What changes when God opens the eyes of our understanding?

In Ephesians 1, Paul prays that believers would receive wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. His prayer is not focused on changing what is happening around them. He is praying for them to see what God has already given them in Christ.

In this episode, we explore Paul’s prayer for spiritual sight and the three things he wanted believers to know: the hope of God’s calling, the riches of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power toward those who believe.

There are things God has already made available to us that we may not fully recognize until our understanding is enlightened. Paul’s prayer shows us the importance of revelation and how seeing through the eyes of faith can transform the way we understand our purpose, our identity, and the power of God at work in our lives.

The same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power Paul wanted believers to understand. Sometimes the prayer is not simply, “Lord, change this.” Sometimes the prayer is, “Lord, help me see.”

The content shared on Living the Selah Life is for spiritual encouragement, personal reflection, and informational purposes only.

It is not intended to diagnose, treat, or replace medical, psychological or professional advice of any kind.

Please consult a licensed healthcare provider or qualified professional for any physical, mental or emotional health concerns.

The views expressed are those of the host, Kimberly Lockanor, and are based on personal experience and Biblical insight, not clinical or professional training.

Welcome back to Living the Selah Life, a podcast that invites you to slow down, to breathe and to reconnect with the presence of God.

I'm your host, Kimberly Lockanore, and this space is for anyone longing to become more familiar with his presence.

Whether you're just discovering what it means to pause with God or you've been walking this path for a while, I am really glad that you're here.

Each episode is an intentional pause, a moment to reflect, realign, and remember that God meets us when we create space for Him.

So take a breath.

You are right on time.

Lets live the Selah Life together.

Hey hey my friends.

Welcome back to Living the Selah Life.

Today we are continuing our series on the prayers of the Apostle Paul.

In our last episode, we laid the foundation by looking at prayer as a conversation, a strategy, and, my goodness, a lifeline.

We talked about how prayer is not just a routine thing we need to do, but it's a way of cultivating an awareness of his presence in our everyday lives.

That is the biggest takeaway that I want everyone to get from this series.

We are cultivating an awareness of his presence in our everyday lives, not just in the prayer closet.

Today, in episode 42, we are looking at one of the most profound prayers Paul ever prayed.

It is found in the first chapter of Ephesians.

What is so striking about this prayer is what Paul does not ask for.

He does not ask God to change the Ephesian circumstances.

He does not ask God for their problems to go away.

He does not pray for their finances, their health, or their comfort.

Instead, he asks God to change their vision.

He prays that the eyes of their hearts would be opened because Paul understood what we need most is not a change in our situation, but a revelation of who God is and what he has already given us.

I could stay right there this entire podcast.

Let's dive into what it means to pray with our eyes open.

We will call this week's main teaching the need for Spiritual Sight.

Okay, so.

So.

Have you ever been in a dark room, maybe fumbling around trying to find something that you know you left in there?

You could bump into furniture, begin to feel frustrated and are just completely disoriented.

The object in that room that you are looking for has not moved.

The room has not changed.

The only problem is that you cannot see.

And many of us live our spiritual lives exactly like that.

We fumble through our days, overwhelmed and disconnected from God.

And we ask him to give us peace, to give us strength, to give us hope.

But really, if you are in Christ, you already have those things.

The problem is not that God is withholding them.

The problem is that we cannot see them.

And Paul understood this.

He had been a Pharisee, a man who knew the Scriptures inside and out, who had memorized the Torah, studied under the greatest teachers of his day.

And yet, until the moment Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, Paul was spiritually blind.

And many times, especially if you're a seer and you have the gift of seeing and you can see visions and you can see things like that, I still pray that your spiritual eyes be open because it is possible to be able to see with your gifting and still miss the very revelation and the heart of God.

Paul was spiritually blind until the Lord opened his eyes.

He had all the information, but none of the revelation.

He knew about God, but did not truly know God.

And when the scales fell from his eyes, both literally and spiritually, his whole life changed.

That is what Paul wants for the Ephesians.

This is what he wants for you.

He does not want you to have more information about God.

He wants you to have a revelation of God.

He wants the Holy Spirit to take the truths that you have read in your Bible and make them come alive in your spirit in a way that changes how you see the prayer for revelation.

In Ephesians 1, Paul writes to a group of believers who are facing challenges.

They are living in Ephesus, one of the most spiritually dark and morally corrupt cities in the ancient world.

They are surrounded by idol worship, by the temple of Artemaeus, by a culture that is completely hostile to the Gospel.

Yet Paul's prayer for them is entirely focused on their inner vision.

He prays that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

And this is by far one of my favorite prayers in the Bible.

Notice that Paul does not pray for them to get more information.

We live in an age of endless information.

We can access thousands of sermons, podcasts, and Bible commentaries AI at the door.

Touch of anything.

But information alone does not change a heart.

You can know every doctrine, every theological term, every Bible story, have Visions, dreams and all the such and still feel completely disconnected from the living God.

Paul prays for revelation.

Revelation is when the Holy Spirit takes the truth of God's word and makes it come alive in your spirit.

It is the moment when you stop just knowing about God and you begin to start knowing God.

It is the shift from reading promises on a page to filling that promise anchor your soul and the difference between knowing that God loves you as a theological fact and experiencing the love of God as a present overwhelming reality.

This is why cultivating an awareness of his presence is so essential.

We have to slow down.

And when we create space for God, when we quiet all the noise of the outside world, especially in the beginning, as you become seasoned and mature, you do not need a quiet surroundings, you are just aware.

But in the beginning, I say, yes, quiet the noise of the world and simply sit in his presence.

You create the conditions for revelation.

At this point, you're not just gathering information, you are opening yourself up to to encounter the living God.

Paul specifically asks that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened so that they could see three things.

The first is the hope of his calling.

Biblical hope, not the kind of hope, I hope things get better.

Biblical hope is a confident expectation, a certainty rooted in the character of God.

When your eyes are open to the hope of his calling, you realize that your life has a divine purpose and that no, hear me, no circumstance or devil in hell can derail it.

Think about what Paul is saying here.

He is writing to people who are facing opposition and suffering, and he is praying that they would see the hope of their calling.

He is praying that they would understand that God did not save them just to get them to heaven.

He saved them with a purpose in mind, and he called them with a specific assignment.

And that calling is not canceled by difficulty.

In fact, difficulty is often what God uses to grow us up.

It also is not revoked by failure.

It is not diminished by opposition.

When you cultivate an awareness of his presence, you begin to see your life through the lens of his calling rather than the lens of your circumstances.

And the question, why me?

You don't ask that as much anymore.

And you start asking, lord, what are you doing in me through.

Through me in this season?

And that kind of shifts the perspective.

The second thing Paul prays for them is to see the riches of his inheritance in the saints.

And we often think of our inheritance in heaven, the rewards that await us when we die.

But Paul is not talking about that.

He's talking about something different here.

He is talking about God's inheritance in us.

You are God's inheritance.

You are his treasured possession.

When God looks at you, he does not see a burden or disappointment.

He sees his inheritance, something precious, something he paid the highest possible price to obtain.

This is how much you are worth to Him.

When you cultivate an awareness of his presence and begin to understand how deeply valued you are by the Creator of the universe, it will change how you live and walk through your days.

The third thing that Paul prays for is for them to see the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe.

He stacks up multiple Greek words to describe this power.

He it is surpassing, immeasurable, mighty, and strong.

He is reaching for the limits of human language to describe something that is beyond description.

And then he gives us a reference point.

He says, this is the exact same power that raised Christ from the dead.

Now think about that.

The power that conquered the grave, the power that defeated death itself.

The power that transformed a sealed tomb into an empty one.

It is at work toward us who believe.

It is directed at you.

It is available to you.

When you pray with your eyes open, you stop begging God for a little bit of strength to get by, and you start resting in the resurrection power that is already available to you.

We stop praying small, fearful prayers and start praying with the boldness of someone who knows that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and active in your life.

Let's move on to this week's pause prompts.

Pause prompts are just designed to take inventory of where we are so that we know where we're going.

Let's go.

Pause Prompt number one where in your life do you feel like you are fumbling in the dark?

Are you asking God to change a circumstance when he might be inviting you to ask for a change in vision?

What would it look like for you to cultivate an awareness of his presence today, not necessarily by seeking new information, but by asking for revelation?

Is there a truth you know in your head that has not yet reached your heart?

Which of the three things Paul prayed for do you need to see most clearly right now?

The hope of his calling your value as his inheritance, or the exceeding greatness of his power at work in your life?

Is there an area of your life where you have been praying small, possibly fearful prayers?

And what would it look like to pray from the perspective of resurrection power?

This week's Scripture Spotlight comes from Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 17 through 19.

We've been talking about this amazing prayer that Paul prayed and that will be our scripture.

Spotlight a portion of it.

I encourage you to go and read the entire prayer.

It is one of my favorite ones in the Bible.

It's so powerful.

The Spirit of wisdom and revelation Wisdom is the ability to see life from God's perspective and to apply what you see, the strategy he gives to understand not just what is happening, but why it is happening and what God is doing in the midst of it and what you should do in the midst of it.

Revelation is the unveiling by the Holy Spirit.

Together they allow us to navigate the complexities of life by cultivating a constant awareness of his presence and guidance.

Notice that Paul calls it the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

It is not just wisdom about life in general.

It is wisdom that flows from knowing God personally and intimately.

The eyes of your understanding Being enlightened.

The Greek word translated understanding here is kardia, the heart.

The heart is the center of our being, our thoughts, our will, our emotion.

And Paul is praying that the very core of who you are would be flooded with God's light.

When the heart is enlightened, many things lose their grip and trust can begin to take root.

When the heart is enlightened, you stop seeing your situations as hopeless and you can start seeing it as an opportunity for God to demonstrate his faithfulness.

Perspective is everything toward us who believe.

This power is not reserved for just a select few.

It is not just for the ones that's been saved for 20 years or 50 years, or super spiritual or even longtime believers.

It is directed toward every single person who believes.

It is a present, active, living thing in your life right right now, waiting for you to open your eyes and acknowledge it.

The question is not whether the power is available.

The question is whether you are cultivating an awareness of his presence enough to access it at all times.

Let's move on to our Selah moment and prayer.

This is our opportunity to to pray Paul's prayer over our own lives, asking God to open our eyes.

So you can begin by sitting comfortably and taking several deep breaths.

He is the Father of glory and he is with you.

You don't have to have all the answers, you just have to be in his presence.

Quietly ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and revelation.

You can say, lord, open the eyes of my heart.

Help me to see you more clearly.

Take the truths I know in my head and make them real in my spirit.

Show me the hope of my calling and help me to understand how deeply you value me.

Let me see the greatness of your power at work in my life.

Embracing the Hope and Power Think about a situation that feels a little bit overwhelming right now.

Now consciously invite God's resurrection power into that space.

Remind yourself that you are his treasured inheritance and that his power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is directed toward you.

Let that shift your perspective.

Let us pray.

Father of Glory, we come to you asking for the very things that Paul prayed for the Ephesian Church.

We confess that too often we are focused entirely on our circumstances or the situation present in our world and the world asking you to change the things around us.

Today we ask you to change the things within us.

Holy Spirit, give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you.

Flood the eyes of our hearts with the light.

With your light.

Help us to cultivate an unwavering awareness of your presence in every moment of our day when the world tries to pull us into confusion.

Anchor us in the hope of your calling, Lord.

Let us truly grasp the riches of your inheritance.

Help us to see ourselves the way you see us, as your treasured possession, chosen and deeply loved.

And let us see the exceeding greatness of your power.

Remind us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work within us.

Open our eyes so that we can walk in confidence, not because of what we can do, but because of who you are.

It is in Jesus name that we pray and it is so let's lean into our Selah moment.

This week.

I want you to Read Ephesians chapter 1, verses 17 through 19 over yourself every morning before you start your day, even before you look at your phone, before you dive into the responsibilities of the day.

And I know what that is like, but just pause just for this week and you can say something like, lord, give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Open the eyes of my heart today and you will notice how this simple prayer helps you cultivate an awareness of his presence as you move through your week.

I am going to continuously drill into you guys the importance of cultivating an awareness of his presence.

It is so important because that is often what is missing in so many believers lives.

I am determined to make people see God and know him as the God in here instead of the God way up there in heaven and somewhere out there.

So thank you for listening to Living the Selah Life.

If this moment stirred something in your spirit, share it with someone who needs to be reminded to pause.

You can connect with us on Facebook or YouTube Living the Selah Life or even Instagram LivingTheSeaLife.

Or email me a Selah moment.

You want to hear your story?

Or just hey, drop a line and say, hey Kim.

Hey girl, hey.

May you go from this place rested not just in body but in spirit, carrying the awareness that his presence is always near.

May you be rooted not in the shifting voices of this world, but in the unshakable word of God, the Logos that grounds you and the rhema that guides you.

For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And may you keep rising into the life he designed for you, into purpose, into peace, into the fullness of his calling.

May your life become a living Selah, an intentional pause that reveals his presence.

And it is in Jesus name.

And it is so Selah.