Eph. 1:17    That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.

3:16    That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.

The First Prayer

In the book of Ephesians there are two prayers and one instruction concerning prayer. The first prayer is in chapter 1, and the second prayer is in chapter 3. The instruction concerning prayer is found in chapter 6. In this chapter we will consider one of the greatest prayers in the Scriptures, that is, the prayer of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:15-23. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “Prayer in Ephesians”, msg. 1)

Ephesians 1:15-23: “Therefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and your love to all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” (Holy Bible Recovery Version)

Ephesians is a book that deals with the church, which is the Body of Christ (1:22-23). In this short Epistle the writer offered two prevailing prayers. Furthermore, at the end of this Epistle he gave us the highest instruction concerning prayer. Of the two prayers in this book, the first is a prayer for revelation, a prayer concerning seeing, knowing, and receiving a vision. Because Ephesians deals with God’s eternal purpose, with God’s mystery concerning the church (3:3-11), we need revelation, we need a heavenly vision, and we need spiritual understanding in order to apprehend this mystery.

In order to have revelation, vision, and spiritual understanding, we need to pray a particular kind of prayer. This kind of prayer is needed so that the eyes of our heart, the eyes of our inner understanding, may be enlightened, that we may see the heavenly, divine, and spiritual things, which the natural human mind can never understand (1 Cor. 2:9, 14). This particular kind of prayer is seen in the first prayer offered by the apostle Paul in Ephesians. After we have seen the vision of God’s mysterious purpose, we need to experience what we have seen. For this a second kind of prayer, seen in the apostle’s prayer in chapter 3 (vv. 14-19), is needed. There are two prayers in Ephesians because there are two aspects of our need. The first aspect of our need is to have the spiritual vision, the spiritual insight, the heavenly revelation, to see the heavenly and divine things, to know the mystery of God in eternity concerning the Body Christ. The second aspect is related to our experience. Thus, Paul’s second prayer, the prayer in chapter 3, is a prayer for experience. According to this prayer we need to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts and eventually we are filled unto all the fullness of God. The first prayer in Ephesians is a prayer related to vision, revelation, knowing, and seeing. The second prayer is a prayer regarding the spiritual experience that will result not merely in our being victorious or spiritual but in our being filled unto all the fullness of God. Such an experience certainly needs our prayer. Finally, at the end of Ephesians the apostle instructs us so that we may know how to pray. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “Prayer in Ephesians”, msg. 1)

The Second Prayer

In this chapter we will consider another great prayer, Paul’s second prayer, in Ephesians 3:14-19. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “Prayer in Ephesians”, msg. 2)

Ephesians 3:14-19: “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” (Holy Bible Recovery Version)

Paul’s first prayer in Ephesians is a prayer for revelation, and his second prayer is a prayer concerning experience. In the first part of Ephesians the apostle revealed to us what Christ is to us and what He has done for us. Regarding this, we need to have a revelation, a vision, and a heavenly understanding. Hence, the apostle prayed for us regarding this need. After Paul explained to us what Christ is to us and what Christ has done for us, he helped us to realize how to experience Christ. The second part of Ephesians is related to our living and our walk according to the vision in the first part of the book. Thus, in chapter 3 the apostle offered a second prayer for us, a prayer related to experience, that we may experience Christ in a full way.

To summarize what we said earlier, in his prayer for experience Paul prayed that the Father, who is the source of all things in the universe, may grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into our inner man. If we are strengthened by such a glorious God, we will automatically give the ground to Christ. Then Christ will be able to make His home in our heart, to take possession of our whole being, and to saturate us with Himself. As a result, we will be rooted deeply in Him, taking Him as the rich soil and absorbing all the rich supply and nourishment from Him. Being thus rooted in Christ, we will grow, and we will also be grounded in Christ so that we may be built up. Then we will be able to apprehend, to take possession of, to enjoy, and to share Christ in a full way with all the saints. We will know the unlimited, unsearchable, and immeasurable dimensions of Christ, and we will also realize His knowledge-surpassing love. Eventually, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God. We will be persons who are full of the riches of God in every part of our being, which will issue in our becoming the fullness of God, the expression of God. We will be saturated, permeated, and mingled with God. This is the experience that we need to have. This is the economy of God, and this is the goal of God and the “mark” of God that we must “hit.” Let us pray for this. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “Prayer in Ephesians”, msg. 2)