wisdom to understand what he will reveal about the Father and the particular blessings he can give. It is important that we recognise that we have the revelation of what the Father can do recorded for us now in the New Testament. What we need is the heavenly wisdom to understand what the Bible says with regard to those doctrines and promises.

It is important to see what Paul does not have in mind here when he refers to a knowledge of God. This knowledge is not merely knowledge about God. It is possible to know a great deal of truth about God and yet not have a living relationship with him. Many people could say a great deal about the attributes of God, but that kind of knowledge might not be very different from saying that the man across the road is intelligent or perceptive, with that knowledge not being an indication that we know him.

Moreover, the activity that Paul mentions here in connection with the Spirit is the same activity that Jesus engaged in when he was living in Israel. He taught his disciples and others that he had come to reveal the Father. One occasion, he said that whoever had seen him had seen the Father. Then he also said that when the Spirit would come he would function as a similar kind of comforter as Jesus was. So here we have the Spirit informing believers in Jesus about some of the great blessings they can receive from their heavenly Father.

Again we should note that Paul is praying for a post-conversion experience of the work of the Spirit. Many of his readers would have been Christians for several years. They had already received the Spirit at their conversion when he was given by the Father to all of them. In verse 14, Paul had informed them that at their individual conversions each of them had received the Spirit as the seal of divine ownership and the mark of genuineness as well as the one who would give foretastes of the heavenly experience. We can regard Paul’s petitions in his prayer as connected to his readers being given such foretastes from God.

Where in our personalities does the Spirit give this heavenly insight? Paul says that it is given to the eyes of our hearts. There are a couple of details that we can note with regard to this area of our lives. First, the enlightenment is available for all believers – Paul does not suggest that this experience is given to believers who wish to give the impression that they are more spiritual than others. Instead, he prays that each of the Ephesian believers would receive this blessing.  Second, the enlightenment involves our affections – it touches our hearts and we love what is revealed to us. Paul does not limit the experience to an intellectual awareness of what God can give, although it includes it. If we don’t have a correct understanding, it will be easy for us to assume that some experiences belong to knowing God when they may only be in our imagination.

So Paul has prayed that all his readers would receive from the Spirit an ongoing affectionate encounter with God that would result in them knowing the Father more and more. But how would this come about? Paul mentions three areas in which this should happen.

What did Paul pray for?

The first area of the Christian life that enables believers to know the Father better is connected to what Paul describes as ‘the hope to which he has called you’. In the New Testament, the term ‘hope’ is usually connected to the future, especially to what will happen when Jesus returns and brings into permanent existence the new heavens and new earth. When that great day occurs, all the family of God will enjoy the fact of its arrival and the incredible experience they will know when they become like Jesus and be sinless and glorified forever. The problem that many Christians have is a lack of assurance in connection with their destiny as the heirs of God. Some are apprehensive about getting there, especially when they see their sins, not realising that they seem them in such a manner because they have better eyesight. Remember that Paul is praying that his readers would get foretastes of that glory now. So he wants the Father to give the Holy Spirit as the conveyer of assurance to his readers about that great future occasion.

The second area of Christian living that results in knowing the Father better is linked to ‘the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints’. This phrase could refer to God’s inheritance in his people or to his people’s inheritance in God that he has given to them. Both ideas are true and there may not be that much difference in how each idea works out in our lives. Believers are God’s eternal inheritance; they are his family. So what can God give to believers as part of his inheritance? We should remember that we can receive foretastes of the inheritance through the work of the Spirit. The future inheritance will involve a heavenly environment marked by peace, joy, love and harmony in the new heavens and new earth. Notice that Paul links the discovery of these riches to an awareness of the community of the saints.

The third area of Christian living in which we can know the Father better through the work of the Spirit is the experience of divine power. Sometimes the Bible, when speaking of divine power, points us to the ways it is revealed in creation, whether at the beginning when God made the universe or in the way he upholds it in existence. Here Paul points to another incredible display of divine power that was seen in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. Obviously it is good to think about Jesus invested in that position and ruling over all things for the benefit of his people. Yet Paul did not mention the place of Jesus only for information. In addition, he says that all believers can know the same degree of power.

In what ways do we need to know the power of the Father as he showed it when raising his Son from the dead and exalting him to the right hand of God? We need power in order to have our prayers answered because most of the items we pray for, such as conversions and sanctification, are completely beyond the abilities of any human, even the saintliest. Yet this reference to the exaltation of Jesus informs us that the enemies of our souls cannot prevent the Father fulfilling the details of the plan of salvation. They might try and hinder our sanctification, but Jesus is on the throne; they might try and destroy the church by persecution, but Jesus is on the throne. Death may seem to have victories, but Jesus is on the throne. Our weaknesses may be obvious, but Jesus is on the throne.

Those three blessings will be brought to us by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in order for us to know God better. The Bible does not tell us to seek new blessings; instead it tells us to make better use of the ones we have already been given. When we grasp what our hope is, when we grasp that we are God’s inheritance, and when we grasp that the exalted Christ is dispensing divine power, then we will know in deeper ways the fruit of the Spirit such as his love, his joy and his peace.