Prayer and the Ministry of the Word

Dear Friends,

My last post showed that one spiritual topic for prayer is love. We pray that Christians will love each other, and that they will grasp the love that God has for them. A second theme about which the apostle Paul prayed was knowledge.

(Philippians 1:9-11) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, (10) so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, (11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.

(Ephesians 1:17) 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.

(Colossians 1:9) For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

In these verses we see Paul praying that Christians would have knowledge, depth of insight, discernment, spiritual wisdom, revelation, and understanding. We as preachers and teachers generally focus our attention on instilling knowledge in the people through our teaching. That is all well and good---biblical teaching is absolutely crucial in the discipleship of Christians. But the Word shows us that God is the one who fills His people with spiritual wisdom. Therefore, just as much as we teach the people ourselves, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will be their true teacher. Let’s pray that our churches will be filled with the knowledge of God!


Love in Christ,

Jeff