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 message 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 items 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 theprinciple 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, job, house, car, or 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 Christ to raise Him from the dead, seat Him at Your right hand in the heavenlies far above all, subject allthings under His feet, and give Him 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 wemay 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.