Here’s a prayer to pray. When you see the Lord in a way that absolutely bowls you over, that’s the time to turn to Him and say, “Lord, let me understand who I am and not lose touch. Keep my feet on the ground and cause me to always remember that I am no better than any other Christian.”

      For it is in times of great revelation that we need the humility of Christ the most. Recall Paul’s thorn in the flesh. God put the thorn into his life to keep his feet on the ground in the face of extraordinary spiritual revelation. En 2 Corinthians 12:7.

      I have often reflected on the church in Ephesus. Paul lived in Ephesus for three years raising up a church. By his own testimony, he proclaimed “the whole council of God” to the saints. En. Acts 20:27. Paul unveiled to the Ephesian believers the vision of God’s eternal purpose for three years. He uncorked the mystery of the living God to them.

      He held meetings every day for five hours a day in a facility called the school of Tyrannus where he declared Christ and trained young workers. En. See my book, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. Timothy, Titus, and six other men were present as his apprentices. I’m sure those young apprentices ministered to the Ephesian church as well.

      After Paul was in prison, Timothy moved to Ephesus and ministered to the church there for a number of years. Some years later, the beloved disciple John ended up in Ephesus. Apollos, who was “mighty in the Scriptures,” was also from Ephesus. So perhaps the church benefited from his ministry also.

      Point: The church in Ephesus received the deepest and highest revelation of Christ through choice servants of God—Paul, John, Timothy, Titus, Apollos, etc. And yet, as the New Testament closes, we discover that the church in Ephesus is corrected by the Lord for leaving its first love. En. Revelation 2:1-4.

      What happened? If my experience has taught me anything, I would speculate that they simply stopped pursuing Him. They got stuck. They clung to the Christ that they had been given by the greatest servants of God, and they stopped there.

      To put it another way, their Christ was still too small.