Gate of Heaven

We are going to talk about the gate of heaven.

Last week we were talking about open heaven.

And so today, this is in a sense a continuation of what we talked about last week.

So last week we talked about an open heaven.

It was appalling last week. You know how many of you were missing?

25 of the regulars were missing.

Leave alone the irregulars.

I mean you can't all go off together with Derek and Don and his parents on a holiday.

Just break it up.

So we talked about open heaven.

And so we said open heaven is not a place, is not an event, is not a portal.

That's what it's been presented as in different places around the world.

They keep talking about open heaven as if it's a place, as if it's an event,

or as if it's a portal that God uses and that man can use.

But open heaven is not a place, not an event or a portal.

And it's a visitation. Thanks man, you're very resourceful.

Guys, it's a visitation culture that looks for portals and events and that kind of revelation.

What do I mean by a visitation culture?

Nowadays what's happening in churches, everyone wants an experience.

But it's an experience that is separate from the person of Christ.

It's not an experience that comes through relationship.

It's an experience for the sake of experience.

So visitation culture is a culture that looks for how can I find a portal that will allow me to access God?

And how can God access me? Or it becomes an event.

This is how open heaven has been taught about for years now.

The truth is an open heaven, which is a biblical truth,

has nothing to do with portals, events or places.

It has everything to do with...

This is what we talked about last week.

An open heaven is not a place. It is you that is an open heaven.

It is us the church that is an open heaven.

This is what we need to get.

An open heaven is not a place.

An open heaven, if you want to define what an open heaven is, you are the open heaven.

Genesis 28 puts it this way.

Jacob was sleeping, he woke up, he looked around and he said,

This is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.

That's what he says in Genesis 28, 17.

This is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.

That was Jacob in the Old Testament.

Fast forward now, 3000 years. Who is the house of God?

Who is the house of God? Us. Yeah.

Yeah, it's still Jacob, but...

Yeah, we are the house of God.

And if we are the house of God, then the church becomes the gate of heaven.

We are not looking for portals.

We are not looking for events.

We are not looking for places.

We are looking for people.

Jacob had to say what he said, because in his time, there was nothing like that.

So he wakes up, he's sleeping in a place called Luz.

He wakes up and he finds out that God had visited him and he says,

This is the house of God. This is Bethel.

This is the gate of heaven.

It's a visitation culture, as in a people who long for the visitation of God,

that are always looking for portals, events, places, experiences.

But one of the things we are not is a people who are looking for God to visit,

because we have come to an understanding, and we must come to an understanding,

every church must come to an understanding, that we are the habitation of God.

God dwells in our midst. He does not visit us.

He does not visit us. He dwells in us.

And because he dwells in us, all that has to happen for us guys,

is every now and then, when we connect with God, our eyes open

and we see him more clearly than we see him at other times.

The only thing that happens during worship is not that intense worship brings God down.

Those are again Old Testament protocol, that God dwells in the praises of his people.

He does not dwell in the praises of his people anymore.

He dwells in a people who prays.

Big difference guys. Big difference.

He does not inhabit the praises of Israel.

He inhabits through Israel who praises him.

Got a shift eh?

And so the only thing that happens in worship, is in worship you suddenly have the eyes of your spirit open

to the bigness of God who is already present.

And therefore we have different experiences.

Every encounter that we have with God, we have different experiences.

So some of us may go back tonight saying, ah shucks man, worship was so powerful.

I was really touched by God.

It's not because God made a special appearance.

It's because your eyes were open wider.

Because he dwells in us.

So we are not a visitation culture. We are people who God habitates.

And then if you are a people in who God lives, then our only intent should be, I want relationship.

I don't want experience. I want relationship. Out of my relationship will come experiences.

That's the only thing you should be looking for and I should be looking for.

Out of relationship will come experiences.

I don't want an experience to have a relationship.

I have a relationship, therefore I will experience.

These are major shifts guys.

Because we relate to a who.

We are not relating to a portal or an it or a place or an event.

And when I say we, I'm really not talking about Acts 29.

I'm talking about we, the body of Christ here on earth.

Of which Acts 29 is a part.

Because these are truths that are not special to us.

These have been truths in the Bible for ages.

And it's for all of us.

So as I said, we are not related to a portal or an it.

So an open heaven is not a place. It's you. You.

You are God's house. You are the gate of heaven.

Just think of that for a second. It's revolutionary when you begin to practice it every day.

You are God's house. You are the gate of heaven.

You are the gate of heaven.

What that means then is that you are the delivery system of the kingdom of God.

You are the delivery system of the kingdom of God.

You are the delivery system of the kingdom of God.

You are the delivery system of the kingdom of God.

You are the delivery system of the kingdom of God.

In Psalm 78 verse 20, at one point God says, I'm going to open the doors of heaven.

Psalms 78:20

And why was he opening the doors of heaven?

He was opening the doors of heaven because he wanted to pour upon the Israelites in the desert manna.

So he says, I'm going to open the doors of heaven.

But how does he do it?

He picks a man called Moses and he says to Moses,

Say to the Israelites, I'm going to open the doors of heaven.

Psalm 78 verse 23, no sorry, Exodus 17 verse 6.

Psalms 78:23 Exodus 17:6

Exodus 17 verse 6, God says, I want to bring water out of a rock in such a gush

Exodus 17:6

that it'll be like a river that's just bursting through the desert.

It wasn't some little trickle of babbling brook or something.

It was this gushing force of water from a rock in the desert.

So how does he do it?

He uses another man, same man called Moses.

And he says, Moses, go strike the rock and water will come out of it.

What do you think he's using the church for today?

What do you think he wants to use church for today?

Same thing.

When he wants to open something from heaven and deposit it here on earth,

who does he turn to?

His people.

Who does the head turn to?

His body.

You are the gate of heaven.

You are the gate of heaven.

Be better tomorrow.

Be the house of God tomorrow.

Be the ladder on earth so that the kingdom of God can ascend and descend on you.

Just imagine that.

You are God's ladder here on earth, set from the earth into the heavens.

Why? So that things of the kingdom can ascend and descend here upon the earth.

We have this rich privilege, guys.

We have this rich privilege.

It happens to insignificant people who only become significant later

because someone writes about them.

What if no one wrote about Thomas?

I was thinking of that today.

I supposedly come from a family in South India that has its roots in Christianity

from a place called Niranum, N-I-R-N-A-M, in Kerala,

more than almost 2,000 years ago,

when a man who was riddled with doubt called Thomas landed up at the shores

and converted a whole lot of Hindus.

One of them happened to be one of my forefathers.

But what if no one had written about Thomas?

You wouldn't know where things began.

He was an insignificant doubter.

People become significant because you write about them, because you hear about them.

But there are thousands of insignificant people that are being used every day as a gate of heaven, guys.

Sometimes you see the fruit of their labor,

sometimes you see the fruit of their labor years later,

sometimes you see it immediately.

But you and I have an opportunity tomorrow to be the ladder that is set up from the earth to the heavens,

to be the gate of heaven, because we are the house of God.

Be Bethel, be the ladder on earth.

Let the kingdom of heaven ascend and descend through you.

Any questions?

Any questions?

You'll have this opportunity tomorrow, eh?

The only place hotter than this is Nandigama,

which is where Jeevan and I and Heidi and all have gone to before.

Oh, what a kind pastor.

Any questions, guys?

No?

Okay.

Guys, the second thing we discussed last week, and then we'll go on to what we were talking about this week,

is that you owe the world a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

You owe the world a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise, people cannot have an encounter with God.

You owe the world a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise, people cannot have an encounter with God.

You must find time to begin to have your life filled with the Holy Spirit,

because if my life isn't filled with the Holy Spirit,

you or someone else out there who God wants to touch

cannot have a full-fledged encounter with God,

because you don't have what it takes.

Now, what do you mean you owe the world a life filled with the Holy Spirit?

Aren't you filled with the Holy Spirit anyways?

Yes, you are, but to come into the awareness of it.

To come into the awareness of it.

Sometimes you can have spouses walking together,

and one spouse is not even aware of the other.

Why? Because they're so used to each other,

or because they haven't spoken for the last twenty years.

And then there are spouses who've been married for fifty years,

and they're so highly aware of each other.

This is a joy to see, eh?

Because when you begin to walk in the full measure of the Spirit,

you experience the power of the age to come.

When you walk in the full measure of the Holy Spirit,

not in your own measure,

when you walk in the full measure of the Holy Spirit,

you begin to experience through you, and in you,

the powers of the age to come.

Meaning, there is a time coming when everything will be perfect,

and through you now begins to flow that same power to touch people's life,

and change them now.

When you decide that man, as Monday comes around,

I owe the world an experience with God,

and I cannot do that unless my life is filled with the Holy Spirit.

What a way to live, eh?

The thing is, we flip-flop,

because we don't inhabit this place where we think we need to owe the world a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

What happens is, sometimes we are the gate of heaven,

sometimes we are the gate of hell,

or the gate of the earth.

Remember talking about this ages ago,

where Peter in Matthew 16 is with Jesus,

and he says to Jesus, Jesus asks the question,

and he is asking all his disciples, he says to his disciples,

who do they say I am?

And Peter says, you are Jesus Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus says to him, Peter, that revelation did not come from the earth,

it came from heaven, it was given to you by my father.

And yet, six verses later, in Matthew 16, 23,

Jesus is saying he is going to Jerusalem, he is going to die,

and Peter pulls him aside and says, stop talking like this.

Stop talking about going to the cross.

And what does Jesus say?

Jesus says, what you have just said is not from heaven,

it's from the earth, it is demonic,

and then what does he say to Peter?

He says, get thee behind me, Satan.

This is what often happens with our life, eh?

Where one moment we are the gate of heaven,

and out of us comes revelation from the father,

which is not from the earth,

and the next moment, out of you comes statements

that are so from the earth and so from the devil,

to the point where Jesus had to say, get thee behind me, devil.

Six verses, he moved from the gate of heaven to the gate of hell.

This is why it's critical that I get up and start the day off with this father.

I owe the world a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

I must walk in your measure today,

so that the power of the age to come is already active through me today.

And guess what happens?

It brings health to your soul, your spirit, your bone, your marrow.

There was a really cool thing that happened with Dagmar.

Was it yesterday?

Friday, where Dagmar's blood pressure just shot up, eh?

The blood pressure just shot up, eh?

Like shot up means shot up like the thing that you measure blood pressure with just blew up.

I'm just exaggerating. It was really bad.

Guess what? The power of the age to come descends,

and the blood pressure comes back to normal.

Can I say how much it was?

207 over 104.

And it comes back to normal where she's sitting today.

I was so glad to see you here today, Dagmar.

Yeah. Praise God.

207 over 104, and then back to normal.

Guys, we're not looking for some portal.

You are the portal. You are the gate of heaven.

This is what we're meant to do here on earth.

So how do we go about it?

Here's one of the first things we do.

Train to live your lives free of the love of fame, money, recognition.

Train to live your lives free of the love for fame, money, recognition.

These three things really jeopardize our role as the gate of heaven.

I got to train to live my life free of the love or the fear.

It's when you're in love with these things that fear creeps in.

Perfect love casts out fear, but any love for these things brings in fear.

It's strange, eh?

When you love any of these things, it will bring in fear,

because now you need to preserve it,

and you will fight tooth and nail to hold on to fame, recognition, and money.

The less you're in love with money, the more the money comes,

and the less you're afraid of it.

Train your lives to live free of the love of fame, money, and recognition.

First thing we need to do,

which is why we draw that picture always here,

where we say, hey guys, it's a falsehood when people say family should come first after God.

It's a falsehood.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say it.

It was discovered by some family organization that decided that's what to do.

If it's a Sunday school organization, they'll say children should come first.

If it's a financial organization, stewardship should come first.

No, at the end of the day, the Bible is very clear.

There is Christ, and then there is his body.

And my family exists for one reason only, to serve Christ and the body.

My work exists for one reason only,

to serve Christ and the body.

Christ is invisible, the body is visible.

My possessions exist for one reason only, to serve Christ and the body.

And my money exists for one reason only, to serve Christ and the body.

Any other reason is not true, is not biblical.

We just have believed it.

There is no such equation as God first, family second, church third.

That is an anathema to everything that Paul taught.

You'll never find it in the Bible.

That's a strange thing.

But that's on the side.

Trained to live lives free of the love of fame, money and recognition.

The second thing, guys, we got to move from maintaining our saltiness.

Christians have a tendency to maintain our saltiness.

No, no, no, no.

We need to move from maintaining our saltiness to living in the Bible.

Christians have a tendency to maintain our saltiness.

No, no, no, no.

We need to mix with rotting meat.

I know that sounds like a terrible way to say it.

But salt is supposed to flavor things.

Matthew 5.13, the message puts it this way.

Salt brings out God flavors.

Light brings out God colors.

Salt brings out God flavors.

Light brings out God colors.

We got to abandon this thing of maintaining our saltiness within the walls of a church.

Like Victor had said earlier, I got to go out there.

Why? Because salt is best for rotting meat.

It prevents meat from rotting further.

It is because someone decided to come with their saltiness into your life that you ended up being healthy meat.

Salt was meant for rotting meat.

I pray God that more and more our stories will be about what God did through you in the life of someone who does not know Jesus.

Regardless of whether they receive Christ or not, what God did through you.

I pray God that the stories that come from my life will not be stories that happened amongst Christians or pastors conferences or some church conference.

That it will be stories about meeting people who were not and who then became.

That should be our story. Salt preserving what?

Not the stuff that is already in the fridge.

Stuff that is rotting.

And the other thing is guys, become increasingly confident of the gospel of the kingdom.

What is the gospel of the kingdom?

The good news that Jesus Christ, the King, has ended hostility between you and the world and him by his death.

And that there is a new way of living that is here on earth.

Romans 1.14 says, I am not ashamed.

I don't think our problem is being ashamed.

I don't think anyone here is ashamed of the gospel.

But we are still not confident that that is God's power unto salvation.

Somehow we think that apologetics and the way of saying it this way and a story here and a story there and a fast entry and an exit.

No, no, no, no.

At the end of the day, Paul says it again and again and again and again as if he had to reinforce it.

That Jacob, God has chosen this exclusive way of getting people saved through the foolish method of a crucified King.

And you cannot avoid it. It is God's power unto salvation.

You want to be the gate of heaven?

This is essential.

I got to understand that this is God's method.

Any method I use will get you to become a friend of God.

It will get you to become a devotee of God.

But it will never get you to become a child of God or one that ends up looking like God.

Can't avoid it, eh?

I was listening again this morning to Joel Osteen.

And this time I didn't feel angry.

I just said, Father, I feel so sad, Lord.

And so rather than get agitated, I changed the channel.

Next thing.

These are ways that are common to this church.

Next thing.

Use the prophetic, use your gifts and your prayers to prize lives open.

P-R-I-S-E. To prize lives open.

Guys, it's natural for churches, some churches to have a certain trait.

One of the traits that this church has by the sheer grace of God

is the ability to hear God and speak into people's lives.

Well, use it then.

Use the prophetic.

Use prayer.

Use your gifts, your spiritual gifts to prize open people's lives

like you would open a tin when it's hard to open.

Just the prophetic allows you to do that, eh?

Use it.

I mean, I met with a lady recently who is not a Christian.

There's not a Christian born in her body.

I don't think there's a Christian born in her family's body.

So unchristian.

But she gave her life to the Lord.

But she's not very sure about God.

And so God wrote a whole lot of things for her to listen to.

And I'm reading it out to her.

And she's saying, yeah, really? Yeah, yeah.

Not very convinced that this is God.

And then God threw a little spanner in the works for her.

At one point in what I'm reading out to her, it says,

when you were a child, you always desired to have a farm.

And you wanted a farm where you could just have peace

and you loved tranquility and the idea of a farm.

And you had these simple tastes.

And suddenly this woman's face is like, this just happened on Tuesday.

It just lights up.

Because when she was a kid, and she's saying, how do you know that?

So I'm saying, this is what God was saying.

So she says, you can't know that.

So now everything else that was said now becomes true.

Because she said when she was a kid, one of the things she used to do

is when the teacher would ask her to draw, all she would draw is farms.

And she has a girl on a farm.

And here is God saying, when you were a little girl,

you loved simplicity and tranquility.

And you always thought you'd like to have a farm.

And what it does is, is prices open the tin.

Now, suddenly, the entire person is open to the rest of what God wants to say.

Guys, use this.

Most of you have been here long enough to dare.

And do it according to your faith.

Don't go beyond your faith.

Do it according to it.

If all you can say is two words, stop at two words.

Because those two words, remember?

Blue W.

Remember that story? Blue W. Two words.

Two words.

Refer to CD number 4386.

Use that, guys.

Next thing is, guys, confer worth.

Confer worth.

Pull treasure out of trash.

Pull treasure out of trash.

Pull treasure out of trash.

Confer worth.

Jesus was brilliant at this.

Confer worth.

Pull treasure out of trash.

Restore the image of man in Christ.

I know that sounds heavy, but at the end of the day, it's very simple.

All you're doing is, hey, I know your life is trashy and I could focus on that.

You're not saying it. You're thinking it.

But here's what I will do.

I will do exactly what Jesus does.

He has the ability to go into a whole big garbage, what do you call them?

Bin.

Dumpster.

He has the ability.

Jesus specializes at diving into dumpsters and finding treasure.

What an amazing God.

This is His favorite thing to do.

That's why you are where you are.

Dived into a lot of rubbish to pull you out, man.

Found treasure there when nobody else would look at you.

Ryan, I'll need it later on.

Yep.

This is the next one.

To make a good man.

To make friends in the world.

Use unrighteous mammon to make friends in the world.

Meaning, mammon is in this case money.

Use unrighteous money.

This is one of the parables that Jesus spoke.

And He said, hey guys, use money to make friends in the world.

Use unrighteous mammon.

You know, three days ago, I felt a lot saying, whatever is in your wallet right now, take it and put it in your pocket so that when I tell you, you'll give it to somebody.

I wanted to make friends with that money.

And so I only had $20 in my wallet.

So I pulled out the $20 and I've been carrying it in my shirt for the last three days.

Don't worry, I didn't wear the shirt yesterday.

It was a different shirt.

But the point is that this $20 who's waiting at a restaurant, and I'll show you the right person, when the right person comes along, pull out the $20 and give it to him.

So I went to White Spot yesterday, didn't sense it.

Today, Aaron came and gave me a coffee, didn't sense it.

But a time will come when suddenly this thing, unrighteous mammon, will help me make a friend.

Why? I don't know.

Hey, at the end of the day, may God save this of you.

It's one of the best compliments God can give you.

Sue, Jillian, Morgan, when I ask you to do something, you never ask why.

You don't need an explanation.

You just go do it.

May that be the compliment that God gives you.

That you never ask why.

You never stop and say, that doesn't make sense.

How can it be, oh Lord?

You don't even do the Mary thing.

You just go straight and do it.

Any questions before we go on?

I want to wrap up before four.

I might be able to do it.

Any questions?

Not always, but I learned from a story that Derek told, our Derek.

So he went and gave some money to the White Spot.

He was sitting by the ATM machine on Fraser and then he left.

And as he left, he felt God saying, no, you gave the money, great.

But now you need to go and speak to him.

So he went back and he spoke to the guy.

And the guy was literally weeping by the time Derek was done.

And so there are times when I have to be aware of, yeah, maybe I need to let the message of the kingdom of God ascend and descend.

And so there are times when I have to be aware of, yeah, maybe I need to let the message of the kingdom of God ascend and descend through me into a person's life.

And sometimes it's just making a friend for a future date with the person.

Every week, fall into this habit.

Father, just want to keep some money handy to pull out immediately.

So what do you think this week?

Use unrighteous mammon to make friends.

That's how the world makes friends.

But our intent is different.

We have no reason to profit.

But we are a family business for profit run by a godfather.

Never forget that.

Next thing, guys, if you're the gate of heaven, you need to go.

If you're the gate of heaven, you need to go.

As in, if you don't go, a whole lot of things don't happen.

It could be going to Shillong, but that's a long way off.

But that's another thing we need as a church to...

Here's what I want you to do.

Chantel and Diana, I'll put these points up on the notes page on the website.

And you've got to start doing with this the same thing that you did with the attributes of God.

And let the church join in and begin to add to it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Remember when we did this with the attributes of God?

Every day they wrote a bid on it.

And then the church would write again on the Facebook page.

If you're not on Acts 29 Facebook page, you're the admin guy.

Okay.

She's the admin guy.

Just go ask her and she'll put you on.

And you can comment on it.

Because this has to become so natural for us guys.

These are basic, see?

This is not complicated.

This is very basic.

And so every week to begin to have this question of,

Father, so where do you want us to go this week?

Where do you want me to go?

Who do you want me to visit?

Ask.

It won't be overcrowded.

Jesus is not a pastor like me.

He won't force you to do stuff.

I never do that.

This is when you say, no, Jacob, you're not like that.

But the point is...

The point is he knows how much you can handle.

He'll just give you a little more than you can handle.

So you're dependent on him.

Oh, he'll stretch you for sure.

If you don't go...

Remember what happened to Elijah?

If Elijah doesn't go,

if you don't go,

then here's what happens.

People won't decide.

1 Kings 18, 21.

Elijah said, who will you follow?

Baal or Yahweh?

And the people were silent.

If you don't go, people won't decide.

If you don't go, the widow will make her last little cookie and die.

If you don't go, the son will not be raised from the dead.

If you don't go, Jezebel will not be deposed.

If you don't go, Jehu will not be anointed.

If you don't go, then you cannot give Elijah your mantle.

Guys, the things that happen every week,

because we choose one simple question.

Hey, Father, I'm the gate of heaven here on earth.

And I know you want to ascend and descend through my life upon people.

Anything you want me to do this week that you want to highlight?

Monday goes by, nothing.

Tuesday, anything, nothing.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Saturday at 11 p.m.

Just when you're on your PJs, God says,

there's a guy I want you to go and meet at the ATM in Fraser.

Are you really God in my PJs?

No, you can change if you want to.

And then you go.

And that one encounter, that one spirit-filled encounter

affects you like crazy and affects someone else like crazy.

This is when Christian life gets adventurous, eh?

I keep growing positionally in the kingdom.

What I mean by that is, guys, keep increasing in kingdom ways.

Keep thinking, Father, how does your rule and reign operate?

I mean, I heard this beautiful line recently,

and this is what I mean by keep growing.

And I really embrace it.

Here's what the guy said.

The guy said that when he is sick,

he no longer operates from the position of,

I am someone who is sick who needs to be healed.

He operates from the position of,

I am someone who is whole who needs to fight away the sickness.

I thought, duh, you should have known that ages ago.

He doesn't operate from the position of,

I am someone who is sick, who now claims or appropriates

the healing that is mine by the stripes laid on Christ's back.

He doesn't think like that.

He thinks, I am someone who is whole,

made whole by the stripes of Christ,

and therefore I will operate from the place of,

I am whole, and I will fight off or resist or disallow this sickness.

Small change, but you grow in kingdom ways, eh?

What are kingdom ways?

The ways that God rules here on earth now.

His kingdom has come.

It's continuously advancing, but it has come.

So when I prayed for Dagmar, it was along those lines,

Father, thank you that the clouds are moving away,

and that your healing that rises with,

the healing, what's Malachi 4-2?

The son of righteousness rises with healing in his wings.

We operate from a different place, keep growing in it,

and keep teaching others, eh?

Embed it in your children, embed it in your children,

embed it in your grandmother.

Hey, here's the thing, eh?

When God tells us to leave a legacy for generations,

don't go down this way, go up this way too,

because there's your dad and mom and your granddad and grandmom,

and some of us are great granddads and grandmoms

who don't know the fullness of the truth yet.

Go both ways.

Go to your unborn children, Psalm 78, verse,

let's say it's 23,

verse 23 says that I will teach these truths to the generations to come,

and also to my unborn children.

Now you lay hands and sing on the fruit of your womb,

or speak, deep calls too, deep.

Last point.

Huh, not bad.

Guys, notice the order in Genesis 28, verse 17.

Genesis 28:17

Notice the order in Genesis 28, verse 17.

Genesis 28:17

Jacob wakes up, he says, man, this is an awesome place.

God is here.

And then he says, this is God's house.

And after that he says,

I'm going to teach you the truth,

and you're going to teach me the truth.

And he says, this is God's house.

And after that he says, this is the gate of heaven.

There's an order, guys, and the order is first,

you got to, first the house, then the gate.

What happens nowadays is a whole lot of people

don't want to be part of a house,

they just want to be the gate.

And so we've got many mavericks going out.

And so it's not that God doesn't use them,

but you're used most powerfully

when you are a living stone,

not a living brick.

There are no living bricks.

Bricks were made in Egypt, and they're all dead.

You're a living stone.

I hope that looks like stone.

If you put that, now it looks like a flower.

Okay.

So, you got to be a living stone in a house

before you can be a gate.

First the house, then the gate.

This is important.

In Isaiah chapter two, verse three, you'll see the same thing.

It says, come to Zion.

And if you come to Zion, out of Zion shall go decrees and laws.

Ephesians one, verse 22 says the same.

It says, the world is peripheral to the church.

It doesn't say the church is peripheral to the world as we think.

The world is peripheral to the church.

That's what it says in the message.

And the church is the body of Christ.

And then it goes on to say, Christ speaks and acts

and fills with his presence the body.

Just think of that for a second, guys.

Ephesians one, verse 22.

The world is peripheral to the church, which is Christ's body.

That Christ speaks and acts in, and that Christ fills with his presence fully.

Now when you're a part of the house, and you go out and become the gate,

God speaks through you, acts through you, and causes his presence to go out through you.

Critical to understand house first, gate next.

You change that order and you'll be half as effective.

Half as effective.

And a living stone is a stone that is vitally connected.

In Hebrew understanding, I love it when pastors say in Hebrew understanding,

it makes them sound like they know what they're talking about.

Usually they don't, as I don't.

But I've heard this, that in Hebrew understanding,

a stone that is not resting or connected to another stone is a dead stone.

To be living, you have to be connected.

So you can be a shiny stone, polished and standing alone,

and you ain't a living stone.

You're a dead shiny stone.

That's why there's a need for vital connection to the body before you can be living.

First the house, then the gate.

First the house, then the gate.

Be a living stone in God's house if you want to be the gate of his presence.

Just imagine Ephesians 1, 22 is so full, let me just say it again.

If we can grasp the enormity of what God is saying.

God is saying this, hey guys, the world outside is peripheral to the church.

And the church is Christ's body.

And Christ speaks and acts in and through the body.

And Christ fills his body with his presence.

Therefore, now be the gate of heaven.

And what is heaven? His presence.

Now be the gate of heaven, where you go and speak and act,

and out of you shall flow what needs to flow.

Now Psalm 24 verse 7 makes sense, eh?

Psalms 24:7

Where it says,

Open up ye ancient gates,

let the king of glory now come in.

Who is the king of glory?

The Lord strong and mighty in battle.

Who do you think opens gates?

God? No.

He's saying, you go open the gate and I will enter.

You go and my presence will come.

You go, I will speak.

You go, I will act.

This is what God is saying.

Now how does he start that Psalm off?

Who shall dwell on my holy mountain Zion?

As in, who shall be my people?

He who has clean hands,

who does not speak lies,

who does not shed blood,

whose heart is clean,

they shall dwell upon my holy mountain.

And then he goes on to say,

Who will now go and speak to these gates?

Ancient gates, what are ancient gates?

Ancient gates are gates that have been shut for so long.

Sometimes shut because of ignorance,

sometimes shut because of legalism,

sometimes shut because of demonic hindrances.

And he says, who will go and speak?

Open up these ancient gates.

You and I, man,

the house of God, the gate of heaven.

Just wanted to show you these pictures.

Just to show you that we are actually involved in this

and it takes nothing except this beautiful thing called

obedience.

Yeah, I'm ready.

This was an ancient gate, eh?

In Ephesians 3.10 it says,

Through the church, the mystery of Christ

and his many splendid wisdom

shall be made known to the powers and principalities.

Just listen to that again, Church, one more time.

Your ears can hear and your spirit can understand.

Listen to this. Ephesians 3.10.

Through the church

and through you the least of saints,

that's what the Bible says and Paul is talking about himself,

through the church, through the least of you,

the mystery of Christ,

as in all the things about Christ,

hidden from the ages,

is now being revealed,

along with his manifold wisdom,

as in the brilliance of God is now being released,

revealed through whom? Through you, through the church.

To whom? To powers and principalities and angels.

Who do what? Who hold sway over the things of the earth.

This happened in Mongolia.

Maybe, as I know, recognize one or two of them.

But this was a whole family of nine or ten shaman,

it was a shaman family.

The main guy, the main guy is the guy who's standing to my,

depends on which way I'm standing,

standing to my right, the third guy on the right.

Oh shucks, I can point it here.

Another guy next to him.

Yeah, that's the main guy.

He was the guy who brought the rest of his family.

He got saved first.

All that it took was for a house of shamans to know

that there is someone called Jesus Christ.

And when the mystery of Christ was revealed to them,

and the wisdom of God was made known,

an ancient door was suddenly lifted open,

and out came charging prisoners, and in went light.

This is what it says in Isaiah 49, where it says,

say to the prisoners, come out, it's safe now.

It's not dark anymore, come out into the light.

Who is supposed to do that?

The servant Christ, he did that.

He did that.

Who does that now?

The body of the servant Christ.

You.

Go to the next picture.

You've seen this picture.

This was in Indonesia, guys.

The reason I put up this picture is that tower there

is where this king, I know you've heard this story before,

I just want to highlight one simple thing.

That tower used to be where this king would go

and spend a couple of nights with a demonic entity

called Ratu Kidul, the queen of the South Seas.

Victor and Florence know about this.

He used to spend time there,

because he was from a divine line of kings, supposedly,

and she was this demonic entity that gave him power.

Ancient door, broken open by God,

setting the king free, setting his daughter free,

setting his wife free,

changing the climate around that little sultanate,

ending the reign, at least in his life

and in the life of his family.

An ancient door that had been shut for so long,

to the simple obedience of a few people

brought together by God who did not know each other

till they met together.

And the last one, which I think is something that

this church has been so involved with, is Nandigama.

You know how old the caste system is?

3,500 years.

For 3,500 years, their forefathers have been untouchable.

For 3,500 years, there's been a door that has not been opened.

That's longer than the bondage that Israel suffered.

Israel was only 400 years under bondage.

3,500 years, broken open by a people.

Where, say to those ancient gates,

lift up your ancient gates, open up your doors.

Why? Because the king of glory shall come in.

And what kind of glory is it?

That covers every area of your life,

your marriage, your children,

education, finances, work, spiritual stuff,

everything Jesus bought all of us.

We just don't know it because we don't think

this is happening to us.

This is about a hundred strong,

180 strong community,

because of God bringing Jeevan to us

and Jeevan leading this.

And us being involved in this.

Heidi's gone there, others have gone there.

Setting up a church,

Suddenly the gates are lifted open and people enter.

That's what happens guys.

Ancient doors are broken down that are demonic

and ancient doors are lifted up

so that the king of glory can go in.

You and I have this brilliant opportunity.

You and I have this brilliant opportunity

starting tomorrow to be the gate of heaven.

To be the gate of heaven.

To be the gate of heaven.

To be the gate of heaven.

To be the gate of heaven.

To be the gate of heaven.

Yeah.

Man, it is so easy guys.

The groundwork has been laid for years and years and years.

If not now then when, if not you then who?

So Chantal and Diana will start putting that stuff on Facebook

and let's just add to it.

Add your thoughts to it.

And as your thoughts are added to it,

it'll bring more light to things.

God will never, never allow the fullness of his wisdom

to be revealed through one man.

The only time it was done was through the man Christ.

Since then it is his many splendid body

that brings to fullness the wisdom of God.

Therefore when you write on Facebook,

do not think you're writing as,

oh I'm just a simple part of Axe 20.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're not a simple part of Axe 20

and you perhaps may be that extra little piece of the puzzle

that needs to fit in.

So say things after thought with sufficient boldness

because that's how God works in his body.

That's how he does it.

Amen.

Father we bless you.

We thank you.

It's been a great afternoon actually Father.

Really enjoyed it.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thinking so

but perhaps I can say it again and see what the reaction is.

Father it's really been a great afternoon.

Amen.

There you go Abba.

It was a great afternoon.

So yeah, church doesn't end Father.

Church doesn't end.

Sundays are just an activity of the church.

It's just an activity of the church.

So Father if people need prayer I'm going to ask

Sue and what's her name?

Karen.

And Jeevan.

And actually Victor to come up and stand up here in front

as people come for prayer.

And I just thank you that they'll be the gate of heaven

through which things from the kingdom will ascend and descend.

Touching lives here today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.