Faith and Inheritance

A passage and an explanation:

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"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the

Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."

-Ephesians 1:17-23

"This, then, is the order: enlightenment, knowledge, faith, experience. It is by enlightenment that we know, and by faith that we enter into the enjoyment of what we know. Our faith-experience is therefore largely conditioned by our heart-knowledge. Further, the more we know, the greater our spiritual capacity becomes and the greater our responsibility to claim our inheritance by faith. Thus, when a person is newly born of the Spirit, his grasp of God's purpose for him is usually very limited and his experience is limited in proportion. But as the Holy Spirit enlightens the eyes of his heart, vistas begin to open up before him of which at first he had scarcely even dreamed. He begins to see and know the hope of God's calling, the riches of God's inheritance and the greatness of God's power. He is challenged to embrace by faith the fullness of God's purpose for him.

The tragedy is that often our faith does not keep pace with our knowledge. Our eyes are opened to see more and more of the wonders of God's purpose for us in Christ, but we hang back from appropriating it by faith. This is one of the ways in which we lose the fullness of the Spirit, not necessarily by disobedience but by disbelief. Our lungs develop, but we do not use them. We need constantly to repent of our unbelief and to cry to God to increase our faith, so that, as our knowledge grows, our faith may grow with it and we may continuously lay hold of more of the greatness of God's purpose and power."

- Baptism and Fullness, John Stott, 81-82

Although not directly spoken to, this excerpt from Baptism and Fullness also speaks to the distinction between blind faith and faith, between stupidity and trust based on knowledge revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Thank you Lord for not leaving us in ignorance and for providing a way out.