Gates and Doors

"Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in."  Psalm 24:9


You are a door and a gate.  Crazy sounding, but it's true.  I clearly recall reading this verse once upon a time, and it made absolutely zero sense.  Zero.  Lift up your heads o you gates?  What on earth? How does a gate lift their heads?  


It wasn't until many years later that I was able to laugh at myself at the picture I'd created in my mind of gates and doors trying to lift their heads- like some Beauty and The Beast character.  This verse was talking about us. We are the gates and the doors.  


"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."  Revelation 3:20

Jesus isn't actually standing at a physical door.  I've seen zillions of pictures of Jesus knocking at a physical door, but the reality is, what Jesus is doing is knocking at our hearts.  He's knocking at our hearts, softening them and asking us to let Him in.  What a precious thought that is.  When we've let Jesus into our hearts, we've actually opened up a door to Him.  And that door is a door that has more than one purpose.  Yes, we've used it to let Jesus in, but what happens in the other direction?

We can use that same door to share Jesus with everyone around us.  By letting Jesus into our door, we've given Him authority to use us to share heaven with those around us. How cool is that!  Jesus dwells in us, that's a fact, but we're not meant to keep Him all to ourselves.  We're meant to share, and if we're open to it, the possibilities for sharing Jesus are limitless.

Look at the last line of the verse in Psalms. "And the King of Glory shall come in".  That gives me shivers!  The first part of this verse is telling us- the gates and the doors- to lift up our heads, to rise above our circumstances and keep our eyes on heavenly places.  And what happens when we do that?  The King of Glory comes in, basking our circumstances with heavenly goodness. 

When I think on this thought, that God can use me to bring a little bit of heaven to those around me, I just have so many incredible thoughts.  I think of Peter who would walk on the streets, and people would lay their sick on the street nearby, because they would be healed by simply touching his shadow.


"so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them."  Acts 5:15

That could never have happened unless Peter was willing to be that door to heaven.  I have no doubt that Peter's quiet time with God lasted hours upon hours.  Likely even days and weeks at a time.  And when Peter would emerge from that God time He would be so full of glory that even his shadow would carry heaven with it.

Peter may be an extreme example of a door and a gate, but what God will do for one man He will do for another, I think it's entirely possible that someone with the heart and desire to be such a carrier of heaven can do so.   When you share Jesus with someone, you're giving them the tools to open their own door to heaven, but it's up to them to actually open up to it.

And when you think on this further, we get a glimpse as to why corporate worship is so important- and so wonderful.  Think of a dark room with no lights.  And then one door opens and lets in some light.  It's amazing how much light can fill a dark space when it's only one light.  But then another door opens, and another, and before long, there is no place for darkness to hide- the darkness is completely hidden by all the open doors.  When we come together for corporate worship and fellowship, all our lights are coming together, and we make it easy for God to send his Spirit among us to do a bit of work on us. 

You ARE the door and the gate through which heaven can come to earth.  You carry it with you at all times when you have Jesus with you. And when He is with us?  No weapon formed against us shall prosper.

"No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”Says the Lord."  Isaiah 54:17