I.　Ephesians covers the church, which is the deepest matter in the Bible; it unveils the church in seven aspects:

A.　The church is the Body of Christ, the fullness, the expression, of the One who fills all in all—1:23; 4:13.

B.　The church is the new man, a corporate man, having not only the life of Christ but also His person—2:15.

C.　The church is the kingdom of God, with the saints as citizens, possessing its rights and bearing its responsibilities—v. 19.

D.　The church is the household of God, a family full of life and enjoyment—v. 19.

E.　The church is the dwelling place of God, in which He may live—universally, a holy temple in the Lord, and locally, the dwelling place of God in our spirit—vv. 21-22.

F.　The church is the bride, the wife, of Christ for Christ's rest and satisfaction—5:24-25.

G.　The church is the warrior, a corporate fighter, who deals with and defeats God's enemy to accomplish God's eternal purpose—6:11-12.

II.　Ephesians 1:15-23 is the apostle's prayer for the church regarding revelation:

A.　In order to see the church, we need a seeing spirit, a revealing spirit, a spirit of wisdom and revelation—v. 17:

1.　The wisest man is the man who lives in his spirit; if we are not in our spirit, we cannot be clear about anything in our daily life; the only place we can see things clearly is in our spirit—1 Cor. 2:11a; Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10.

2.　When we are in our spirit, nothing can disturb us; we all have to exercise to retreat to our spirit and stay in our spirit.

3.　In order to know the church or see something of the church, we must be in our spirit; we should not trust in our mind, but we have to cooperate with God by retreating to our spirit.

4.　If we turn to our spirit and stay there, the church can be revealed to us.

B.　Paul prays for us that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened to see three things—the hope of God's calling (Eph. 1:18), the glory of God's inheritance (v. 18), and the surpassing greatness of God's power (v. 19):

1.　The hope of God's calling is "Christ in you, the hope of glory"—Col. 1:27:

a.　Christ realized by us, experienced by us, and gained by us to the fullest extent is the hope of our calling—Gal. 1:15a, 16a; 2:20; 4:19.

b.　God called us, He justified us, and He will glorify us, conforming us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29-30); one day we will all be absolutely the same as Christ (1 John 3:2).

c.　Our hope is to be fully conformed to the very image of Christ; this is the ultimate consummation of the enjoyment of Christ, and this is the hope of God's calling—Phil. 3:21.

2.　Only the very Christ who has been wrought into us can be God's inheritance; this is why we need to be transformed, to have a metabolic change, and to be conformed to the image of Christ—Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29:

a.　When we are all transformed and transfigured, conformed to Christ to the uttermost, God will be happy.

b.　All the dear saints will be His inheritance, and this inheritance will be Christ Himself wrought into His believers in full.

c.　Actually, the Christ who has been wrought into us is the church, so the church is God's inheritance.

3.　We need to see the surpassing greatness of God's power that produces the church, the power that raised up Christ, that seated Him in the heavenlies, that put all things under His feet, and that gave Him to be Head over all things to the church—Eph. 1:19-23:

a.　This fourfold power—the resurrecting, transcending, subduing, and overruling power—produces the church; it is "toward us who believe" (v. 19) and "to the church, which is His Body" (vv. 22-23).

b.　To thechurch implies a kind of transmission; whatever Christ the Head has attained and obtained is transmitted to the church, His Body; in this transmission the church shares with Christ in all His attainments: the resurrection from the dead, His being seated in His transcendency, the subjection of all things under His feet, and the headship over all things.

c.　Toward us who believe and to the church indicate that the divine power, which includes all that the Triune God has passed through, has been installed into us once for all and is being transmitted into us continually, causing us to enjoy Christ richly and to have the proper church life as His Body, His fullness (vv. 22-23).

d.　This power has been installed into us, but we must all look to the Lord that our capacity may be enlarged so that we may experience this power: (1)　To experience the resurrecting power within us, we need to have a strong desire to get completely out of death; the more death there is among us, the less church we have; the less death there is among us, the more church there is. (2)　All our problems are opportunities for us to experience God's transcending power; if we experience God's transcending power in all our circumstances, the church will be manifested. (3)　We should not have outward regulations in the church life, but we need the subduing power to live a subduing life; if we fully experience God's subduing power, the church life will be fully manifested—1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23. (4)　Christ is overruling all things, and we share in His overruling; when all things are under the rule of the Head and His Body, the church is manifested.

e.　Once we have seen the power that produces the church, our only need is to be desperate: (1)　We should pray, "Lord I am desperate to be saved from anything that would suppress, subdue, or overrule me." (2)　Christ is within us as a divine dynamo; He is dynamic and powerful, but He needs our cooperation. (3)　We need to have our capacity enlarged by being desperate; then we will see the manifestation of the church in our locality.