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; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know... (Ephesians 1:17,18)
And then there is given a list of things to know. And you find that list moves
out into the dimensions of the knowledge-surpassing love: “...that you may be
filled unto all the fullness of God.” Spiritual illumination leads on to
being filled unto all the fullness.
Spiritual illumination, therefore, is a basic
thing to God’s end. We can never come to the fullness of Christ by the mere
enquiry and investigation of our own brains into spiritual things. There must of
necessity be the Holy Spirit giving revelation concerning Christ. The Testimony
of Jesus has as its essential law: spiritual illumination and revelation –
through the Word. The Testimony of Jesus can never be something static,
something that you take up and say: "This is the Testimony of Jesus" and then
put it into a formula. The Testimony of Jesus is something that has been
revealed. The Testimony of Jesus is: “I see the heavens opened, and the Son
of man standing on the right hand of God.” Stephen died for that Testimony.
“At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the
brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me.
And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice....” The inner
meaning of that is not something apart from the Word, but something that comes
by the Holy Ghost through the Word. That is more than the letter; it is Life. It
is something that makes you say: “I have read the Scriptures on that for a long
time, but I have really never seen that before.”