The year of the door opened by God

The Letter that we are going to study today is a letter that I could not have chosen better to study on the first day of the year. I believe that in God's providence this is a message in which He is speaking to us as a Congregation Lion of Judah on this day, so let's open our hearts, Jesus has something to say on this day.

It is the Letter of Jesus to the Church of Philadelphia, not the Philadelphia here but a Philadelphia two thousand years ago. The angel of the Church in Philadelphia writes: "And this says the saint: the true one, the one who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one closes, and closes, and no one opens."

“I know your works and behold, I have set before you an open door which no one can close; for though you have little strength, you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”

"Behold, I deliver from the synagogue of Satan those who say they are Jews and are not, but lie, behold, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and recognize that I have loved you."

"Because you have kept the word of my patience, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is to come on the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth."

"Behold, I am coming quickly, hold on to what you have so that no one takes your crown."

I will make him who overcomes a pillar in the temple of my God and he will never go out from there again, and I will write the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which comes down from heaven, from my God and my new name.”

Let him who has ears hear what the spirit says to the churches. Father: in the Name of Jesus we ask your ears to hear what the Spirit wants to tell us today, we are listening to you Shepherd of the sheep, God speak to us.

The enemy has plans to neutralize the Church of Jesus Christ, not just one plan but several plans and he has tried various things throughout history, he has tried to intimidate us, he has tried false teachings, he has tried to give us false prophecies and he has tried countless things to neutralize the power of Jesus Christ.

A few weeks ago we were talking about comfort, the strategy that the enemy was using against the Church of Philadelphia was discouragement and apparently the people of Philadelphia had been excluded from the synagogues in that city.

For many of us it may be a bit strange, we may ask ourselves: and what is the big deal? they are Christians, why do they need to go to synagogue? back then it was considered a very big thing to be able to go there.

They considered themselves to be Jewish Christians and in fact I believe that before the Lord returns Israel will once again consider themselves to be Jewish Christians and that all of Israel will be saved, that Jerusalem will be the center of a revival all over the world. Earth, we believe that.

But at that time the synagogue had decided to persecute all Christians and by excluding them from membership they had no civil or political rights in the Jewish community, and because they also did not worship the Roman emperor they also had no civil or economic rights in the Jewish community. Roman society, and then where did that leave the Christians of Philadelphia? With no place in the society where they lived, the door to them was closed.

They could not buy or sell, they were threatened by the authorities all the time, they were tired, they felt that they had little strength. Perhaps they felt that they could not take another step. I don't know if anyone in 2016 felt like they were always in a fight and like they couldn't take another step, because God has good news for you today: the enemy may have the keys to the synagogue but Jesus He has the key of David.

The good news in 2017 is that our God can open any door in the universe. "The angel of the Church in Philadelphia writes: this says the holy one, the true one, the one who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one closes, and closes, and no one opens." Your God has the last word, He has the last word in the universe, isn't it nice to have such a God?

Now, the key of David was a very specific term for people who came from the Hebrew culture. We know that David was a great king of Jerusalem, the administrator of the palace throughout the history of the kings was given what was called the key of David and this photo is a real photo of an old key from the old palaces hebrews. They would go to find the administrator of the palace and hang this key around his neck.

And in Isaiah 22:22 God spoke to a specific palace administrator, Eliakim, and He said to him: "I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder, he will open and no one will close, he will close and no one will open" any box in any building, in any part of the temple complex, in all of Jerusalem there is nothing this man cannot open, isn't that great? one wanted to be with Eliakim.

The good thing is that we serve a God that when He says that the government will be on his shoulders it means that God has put the key to the house of David around His neck. The reality is that we have an enemy that is always trying to shut doors in people's faces.

If we go back to the time of the Garden of Eden we see that he knew that if he tempted Adam and Eve to sin the gate of the Garden of Eden would be closed to them forever, that there would be a flaming sword between them and the garden, and through Throughout history we have seen how Satan has tried to close doors between God and His people.

The Pharisees were angry with Jesus because Jesus told them: "You close the Kingdom of Heaven before men" and in our lives he also tries to close the doors between us and God's purpose for our lives, but the good news for the Church in Philadelphia is the good news for you, it is that God says that He has set before you an open door and no one can close it.

In the next chapter in Revelation 4 there the Apostle John has a vision of a door open in heaven and this is what he says: "I saw that there was a door open in heaven, immediately while I was in the spirit I saw a Throne established in heaven and on the one seated Throne, it was shining like jewels, there was an aura of a rainbow flowing from Him, there were 24 thrones with white-robed elders, thunder lights, and in the midst of this moment in front of the Throne of God there was water that was so calm that it seemed like glass; seven flames were in front of the Throne, seven lamps representing the seven spirits of the living God.”

Happy New Year because heaven is already open for you, that door is open now, wherever you are no matter what is happening, whenever you need it Jesus has opened a door for you at great cost, it was not cheap .

All you have to do now wherever you are and whatever you are going through is pray, you can access the Throne of God in the heavenly dimensions. We can't see it but it's real.

We believe that there is a spiritual dimension where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father and there are angels, and there are demons, we cannot see it but it is real and right now there is an open door between that spiritual dimension before the Throne of God and the dimension physics in which we live, our prayers go to Him and His blessings reach us, I stole that from one of you (laughs).

This chapter is also based on a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah chapter 60, if you are taking notes write Isaiah 60, we don't have time to explore it in depth but it is a great thing. In Isaiah chapter 60 he says: "Get up and shine because your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you" wonderful.

The people of God after many years of suffering were being called back to Jerusalem, the city of God, the door was now open because there were visitors who came from afar with gifts for them, an open door of blessing, and the first gift that they had to wait was for their children to come home.

It says: "Raise your eyes around and see, all these have gathered and are coming towards you, your sons will come from afar and your daughters will carry in their arms" what better blessing than to see the prodigal son return home.

Is there someone here who is praying for a loved one who is far from home or far from spirit? do not close the door, a door of blessing.

“The prodigal son returns home, your gates will be continually open, they will not close day or night because it will have returned to you from the sea, and the riches of the nations will have come to you. Your gates will be continually open, they will not be closed day or night so that the riches of the nations can be brought in."

Now in 2017 we cannot promise you the sky and the stars but the truth is that in Christ all the promises of God are yes and amen, and the door is open, it is a door of power for ministry as well.

The Apostle Paul said over and over again: let us pray for the doors of the ministry to open, he knew that he could not change people's hearts just by trying to convince them, he knew that apart from God he could do nothing but he also knew that that it can open a door of power, that Power can flow and change people's hearts.

Even when the Apostle Paul was in jail, he said, "The Word of God is not in chains." "The one with the key of David says: All power is given to me in heaven and on earth, therefore go and make disciples of all nations." Lion of Judah you have a mission, we need the Power to flow from the Throne of God to open doors and bring people to God, we need to pray and we do not need to open the door because it is already open, we just need to ask that the Power of God pass through that door .

Sometimes we can feel small and insignificant like the believers in Philadelphia but God wants you to know that you are stronger than you think, He says: You who have little strength have kept My Words and have not denied My Name. Fidelity to God is more important than success, the results depend on God, all we have to do is be faithful, that is what God is looking for.

True heroes rarely behave and act like heroes, true heroism doesn't usually feel heroic. I have a privilege as a Pastor to meet people during intense moments and great struggles in their lives, people who are going through the struggle and sometimes feel so weak and so frustrated by what they are going through, and that happens right there in front of my eyes, God shows me: This is a hero to Me and he has no idea how proud I feel, they feel weak but they are heroes in the Kingdom of God because there is an open door between heaven and them, and our God cares about the little ones.

Sometimes we think that we have to put on a great show, that we must show ourselves powerful but the only thing that God requires is faith like a mustard seed. I think that God values small things much more than we know, it is the small actions of fidelity, those small acts of kindness.

Jesus said: See that you do not despise one of these little ones because I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the Face of my Father who is in heaven. Two little birds are not sold for a penny and none of those birds fall to the ground if it is not the Will of My Father who is in heaven.

Think about Christmas: a little baby, a poor couple whose doors are closed before their eyes in a small and insignificant town called Bethlehem, God is not looking for strong people, He is looking for people who want to be faithful in 2017 .

When God called Gideon, he said: My Lord, how shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the youngest of my father's house, and looking at him Jehovah said to him: "Go with this your strength, am I not sending you?", in fact God made sure that Gideon was weak enough to be able to be used greatly by God, he had to put his worries aside and he had to lose his strongest soldiers so that the glory would be God's and not his.

God wants to make sure to show His glory and that is why He wanted to show Himself despite the sting that Paul had in the flesh to say that His Power is perfected through our weaknesses.

You don't have to be a superman in 2017 to be used by God, all God wants you to be is to be faithful because the door has been opened for you and the Power is flowing from there. And even if you are tired, when you feel that you cannot take another step, it is good to know that God fights for you, that God is by your side.

He says: "From the synagogue of Satan of those who say they are Jews and are not, but lie, I will give you some, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, acknowledging that I have loved you." I don't know what are the things you are facing now in your life, only you know the struggles of your heart, I don't know what are the walls that you have to break down, but I know the one who is by your side and I know that He fights for you.

And just as David says: I only come with this sling and in front of Goliath but you come with a sword, with a spear and a javelin, but I come in the Name of Jehovah of Hosts, the God of the squads of Israel, a mighty people It is a people of a powerful God and He has to accompany you.

There is a promise in verse 10 of this passage, it says: "Because you have kept the word of my patience, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth." .” There are different ways to interpret this verse. This may refer to the time of tribulation that is to come to the world before Jesus returns, or it may say that Jesus is going to snatch us up and take us to heaven before this happens, and it may be the rapture before the tribulation, and if this is what you mean: I want to sign up, me and my family, I want to be there, we're leaving in the helicopter.

Now: the language here in this passage does not speak of tribulation but uses the word temptation and may be referring to the great temptation that is going to be on Earth before Jesus returns when an apostasy develops, when people deny Jesus, and that is where Jesus cries out and prays, and says that I do not ask you to take them out of the world but to keep them from evil.

And what he is saying perhaps is that no matter how great the test or the temptation, what we have to do is stay faithful and trust that our God will give us the victory.

Either way, whether God takes us out of the storm or tribulation, or keeps us in tribulation, what we know is that He is on our side and has great things for us, our God can keep us faithful to Him He has us in His hand.

Jesus said: "I am coming soon, hold on to what you have so that no one takes your crown" stay faithful because Jesus is coming soon, if He said He was coming soon two thousand years ago, now He is coming very soon.

Have you ever been in a race and felt like you wanted to give up before you reached the finish line? God told the Church in Philadelphia: do not give up now, you are almost there and there is a crown with your name written on it, it is a crown of joy, it is a crown of justice, it is a crown of life, it is a crown of glory.

I believe this with all my heart, that in heaven God's people will have a crown. I don't know exactly how it's going to be, I don't know exactly what that crown is, but I know what I'm going to do with it because the happiest moment is not the moment we get that crown, the happiest moment is going to be when let's go through that door to the Throne of the Lord and surrender our crowns at His feet, and that's when we're going to sing with the elders: You are worthy of glory, honor and Power.

"He who has overcome I will make a pillar in the temple of my God and he will never leave there again." When you are tired, when you are discouraged, know that God promises himself, He commits himself to you: I am going to make you reach the goal, you will reach your house.

In Psalms 84 he says: "How lovely are your dwellings, my soul longs for and still ardently desires the courts of Jehovah, better is one day in your courts than a thousand outside of them, I would rather choose to be at the gates of God than in the houses of evil." God promises us that he will take us home. If one feels weak, the Lord will make us like a pillar in the House of God, you are stronger than you think, there is nothing stronger than a cedar beam in Solomon's temple.

While I was praying for some of you today I said: Lord, show them the strength that you have put in them, that they have the strength to bear weight on their shoulders, that they are pillars in the House of God because they are firm in the House of Jehovah, also beautiful, right? It says in Psalm 144: “Our daughters will be like carved corners of a palace.”

The Bible says that when we get to heaven the new Jerusalem will have 12 gates and in each of those gates there will be a pillar or a column, and that each one is going to be made of a pearl, that's a pearl that you can't wear around around the neck, it's enormously big and it's beautiful, and on each of those pillars made of that pearl is going to be written the name of one of the tribes of Israel, and God promises that when we get to heaven He will mark each one of us. us with His Name, not once or twice, but three times, He is going to write His Name everywhere on us because it does not matter that they have taken you out of the synagogue, no one can take you out of this house, you belong to this house, the door is open for you in this house.

The Word says: "I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God the new Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven with my God and my new name." Why is it that he always repeats himself: my God, my God, my God? because God not only wants to be worshiped as God, He wants you to worship him as my God, your God. Jehovah is my Shepherd, not just any Shepherd, He is mine.

The word mine is usually used when one wants to be selfish to say that one does not want to share, children are taught when they say: it is mine to share, well, God is big enough for all of us to share, and not it is only that, you are his. He writes mine, mine, mine all over your body. Three ways to identify, three ways to citizenship, it starts with salvation, He's going to write His Name on your forehead.

In the Old Testament the priest Aaron was dressed in majestic clothes and had a golden plaque that he wore on his forehead, and engraved on that plaque were written some very important words, it said: holiness to God, this man is holy, this man is holy to me. belongs, this man is apart and special to me.

When you accepted Christ into your heart He wrote on your forehead: holy with God, it is there. If you were to be illuminated with an infrared light, you would see that on your forehead it says: holy and set apart with God, and it goes beyond that: you are also a citizen of the city of God, and the name of the city of God It is perhaps written in your hand. The bride, the holy city, the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven, that city is your home, that is the city where we are going to live, not just go through it.

This is not our home, we are traveling and we are going to get there, that is my house shining with the shekinah glory of Jehovah, shining like jewels with a variety of colors and shines, a big street in the city made of pure translucent gold, but where is the temple in that city? there is no temple to be seen. No temple is needed, the whole city is going to be holy and you are going to be the temple.

There is no sun in that city either, the light comes from the city itself because God is the light of that city, get up and shine because your light has come, and the gates of that city will never be closed because there will be no more darkness. God writes about His people not only once or twice but three times, and this is important because in the Apocalypse we read that the Antichrist is going to mark his people on the forehead and on the hand, God tells him: you are going to mark your people twice but I am going to mark it three times, and the last mark has not yet occurred.

Each new Name of God is a new revelation of who He is to His people and there is a way Jesus has not been revealed yet, there is a way you don't know Him yet. There is a Name that has not yet been revealed that will be in that pearl and we are that pearl where the Name of Jesus will be written, and that Name of Jesus that no one knows yet has to be written yet, where do you say it will be? written?

They say that the Name of God is probably going to be written on our foreheads, maybe citizenship is going to be written on our hand, but it says in the Song of Songs: “Set me as a seal upon your heart.”

There is a way that people are going to recognize Jesus when He marries His Church. In 2016 there are people that we love very much who have already reached heaven, there are many pillars in the House of God and that Name is already written in their hearts, but there is also a place prepared in your heart for His Name. Lion of Judah: we belong to Him, we belong to the groom, we belong to Jesus and whoever has an ear must listen to what the Spirit says to the Churches.

That open door in heaven I believe is a door of revelation, if we open our minds I believe that God is going to reveal to us the meaning of these images in a new way, He is going to reveal Himself as the God from the open door.

Now: today is New Years and the good news is that we don't need good luck in 2017, we don't need good luck because we have a King who can open any door. My hope is not in a year but in the one that is the same today and forever, Jesus is the one who is holy and true, He is the one who has the key of David and what He opens no one can close, what He closes no one can open it.

Now in this year 2017 we are going to declare it the year of the door opened by God and if you have little strength, you have a God who fights for you, you have a God who will keep you and will keep you as a pillar in the House of God, and he's going to mark you three times because you belong to Him, so stay faithful, hold on to God and don't let anyone take your crown away because the best is yet to come, amen, amen.

Now we are going to end this moment by approaching God's table and I want you to know that you have a place at this table, that God wants you to be with your family around this table, but to be here, you have to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, you must say: Lord, I want You to write Your Name on my forehead this day, so before entering this table I want to give you an opportunity to be sure that you are saved, so let's pray .

I invite you to close your eyes and we are going at this moment to make a covenant with the Lord and let the Lord mark us as his, so if you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, do so today, January 1st. , the first day of your spiritual life. If you want to take this step of faith, do it now, do not delay, there where you are I invite you to raise your hand and say: Lord, I receive you, do it now, raise your hand before Him and say: Jesus, I want to be a Christian.