Heaven On Earth   

Scripture Reference: Eph 1:16-23

There is more to being saved than just getting our sins forgiven. The new birth ushers us into the kingdom of God which is infinitely greater in wonder and benefits than our finite minds can comprehend. But to the degree that we do begin to understand how God’s kingdom works and apply our lives to it, we can experience heaven here on earth.This does not happen automatically and it does not happen all at once. We are progressively changed as we renew our minds (Rom 12:2). All Christians are the same in their born again spirit, but there are many different levels of understanding and accompanying victory which we manifest in our lives.

Paul the apostle prays that the Ephesians would come to experience in their flesh what is already theirs in their spirit. This prayer is still valid for every believer today. We can personalize this prayer and receive the same wisdom and revelation that Paul was praying for the Ephesians to receive. (Eph 1:16-23).

(Eph 1:16) Paul’s giving of thanks for the Ephesians was part of his prayers for them. Thanksgiving to God is prayer and it is a very important part of prayer. Psalm 100:4 says “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless his holy name. Phil 4:6 says “ Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”

According to Jesus teaching on prayer in (Matt 6:9-13) we are to start and end our prayer with thanksgiving and praise.
It is easy to take our burdens to the Lord in prayer and actually spend our time complaining instead of praying. Making thanksgiving an integral part of every prayer will prevent this. If we start our prayer with praise and thanksgiving we remind ourselves that God is bigger than our problem. And if we close with prayer and thanksgiving, we will have to move beyond the problem to the answer. Faith always focuses on the answer, not the problem. (Col. 2:7)

Paul is praying that they would receive the revelation of the mystery which he is sharing with them. “Mystery” meaning something that could not be known by man except by divine revelation, but that though once hidden has now been revealed in Christ and is to be proclaimed, so that all who have ears may hear it.

Paul is praying that we would receive the spirit (PNEUMA), of wisdom and revelation. The word spirit speaks of our attitude - be made new in the attitude of our mind or our Mental disposition. So Paul is saying we not only have to reprogram our minds with new information, but we have to allow these new truths to change our attitudes. It is not good to learn facts from God’s word and store these facts, so we can recall them. We have to meditate on the truths of God’s word until our outlook, feelings, sentiments and disposition have been renewed to God’s way of thinking. We should dwell upon God’s word to the degree that it changes our attitude.

We already have wisdom and prudence in our born-again spirit. These things come as part of our “package deal” of Salvation. But we have to draw these things out of our spirit and get them into our minds and bodies to receive any benefits in this life. Therefore Paul is praying that what is already true in our spirit will become our mental disposition. He is praying for a release into the physical of what is already present in our spiritual being. We cannot get a revelation (disclosure) of something that does not already exist. He is praying for us to receive a revelation of what is already ours, freely given to us who are in Christ.

The Christian life is not an attempt to get more faith or more anointing or to get closer to the Lord. We already have these things in their fullness (Rom 12:3). We just need a revelation of what is already ours. Understanding this takes a lot of frustration and doubt away. Through Christ we are already blessed with all spiritual blessings (Eph 1:3). All we have to do is appropriate what is already ours, through the renewing of our mind.

The eyes of our understanding in Eph. 1:18, is the ability to perceive with the mind. Just as the person cannot see with his physical eyes closed, so no one can see with his understanding if his mind is closed. We have to have our understanding open by the Lord to perceive spiritual truths. (Luke 24:45, Mark 8:17)
We should change the way we think. Our heart is perfect, the battle is in our mind. We should not live like unsaved people. If we think like the world, we will get the same results as the world.

The root areas where unbelievers are ensnared are-

• The vanity of the mind - walking in the vanity of our minds which is devoid of truth in appropriateness, perverseness, depravity. Lost people do not use their brains. This leads to clouding the understanding with the end result being the hardening or blindness of our hearts.
• Having the understanding (comprehension, discernment, judgment) darkened - Purposelessness -“ People who have their understanding darkened live like animals.
• Separation from God’s life -“ which is spiritual death. It is ignorance within people that alienates them from the life of God. For God so loved the word that He gave. .(John 3:16). His grace has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11). But not all men receive it because of the ignorance within them.
• Blindness or hardness of heart - Spiritual blindness, hardness of heart, adversely affecting our understanding.
• Being past feeling -“ having no conscience.
• Given over to lasciviousness, uncleanness and greed, these don’t just happen, we have to give our self over to these things. People willfully ignore (2 Pet. 3:5) this truth that sin has to be conceived and indulge in all manner of things that engender (cause) results they don’t want. Those who don’t want to sin, need to be just as concerned about the conception as they are the actual birth or committing of sin.

Eph 1:18
Wisdom and revelation can only be received as the eyes of our heart (our mind, understanding and imagination) are enlightened. Our way of thinking has to be illuminated in order to come to a more accurate and thorough knowledge of God. In fact spiritual mindedness is the only way to true life and peace (Rom 8:15-16)
(Isa.26:3) and the renewing of the mind is the way to knowing the perfect will of God (Rom 12:2)
The end result of this wisdom and revelation is that we might know

• The hope of his calling
• The riches of the glory of his inheritance and
• The exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward

Without a revelation from God no one can realize these blessings
Paul’s prayer is that, through a spirit of wisdom and revelation the Ephesians might come to know the Father in a deeper more perfect way than they had before.
The hope of His calling -“ through our faith in Christ we have become partakers of everything that Christ deserves. (Gal. 3:29). It takes a divine revelation to understand this. The inheritance that is within us is His inheritance. Everything is all through Christ. It came through His holiness, not ours. That’s good news! The riches of the glory of His inheritance are in the saints -The treasures that are within every believer right now far exceeds streets of gold and the wonders of heaven (Rom 8:18).

(Eph 1:19) Paul wants us to not only know God’s power, but the greatness of God’s power, and then the exceeding greatness of God’s power. God is infinitely greater in every way than our little minds can comprehend. We must receive a revelation through our spirit- i.e., the attitudes of our mind to grasp even a little of God’s exceeding, great power. This exceeding greatness of God’s power is towards us. It is for us and for our benefit. It does not do us any good to believe that God has power, if we don’t believe that it will work for us. This great power of God is effectual for those who believe. We must believe to receive or if we doubt, we do without.

(Eph 1:20-21) The power which every believer in Christ now has, is the same power that God the Father used to raise Christ from the dead. It is more than enough power to accomplish God’s will in our lives. Everything we have as believers in Christ, comes from our union with Him. Therefore, what is true of Him is true of us too. So in the same way that Jesus is now “above all principalities and power, and might and dominion...” so are we.

We have come to Jesus Christ to share in Christ throne, to partake in the authority which that throne represents, and to exercise divine power and dominion. There is no place in the New Testament that we are told to ask God to do something about the devil, but rather the church is told to do something about the devil (James 4:7). This is because delegated authority has been given to the church over the works of the enemy. Paul’s prayer is that the church may be enlightened to this fact.
(Eph. 1:22) The church being the body of Christ. (1Cor. 12:12-27)Christ being the Head and the church the body. This emphasizes the Lordship of Christ over the church just as the Head dictates and controls the physical body (1 Cor.15:25-28).

When anything is placed under a feet of a person, then every single part of that person’s body is positioned above it. This illustrates that the resurrection power is not just a reality for Christ, our Head, but every member of Christ body has raising from the dead power and authority within them too.
(Eph 1:23) The church is Christ’s body, the completion of Him. Just as a ship is not complete without its crew. Just as the king is not complete without his kingdom, Jesus Christ has chosen to be incomplete without His church. “His body, filled with Himself”.