WEEK ONE
Day Five
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 1:18
LEADER GUIDE QUESTIONS
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Know: Read Ephesians 1:15-19
Note: Read slowly, carefully marking keywords- continue to mark the words from previous lessons—Mark keywords with a different color or with a symbol to differentiate them.
In Him, In Christ
Father of Glory
Revelation
Knowledge of Him
believe
Observation: Study notes below for context. Journal your thoughts or questions.
What: Do you believe that God’s supply is greater than your need?
“For this reason, I, too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints. I do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.” Ephesians 1:15-16
Paul, the Spiritual Father of the Ephesian church, was praying for the ones He had led to the Lord. That must have brought the church great comfort. When Mothers and Fathers of the faith pray for us and express their love and joy over us, it gives us strength; it emboldens and encourages us.
My husband, who has been in ministry for over twenty-five years, has spiritual fathers who occasionally send him messages to encourage or let him know they are proud of him. It gives him wings and the joy to press on and not give up.
If you are a physical or spiritual parent to someone, take a minute and express your heart to them today. Do what Paul did. Tell them what they are doing well and give thanks for them.
One of the ways the church in Ephesus was doing well, Paul said, was their faith in the Lord - they were anchored in Jesus, and they had a love for all the saints. I have found that if we mix those two up (love for the Lord and faith in the saints), it creates a toxic culture. We can only love people well if we know the love of God. The love of God is revealed through the knowledge of Jesus.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Ephesians 1:17
The Father of Glory: God’s glory is all of His goodness, the weight of His splendor.
Our view of God determines our identity. We need to get to know Him to have the right view or opinion about God. We get to know Him through His Word, which reveals His character and nature. Exodus 33 tells the story of Moses's request to see God’s glory.
God said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.” Exodus 33:19
Jesus, the Word, came to reveal the Father. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”(John 14:9). To know the Father and all of His glory, we must have a revelation of Jesus.
Revelation is “apokalypsis” which means: “laying bare, making naked, a disclosure of truth, instruction, concerning things before unknown.”
Before Jesus came to earth, humankind knew God based on the names He spoke of Himself in the Old Testament, but after four hundred years of silence, the goodness of God had been forgotten without a prophetic voice to reveal it. Jesus came and showed us God; He showed us God as Father.
How amazing that the God of all creation wants us to know Him intimately. Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3
This is what Paul prayed for the Ephesians as well: that they would get a revelation of Jesus Christ so that they would know the love of their Father.
This is what I pray for you as well.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.” Ephesians 1:18-20
Paul prayed that we would know (perceive) the calling (invitation) of what He has provided. In other words, you have been invited to sit down at the banqueting table of the Father, to sit down and have as much of anything you desire. You are His inheritance! Think about that. You are the treasure Jesus paid for. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. You were the joy!
We are created in His image and likeness and given the freedom to receive or reject His love, and yet, He entered into our rejection, adopted us, and called us His very own. We rejected him, but He accepted us.
To believe means- to think to be true, to be persuaded of.
Abraham believed in God, and He was credited with righteousness. Abraham had a good opinion about God. When God came to Him and showed him the stars, he showed him the gospel in the constellations. God said to Abraham, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” (Genesis 15:1)
God promised him an inheritance- to be his shield (shields guard us from judgement), and the reward was the Zoe life of God.
Abraham believed the gospel.
However, James says that even the demons believe. So, we can believe but not inherit the kingdom.
We must have faith. Faith is to align with what is true. To align with what is true is to surrender.
There is a story in the Gospel of Matthew 17 where the deciples could not cast out a demon. Jesus rebuked them by telling them they could not cast it out because of unbelief. He says, “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." (*note": this sentence was not in the original manuscript.)
Although this sentence was added later, I want to clarify what has been misunderstood concerning it.
Unbelief is to believe that your need is greater than God’s supply.
It wasn’t that the demon was bigger or stronger than their commands as so they needed to fast and pray, it was that the unbelief was in the way. “This kind” is unbelief. Unbelief does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Fasting gets you out of the way to be positioned to hear God. It builds intimacy. Intimacy kills unbelief; that is surrender.