-So Paul was giving thanks for giving thanks for these believers, and he was praying for them...
-He takes a moment to clarify to Whom he was praying: the God of our Lord Jesus Christ - His Boss, so to speak, the Father of glory. He is certainly the Father of Jesus, the Father of us all, and as such He is glorious and breathtakingly good beyond compare. Consummate awesomeness. He is also the progenitor of all that is glorious, of anything and everything that is good. All that is good issues forth from Him (great day, He is the Giver of all good things for us to enjoy! 1Timothy 6.17). You got something good? From Him.
-We glean from this prayer that this truth is at the top of the list of things for us to know, IF we are to better and fully know God as Paul is praying for the Ephesians. And here is precisely where man goes wrong in his mind and heart, the failure to know and gratefully acknowledge that God is this Father of glory, that He alone is breathtakingly good, all that He makes is very good, all good things in fact come from Him and He in His sovereignty makes all things good (Romans 1.21-23, cf Luke 18.19, Genesis 1.31, James 1.17, Romans 8.28). Not only do we take God’s goodness and good gifts for granted, prone as we tend to be towards selfishness and ingratitude, but as fallen (guilty) people we can live more in fear of His severity than in the awareness of His goodness, a fear which is exacerbated by living in an increasingly corrupt world where things constantly break down. There are too many times when God’s goodness is so obscured by brokenness that it is hard to see even if we’re looking for it.
-But Paul is asking the God and Father of glory to give these believers a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of God, to know Him better, Who He is, what He is like. Which is a prodigious request, as to fully know the infinite God is practically preposterous, far beyond the capacity of our feeble finite minds. Yet we press onward and upward with Paul, aware that this knowledge is rooted in the realm of the spiritual, the realm of things which you cannot see or touch physically, which you cannot control or reproduce in a test tube, things which you can’t quite put your finger on. Literally. God is Spirit - we relate to Him in our spirit (John 4.24, Proverbs 20.27), which is that part of us that died as a result of sin and which is reborn only in Christ and animated by the Spirit of Christ (cf Romans 8.2, 8.10). Like any wind or breath, you cannot see it or hold it per se but you can see its effects.
-Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge. Knowing facts doesn’t necessarily help you if you lack the ability to put that knowledge to use. That’s wisdom. What good would it be to know about how to make money if you didn’t actually go out and make some money? That’s not ignorance, it’s foolishness (cf Ecclesiastes 10.1, Proverbs 1.7). But there are two broad sources of wisdom. There is earthly wisdom, which is more creature-centered and short-sighted (cf James 3.15, 1Corinthians 3:19, 2.13, 2.6, 1.20, 2Corinthians 1.12), and there is heavenly wisdom, that which comes from God Himself (James 3.17, 1.5, 1Corinthians 2.7-8, cf Daniel 1.17). This wisdom from above is pure and gentle and full of mercy and good fruit, and it is spiritual, so it runs counter to the temporal, self-seeking mindset. As such it is misunderstood or missed altogether by the world, and thus it is generally disrespected. Missed AND dissed. and we are talking about not just knowing things about God but having (being given) the ability to know how to apply that knowledge, how to relate to Him and live the life He wants us to live. And let’s be honest, what good is knowing stuff about God if you aren’t able to put that to use? The devil in himself knows quite a bit about God, but in no way puts that knowledge to good use. In fact, he suppresses what he knows to be true and lives in rebellion towards God (suppressing what you know about God would be considered UN-wise/foolish, in as much as it incurs God’s wrath, Rom 1.18). Those who are filled with this wisdom from God are greatly used by God (Acts 6.3, 6.10, cf Luke 2.52), but receiving this wisdom begins with knowing and relating rightly to God.
-But wait, there’s more! Paul is asking not only for wisdom, but for revelation. This is the uncovering of something hidden, something that others do not see or know or understand. Sad reality for the world, this - and they are looking right at it. The truth about God is right in front of them, inside them and all around them, they are looking right at it, but they can’t make it out. The deep need of each and every person who would know God is that He must reveal Himself to them (Matthew 16.17, Luke 10.21-22). The blindness must be removed from their eyes in order to begin to know God in the first place, but knowledge of the Holy, of the Infinite, is a limitlessly-layered proposition. There are new things to learn around every corner, new truths and hidden gems to mine every day. No doubt there are not enough days in ten thousand lifetimes to uncover even a snippet of all there is to know about Him with Whom we have to do. The Almighty must reveal Himself, but this He is more than ready to do to anyone who truly wants to know Him.
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