One can only become useful before God when he sees a vision; he can only become useful when he knows the work of Christ within him and God's power within him. A vision allows us to see God's plan, while the power enables us to fulfill His plan. The vision causes us to understand God's plan, while the power causes us to carry out His plan. The apostle showed us that we must not only know the hope of God's calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, but we must also know "the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe." Not only must we know God, His plan, and His goal, we must also know the might of His strength. If God's power has not done anything in us, it means that we do not truly know God, and we do not truly know His plan and purpose. If we only know God and only know His plan and His purpose, without knowing the surpassing greatness of His power, everything is still objective; it is not subjective. This is why we need to know God. We need to know His plan and purpose, and we need to know the power of His resurrection.

Verse 19 says, "And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe." This power is indeed great. It is so great that God must open our eyes before we can see its greatness. It is so great that even the Ephesian saints did not know its magnitude. It is so great that they could not fathom it by themselves; they needed Paul to pray for them, so that God would grant them a spirit of wisdom and revelation and open the eyes of their heart. We cannot say how great this power is. We can only say that it is great; it is greater than what we think and what we know.

Hence, we must never underestimate what is inside this earthen vessel. We have to realize that there is a treasure within this earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7). Do we believe this? There is a treasure within this earthen vessel. The treasure within this earthen vessel is so precious that even we ourselves are not clear how precious it is. On the one hand, we see that this earthen vessel is an earthly tabernacle that will pass away. But on the other hand, we see the surpassing greatness of the Lord's power toward us. God's children must know what they received the minute they were regenerated. When a man is regenerated, he receives the Lord. The experience may only last a minute, but it takes thirty to forty years for a man to discover what he received during that one minute. The experience of that one minute passes away quickly, but a man needs thirty to forty years to continually experience the great gift that he received during that one minute, and for God to open his eyes to see such a gift. From that minute on, the surpassing greatness of God's power begins to work in him. Regeneration happens within a very short time. But those whose eyes are opened will agree that what they have is a life of eternity; this life will last for eternity, and there is a surpassing greatness to God's power. No child of God can fully comprehend the greatness of what he received at the moment of his regeneration. But blessed are those who know a little more than others do.

Our growth does not depend on how much power we receive from the Lord, but on how much we see concerning the power we received from the Lord. At the instant we were regenerated, God put such a treasure within the earthen vessel, but we need a whole lifetime to discover the greatness of this treasure. We need a whole lifetime to discover what kind of treasure this is. If a man sees no difference between the treasure he received on the day he was saved and the treasure he has ten or twenty years afterwards, he has not made any progress. Although he has lived ten or twenty years as a Christian, he is the same as a newborn baby. God desires that we see the surpassing greatness of His power toward us through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Whether we are strong or weak depends on how much we see. Those who see are strong, and those who do not see are weak. The strong ones are not those who have received, and the weak ones are not those who have not received; we have all received. The question today is whether or not we have seen. God works within us not because we ask Him for this or for that. He has given us everything that can be given; everything is within us. Today we need to ask God to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we can see. Those who see have the experience. In the past, many saints experienced a spiritual breakthrough not by receiving a puff of power from God, but by waking up in themselves and exclaiming, "Thank the Lord, all these things are mine." They did not beg again and again for what they did not have. Rather, they saw that they had everything, and they uttered thanksgiving and praise. Those who have never seen this do not know the surpassing greatness of His power.