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(Rom. 16: 27; I Tim. 1: 17; Jude 25) is associated with the Mystery and the working out
of the purpose of the ages. All the wisdom in the world, however, can never discover
what God hides. Until He is pleased to remove the veil, wisdom may lead to a
consciousness of the need of a revelation, but it cannot provide it. The two together
however, "wisdom and revelation", are what the Apostle prayed for and what we all must
receive. This spirit of wisdom and revelation, we have already discovered is related to
"acknowledging" Him (see the previous article).
(2) We come therefore to the next preparation:
"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened" (Eph. 1: 18).
This is not another gift, it is rather a presupposed condition "having been
enlightened". The Apostle uses the word photizo "to enlighten" three times in his earlier
epistles, and three times in his later epistles. The three in the later Prison epistles are:
Eph. 1: 18
"Eyes of understanding having been enlightened.
Eph. 3: 9
"To make all men see what is the dispensation.
II Tim. 1: 10
"Hath brought life and immortality to light.
"Understanding", dianoia "a thinking through", is the faculty of reflection, and is
found in Eph. 2: 3, 4: 18 and Col. 1: 21. The Revised Text however reads kardia
"heart". It is important to remember that that critical passage Isa. 6: 9, 10 that marks
the failure of Israel both in Matt. 13: 15 and Acts 28: 27 speaks of understanding
with the heart, as though the blindness of Israel was the result of willfulness than
poorness of intellect.
The relation of "the eyes" to understanding is a constant figure in the Scriptures. We
read of the single eye and the evil eye, and Israel closed their eyes before they failed to
understand with their heart. When Paul made known that he was about to enter his prison
ministry, he gave a summary of its characteristics and among them he placed "to open
their eyes" (Acts 26: 18). This threefold preparation, the spirit of wisdom and
revelation, the acknowledging, and the illumination of the eyes of the heart, leads on to
the knowledge which is the burden of this prayer. This knowledge also is threefold, thus:
That ye may know
1. What is the hope of His calling.
2. What the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
3. What the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe.
Notice too, the thrice repeated "His". In this prayer as we have already seen our
thoughts are directed away and upward and outside of ourselves, and it is only when the
glorious teaching of chapters 2: and 3: has been received, that the Apostle in his second
prayer turns the believer's attention to "the inner man" to Christ dwelling "in your hearts
by faith", to the saints being "filled". Strange spiritual aberration may follow the reversal
of this divine order. To be taken up with the "inner man" apart from the power of the
risen Christ is dangerous in the extreme.