2019 will be an exceptional year and it’s going to excel against the previous years! Entering a new year can bring with it many new things, it can refresh old things giving them a different perspective. Learning to view a glass as half-full rather than half-empty, re-defining problems as opportunities, and wearing new lenses to view more options as viable might be the new perspective that works this year. Perspective is the way one looks at something, it’s also an art technique that changes the distance or depth of an object on paper.
2018 is past but re-capturing encounters where God apprehended us are so very important. These encounters are keys God has given to unlock doors, doors which were once closed and now opened. I hear the Spirit say, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying.” And in Revelation 3:7-8, Christ tells the angel of the church in Philadelphia, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, ‘He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens’… ‘See I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.’”
In our seasons of prayer in 2018, set days and weeks were scheduled to press into the destiny of Singapore for her Antioch call. As Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” And God is restoring everything and restoring time which was lost. God is positioning us for His divine purpose and for the assignment which He longs to accomplish through us. God is going to make whole and restore what was taken. God is going before us to make every crooked way straight, and angels are all around to escort us to the door He has opened.
This is the season of the open door! God is opening doors that were once shut and it’s time to embrace this new season with great anticipation of what’s to come. I’m going to be bold to say that we’ll not have to knock on doors in this season to make things happen nor do it in our strength and power.
This word is precipitated from an encounter I had in March 2018 when I returned to a vision I had about 20 years earlier. I was shown a staircase that led up to an immensely huge open wooden door in Heaven and this open door is now before us – this is the hour. And when the appointed time comes, this is what you’ve been preparing for your whole life. It can’t be forced and what God is about to do will result in the expansion of His Kingdom for His glory and Name’s sake!
I see fresh faith rising and we’re to sow where His presence and power are moving. We’re to sow the miraculous seed to bring forth the miraculous harvest in the presence of His glory. We’re to cultivate what He’s given, sow into the ground of His presence. And where you had invested in others and they didn’t produce the fruit of your labour, God is going to make it good and it’ll be as though they did. God will cause you to prosper in the presence of your enemies and His hand is upon you, for all will see and glorify God.
This open door to the church in Philadelphia is still open for the true Philadelphians, as God specifically says, “I have set before YOU an open door, and NO ONE can shut it.” – this is the ability of the church to preach the gospel in all the world, a witness to all nations before Jesus Christ’s return. The true Philadelphians will be ‘pillars’ in the temple of God and they’ll go out no more. They will go through the open door, Christ, into the temple of God, and to be pillars there.
When Jesus said to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom…” in Matthew 16:19, did heaven wait on Peter to decide when to use the keys of the Kingdom or were Peter’s decisions following those made in heaven? God has set before us an open door, so don’t go around looking for another door; it’s to step in and walk through the door, to allow God to work through us.
The only thing that will limit the effectiveness of an open door will be our lack of faith, not God’s unwillingness. We can never go through if we’re constantly looking for an exit. Do not live with a victim mentality seeking the closest exit. The Spirit of the Lord is revealing that we’re the closest entrance for the reality of the love of Christ to manifest and He wants to show up through us – right where we are. Before us is an open door, the hour is upon us.
I end with this excerpt from Mr Rees Howells’ diary – “So now we come to these end-time generations and the faith and unity required to bring about My purposes on earth as in Heaven. This is not the time to be thinking about having a good time, but there are good times to be had. This is not the time to be thinking about the cost, but there is a price to be paid, and this is definitely not the time to be self-centred, but centred on My Son. For I am sorely troubled by the fact that many in the Church today, still have little or no understanding of the true nature and purpose of its calling or My purpose for it. My intent is that now, through the Church, My manifold wisdom should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the Heavenly realms, according to My eternal purpose which was accomplished in Christ Jesus (Eph 3:10-11]. Not a legacy of inward fighting and petty squabbles where the uncrucified flesh is more important than the Every Creature Commission.”
