Open The Eyes Of My Understanding And Enlighten Me With Your Knowledge!

“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, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” Ephesians 1:17-18 NKJ

When I came back into a relationship with the Lord I spent a lot of time in prayer and study because I wanted to know how to live a Christ centered life. But there was a period of time when everything I read in the Bible seemed somewhat confusing. I knew that it wasn’t God’s will for me to be confused when I read His Word, but I didn’t know how to overcome it. One day when reading Ephesians I discovered the reason for my confusion and I learned how to overcome it. What I discovered is that when I read Scriptures during that time I was interpreting them through the filters of my past knowledge; which was rooted in a religious belief system and in my own strength.

When I read Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17-18 that day, I began to ask God to remove the filters from my eyes so that I could interpret Scripture through His Spirit of wisdom and understanding. I asked Him to open the eyes of my understanding so I could be enlightened in my knowledge of Him, so I would know the hope of His calling in my life and the riches of my inheritance in Him. This is when everything changed for me because the more I released my past belief systems to Him, the more He infused me with His wisdom and understanding. The confusion left and the filters came off! Now when I read the Bible I see things I never saw before and I hear the Holy Spirit speak to me when I read.

I am sharing this because many people tell me they struggle with the same issues. They say they don’t hear the voice of God speaking to them and when they try to read the Bible they become confused. If this is you or someone you know, it is my prayer that you will experience the same thing I did as you open your mind to be enlightened in the revelation knowledge of God. One of the enemy’s biggest tactics is to bring confusion to the mind of the believer, because he knows that if we are confused; we will become frustrated and give up trying to read the Bible. There are a lot of Christians who do not read the Bible because of this reality.

It is important to understand that living this way causes people to be lukewarm and ineffective for the Kingdom work they are called to do. The reason for this is because they know enough of God’s Word that they are not willing to live completely in the world with its systems in place in their lives. But they are not able to be zealous for the Lord both because the eyes of their understanding have been darkened, and they do not have a fire of passion burning on the inside of them, with its longing to know more of Him.

These two things cause people to duck in the shadows when Scripture is discussed because they know they do not understand it. They have a heart for God and worship Him just like I did; they just don’t hear Him speak through His Word or His Spirit. This is a very uncomfortable place to be in life and I understand it very well. In Revelation 3 Jesus speaks to the lukewarm church. In verses 18b-20 He says, “and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Jesus wants to sit with us and feed us His wisdom and understanding. He wants to impart His words to us by the power of the Holy Spirit so we have revelation knowledge of God. It is in yielding ourselves to Him and in submitting our minds where He is able to salve our eyes so that we can be healed and begin to see as He sees. This is where we will become empowered in a new way when we read Scriptures and pray because we will no longer be filtering things with our natural mind based on our past experience or upbringing.

God, in His incredible love for us, is longing to speak to us and to give us wisdom and understanding. The question is; are we willing to set our earthly mind on heavenly things which are the things of the Spirit? Are we willing to let go of the past and release our minds, with its limited understanding? And are we willing to sit with Jesus and learn from Him? If we are willing to set aside the time to be with Him, He will infuse us with the hope of our calling and He will enrich us with our glorious inheritance in Him. When we seek Him first above all other things, then all things will be added unto us.

Prayer: As I make the decision to fix my mind on You I believe by faith that You will remove the filters from my eyes, so I can see what You see. I believe by faith that as I do this You will enlighten my eyes with the revelation knowledge of You. I also believe by faith that in this process You will reveal the hope of Your calling on my life and I will know the riches of my glorious inheritance in You. Amen