Eyes Wide Open: Discovering What's Already Yours in Christ

Meta Description: Are you living on spiritual peanut butter sandwiches when God has prepared a kingdom banquet? Discover what Paul's prayer in Ephesians reveals about what's already yours. URL Slug: eyes-wide-open-ephesians-1-spiritual-inheritance Featured Image: A wide-angle image of open hands facing upward with soft natural light streaming down — symbolizing receiving what's already been given; warm, hopeful tones.

What if everything you've been searching for in your spiritual life was already yours — and you just didn't know it?

That's the question that has been gripping me as I've been walking through the book of Ephesians with our church family. And it's the heart of one of the most desperate, beautiful prayers in all of Scripture.

The Man Who Ate Peanut Butter Sandwiches on a Cruise Ship

Picture this: a man saves up everything he has to buy a ticket for a cruise. But when he boards the ship, he realizes he spent every last dollar just getting on. So every day, while other passengers enjoy the grand dining hall, he slips back to his cabin and eats dry bread and peanut butter sandwiches he packed from home.

Near the end of the voyage, a steward notices he hasn't joined a single meal. When he finally asks, the man admits the truth — embarrassed, eyes down. The steward's face falls. "Sir," he says gently, "the meals were included in the price of the ticket."

I believe that's exactly the tragedy Paul is writing to address. So many of us have paid nothing for our ticket — Jesus paid it with his blood — and yet every day we go back to our spiritual cabins and live on dry bread when God has already prepared a kingdom banquet. Paul knows this. And so, chained to a Roman soldier in a prison cell, he does the only pastoral thing he can. He drops to his knees and prays desperately for the church he loves.

His prayer, in essence, is this: God, open their eyes. Show them what they already have.

The Mark of a Healthy Church

Paul opens his prayer not with a problem or a correction, but with gratitude. That's worth noticing. In Ephesians 1:15-16, he writes:

"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers."

He heard two things about this church: they had faith and they had love. And those two things aren't accidental. Faith in Christ is vertical — it's your relationship with God. Love for the saints is horizontal — it's your relationship with each other. Paul is saying, "I heard you have both."

Here's why that matters: faith without love turns you into a Pharisee — theology dialed in, every argument won, but no real warmth for the people sitting next to you. Love without faith makes you a social club — a wonderful group of caring people, but not the body of Christ. You need both. The vertical and the horizontal, working together. That is the sign of a healthy, growing church.

More Than Information — It's a Relationship

In Ephesians 1:17, Paul gets specific about what he's praying for:

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."

The Greek word for knowledge here isn't the kind you get from memorizing facts. It's knowledge gained through experience — through relationship. It's the difference between knowing an athlete's stats and actually being their closest friend. One is information. The other is intimacy.

God's design for your Christian life isn't just to accumulate more biblical knowledge. It's to know him — and then to live out that knowing in community with others who are on the same journey. That's where real growth happens.

Three Things God Wants You to See

In verses 18-19, Paul prays for spiritual vision — that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened. He wants you to see three things clearly:

1. The hope of his calling. You have a mission. Not just a job title or a role at church, but a God-given sense of purpose. Do you know what yours is? If I asked you to write it down right now — not your position, not your responsibilities, but your actual calling — could you do it? If that question left you blank, I want to give you some homework: set aside some time this week with no distractions, and just sit with God. Ask him, Lord, why am I here? What have you called me to?

2. The riches of his inheritance. Paul isn't talking about what you'll eventually receive. He's talking about what God already has in you — his people. You are part of his inheritance. That changes how you see yourself and everyone sitting around you.

3. The exceeding greatness of his power toward us. Verses 19-20 tell us this power is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection power of God is not just a theological concept — it's available to you, right now, in your everyday life.

You Are Not Fighting for Victory — You Are Fighting from It

Here's where Paul lands in verses 22-23, and I want you to feel the weight of this:

"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."

Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. Everything is under his feet. And the church — you — is his body. That means when you walk out the door today, you are not walking into enemy territory as a frightened refugee. You are walking as someone who carries the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

We don't fight for victory. We fight from victory. The battle has already been decided.

My prayer for all of us is the same prayer Paul had for Ephesus: that God would open the eyes of our hearts and show us what we already have. Don't walk through God's master plan with your eyes closed.

The banquet is already prepared. Your ticket has already been paid. It's time to come to the table.

Want to go deeper? Watch the full sermon on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. And if you're looking for a place to process these truths alongside others, I'd love for you to connect with one of our small groups — because faith and love grow best in community.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): What if everything you've been searching for in your spiritual life was already yours — and you just didn't know it? This week I shared from Ephesians 1 about Paul's desperate prayer for the church: that God would open their eyes to what they already have in Christ. You are not fighting for victory — you're fighting from it. Read the full post and come hungry to the table God has already prepared for you. 🙏

Hashtags: #EyesWideOpen #Ephesians #BlueprintSeries #ResurrectionPower #TheVineChurch