The Door Within – 12-November-2023

I want to continue with the message I began last week.
Adam is not just a historical figure. Adam lives within all of us.
it’s the legacy we carry as human beings.
Adam is us in disobedience to God and, as such, out of sync with God.
    Thomas Merton – “Therefore, heaven and hell live not only beyond us but within us also. It is through the ‘door of ourselves’ that we enter both of them.”
Adam (mankind) broke communion with God when he perceived the creative spark that God had placed within him as being self-generated.  
Through this action he became “Other” –  creating the “False Self.”
Unfortunately, this door led to his and all the generations that followed him to destruction. 
To reverse the curse we must walk back through the door of self to find our True Selves – that which is God’s original plan for humanity.
It’s a daunting task because the false self can’t go back through the door because it would cease to exist and so it resists. But it must die. (Die to self)
It is the only way back to God because there is no human contrivance by which we can return to communion with God.   – God is always beyond our most clever plans.
We can’t even wait until our bodies die to be restored to communion – it must be worked out here  – on earth.
Why do I say that? It’s because God chose this world as the place to meet with us in the person of Jesus Christ. 
Scripture says that it’s because “God so loved the world.” (Jn 3:16)
This position holds within it a great paradox: the Holy God entering a place that contains great evil.
It has stoned the prophets, crucified Christ, maligned His followers, and continuously partakes in all kinds of atrocities.
The world is a place of ambivalence.
It’s a place where Christ came too because God so loved it and at the same time it’s a place that’s blind to Christ – a place that “received Him not.”(Jn 1:11-13)
It’s this very ambivalence that calls for Christians to be “in the world but not of it.” (Jn 17:13-14)
Important to note: Christ didn’t merely inhabit human flesh  – “He BECAME flesh.” (Jn 1:14)
God made Himself one with humanity in the concrete and historical realities of human life.
Through Jesus Christ, God has experientially entered the world. 
So it would seem to follow, that it would be here, in this world, that we must re-encounter God.
But, it is impossible for anyone seeking reconciliation with God to escape this world’s hold on them except for one thing - “THE GIFT” - The Holy Spirit.
He is the Spirit of Truth who leads us into all truth and points us to the Door of Life. (Jn 16:13)
In doing so, He also points us away from the world of the False Self and, back into union with God as he testifies of the essential Jesus (Jn 15:26) and the finished work of the Cross.
As we receive this testimony we are transformed back to our original state as the Spirit of Truth takes us from “glory to glory” revealing to us,  Jesus as the Door of Salvation and then guiding us through.  (2 Cor 3:18)
Keep in mind: It’s not just one big leap: it’s “Glory to Glory” – “Door to Door” – “Threshold to Threshold.”
Revelation 4:1(NLT) “Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said,’ Come up here and I will show you what must happen after this.’ And instantly, I was in the Spirit.”
I believe we are at an inflection point in time and God is calling out to all who have ears to hear, “Lift your vision up and ascend. I want to show you what's to come next.” 
I believe that when we accede to His call we will, like John, be immediately in the Spirit and shown the Door Within and then guide us through it.
John saw a throne and “ONE” sitting on it.
I thought of Wade Taylor’s teaching:
Isaiah 6:1 – “In the year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord, seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple.”
King Uzziah – speaks of the earthly things that have lordship in a person's life. 
Wade said:  “It is only when those things are allowed to die that we’ll be able to see the Lord and have His authority (robe) fill us (His temple) completely.”
God has gone “all in” on His plan for our restoration – so much so, as to become flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and so remove ALL earthly obstacles in the way.
I’d say He’s pretty passionate about it.
God is calling people to intimacy with Him. He’s calling us to “Oneness”
Those who will “Look up” like John did, will see Jesus, the Door, as the way in and will be transformed.
But, transformation can’t be done in one giant step. There is a series of “doors” to walk through and a series of thresholds to cross.
Let me leave us today with encouragement from scripture.
Revelation 3:19-22 (TPT) -” All those I dearly love I unmask and train. So repent and be eager to pursue what is right.
Behold, I’m standing at the DOOR, knocking. If your heart is open to hear My voice and you open the Door Within, I will come in to you and feast with you, and you will feast with Me.
And to the one who conquers, I will give the privilege of sitting with me on My throne.
The one whose heart is open let him listen carefully to what the Spirit is saying NOW to the churches.”
Let’s pray: “ Father, we hear you and we desire to “come up.” Please clear
the haze within us so we can find Jesus, the Door Within, and find the refuge your Presence provides.”  – Amen