Transcript

James Packer says this, “I remember walking to church one winter evening to preach on the words, “He will glorify me,” in John 16:14. As I approached the church and turned a corner, I saw the building lit by its floodlights.

“I realized at that moment that this was exactly the illustration my message needed.

“When floodlighting is done well, the floodlights are placed so that you do not see them; in fact, you are not supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained.

“The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize its dignity by throwing all its details into illumination so that you can see it properly.

“This perfectly illustrates the Holy Spirit’s role. He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior.

“It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder on the Lord who stands facing us.

The Spirit’s message to us is never, ‘Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me,’ but always, ‘Look at Him, and see His glory; listen to Him and hear His words; go to Him and have life; get to know Him and taste His gift of joy and peace.’”

In this episode, we’ll be looking at the Spirit’s ministry of enlightenment.

Ephesians 1:17-18: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.”

The enlightening work of the Holy Spirit flows out of the grace of God. It is a gift we don’t deserve that we have a divine Teacher in us, to guide and help us to know Christ more and to grow in our spiritual understanding of God’s Word.

In the beginning, when God created all things, “Darkness was upon the face of the deep” Genesis 1:2 tells us. This is a reminder of man’s fallen state by nature. They are in a state of spiritual darkness.

But then “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” As the gospel is heard, the Spirit of God moves on the heart of a person. And this is also a reminder of the Spirit’s work in regeneration in giving spiritual life and a new beginning.

Then Genesis 1:3 says, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Natural light was the first thing created in the making of the world. And spiritual light immediately is given to one who is made a new creation in Christ.

As 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Just as God created visible light at the dawn of creation, so also He shines spiritual, divine light into darkened hearts to gives sinners who believe the gospel of grace “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Enlightenment is about spiritual, divine light being shone on the truth of the Word of God. And enlightenment is solely a work of the Holy Spirit.

Since the Spirit immediately indwells the believer after he or she trusts Christ as their Savior, His enlightening work can thus commence immediately after salvation.

And His enlightening work then continues throughout the entire pilgrimage of our life and it consummates in glory. It’s as Proverbs 4:18 says, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

Psalm 36:9 reads, “For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.”
This is what the Spirit’s enlightenment entails. It is God’s light shining on His Word. And by the Spirit’s light, “shall we see light,” the light and truth of His Word.

It is not just an informing of the mind, or an intellectual exercise, but a consciousness of the realities and nature of divine and spiritual things.

The Spirit’s enlightenment gives certainty to our soul. It enables the believer to echo what the man who was blind from birth said, explaining the miracle of sight that Christ had miraculously given him, “One thing I KNOW, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”

Based on the Spirit’s enlightenment and our faith in the Word of God, it enables us to have the courage of our convictions and to say with Paul,

“I KNOW Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

And also, “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; KNOWING that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:13-14).

The Spirit’s enlightenment is a transforming work. It produces real and lasting impression on our soul and spirit. It stamps the image of Christ upon the heart and molds it into His likeness.

As 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image [of Christ] from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

The Spirit’s enlightenment inspires the believer, as Peter puts it, to “shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

Importantly, the Spirit’s enlightenment requires humility. We must rely on the Spirit to teach us His Word. We must humbly admit that we need Him and His help, and then yield to Him to be our Teacher. We don’t know all there is to know in God’s Word. And the Word is of such depth that we never will on this side of heaven.

That’s one of the things the Spirit actually enlightens us to, to the fact of how much we still have to learn, how much we don’t know and understand, how far we need still to go, and how huge the God we serve truly is.

It is important to approach the Word with a humble mindset, and to allow the Spirit to work through a teachable heart, rather than a proud one.

And we should pray for His enlightenment to His Word, like the Psalmist did, “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.” “Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me Thy statutes” (Psa. 119:12,18).

In Ephesians 1:17, the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.”

Isaiah 11:2 is a prophecy of Jesus Christ that reads, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the SPIRIT OF WISDOM and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 tells us how the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of revelation, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath REVEALED them unto us by His Spirit.”

Outside of Christ in our natural mind, mankind cannot understand the things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

We need the Holy Spirit to teach us “the things of the Spirit of God.” This is what He does in His work of enlightenment.

The Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth to us from the Word. He gives us spiritual discernment. And He gives us the wisdom to understand and apply the truth. And He further gives us the enablement to practice the truth by His power.

Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, so when Paul prayed that God the Father “may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,” He is not praying that his readers might receive the Person of the Holy Spirit, but rather that they might receive a special measure of His enlightenment, or greater, clearer light from Him.

Notice that the apostle didn’t pray that the Ephesians would receive a direct revelation. This did take place with the Apostle Paul.

In his letters, Paul is very careful to make plain the fact that his message came by revelation, not by man, not through man, but from Christ by direct revelation.

Instead, Paul prayed for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enlighten them to the full knowledge of Christ.

The Spirit doesn’t give us direct revelation like He did to apostles and prophets of old, He enlightens us to God’s completed revelation of His Word. He is the One who gave God’s revelation, and He, the Spirit of revelation, reveals to us what it means and says.

All the works of God are important. And one of the important ministries of the Holy Spirit in this Dispensation of Grace is to reveal the things of God to believers who spend time with His Word and sit under its teaching.

I’ve always liked the quote that “The Bible is the only Book you read where the Author is right there with you every time you open its pages.” He is always there because He indwells us, and He always desires to teach us His Word. He is the Revealer of the truth that He Himself has inspired to be written.

The goal of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation is “the knowledge of Him,” that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. The goal of the Spirit in His enlightenment is this: the knowledge of Christ. The Scriptures are all about Him. The Spirit glorifies Christ. He lifts Him up. He teaches us about Him. He wants us to know Him so we will be like Him.

The apostle was not praying for knowledge in general of Christ but of a specific, full knowledge of Christ.

The word “knowledge” is the Greek word “epignosis,” which means full knowledge, to know deeply, personally, precisely. There is a difference between this Greek word for knowledge and other Greek words translated as “knowledge” in the Bible.

For example, since I live in Wisconsin, I could say, “I know Aaron Rodgers, quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.” This would mean that I know who he is and what he looks like. If I were shown a picture, I could say, “That’s Aaron Rodgers.” But I don’t know him personally, and he doesn’t know me from Adam.

But I could also say, “I know my wife.” That’s an entirely different kind of knowledge.

After 23 years of marriage, it is a knowledge that is very deep and personal. I have a fuller knowledge of my wife. And I’m still learning!

And that’s the sort of knowledge Paul is praying for the Ephesians to be enlightened to with Christ by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation: to have a full knowledge of Him.

This full knowledge of Christ points directly toward the revelation given to Paul, as Romans 16:25 puts it, “the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.”

We gain a full knowledge of Christ when we know Him by His current ministry to the Church as the Head of the Body of Christ.

Many only know Christ according to His earthly ministry to Israel in the Gospels. And that is important, because we do need to know Christ according His prophetic ministry.

But most do not have the FULL knowledge of Christ in knowing Him also according to His current heavenly ministry in His exaltation at the right hand of God.

This knowledge is revealed in the message Christ made known to Paul, called the revelation of the mystery.

And Paul prayed for believers to have a deep, full knowledge of Christ—a knowledge that cannot be gained by intellectual ability, but only by the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit in His work of enlightenment.

Here at Berean Bible Society, we often receive testimonies from people when they see Christ’s twofold ministry, to Israel and to the Body of Christ, and God’s twofold purpose for the earth and the heavenlies, and they describe it as “the light went on.”

When I hear that, it always makes me think of the Holy Spirit, and that it is the Spirit of God who enlightened them to this blessed truth in His Word.

The Spirit delights to teach us the things of God. The truth often dawns on those searching for the truth and who spend time in the Word. Kind of “like the man who was searching for the sun one morning. Then, it dawned on him.”

In Ephesians 1:18, Paul wrote about our spiritual “eyes” being enlightened.

This prayer for spiritual enlightenment regarding the full knowledge of Christ applies only to those who already have spiritual vision, and his prayer is for a clearer, fuller vision of Christ.

After God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, declaring His majesty and greatness, Job’s response was, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine EYE SEETH Thee” (42:5). That’s what the Spirit’s work in enlightenment does.

He opens our EYES to see, spiritually speaking. By the hearing, reading, and studying of the Word, He teaches and illumines its meaning to us, so that our spiritual EYES see and understand spiritual truth more clearly.

And it’s not just an intellectual understanding that He enlightens us to, but rather it is about knowing Christ personally, knowing what the truth of God’s Word means to our hearts and lives.

In Job 38-41, Job was given a vivid revelation of God’s wisdom, power, providence, and sovereignty, and showing that He really did spiritually see and understand God more, Job’s response was, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

That’s the kind of response that happens the closer you get to God in seeing Him and understanding His greatness and holiness.

Often spiritual eyes are stubbornly closed to truth and are blind because of unbelief. In Matthew 13:13, Christ said of the multitude who came to hear Him: “They seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand” (Matt. 13:13).

They could see physically, but not spiritually. Truth incarnate stood right in front of them. They could see Him, but they wouldn’t see Him. They refused to see Him spiritually and remained blind because of their unbelief.

And, like those in Israel in Christ’s day, many desire to hold on to their old religious traditions in preference to allowing the Spirit to open their eyes to the light of truth. This happens often in the Church today, because mankind doesn’t change.

The enlightenment of the Spirit is directed to the HEART of the believer.

The phrase “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened” literally means “the eyes of your heart.” This is the only time this phrase occurs in Scripture.

We think of the heart as the emotional part of our being, but in the Bible, the heart means the inner man, the very center and core of one’s life, thoughts, and beliefs. It refers to what we might call “the real you.” It is the channel of spiritual knowledge.

And your heart has spiritual eyes. And Paul was praying for the “eyes of our heart” to be enlightened to the truth, to the full knowledge of Christ.

When the eyes of our heart, the inner man, are opened through the working of the Holy Spirit, we grow in knowledge and understanding of spiritual truths. When the eyes of our heart are opened, the light of God’s truth comes pouring in. And that’s a blessing.

He teaches and helps us to see the wonderful truths God has laid out in His Word concerning our present position and blessings in Christ, and the things that lie ahead for born again believers in the Body of Christ.

Paul prayed that the eyes of your heart might be “enlightened.” The word “enlightened” means to cause light to shine upon some object, in the sense of illuminating, for it to be flooded with light. Like floodlights!

Enlightening the eyes of our heart means to cause spiritual truth to be fully seen by the Spirit shining His light on it, revealing it clearly and in great detail, so that you can’t help but see it and believe it.

It means to make our hearts see God’s truth, by the Spirit illuminating it and making it clear, so that we might fully know and understand.

In Ephesians 3:9, the Body of Christ is commissioned “to make all men SEE what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.”

The words “to make see” is translated from the exact same Greek word translated as “enlightened” in 1:18. Thus it means to enlighten all men. In other words, we are to shed a flood of light on the fellowship of the mystery, so that no one is in the dark to it.

In ourselves, we can’t MAKE people see the truth of God’s Word. To make all men see is a call for us to faithfully share the truth of the mystery from the Word and let the Spirit work to enlighten and “make all men see.”

The work of making believers see the truth of the Word is the work of the Holy Spirit.

That translation of “to make see” fits in nicely in chapter 1, verse 18. So that it reads, “The eyes of your heart being made to see.” That is what enlightenment really is.

1 Corinthians 2:10-12: “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

The story is told of William Randolph Hearst and how he once read of an extremely valuable piece of art. He decided he must add it to his extensive collection.

He instructed his agent to scour the galleries of the world to find the masterpiece he was determined to have at any price.

After many months of painstaking search, the agent reported that the piece already belonged to Mr. Hearst and had been stored in one of his warehouses for many years.

In His work of enlightenment, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the great riches we have in Christ, the things that are freely given to us of God, that we already possess, and that we are unaware of.

The Spirit reveals these blessed spiritual truths so that they might hit our hearts, and motivate us to serve, worship, and please the Lord as we live in light of them.

Our problem is not lack of blessings, we have so many! Our problem is lack of insight and wisdom to understand their meaning and spiritual, eternal significance.

And when these blessings hit home by the Spirit’s work of enlightenment they are powerful force to drive us to drive us to our knees in gratitude and to drive us forward to live for the glory of God.

Verse 10 shows how the Spirit reveals God’s truth to us. To “reveal” means to make clear that which was previously hidden or unknown to us.

The Holy Spirit shines His spiritual light on the Word for us so we can see the truth of God. Again, this is a work of grace that we do not deserve, and is something we should be thankful for. Otherwise, we would be in the dark to the truth of God.

Unaided, mankind cannot get to know the things of God. Purely and only education and intellectual power does not avail here with the Word.

When the Word is looked at apart from the Spirit, in a purely intellectual, scholarly manner, you end up with the false claims of higher criticism and textual criticism, borne from unbelief in the Word of God. When we come to the Word, this is a spiritual matter.

As believers, we rely on the revealing power of the Holy Spirit working through the holy Scriptures as we humbly read and seek His divine illumination and understanding.

By this we learn the truth and what it means to our hearts and lives and our eternity, and we see by the Spirit how the Word points in every way toward Jesus Christ.

Verse 11 teaches how the Spirit as God can reveal the things of God. The Spirit is infinite in wisdom and understands all the truths of God and is able to impart them.

The Holy Spirit can reveal the truth of God to us because He knows the mind of God infallibly and He has the very mind of God Himself.

There is not anything in God or about God that the Spirit does not know, does not always know, has not always known, from eternity past. This is not distant knowledge, this is not discovered knowledge; this is immediate knowledge. This is innate knowledge.

He knows God’s wisdom, perfections, and purposes fully because He Himself is God. Nothing is lost in translation.

When it says that the Spirit searcheth all things, it doesn’t mean He searches because He is ignorant of something, or to discover and uncover something. That word search is there for our benefit. It’s to show the depth of His knowledge and how He knows every single detail. It is for the purpose of showing how thoroughly He knows “all things.”

As God, the Spirit is able to plumb the depths of God and willing teach us “the deep things of God” in His Word.

He can teach us everything about God’s Person, character, and nature; everything about the Cross and what it accomplished for us; everything about God’s plans and purposes for Israel under the law; everything about God’s message of grace for the Body of Christ today; everything about things to come.

He can illuminate ALL the truths of God’s Word, because He knows it all perfectly.

A.W. Tozer said this, “People can memorize the Scriptures by the yard, but that is not a guarantee of knowing the truth. Truth is not a text. Trust is in the text, but it takes the text plus the Holy Spirit to bring truth to a human soul.”