We Already Have All the Power We Need 

by Susan Barnes, an Australian pastor’s wife

"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened ..." Ephesians 1:18

When Paul prays for the church at Ephesus he doesn't pray for them to have power but enlightenment; that they would know the power they already have. In the previous verse Paul prays that they might have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. We need enlightenment and revelation because, with Christ living in us, we already have all the power we need. When Paul does pray for the Ephesians to have power (3:19), it is the power to know how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ. 

Later in Ephesians Paul writes about "His power that is at work within us" (3:20) and in Colossians 1:29 Paul says, "To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me". We need our spiritual eyes opened to the fact that Christ has already given us all the power we need.

In the film "The Wizard of Oz" Dorothy spends the whole movie looking for some magical way of getting home. At the end of the movie she is told that she already has the power she needs, because of her shoes. Often we are like Dorothy; we spend our time looking for something we already have.

We need to pray, like Paul did for the Ephesians, that our spiritual eyes will be opened to the many blessings that are ours already because we have Christ living in us.

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