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15 For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you show toward all the saints, ¹⁶ cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; ¹⁸ having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us–ward who believe,

• A spirit of wisdom and revelation (ASV)
• The Spirit of wisdom and revelation (NIV). My choice.

• in the knowledge of him (ASV)
• that you may know him better (NIV)
• in knowing him (my translation, and my choice)

Most of our cars have automatic transmissions. If you have it in park, you will go nowhere. Your engine might be running, but the park position keeps you parking. To move forward you have to put it in drive.

If you are going to make progress in the Christian life, if you are to know God better, you have to get out of park and start moving. But how do you do that?

That you may know God better, you need the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Only he will move you out of Park. Only He will move you forward if you use faith.

You already have the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing your inheritance. (see Eph 1:13b, 14) So at least you are in Park. The engine is running because you are a Christian.

Some people are non-Christians. They are in Park but the engine is off. As a Christian your engine is perpetually running. It just needs to rev up in the Drive position.

Two questions for you:

2. How is it that you can have the Holy Spirit as a seal and also need the Holy Spirit? A question of theology.

To get to the answers to the above questions, we first must understand that our text indicates that we need both wisdom and revelation.

The Holy Spirit gives wisdom and revelation, both of which we need. Revelation in this text obviously does not refer to the Book of Revelation and I think it does not refer to new revelation that supplements the Bible. It is old revelation, the inspired Word of God.

We need both; we can’t have wisdom without revelation, nor revelation without wisdom. It’s the one Spirit, and He gives both. Can’t have either without the Spirit.

With the Spirit we are in Drive. May not be moving fast, but we moving, and speed can come. The Spirit is the fuel that keep us going. He provides Wisdom; He is wisdom. He provides revelation; He is revelation. We are into Him and into what wisdom provides and what revelation provides when we are into His Word with prayer.

Want revelation? Get into the Word with Prayer. We can’t have wisdom without Word, your revelation You absolutely can’t.

Want wisdom in your Christian experience? You have to have revelation; it is a must.

You need the six (yea seven!) aspects of revelation where wisdom is the constant ingredient. Revelation and wisdom go together. Here are the seven that I know of right off the bat…

1. Scripture always reforms your thinking; the Spirit ministers to you in that way.
2. Conviction of sin and sharpening of your conscience
3. Blessing of the Spirit to get you into obedience and faith
4. Guidance in life amid the culture you live in
5. Blessing as you use His spiritual gifts in your service of Christ
6. Blessing as you appropriate His fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, in your life
7. Knowing your hope and living with optimism and faith

Your part in this is the obedience of reading and the obedience of prayer. And, related to what you read, your spiritual alertness. In the suggested readings this week I emphasize the prayer that can be prayed related to each reading. Give it a try.

Your motor can keep running in idle speed, but you know what? It’s like the real gasoline engine. It usually gets hot and could gum up. It maybe runs inefficiently, burns a lot of gas. In the Christian experience, if you do not grow (move forward) you in effect are loosing ground because of the danger of not having those seven aspects of revelation. That means, either you are NOT a CHRISTIAN or you are back-sliding. You get into reverse sometimes and would rather not be there. Got to keep moving forward Atrophy sets in if you don’t go into drive and step on the throttle. You start to think you don’t need the means of grace, the Word and prayer. Life is cool, you fool yourself into thinking, as you drift into spiritual deadness, quenching the Spirit all the while.

The inconsistency of having your motor off and taking communion, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, is something I must point out. Some people have no spiritual life and yet they take communion as if it is a snack, or as if it will magically make you OK. Nonsense!

You need to rev it up. You need to produce the fruit of salvation. You need more than the original seal of the Holy Spirit, the deposit guaranteeing your eternal inheritance. If the seal is really there, the revving up takes place. If the revving up does not take place you do not have the seal. You are an unbeliever or you are living as one. You are in sin; you are back-sliding and are an insult to the grace of God, crucifying the Son of God all over again!

You say, but I’m a believer. OK, then rev it up. Ephesians 4:1 tells you to be consistent.

God did not save you to sit still, in Park. You have to stop at stop signs now and again, yes, and you have to start it up to idle if you’re going somewhere, but you are at least in Drive or soon will be if you are a believer, for the engine is running. You are ready when conditions change to start forward. You go!

You can’t be in the revelation, attaining wisdom by reading the Word at every moment in your life, but your desire for it will put you there when the conditions are right. Your constant state of prayer puts the Spirit of revelation into place in yourlife; He is active in guidance and blessing. You surge forward from the stop light.

At salvation you were regenerated by the Spirit. He marks you, and that is called a seal. You are permanently in Christ. Your engine is running. He is a deposit. He is your health. The engine analogy tells you that you are in good shape. All you need is high octane fuel from the pump. You can’t expect your engine to do well if you have let the gasoline sit in the injectors all winter without revving up. Likewise, you can go and go fast only if you live on the Word of the Lord!

The Holy Spirit does another thing. He not only is He the deposit guaranteeing your running, but He also is your Fuel that revs up the engine.

Do not be surprised that the Holy Spirit is all things to you. He was in the creation. He was in the writing of the Bible. He blessed the Gospel to your salvation. He regenerated you (Mark, Deposit), He has gifted you to serve God and man, He sanctifies you (fruited you). He draws near to you when you draw near to him. He has done all these things, and some of them at the same time.

So, yes, you can have Him and also need Him. The Subsequent Spirit is my sermon title. You need Him as your revelator through the Word and Sacrament, and in Prayer. You also need Him as the provider of wisdom.

Wisdom.

James 3:13ff is must reading fro you, if you are going to understand what kind of wisdom you need to cruise at interstate speeds in your Christian experience.

Revelation.

John 16:12-15 will teach you the importance of the Holy Spirit in your being taught.

You have many struggles. Many issues in your life. You need insight to know His will.

There are the temptations that you need to overcome. There are the decisions that have to be made.

For instance, about every 6 months I need to seek the Lord for wisdom about how my ministry is going, and if I should modify any of my objectives and actions. To get insight I go to the NT books of Acts, I and II Timothy and Titus and at least one of the Gospels, not to them exclusively, but at least to them.

Other issues in my life: How I love my wife and care for my family. Faithfulness with which I execute my ministry. Management of my property and finances. Decisions of schedules and plans – calendar issues. The constant matter of ethics, morality, culture, living out a world-view that is Godly.

Think I don’t need the six (yea seven) aspects of revelation where wisdom is the constant ingredient?

1. Scripture always reforming my thinking
2. Conviction of sin and sharpening of my conscience
3. Blessing of the Spirit to obedience and faith
4. Guidance in life and culture in which I live
5. Blessing as I use His gifts in my service
6. Blessing as I appropriate His fruit in my life
7. Knowing my hope, keeping me focused and optimistic, even idealistic!

You too need these seven. As Proverbs exhorts, "get wisdom, my son." Become a master in the revelation! Get out of park; drop it into drive and rev it up!