I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.

Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)

 

Once we are in Christ, His Spirit comes and dwells in us. We must learn how to follow His lead and obey His promptings. This calls us to listen and recognise His voice. Though it may not always be as dramatic as an open vision or audible voice, we know the Spirit speaks to us when He opens the Scriptures to help us to understand His way.

We are to pray, as the Apostle Paul did in Ephesians 1, for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to enlighten our spiritual eyes, allowing us to see and understand the truths which Christ desired to reveal to us through His Word.

Growing in our knowledge of Christ enables us to walk in the reality of who we are in Christ. As we abide in Christ and keep in step with His Spirit, we become more like Him in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.

The Spirit never intended for us to look at Scripture to see if we measure up or not. His role is to perfect us in grace because we cannot perfect ourselves. After all, the Christian life never starts on a negative or deficit, like what’s wrong with us.

Self-examination, without the enlightening of the Spirit results in excessive self-introspection, legalism and frustration. Rather the Spirit wants us to discover the glorious riches we have in Christ so that we may grow into the fullness of being a new creation.