In Ephesians 1:18 Paul says, "I am praying that the eyes of your heart (not your mind) be enlightened". The emphasis in the new covenant is always on the heart. In the Old Testament, the emphasis was on knowledge entering the head. But now it is on light entering the heart.

There were a few men in the Old Testament who were men of the heart. Proverbs speaks a lot about the heart. David was a man after God's own heart. But generally speaking, the priests and the Bible-scholars under the old covenant were not men of the heart. It was intellectual study of the Scriptures that produced the scribes and the Pharisees - who crucified Jesus. If you spend your life just using your head to study the Scriptures and acquire a lot of Bible-knowledge, you will end up being another scribe or Pharisee. The truth of God must sink down from your head into your heart and become revelation. That 12-inch drop from the head to the heart is what makes all the difference!

Paul prayed that "the eyes of their heart would be enlightened so that they would see:
1. The hope of God calling them;
2. The riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints; and
3. The greatness of God's power available to them" (Eph. 1:18, 19).

Paul did not ask them to read his letter 25 times to understand these truths. They could have read it a hundred times and still not understood. He prayed that they would get revelation from the Holy Spirit on these great truths. You can study the root meanings of all the Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible and still be totally blind spiritually and not experience a single"spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ", or become "holy and blameless" as you were predestined by God to be. When you get revelation from the Holy Spirit on the Bible, things become different. You may not know Greek, but you will know Christ. You will be in Christ. You will be able to take the cheques in the Bible (the promises of God) to the Bank of Heaven and cash them and become a spiritually rich person. So don't ever pursue study of the Bible without revelation. The purpose of your Bible study must be to get revelation from the Holy Spirit. Anybody who emphasises the head over the heart is leading you astray. I am not against using our minds. When I study or preach, I use my mind extensively. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to speak to you. But I have made my mind a slave of the Holy Spirit. When studying the Bible, we begin by using our eyes (body) to read. Then the Word enters our mind (soul). But then the Word must penetrate beyond our soul to our spirit, where the Holy Spirit will give us revelation.

We can see an illustration of this in the old covenant tabernacle which had 3 parts. The outer court symbolised our body, by which we read or hear God's Word. The next area, the Holy Place, symbolised our soul, through which we understand (mind) and are stirred (emotions) by the Word. Then comes the Most Holy Place symbolising our spirit, where God gives us revelation on His Word that leads to obedience. It is only when we get revelation that we have really heard God through His Word. Only then can we accomplish God's purposes.

So let all your Bible study go beyond reading and understanding torevelation and obedience. Jesus died and the veil was rent so that we might enter the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 10:20). The Pharisees read their Bible and understood it, but they didn't get any revelation on it and so they considered Jesus to be Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Peter, however, got revelation on the Scriptures and saw that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah.