Heaven's Open Door

The prayer is not at all about what God wants, only about what Jacob hopes to get out of the encounter.

On the other hand, it was for Jacob, an honest prayer… Better to have prayed what was really in his heart than to mouth some religious cliché he had no intention of keeping. Moreover, as we see if we follow Jacob’s story further, God heard him.

God’s presence with Jacob, with Israel and ultimately with all humanity is the keynote of the whole Bible. While that Presence is sometimes mysterious, sometimes unfathomable, none-the-less it is real.

God’s showing up in our lives can be surprising or even dangerous, but ultimately for our good, as we accept God’s invitation to become fully what God is making us and calling us to be. For Christians, Jesus is our Immanuel/Emmanuel (the Hebrew quite literally means “with-us (is) God.

Jesus tells us “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me.” (John 14: 6) Jesus is the ladder, stairway or mediator between God and humanity… (1Tim 2: 5,6) “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men …”

Jacob is not the only person with whom God desires to interact. Through out the Bible heaven “opens, “and God is in daily relationship with His creation. God promised to open heaven when His peo0le honored Him and to overwhelm them with blessing (READ MALACHI 3: 10)

Heaven opened again when John baptized Jesus and Jesus used the stairway of Jacob’s dream as a metaphor of Himself, the stairway to God, predicting that His disciples would “see haven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”

Stephen was the first man to be martyred for believing in Jesus, and we read that heaven opened to receive him (Acts 7: 55-56) “ But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see haven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

When Peter needed a reminder that God’s truth was for Gentiles as well as Jews, God opened heaven to show him... (Acts 10:11) He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.

Each of us can personally experience what Jacob did - - God’s undivided attention and awesome presence. There is more to life, so much more that what we see with our physical eyes. Above and within all our circumstances there is God, loving us, speaking to us and promising to stay with us.

The Great Commission reads…”Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. AND SURELY I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, TO THE VERY END OF THE AGE.

(Revelation 19: 11) Begins I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice, he judges and makes war.

One day, perhaps even this day, Jesus will return for his own and heaven’s door will be thrown open one last time – to remain open for all eternity. Are you ready? The Good News is the promise of Jesus SURELY I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, TO THE VERY END OF THE AGE.: The invitation is open to all who are weary and burdened, have you truly accepted the invitation, are you ready to face the Judgment of Christ? Jesus died for you and me and for all of us who have said yes to Jesus, who strive to live the life Jesus calls us to live, we can, without fear say yes, and I am ready.