July 23

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. — Eph 1:17 BSB

The word "revelation" literally means an uncovering or unveiling of something hidden. It refers to making known or bringing to light something that was previously concealed in darkness. Revelation can be outward, through the word, or inward, within the soul. These two types of revelation correspond to each other, as counterparts. When a sinner, by the power of divine grace, turns to the Lord, the Spirit of revelation removes the veil from both the Scriptures and the heart. Haven’t we all experienced this? The Bible was once a sealed book to us—we read or heard it without understanding a single ray of its true light. Our hearts were covered with ignorance, unbelief, pride, self-righteousness, and hardness. But the Spirit of revelation took away this double veil, and by giving us the light of life, he made the word of God a new book to us and gave us a new heart to understand it. Ever since the day when his word first gave us light, God’s word has been a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

But the Spirit of revelation is mainly given to lead us into a deeper, spiritual, and saving knowledge of Christ. Without this blessed Spirit of revelation, Christ cannot be truly or savingly known. When Peter confessed Jesus as “the Son of the living God,” our Lord said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”