Search
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3, 13-14, 17-23; 3:3-5, 3:16-17; 2:18, 22a; 4:3-4, 23; 5:18; 6:17-18
The two main subjects of the New Testament — Christ as life and the church as Christ’s expression — can be seen in the two books of Galatians and Ephesians. Galatians tells us that Christ is our life, and in Ephesians we see the church as the Body of Christ. In Galatians the Spirit is for us to take Christ as our life, live by Christ, and live out Christ. Then in Ephesians the Spirit is for us, as the members of Christ, to realize and experience the Body.
In this chapter we will consider ten points concerning the Spirit in Ephesians. As the introduction to the book of Ephesians, 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” Everything from this verse to the end of the book may be considered as an item of the spiritual blessings. The blessings with which God has blessed the church as the Body of Christ are spiritual blessings. Therefore, they are in the Holy Spirit and must be realized by us in our human spirit. If these blessings were physical, material blessings, they would need to be enjoyed and experienced by us in our physical body. Likewise, if they were psychological blessings, we could realize them by exercising our soul — our mind, emotion, and will. However, these are spiritual blessings, the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Since the nature of all these blessings is spiritual, we need to exercise our spirit to realize, enjoy, and partake of them in our spirit.
In certain verses in Ephesians, it is difficult for translators of the Bible to discern whether the word spirit refers to the Holy Spirit or to our human spirit. In actuality, all the blessings mentioned in this book are spiritual blessings of the Holy Spirit, which we can realize only in our spirit. This is the principle set forth in John 4:24, which says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”
Ephesians 1:13 says, “In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.” We should not question whether or not we have the Holy Spirit as a seal within us, but whether we have believed in Christ. To believe is our responsibility, and to seal is His. At the same time we believed in Christ, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit. To seal something is to put a mark on it. For us to be sealed is to have the Spirit Himself within us as a divine mark. God has put the Holy Spirit into us as a divine mark to prove, testify, and declare that we are His inheritance. How can we know that we are God’s inheritance? It is because the Bible tells us that God has confirmed our believing in Him by sealing us with His Spirit. Also, the sealing Spirit Himself deep within confirms that we have been marked out and gives us the likeness and appearance of God (2 Cor. 1:21-22). This divine appearance and likeness is the mark, the seal, that confirms that we belong to God as His children and His inheritance.
Ephesians 1:14 continues, “Who is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.” The Holy Spirit within us is the pledge, earnest, down payment, deposit, guarantee, foretaste, firstfruit, and sample. A salesman often offers people a sample of his product. In the same way, the Holy Spirit within us is the sample, the foretaste, of our enjoyment of God. This sample is the down payment, deposit, pledge, and earnest to guarantee that God is our portion. The Holy Spirit is the seal and the pledge for a two-way traffic. The seal testifies that we are God’s inheritance, and the pledge proves that God is our portion and enjoyment.
From this point, the book of Ephesians goes on to reveal eight aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work within us. These are further spiritual blessings of the Spirit that are realized in our spirit. The Spirit first works as the revealing Spirit to reveal to us the spiritual blessings. Verses 17 and 18 say, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” The spirit in verse 17 is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. Verse 18 speaks of the eyes not of our body but of our heart. Therefore, to know actually means to see.
Verses 19 through 23 continue, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” Have we ever thanked and praised the Lord for the fourfold power mentioned in these verses? Instead, we may have thanked the Lord for a good husband or wife, children, a job, a house, a car, or a college degree. We need to pray according to the prayer that the apostle Paul prayed in these verses, saying, “O Lord, I thank You not merely for the outward things but for the power toward us that operated in raising You from the dead, seating You at the right hand in the heavenlies far above all, subjecting all things under Your feet, and giving You to be Head over all things to the church.” The reason we may not pray in this way is that we are blind to the eternal things. Behind our veil we may be able to see only a graduate degree, wife, husband, child, car, job, or house. We may not have seen the things beyond the veil. The veil must be taken away so that the eyes of our inner understanding may be enlightened to thoroughly see through to the eternal things in the heavenlies, including the hope of God’s calling, the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in His saints, and the fourfold power that is toward us. When we see these matters, we will say, “Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!”
We need such a vision and revelation. No man can remove the veil from our eyes. Rather, we must look to the Lord that this veil will be riven and our eyes will be opened to see the glory, the hope, and the power mentioned in these verses. This is the work of the revealing Spirit. The Holy Spirit within us, who is the seal and the pledge, is now working to reveal, to unveil, all these things.
Ephesians 3:3-4 says, “By revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I have written previously in brief, by which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.” In Colossians 2:2 the mystery of God is Christ, who is the “story” of God, the explanation and expression of God. In Ephesians the mystery of Christ is the church, because the church is the “story” of Christ, His explanation and expression. Ephesians 3:5 continues, “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit.” The spirit here is the human spirit of the apostles and prophets, a spirit regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. It can be considered the mingled spirit, the human spirit mingled with God’s Spirit. To see the mystery of Christ, which is the Body of Christ, requires a revelation in our spirit by the Holy Spirit.
When we come to the book of Ephesians, we must not overly exercise our mentality to understand, analyze, or argue. Rather, we must learn to take the word of this book into our spirit. We should pray to bring whatever we read into our spirit and realize it in the spirit. In this way, we will receive not merely an understanding of the teachings but a revelation and a vision in our spirit. Such a vision is from the Holy Spirit in our human spirit. For example, 1:22b-23 says, “The church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” We should not try to understand this merely with our mind. We need to take this word into our spirit by praying over it. We may say, “Lord, I praise You that the church is Your Body. This Body is Your fullness, and You are the One who fills all in all.” If we pray in this way, we will receive this word into our spirit and realize it by our spirit. This will make a real difference. We will see that the church as the Body is the fullness of Christ. We will say, “Lord, I will sacrifice my whole life for Your Body.” This is not an argument or an analyzing but a realization in the spirit. When the Spirit gives us a revelation, He also gives us the wisdom to grasp and understand what we see in this revelation. We need the revealing word of the indwelling Spirit, who is the seal and the pledge within our spirit. This is the first aspect of the work of the Spirit in Ephesians.
The Holy Spirit also works to cause all those, to whom He reveals the things of the mystery of God and the mystery of Christ, to be one. Verse 18 of chapter 2 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Both refers to the Jewish and the Gentile believers. Formerly, the Jews were separated from the Gentiles, but now in the one Spirit the Jewish believers are one with the Gentile believers. They are made one not in doctrines, teachings, or forms but in one Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit who indwells all the believers is the Spirit of oneness.
If we merely study the teachings of the Bible, after a short time we may disagree with one another and be divided. However, the more we turn from merely studying to praying in the Spirit, the more we will have the uniting Spirit to be one. When we focus on mere teachings, we are divided, but when we are in the spirit, we are one. The Holy Spirit within us is the uniting Spirit, but we may not give Him the opportunity to make us one because we are exercising our mentality merely to know doctrinal teachings. The two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, were united as one by the one indwelling Spirit. Verse 3 of chapter 4 speaks of the oneness of the Spirit. The Spirit is the One who makes us one. First, He reveals the things of Christ to us, including the mystery of Christ, the church. Then He makes us one as His one Body.
The Spirit is also building us together. Verse 22 of chapter 2 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” The spirit here is the believers’ human spirit, which is indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works within us to reveal to us the things of God, to unite us together, and to build us up together as the dwelling place of God in spirit by mingling Himself with us. Verse 4 of chapter 4 speaks of “one Body and one Spirit.” This indicates that the Spirit is the building Spirit for the Body, the Spirit who reveals, unites, and builds up the Body. The more we pay attention to doctrinal teachings, gifts, and outward power, the more we will be divided. However, if we would all turn from these things to the indwelling, sealing, and building Spirit, gradually and spontaneously we will be built up together.
The Spirit within us is also the strengthening Spirit. Verse 16 of chapter 3 says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” The two spirits — the indwelling Spirit and our human spirit, which is our inner man — are mingled together. However, if we do not give the Spirit the adequate ground in us, He is confined and restricted in our spirit. Therefore, our spirit may be weak. This is why we need the Holy Spirit to strengthen our regenerated spirit.
Verse 17 continues, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” Our heart consists mainly of the soul, which is the part of our being surrounding our spirit. For Christ to make His home in our heart is for Him to spread into our soul. When the Holy Spirit strengthens our spirit, He gains more ground in us and has more opportunity to spread out of our spirit to saturate our heart. Then He is able to settle and make His home in our heart. The result, the issue, of the strengthening of the Spirit in our inner man is that we are filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19).
The next aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit is that He renews all the parts of our soul — our mind, emotion, and will. Verse 23 of chapter 4 says, “That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” As our inner man is strengthened and the Spirit gains the opportunity to spread into all the parts of our soul, He becomes the renewing Spirit. The spirit of your mind is a particular term. Originally, the Spirit was only in our spirit, but after strengthening our spirit, He spreads into our mind, which is the leading part of the soul and of the heart. In this way our mingled spirit becomes the spirit of the mind. Originally, He was the Spirit only in our spirit, but now He becomes the renewing Spirit in our mind. We can prove this by our experience. When we give Him the ground, the opportunity, to spread into all the parts of our being, we experience the renewing of the Spirit in our mind, emotion, and will.
Verse 18 of chapter 5 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit.” To be drunk is to be filled in the body with wine, but to be filled in spirit is to be filled in our human spirit with the Holy Spirit. We are not persons who are filled with wine; we are persons who are full of the Holy Spirit in our spirit. This divine, spiritual, and heavenly wine is the Spirit, who is God Himself. We need to drink of Him all day long. We are drinkers of the Spirit who are filled with the Holy Spirit in our spirit. The Holy Spirit is the filling Spirit, the Spirit who is working to strengthen, renew, and fill us within.
After we have been strengthened, renewed, and filled within, we are equipped and qualified to do the work of fighting as an army. We see this aspect in chapter 6. Verse 17 says, “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” The Spirit here is the slaying Spirit as the sword of God to kill the enemy. All the foregoing items are in a proper sequence. Ephesians begins with the revealing Spirit, followed by the uniting, building up, strengthening, renewing, and filling Spirit. After experiencing the Spirit in all these ways, we are qualified to know Him as the slaying Spirit.
Verse 18 continues, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” In order to slay the enemy, we must pray. If we do not pray in the spirit, we cannot fight the battle for God. Therefore, the slaying Spirit is the praying Spirit.
As an introduction to the book of Ephesians, Paul tells us that all the blessings to the church are spiritual. Then he goes on to say that the Spirit of the Body is the sealing Spirit and the pledge within us. The indwelling Spirit within us is the seal to testify that we are God’s inheritance, and He is also the earnest, the pledge, to guarantee that God is our portion. After this, Ephesians goes on to show us the different aspects of the work of the indwelling Spirit in us. First, He reveals the divine things to us, joins us together as one, and builds us up together as the Body. Then He does the finer, deeper work of strengthening our spirit to renew our soul and fill our whole being. He also equips and qualifies us for the battle. He becomes the slaying Spirit within us so that we pray in Him, and He is the praying Spirit to fight the battle for God in order to fulfill God’s purpose. We need to pray concerning all these points in the presence of the Lord. He is the revealing Spirit, the uniting Spirit, the building Spirit, the strengthening Spirit, the renewing Spirit, the filling Spirit, the slaying Spirit, and the praying Spirit. This is the revelation of the Spirit of the Body and for the Body.
