Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
September 9, 2011

Read Ephesians 1:17

“That …God…may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him…”
Prayer is always a response to God. Paul begins his prayer, as we said earlier, “for this reason.” Paul began praying for the Ephesians as a response to God’s greatness and love. Now he begins asking that God would give the believers a spirit of wisdom and revelation to help them know him better. Wisdom is that wonderful yet often hard-earned gift of practical knowledge. It comes as we experience life, make mistakes, do things over until we get them right and so on. God gives us wisdom that comes from seeking him in those tough learning experiences. Without this we may never call on God.

Revelation is simply God pulling the curtain back and showing us who He is. Moses’ conversation with God began when he saw a burning bush. Jacob had an all night cage fight with God himself. Joseph, Daniel and John responded to dreams given by God. God initiates relationship through self revelation. Just ask Saul who met God’s greatest self revelation on the road to Damascus. God initiates prayer through life experiences that drive us to call on him for wisdom and help, and through moments of revelation that bid us receive him. “Behold I stand at the door and knock….” Jesus says. He is the initiator and we are the responders.

So why is this important? Knowing that in every situation God is calling us to seek him in prayer keeps us from thinking we have to get God’s attention. When you have a crisis, your first thought is to get God involved. So you begin to pray hoping that if you pray long enough and hard enough he will finally hear you and be awakened to help you. This is a misguided idea of prayer. What we need to see is that in every crisis God is calling us to seek him. His voice echoes through the lost job or the sick spouse. His invitation to open the door and let him in cries out amidst the flurry of sounds in the emergency room and the court house.

God is revealing himself in your trouble. He is saying, “I want to show you who I am. I want you to know me better. I want you to realize that I Am.” But we can’t really know the “I Am” until we get in a situation that reminds us that “We’re not”. Today as you speak to God understand that he needs no prompting. He needs no waking up. You already have his attention. But does He have yours?

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)