From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, in the first chapter, and I shall read verses 15, 16, and 17. "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."

Now I want particularly to deal with this petition which is here recorded in the 17th verse, "that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." Now this obviously is a part of this prayer which the Apostle here tells these Ephesians and others to whom he was writing this letter that he was constantly praying for them. He ceases not, he says.

Now we've already considered a part of this prayer. We have seen that the Apostle starts with praise and with thanksgiving. He thanks God that these Ephesians are what they are, that they have faith in the Lord Jesus and that they have love unto all the saints. He starts with thanksgiving. And then we saw last Sunday morning that he's very careful to remind himself of the one to whom he is praying.

The Apostle didn't rush into prayer. He paused, he indulged in a period of recollection in which he reminded himself that he was not speaking to a mere human person, but that he was addressing the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, yea, the Father of glory. And we tried to see last Sunday morning that that alone is true prayer, when one realizes that one is indeed in such a presence and speaking to such a person.

Well now, the Apostle reminds himself of that because he has a petition, a great petition to offer for these Ephesians. And here we are going to start this morning a consideration of this great petition. It's the petition that goes on really until the end of the chapter. But I would indicate at this point that it can be divided into two main sections. There is first of all a general petition, then he comes to the particulars. Or if you like, he starts with a great and a comprehensive and all-inclusive petition, and then he deals with it bit by bit in its component parts.

Now we this morning can only look at the first, the general petition, the thing with which the Apostle starts, the thing obviously to him which was of the greatest importance of all. Now his petition for these Ephesians is, I think you'll agree with me, a most remarkable one, and especially in view of the fact of what he's already told us about them. Because you remember that he has already said that he knows that these people have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, "in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation."

They've got faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They've believed in him. They've trusted themselves to him. They've committed themselves to him. But not only that, they have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And those of us who attend here regularly will recall what that means. It's that extraordinary action of God through the Holy Spirit in which he gives us a direct and an immediate assurance that we are the children of God, sealed with the Spirit.

He knows that this is true of them. And furthermore, he knows that they have through the Holy Spirit likewise an earnest of the inheritance to which they're going. Something which gives them this absolute certainty, this kind of foretaste, this partaking of the firstfruits of the great harvest to which they're going. They're already experiencing that. They've got the earnest of the inheritance, or as the Apostle puts it in writing to the Romans, "we ourselves which have the firstfruits of the Spirit." Now he knows that all that is true of these Ephesians.

And yet you remember that in spite of that, we find here that he still is not satisfied. You would have thought that that perhaps was enough and that there was no need to pray for people who've experienced all this. But the Apostle does, and he's very urgent in his prayer, and he says that he goes on praying. He doesn't cease to pray for them. He offers these petitions for them. And what he does, of course, for these Ephesians, he does for all others, all the others to whom he writes his letters. He prays for all who have become Christians, all whom he himself perhaps had established as churches. He's got this great pastoral heart and pastoral care for them and he writes and he tells them all that he's praying for them and offering up a tremendous petition for them.

Well, very well, we are tempted to ask, is anything further possible? These people who've believed and have trusted, they're living a life of faith, they've got the seal of the Spirit, they've got the earnest of the Spirit. Is anything more possible for a Christian? Do you still offer petitions for people like this? And the simple answer is, yes, there is infinitely more possible. Conversion is not the end, it's merely the beginning. It's the mere first step. It's like birth. When a child is born, that's not the end, that's the beginning. And conversion, or becoming a Christian, is just that.

And it's because he knows that and that he is aware of the tremendous possibilities that lie ahead of these people that the Apostle is praying for them. There are possibilities ahead for them in every conceivable respect. And as a man who'd grown so much in grace, as one who had scaled the heights of the spiritual life, the Apostle is anxious that they should come along and that they should see the views that he is seeing from the mountaintops and the panorama that stretches out ahead of him and the heights that yet appear.

He says of himself, "not that I have yet apprehended." My position, he says, and he was writing towards the end of his life, "forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward." God forbid that anybody should stay there at the beginning with the mere first principles of the gospel of Christ. I'm praying for you, he says, I want you to come on and begin to share in this tremendous Christian life into which you have come. Now that's the meaning of his prayer.

And therefore we must always pay very close and careful attention to all these apostolic prayers, because it is generally in them we are given these clear visions of the Christian life in its height and its depth, its length and its breadth. We see something of the glory of the life into which we have been brought by God's amazing grace and love. Very well then, what does he pray for? What is the Apostle's petition for these Ephesians? Here they are, they've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're trusting him, they've given up trusting themselves, they're not relying upon their own goodness, their own religion or anything, entirely their trust and confidence is in him. Well, what does he pray for?

Now I wonder whether I'm wrong when I suggest that the Apostle's actual petition may very well come as somewhat of a surprise to a large number of people, owing to the present tendency in teaching concerning these matters. Am I wrong when I suggest that the prevailing teaching is that the Christian life can be divided up into two sections? First of all we say people need to be saved. They need to be delivered from the guilt of their sin and from the punishment of sin. That's one step. And there you start, that's evangelism, they must be brought to that.

Then they tend to go on and to say, having done that, there's one other step though, they haven't finished there, that isn't the end. They'd agree that that's only the beginning. Now they say there's a second step. What's that? Well, the only other thing that remains for such a person, they say, is that he now be delivered from the power of sin, from the tyranny of sin, from the thralldom of sin. Or to use other terminology, they'd say first of all there is justification, then the only thing that remains is sanctification. So that we take the convert now and we introduce him to the doctrine of sanctification.

He is clear about his forgiveness. He's clear now that the guilt is no longer there. He sees it covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh yes, but he's still facing temptation, he's got the struggle, he's got sin within him, and he needs to be delivered from that. That's the thing then to pray for, that these people now may be delivered from the power and the thralldom of sin, that they may be sanctified. Well, of course, that's perfectly true. But the thing that I want to emphasize this morning is that that is not what the Apostle prays for for the Ephesians. And that is where I say the significance of this statement comes in.

Of course sanctification is a process which is essential for all of us. We've often agreed that you mustn't put them into watertight compartments, that of course the moment a man is justified, sanctification has already started. But that is not the serious thing as I see it. The important thing is to notice what exactly the Apostle does pray for. And the answer is, of course, that he doesn't pray for that. He simply prays that God may give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

And I think there's a very good reason for this. Surely nearly all our troubles in connection with the Christian life arise from the fact that our ideas are so man-centered. We always start with man these days instead of starting with God. We start with man. What does man need? Man needs forgiveness. Then man needs deliverance from sin so that he shan't be unhappy in his life of failure. It's always man. What does man need, what can be done for man? But you notice that isn't the Apostle's approach at all. Our view of salvation must never be man-centered, it must always be God-centered.

You see it is always with the Apostle. He starts off in verse 3, "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." It all comes from God, and all our thinking must be in terms of God. So that here you notice when the Apostle comes to his petition, he's finished with his praise, his thanksgiving, he now comes to his petition, and what he prays for the Ephesians, I put it quite bluntly as this, is not for their sanctification, nor for their happiness, nor for their joy, nor for their liberation, but for this: that they may have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That's his starting point. That's the thing which he puts first.

And again, it's very important that we should observe that this is no exceptional action on the part of the Apostle. If you read the Epistle to the Philippians, you'll find he does exactly the same thing. He prays for them that their love may grow and increase in knowledge and in spiritual understanding. Turn to the Epistle to the Colossians, in the first chapter his petition is exactly the same. What the Apostle always prayed for his converts was this: that they might come to know God.

He's not thinking primarily about subjective states and conditions in them. He's thinking about them in their total relationship to the almighty God. Now I'm suggesting solemnly that there is a grave danger of our forgetting this and our emphasis becoming false. May we ever follow the apostolic pattern and put things in the order in which the Apostle puts them. Later on in this Epistle he's a great deal to say about sanctification, but he doesn't start with it. He's got a lot to say about happiness and joy and so on, but he doesn't start with it. He starts where we should always start, and God forbid that we should ever start anywhere else.

Well, what is the petition? Well, here it is: that they may have this spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Now what does he mean by this? What is this knowledge? The first thing we have to get quite clear perhaps is the 'him' who is mentioned here. The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Who is that? Well, there are some who seem to think that that's a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, but I think that that's quite wrong. It is clearly a reference to God the Father. Surely the whole context indicates that quite clearly.

He is praying to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that he may give unto you this spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the same person. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what, well, what is the hope of his calling? Well, who does the calling? We've already seen, it is God himself who calls us. It's God who's chosen us, it's God who's predestinated us. It's all along the action of the Father. And then the exceeding riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe. Who is this? It is still God the Father. I prove it like this. His power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ.

The 'he' you see all along is a reference to God the Father. So that here the knowledge about which the Apostle is speaking is primarily and essentially a knowledge of God the eternal Father. Of course, as the Apostle makes quite plain in this Epistle as the New Testament makes plain everywhere, this knowledge is only possible to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. So that there is a sense in which you can't separate them. And the knowledge which we have as our Lord himself says in his high priestly prayer is a knowledge of the Father and of the Son.

"This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Or as this Apostle puts it in writing to the Corinthians in his second Epistle in the fourth chapter, "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts." What for? To reveal "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Yes, it's the knowledge of the glory of God, this Father of glory to whom he's praying, in the face of Jesus Christ. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Yes, it's mediated, it's possible in and through our blessed Savior, but the knowledge ultimately is a knowledge of God himself.

Very well then, my friends, we are here this morning face to face with the highest reaches of our Christian faith and our Christian life. And God knows how conscious I am of my inadequacy as I attempt to deal with such a theme and to hold it before you. But it is the thing for which the Apostle prayed for all these Christians, these young Christians at Ephesus. It's the prayer for all Christians therefore always and at all times. What is it he desires for us? What is it we should be seeking this morning? Well, it's this: it is knowledge of God.

Now let's look at this term knowledge. It's a very strong, it's a very powerful term. Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Do we realize I wonder the full sense and connotation of this term knowledge? It doesn't merely mean a casual, cursory acquaintance. It doesn't just mean a superficial knowledge of something. There is such a knowledge of course, there is just ordinary knowing. That isn't what the Apostle means, it isn't the term he used. He used a term which conveys these ideas: that it's accurate knowledge, it's exact knowledge, it's certain knowledge, it's experimental knowledge, it's profound knowledge. He couldn't have used a stronger term, it's epignosis. It's the fullest knowledge that we can think of. That's the term that the Apostle deliberately uses.

And his prayer for these people is that they may come to such a knowledge of God. Here they are still on earth, many of them probably slaves as they were in those first centuries, ordinary people, perhaps ignorant and uneducated and illiterate. It doesn't matter. What he prays is that they may come to this full knowledge, this full-orb knowledge, this accurate, precise, exact, experimental knowledge of the one whom he has just described as not only the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, but the ineffable Father of glory.

Well now then, what does it mean? Well, let me start by emphasizing the negative. He's not praying that we may have a theoretical or an intellectual knowledge only of God. There is such a knowledge, and such a knowledge is very important. God has revealed himself in order that we may know him in this sense. He has manifested himself, he's done so in nature, he's done so in history, he does so in providence, but supremely he does so in this word. The giving of the Ten Commandments and the moral law was in order to instruct people as to the nature and the being and the character of God. The trouble with men always is his ignorance of God. So God has given us this type of knowledge, and it is important, it is essential.

But that isn't the knowledge which the Apostle has in mind here. That is what you may call if you like propositional knowledge. And let no one despise propositional knowledge. It is important that we should know something about the attributes of God. And the great period in the religious life of this country, the Puritan era, you'll find those great writers were constantly dealing with this question of the attributes of God. His eternity, his omnipresence, his omnipotence and so on, we must know all that. But that is what I would describe as theoretical or intellectual, notional, propositional knowledge. And the Apostle, while he includes that, goes well beyond it. It doesn't stop at that.

Or to put it in another form, when he talks here about our coming to a knowledge of God, he doesn't just mean that we should know a number of things about God. And there's a very good reason for this. You remember how James puts this once and for all in his Epistle. He says, you know, I'm not concerned about that sort of knowledge; "the devils believe and tremble." They've got that sort of knowledge of God. The devils are not ignorant about the greatness and the might and the majesty of God. The devils believe in God in that sense, but that isn't knowledge of God in this sense, because that knowledge only leads to trembling, that leads to a craven fear. That's a terrible knowledge in a sense. That isn't the thing the Apostle's praying for.

So we don't stop at just knowing certain things that are true about God. We need to know them. We need to know that he is the creator of the ends of the earth, that he is the judge of the world, that he is almighty and everlasting. It is our ignorance about these truths concerning God that accounts for so much superficiality and glibness often in our Christian life. There is no fear of God before our eyes. We are not godly men and women as our fathers once were. It's our ignorance of God. But you see the Apostle doesn't stop at that.

Neither does he mean by it a knowledge of the blessings that God gives. I can prove that to you very easily. Later on he's going to deal with those. He's got a threefold petition here. He says that they may know in particular what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power toward usward that believe. There are the particular blessings. Oh no, but here he hasn't come to that. This is general at this point.

So I think we must be clear in our minds that when he prays for this knowledge, that he is not concerned with those three particular aspects. What is he concerned about then? Well, this is the staggering and astounding thing. He is concerned that we have an immediate knowledge of God, that we have a real acquaintance with God. He is concerned that we should meet with God. He should be, he is concerned that we should have, if you like, an encounter with God. He means a knowledge of God which is personal and intimate.

Now whatever views we may hold of certain modern tendencies in theological teaching, at any rate we must agree that this is a good emphasis which is coming back, to this idea of the divine-human encounter, to this idea of meeting with God, this existential moment when I know that God is there and I'm here, the thou-I or the I-thou. That's the thing the Apostle is talking about. Not mere theory, not mere notion, not something abstract, not something academic, but personal, immediate, a real meeting. That's the knowledge of God.

Or let me try and put it in other terms, it's almost impossible to put it into terms, but it does mean something like this: it means that God should be real to us and that we should be conscious of him and conscious of his presence. Oh, I make no apology, my dear friends, the matter is so vitally important, I make no apology for asking a simple question. Have you ever known that? Is God real to you? When you get on your knees and pray, do you know that God is there? Do you realize his presence? That's the thing the Apostle is speaking about.

He means, you see, that we know and realize something of the glory of God. That's why he was so careful in praying to say that he's praying to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, the God we were trying to look at last Sunday morning in his ineffable glory. He says, I want you to know him and therefore to know something of that glory, to be conscious of it, to feel it, to be aware of it. That's what he means by knowledge. Have you ever felt and sensed something of the glory of God? Do you know anything of what Jacob said when he said this is an awful place, full of awe, the presence, the glory?

It means, you see, that we know and realize something about the love of God. Because you can't realize the presence of God without this awareness of the glory and also of this love of God, for God is love. And again, not merely in general, but in particular. It means that we begin to know something of and to experience directly and personally God's love. You see to know a person means something beyond a casual acquaintance. You say I know so and so, what you mean is that you were once introduced to him, spoke a few words to him, but that's not knowing a person, that's merely being acquainted with a person. When this term knowledge is used here in the scriptures, it means an intimate knowledge. Take how it's used of God in his knowledge of us. God says to the children of Israel through the prophet Amos in the third chapter, "you only have I known of all the nations of the world." Well, obviously he doesn't mean by that that he wasn't aware of the existence of the others, for God knows all nations and knows everything. Now when he says, you only have I known, what he means is this: you only have I known in this particular, immediate, personal, intimate sense. I've taken a special interest in you. That's the word that's used here, that's knowledge.

So the Apostle was praying that these Ephesians might know the love of God to them themselves, and might know and feel his love. Well, let me try and sum it up by putting it like this: it means, you see, having fellowship with him, fellowship with God, in a true and in a real sense. Let me quote you those two great statements again. "This is life eternal that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." The Jews knew about him, they'd been trained in the law, they'd had their scriptures, they knew that, that isn't what our Lord's talking about. Life eternal is something new, it's to know God and to know Jesus Christ.

Or as John puts it, look at this old man, this old Apostle, he is on the point of death, and he writes a letter to these people who are so dear to him, he calls them his little children. He says, I write to you, and I write to you that your joy may be full. You're going to have hard times, there will be difficulties in the church and outside, the world is full of tribulation, but I write that your joy may be full. And what does he want them to have? Well, he says I'm writing these things in order that you may have fellowship with us, with us the apostles. And what do I mean by that, he asks, and answers his own question, and truly, "our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." The fellowship, a communion, an intimacy, a partnership, a sharing of the same light. Now that's the idea, and that's the connotation of this great word knowledge, a knowledge of God in that sense.

And you see, we can very easily discover whether we know anything about it or not in this way. Anybody who knows anything about this has a sense of privilege, a sense of wonder, a sense of praise, and a sense of glory. My dear friends, do we realize that this is what Christianity really means, coming to such a knowledge of God? Let me try to put it still more plainly by putting it to you in terms of certain illustrations from scripture.

The Apostle, I say, prays that these Ephesians might have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. What is it? Well, it's the kind of thing you see that Job meant when he said this: "oh that I knew where I might find him." He hasn't lost his theoretical knowledge of God, he's got it. He hasn't ceased to know about the attributes of God and about the mightiness and about the works of God. That isn't what Job is seeking. Job had experienced fellowship and communion with God, but for the time being he's lost it. And what's he seeking? Well, he's seeking the person. Oh that I knew where I might find him.

And the same thing exactly when later on he puts it like this when the Lord did manifest and reveal himself to him. Job says, "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye hath seen thee." He was without him, I have heard of thee, I've listened to the sermons, the addresses, I've listened to the scriptures being read, I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now there's something more. And he puts his hand upon his mouth, what can I say? He's sorry that he's spoken so much, he's in the presence of God, he knows him. That's the thing.

It's of course exactly the same thing that Moses had in mind when he used this kind of expression. God had given him that great and important task and Moses, the meekest of men, conscious of his own utter inadequacy says, "if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." And then he isn't satisfied with that. Rising with great daring, he turns to God and he says, "show me thy glory." That's it. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt that desire? That's the thing the Apostle's praying, that these Ephesians may begin to hunger and thirst for that, may realize that all that's happened to them has been designed to that end, that they may see and know the glory of God, this Father of glory. Show me thy glory.

Or if you like it's the thing that the Psalmist expresses so perfectly in that 42nd Psalm which we read together at the beginning. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my heart after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God." Not the God of theology as it were, not the God of the textbook, not the God of propositions, not the God about whom I know things. For the living God, the personal God. His soul was thirsting for him, he was panting after that knowledge, as the hart panteth after the water brooks.

That's knowledge of God, my friends. Not indirect but direct, not a knowledge about but immediate, personal. It's the kind of thing that Isaiah speaks about in the sixth chapter of his prophecy when he says, I saw the Lord that particular year when the king died. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple, and the house was filled with smoke, and the post of the door moved, the glory of God. And he says, what am I and who am I? I'm a man of unclean lips, woe is me. He's been in the presence of the glory, he has felt it, he has sensed it. That's the knowledge.

But you know it's the same thing that our blessed Lord himself taught. Listen to him saying this, you'll find it in the 11th chapter of Matthew's Gospel in the 27th verse. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." That's it. That's what our Lord has come to do. That is salvation, that he should reveal the Father to us.

Or again, listen to him putting it like this: "If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." We, the Father and the Son. That's Christianity: the life of God in the souls of men. The Father and the Son coming and making their abode within us. Or listen to him finally putting it in his high priestly prayer again. He's praying that men may know that "thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." That's the knowledge.

Very well then, my friends, that's the thing for which the Apostle prays for these Ephesian Christians, that they may have this spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. I asked the question at the beginning, I said, is it possible that the Apostle can desire anything more for these Ephesians? They've believed, they're trusting, they've got faith. More, they've been sealed with the Spirit. Is there anything beyond sealing with the Spirit? Yes, this. What's the difference? Well, I take it it's this. In the sealing with the Spirit, we are given to know that we are his. It is the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. It is God saying to us, thou art my son, my child. It's amazing, it's wonderful. That's the sealing with the Spirit, to know that I am a child of God. Is there anything beyond that? Yes, it's this. It is to know God himself. That is the highest of all. It's a wonderful thing to know that I belong to God, it's an infinitely greater thing to know God himself. And that is the knowledge for which the Apostle here prays for these Ephesian Christians.

I therefore leave you with just this word: this is a knowledge that is possible to all Christians. If we don't receive this, I have preached in vain. And that is where the danger of certain types of soul culture come in. The Roman Catholic Church and all Catholic teaching doesn't hesitate to say that what I've just said of course is nonsense. They divide Christians up into two groups: the religious and the laity. Those who go in and become specialists in the religious life, the mystics, the saints, the people who forsake the world and segregate themselves from society and give themselves only always to this, to prayer, meditation, mortification, contemplation, the dark night of the soul, and ultimately to the beatific vision. What they say, a man in business, a man in affairs, an ordinary Christian, how can he attain to such a knowledge? It all depends they say upon the man himself.

That, as I understand the teaching of the scripture, my friends, is a terrible heresy. And God forbid that any of us should succumb to it. You needn't go further than this very prayer of the Apostle. He is offering this prayer for all the members of the church at Ephesus. He's not praying for apostles, he's not praying for elders only, he's praying for them all, that they all may have this spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. And of course it's the thing that's been promised under the new covenant.

Do you remember the promise that God gave of a new covenant which he would make? He gave it through the prophet Jeremiah. You'll find it in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy, but you'll find it quoted twice in the Epistle to the Hebrews, it's in the 8th chapter and again in the 10th. Listen, this is what God says will happen in the new dispensation when the new covenant is made, when the Christ has come and has worked out his salvation. Listen, this is what he promises: "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest."

That's the new covenant. Not the old covenant that he made through Moses, but the new covenant in Christ, and this is its characteristic: all shall know me. And when the Holy Spirit comes, your young men shall see dreams, they shall prophesy. It isn't confined to certain, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. They shall all know me from the least unto the greatest. It is a knowledge that is possible to all. And thank God the history of the church throughout the centuries confirms this. This is not a matter of intellectual understanding, it doesn't depend upon circumstances and conditions. There is only one thing that controls this, and that is the realization that it's possible and then the desire for it. "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

My dear friends, I ask you a solemn and a profound question: do you know God? I'm not asking if you believe things about him. I have to use such a term, have you met him? Have you known yourself for certain in his presence? Does he speak to you and do you know that you speak to him? Practice of the presence of God, your brother Lawrence in the kitchen washing the dishes, yes, practicing the presence of God. It doesn't matter where you are as long as you know that this is possible, that Christ died to make it possible, he died to bring us to God and to this knowledge. He gives eternal life which is to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Is your fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ? Oh that we might know God. Begin to cry oh that I knew where I might find him and your heart will begin to pant, you'll be desiring, you'll be hungering, you'll be thirsting. More and more if I may put it in this personal word, more and more what I look for in men is this: have they got a soul thirst for God? Are they longing for this? Is there something about them that always tells you that they're always waiting for his next appearance, for the further manifestation, that their life is centered on him, and that with Paul they forget everything in the past and press forward more and more that they may know him and that the knowledge might increase until eventually beyond death and the grave and this life, we shall know him even as we are already known of him and shall see him not as now in a glass darkly, but then face to face we shall see the Father of glory. Amen.