Ephesians pt3 - The Spirit Of Wisdom & Revelation

You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

We pray that you enjoy the message, but.

What's interesting and amazing about the time that we live in

is we probably have more information available to us than

at any other time in history. Like it's so easy to to go

online. We have, we have the Internet.

Like you don't even need to go to the library really anymore.

When I was growing up, you know, if you wanted to read a book or

something or get some information, you had to go to

the library where these books were, where the encyclopedias

were. You couldn't just go online.

Now I can just pick up my phone and I can get much more

information than I ever could at the library.

It's so easy to get information now, isn't it?

There's all sermons on YouTube or different formats online.

There's all these podcasts, there's Christian teaching

that's so easily accessible. We have probably all of us here,

you know, probably have a Bible app like on our phone or on our

tablet or on our computer or something where we can just

access Scripture and so many different versions.

I remember years ago, before the Internet, you know, if I were,

if I were to study, you know, I'd have to put, you know, like

the new King James Version Bible.

I'd actually have to open up the book, you know, of the new King

James Version or the, the new living translation, the

amplified, you know, So I'd, I'd have like all these different

Bibles, you know, like on my desk or, or on my bed, wherever

it was that I was, where I was studying.

Now it's so amazing. I can just, you know, tap on a

Scripture and hit compare, and it brings up all these different

versions of Scripture. Like how amazing that we have

access to all of these things, right?

And yet many believers still do not realize God's will or who

they are in Christ. It's amazing.

And the problem really isn't a lack of teaching.

Like we have that in abundance. Like, there is no lack of

teaching out there at all. The real problem is a lack of

revelation. Revelation of Scripture is what

puts us over the top. And in his letter to the

Ephesians church, Paul is writing to believers who are

already saved. They're already faithful.

They're already growing. And yet when he prays for them,

he prays that their eyes would be open.

Well, they're already believers. He's still praying that their

eyes will be open. So let's read Ephesians chapter

one verse 15 through 18 here Paul says, therefore I also

after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for

all the Saints do not cease to give thanks for you making

mention of you in my prayers in verse 17 that the God of our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you the spirit

of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him in verse 18

that the eyes of your understanding being 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.

Wow, that's a lot, isn't it? That's really cool.

And that's only part of the prayer.

We're going to focus on the rest of the prayer next week.

But what Paul prays here is, is massive, and we're going to see

why this morning. Paul prays this prayer because

he understands something that's very crucial, that if believers

truly see who God is, all right, and they see who they are in

Christ and what Christ has purchased for them, then

everything begins to change in their life.

But they need to know who God is and who they are in Christ.

And Ephesians chapter one, verse 15 through 23, that's the whole

prayer there. It's not a casual prayer, like

there's so much depth to that. It's the apostle Paul praying

through the Holy Spirit. And this morning we're going to

be examining just the verses 15 to 18.

And next Sunday we'll be examining verses 18 through

through 23. And these are the two areas this

morning we're going to be looking at.

First one is spiritual wisdom and revelation, and then the

second one is the eyes of your heart being enlightened.

All right, so we'll look at the first point.

In the spirit of wisdom and revelation, true Christianity is

revealed. It's not something that's

intellectual that you can just understand because it's not

about intellectualism, it's spiritual.

The Bible says that God's word, that Jesus is the Word, that

those who seek him must, must seek him in spirit and truth.

God's Word is something that is revealed to us spiritually, not

by, not by our heads. In Ephesians chapter one, verse

17, this is what Paul prays. Let the God of our Lord Jesus

Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom

and revelation in the knowledge of him.

And there's so many things that the apostle Paul could be

praying for the church, right? Like most churches back then,

they were under persecution. You know, the churches were

happening in communities where idolatry was was run rampant

there. There were, you know, massive

temples and things where other other gods were being being

worshipped. And there is heavy persecution

for the church. There's a lot of things the

Apostle Paul could have been praying for them, right?

For protection, for provision, for all these different things.

But what is it that the apostle Paul was praying for them?

That God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation

and the knowledge of him? Well, why?

It's because those things when we understand what God has for

us, who God is, who we are in Christ, like we start to look at

those situations. We look at that persecution

differently. We look at the, the protection

that we may need differently. We, we look at the provision,

like everything in our life, we start to look at that

differently. We stop looking at it from these

natural eyes, right, and thinking about things from this

natural brain. And we start looking at things

spiritually through God's eyes, how see he sees them, his

perspective. And that's really important.

So the apostle Paul is praying for spiritual wisdom and

revelation in the knowledge of God.

Without spiritual wisdom in Revelation, Christianity is

really just another lifeless religion, people trying to find

their way to God through their own understanding, through their

own works, through their own ability.

But when we understand what Christianity really is, that

everything is through Christ, Jesus said I am the way and the

truth and the life, that no one goes to God except through me.

When we understand that our entire life, like this whole

thing, our salvation, our belief, like everything this

church is founded upon, is founded upon through Christ, Not

through anyone else, not through me, not through Pastor Amy, not

through you, through Christ. Everything that we have is

through Christ. Because of Christ, not because

of anything that we can do, anything that we hope to do

today, tomorrow, yesterday, we are incapable.

But Christ, He has given us all things, all things that pertain

to this life that we need an abundance of provision,

spiritual wisdom, and revelation.

This isn't something a a person can simply acquire on their own,

right? There's been many people that

have read the Bible from from cover to cover, but they never

acquire any spiritual wisdom or revelation in God.

Well, why is that? Because it's not something that

can be understood or digested naturally by your reasoning, by

your intellect. I've had some amazing

conversations with people that are way smarter than I am, but

they have no idea, no spiritual wisdom, no revelation of who God

is and who they are in Christ because you can't understand

those things with your head. You can reason those things and

it's a good place to to start. You know, when, when, when you

preach the gospel to someone, what happens?

You preach the gospel with them and, and they may begin to, to

try to, to reason and rationalize things in their

head. But but really, the, the cross,

the Bible says is foolishness to mankind, right?

It does not make sense for God to step down from heaven, be

born as a little baby and then grow up, right?

And then sacrifice his life for humanity.

Like that just doesn't compute to people, to people of great

intellect. Like go have a conversation, you

know, with the philosophy professor at a, at a university,

right? Things just don't compute with

our natural mind. But it's not something that,

that you can understand naturally because it's something

that happened spiritually. And when you share the gospel

with someone, what's going on? The, the, the Holy Spirit is

bringing conviction, not condemnation, but conviction to

their heart for their sin to bring them to a point of, of

repentance, right? He's trying to bring spiritual

understanding, spiritual wisdom and revelation to them so that

then they can make a decision on whether they want to give their

life to Christ or reject him. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus had

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

asked his disciples who people said that he was and many people

say that they thought he was a prophet, right?

They recognize him. While this is this, this guy is,

is not a normal individual in in the sense that he's his teaching

is absolutely mind blowing, right?

He's performing miracles like people are being healed.

Like there's something unusual about this about this

individual. So maybe he's a a prophet.

They said that he was a maybe a great teacher, maybe even like

the prophet Elijah or Jeremiah, like reincarnated.

That's kind of weird, right? But they didn't know like they

just never had encountered another individual like this at

all. But then Jesus asked the

disciples who they thought that he was in Matthew chapter 16 and

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

verse 16 says Simon Peter answered and said, you are the

Christ, the Son of the living God.

Wow Peter, where'd you come up with that one?

Now that's an amazing idea. And here it is.

Spiritual wisdom in Revelation. Jesus responds by saying this to

Peter in verse 17, Matthew 1617. Jesus answered and said to him,

Blessed are you Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not

revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

So God revealed this to Peter. Everyone else is, is trying to

trying to rationalize things in their head and come up with I

need to fit Jesus in some kind of box.

So what kind of box can I fit him in?

The problem is, is that you have someone like Jesus.

There is no box that he can fit in except for the box of He is

Christ. Christ means the anointed one.

When we say Jesus Christ, we're saying Jesus the anointed. 1 So

Peter, God reveals to him that this is Christ the anointed one

that God had been talking about all throughout the whole Old

Testament, prophesying about his coming.

And Jesus said, well, you couldn't have come up with that

on your own. That's only something that that

you could know if God revealed that to you.

That's a spirit of revelation, knowledge of him, right?

So what Paul is praying for the believers in in Ephesus church

is that God would reveal to them what only God can reveal.

Because how many of you have, have read the Bible and you're

like, I, I don't understand what it is that I'm reading like at

different times. Like that's what all of us have

the thought of, right? I still have that thought

sometimes. What is it, Lord, that I'm even

reading here? Like can you give me some, some

spiritual wisdom and revelation on what it is that you're

talking about here? So that I can have some

revelation about it, so I can have some wisdom in it, so then

I can begin to walk in it? Because if I don't understand

it, like I can't walk in it, can I?

I can try the best I can, but then I'm just doing it in my

ability, right? But when I have spiritual

wisdom, when I have spiritual revelation, when God has

revealed that to me, it drops from this my head down to my my

heart and it becomes revelation. And it's like a light turns on

and it's like, oh, that is so good.

I can begin to walk in that. And when you begin to walk in

that, because you have spiritual wisdom and revelation, that's

when things begin to change in your life.

That's where those dominoes start to fall, right?

And you get that first domino begin to fall.

Then what happens with everything after?

You just start getting more and more wisdom.

And in revelation, you know, there's sometimes where, you

know, there's these giant, what are they called?

Woot sits. I I think that's what they're

called. You know, they're they're like

these these big puffy cheese snacks, right?

They're like this this big. You can get like a big bag of

them. Walkers makes them right?

They're like Cheetos, but they're like puffy.

Anyways, I open up a bag of those, you know, and before I

know it, like I can't just eat one right?

Like I get a handful of them and I can't just eat that handful.

Before I know it, that entire bag is gone.

I'm like, how many calories is that that I just ate right?

But I couldn't I couldn't get enough.

I don't know what it is. They're just addictive.

Maybe it's something they put in them.

Maybe it's just me. I have a weakness for those.

I don't know what it is, but I can't stop.

And I'm thankful actually that I got to the end of the bag right.

There's just no more in there. Otherwise I don't know what

would happen. Like if they had like a big

family size, I'd probably devour all of that too.

I can't just eat one. But when we have that spiritual

wisdom in Revelation and you start getting that from the

Lord, like you just want more. That was absolutely amazing,

Lord. Like, what's next?

Like what can you, what can you show me next about who you are

and who I am in Christ? Because once we start walking in

those things and we start seeing God, God move in our life, when

it becomes revelation to us, we we start to become kind of

addicted. You want more of God.

You want more of, of his wisdom and revelation.

But what's interesting is God doesn't file dump.

You know what I mean by that? Where he just, he doesn't give

you like the full spiritual wisdom and revelation of every

single thing in this Bible because we won't be able to

handle it like we can hardly handle the, the spiritual wisdom

and revelation that we have now. He gives us what we need a step

at a time, right When you take that, that step on that

spiritual wisdom and revelation that he's given you, when you

begin to walk in that, what does he do?

You take another step, and then he starts to reveal more things

to you and you begin to walk through that in that.

And then you take another step and he reveals more to you.

He's not going to give you more than what you're capable of

walking in at one time. You've got to keep walking for.

And as you do that, as you keep pressing forward in Christ, he's

going to start revealing more and more of His word to you.

You know, the Bible says in James, James says that when we

draw close to God, he draws close to us.

That needs to be what we're seeking to do every single day

because in that place where we're where we're close to God,

when we draw close to God, he draws close to us in that, in

that place of, of intimacy, of relationship with God, that's

the place where he reveals these things to you.

If you're not drawing close to God, what do you expect that

he's going to be revealing to you and showing you, right?

When you draw close to God, He's going to draw close to you, and

in that place, in that place of intimacy and relationship,

that's where He gives you all of these things in His word, the

Spirit of wisdom and revelation. That's one side of the coin,

right? Drawing close to God, the other

side of the coin. Jesus said this to His disciples

in Matthew Chapter 7 and verse 6.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

And this part's not so pleasant, but Jesus said in Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Chapter 7 and verse 6, He said, do not give what is holy to the

dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample

them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.

What is Jesus talking about there?

Like, does that sound nice to you?

I can't believe Jesus would say something like that.

I thought he was the nicest guy in the world and that everything

was just love and just, well, this is right.

Jesus was telling his disciples not to share with others the

treasured word that he's been sharing with them, with those

people who don't value it, who don't value it, they don't care.

You can share them. You know what's different things

that the Lord has revealed to you?

Spiritual wisdom and revelation about his word that you have a

revelation of your of in your life, right?

And you start sharing that with someone else and it's just like

they just don't get it. They don't even care to get it.

Sometimes people even say, well, I don't, you know, why are you

talking to me about that? I don't want to hear that.

You know, I don't want to hear your religion or your thoughts

or whatever about your God, right?

It's spiritual wisdom and revelation to you, but not to

them. You're sharing things with

people who they don't value the word like you do.

And so sometimes you get a response that's not really nice,

right? Doesn't make you feel good.

I really wish that that they'd listen because I know the word

would change their life. Sometimes people just aren't in

that place yet. But God's not going to reveal

the precious treasures of His Word to those who don't value

it. And that includes you.

If you don't value His word, you're putting a cap.

On what God can and will reveal to you.

And This is why many believers remain where they are, stuck in

neutral. Things aren't progressing the

way I thought they would in my relationship with the Lord.

They're stuck in neutral. But it's because they're not

valuing God's word. They're not pressing forward,

drawing close to God like they should.

They're drawing close to other things.

You know, it's amazing. I'm not really a, a morning

person at all, but I understand that it's, it's, it's good for

me to start my day off in this like framing my day in God's

word, because this will change my perspective.

Everything else that I encounter throughout the day, right,

because I put God first, seek ye first, the Kingdom of God.

Because I put God first, I'm drawing close to him.

Then the rest of my day, whatever comes my way, what are

my first thoughts, right? It's thoughts directed towards

this. I'm filtering everything the

rest of my day through God's word.

If I flip that right, it's not bad like doing study and things

in the evening time before bed or whatever, but I'm putting God

last, right? There's just something about

putting God first and then allowing our day to be filtered

through him instead of filter, trying to filter God through our

day. We're just not going to get as

much. And so myself, who's not really

a morning person, I make sure that in the morning time that

I'm spending some time in God's word, spending some time in

prayer and listen, it doesn't need to be an hour.

You know, you're just putting God first in your day, thinking

about him first before you're thinking about the tasks that

you have to do at work or whatever else that it is you're

doing. You're putting making a decision

to put Christ first in your life, and when you draw close to

God, he's going to draw close to you.

The apostle Paul said this in one Corinthians 2 and verse 14.

He said, But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these

truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them,

right? And it does because you can't

understand God's Word intellectually.

Some of the smartest people in the world, you talk to them and

they reveal themselves, as the Bible says, fools.

They're very smart about the things of this world, right?

But when it comes to the things of God, when it comes to

spiritual things, you know, they believe that they came from a

single cell Organism just as an example.

But as science has evolved, right, They've actually found

out that a single cell Organism is so incredibly complex.

They thought years ago, before they found out this information,

that a single cell Organism was the most simplistic, you know,

Organism, it's just a single cell.

There's nothing to it, right? But as science has evolved,

really science hasn't evolved. Science is just the study of

God's creation, right? It's what science is US figuring

out. Oh wow, that's what God did.

That's what science is. But they found out that that

single cell Organism is so incredibly complex.

It's like the entire city of Dublin, all the infrastructure,

all the electrical that's underneath the streets, all of

the plumbing, everything that goes into the, the

infrastructure of, of Dublin that makes it so incredibly,

like if you could see a map of it, you'd be like, oh, wow, like

that's pretty complicated. That's complex.

Well, that's a single cell Organism, right?

And so people who think they're, they're really intelligent, you

know, they have a lot of intelligence naturally.

They're trying to figure out, well, how did, how did all of

this happen? Like naturally?

But it's not something that happened naturally.

It's something that happened spiritually, and the Bible tells

us how that happened. But it sounds foolish that in

the beginning God spoke and everything was created right?

Sounds foolish to a natural person who doesn't believe in

God. It's something that you have to

have spiritual wisdom and understanding of right?

David prayed this in Psalm chapter 25 and that's a good

Psalms 25 · chapter mention

thing for us to pray as well. Psalm 25 and verse 5.

He said, lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God

of my salvation and on you I will wait all the day like is

that our heart. Lord teach me in your ways.

Teach me what I need to know to walk with you today, to walk

with you tomorrow, to be a husband, to be a wife, to be a

brother, to be a sister, like whatever it is that we need.

Teach me Lord and you just wait on him.

That's your attitude. Draw close to God and He will

draw close to you and that place of relationship and intimacy.

He's going to give you spiritual wisdom and revelation and the

knowledge of him. It's going to be amazing.

The next part of this prayer centers on the eyes of your

heart being enlightened. Paul continues in this prayer in

in verse 18 Ephesians 1/18. He says the eyes of your

understanding being 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. So Paul prays that we will be

enlightened that we will understand what is the hope of

God's calling. I like what it says in the

amplified classic version Ephesians chapter one verse 18

in the amplified classic, it says by having the eyes of your

heart flooded with light so that you can know and understand the

hope to which he has called you and how rich is the glorious

inheritance of the Saints has set apart ones your picture like

when he says flooded with light. I like that picture.

Imagine like a big massive bright light.

If we showed that like in this room, just like this burst

massive flooding of light, like we'd all have to shut our eyes,

right, because it's just so bright.

Everything becomes revealed in that light.

The apostle Paul is praying that our heart will be flooded with

light so that we can no one understand the hope to which he

has called us who you are in Christ.

The Apostle Paul is praying that we would know who we are in

Christ. But too many Christians live

like they haven't been adopted, like there are still an outsider

of Christ's family. The Bible actually says that

we've been grafted in to his family.

Well, what does that mean? It means just as if one of his

own, we've been adopted into his family, just as if we're his

very own child, because we are. When you adopt someone into your

family, they become a member of your family just as everyone

else. They may not be blood

necessarily, but you treat them as if they're one of your own,

right? But a lot of Christians, because

they don't know who they are in Christ, what Christ has done for

them, they live so far below that, like there's still an

outsider to God's family. But God doesn't want us living

like that. The apostle Paul is praying that

our heart will be flooded with the knowledge of who we are in

Christ. And the apostle Paul shares a

lot of this all throughout his teaching and in a lot of other

places the the author is there too.

For example, in in two Corinthians chapter 5 and verse

17, there's what we call in him realities, all right?

It's like who the Bible says we are in him through him by him,

right? And two Corinthians 517 it says

therefore, if anyone is in Christ, right, that's an in him

reality. If you are in Christ, right, he

is a new creation, old things have passed away and behold, all

things have become new. And there are about 164 of these

in Scripture 164 in him realities.

Well, why does that matter, right?

Well, it matters because these define your position.

These define your rights, these define your inheritance, what it

is that Christ purchased for you upon the cross.

That's why it matters. So Paul is praying that the eyes

of our understanding would be enlightened, that we may know,

but this isn't going to happen magically.

This is only given when we draw close to God.

Imagine if you had a, a relative and they they passed away and

you knew they had a had a bit of money, had some property, like

different things, and there was going to be a, a reading of the

will. Imagine how your life would

change if you went to the reading of that will and they

left everything to you. That would change your life

probably a little bit, wouldn't it?

Right. You're, you're, you've suddenly

got some, a lot of money in the bank.

You have this property, you have these businesses, like they left

you a lot, right. But what would happen if the

solicitor contacts you, sends you a letter in, in the post and

you don't do anything with it? You read it and you're like, Oh

yeah, sure. And you don't do anything with

that at all. And you just keep living the way

you've always been living. Well, your life's not going to

change, is it? It's going to remain the same.

Well, here we have in Scripture, like God is revealing to us

everything that He has done for us through Christ, in Christ, by

Christ, these in him realities. Well, it would probably behoove

us to find out what those are so that we can begin to walk in

them. And when you read something like

like 2 Corinthians 517, well, OK Lord, like, what does that

actually mean? That through Christ I have

become a new creation? Like, what is that like?

Talk to me about this Lord and ask Him.

And if you're sincerely asking, He's going to give you spiritual

wisdom in Revelation about what it is that He wants you to know

about that. And as you begin to walk in

that, he's just going to be revealing more and more and

more. Isn't that good?

Let me close with what Jesus said in John chapter 15 and

John 15 · chapter mention

verse 4. Jesus said this.

He said abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit

of itself unless it abides in the vine and neither can you

unless you abide in me. So I want to challenge you as I

did on the the previous first two weeks of this year of 2026.

And I'd shared the the Lord's message that he gave me for our

church for 2026, but also for you, and that was refusing to

draw back and pressing forward in Christ.

Listen, this year has the potential to be the best year

that you've ever had, no matter what's going on in this world.

And if you watch any of the news, this world's just

absolutely mad, right? But your life isn't based upon

what's going on in this world, is it?

Your life isn't doesn't revolve around what the BBBBC says.

Your life doesn't revolve around what RTE says.

Your life doesn't revolve around what CNN says, right?

Your life, if you allow it to revolve around this, right?

Draw close to God and he will draw close to you.

Abide in that vine, which is Christ, because that's the place

that all this fruit comes from. But it's up to you, right?

I can't twist your arm. If I could come behind you.

Twist your arm. Come on.

Pursue Christ. Pursue Christ, right?

I'd do it. Pastor Brad, stop.

No, Pursue Christ, right? I'd do it.

But that's what it's going to take, not me twisting your arm.

You pursuing Christ, right? Draw close to God and He's going

to draw close to you and reveal to you all these amazing

treasures that He has in His Word, things for you about you

and His provision. Everything that you need in this

life is found in this. You just have to be willing to

go get it to dig for it. Amen.

Well, let's pray. Thank you for listening to the

Triumph Church podcast this week.

If it was a blessing to you, share it with someone you know.

For more information on Triumph Church, you can visit us at

www.triumphchurch.ie.