What It Means to Have the Eyes of Our Hearts Opened
By Jennifer Waddle
“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you…” - Ephesians 1:16-18 ESV
Not only was mankind created with physical eyes, to see the beauty of creation around them, they were formed with spiritual eyes, able to understand the deeper things of God. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for mankind to sink into a pit of spiritual blindness because of sin and rebellion.
When Adam and Eve had perfect union with the Lord, He had already opened the eyes of their hearts to know Him and fellowship with Him. The day the serpent came, he deceived Eve by claiming her “eyes would be opened” and she would be like God.
But the serpent said to the woman,“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 1:4 ESV)
Of course, it was the lie of all lies, and the moment she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, her physical eyes were opened to her own sin and shame. At the same time, her spiritual eyes were darkened.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. - (Genesis 3:5-7 ESV)
To have the eyes of our hearts opened means that we are given wisdom and revelation pertaining to the riches of the glorious inheritance we have in Christ. (Ephesians 1:18) It means that we understand the hope and assurance of our salvation. And it means that we are able to partake in the greatness of God’s immeasurable power, by the working of His Spirit in us. (Ephesians 1:19-20)
Without the opening of our spiritual eyes, we walk in carnal blindness, unable to comprehend the good news of the Gospel and what it means for our eternal salvation.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Spiritual blindness leaves us spiritually undiscerning and unaccepting of the holy things of God.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
So, as we pray for God’s guidance in our everyday lives, let’s not forget to ask Him to keep our spiritual eyes open—the eyes of our hearts towards Him. For in Him we live and move and have our being.
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