When we commit ourselves to seeking the Lord on a regular basis and determine within ourselves to press in to the inner court of His presence with persistent, persevering prayer, diligent obedience and sacrificial giving we will start experiencing an open heaven from God.
Let us go on scriptural tour to show that heaven is touched when we do these three things.
1. CONSISTENT, PERSEVERING PRAYERS
(A) Isaiah… ‘Tear Open the Heavens.’
Isaiah 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! 3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
• The word “rend” in this Scripture means to “tear open”.
o Isaiah is crying out to God for an open heaven! “Oh, Lord, rend the heavens and come down! We need you!”
o Can you hear the cry of the prophet’s heart as he laments in prayer and petition to God?
Quote from NEW SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE BIBLE (Nelson’s Publishers)
Is 64:1-3 When intercession breaks thru. ‘Awesome things that we did not expect’ (Is 64:3) is a perfect description of genuine revival, because the unpredictable and unusual are the characteristics of great spiritual awakenings.
Isaiah wanted God to behave as He had in the past. Recalling the Scripture about God’s visit with Moses on Mt. Sinai, Isaiah longed for a repeat performance.
Exodus 19:18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently.
(B) Peter…. ‘He Saw Heaven Opened.’
Acts 10:9-16 – 9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw heaven opened …
B1. Peter Praying
What was Peter doing on the housetop? He was praying.
o The presence of God came upon him in such a mighty way, that he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened.
o Would it have been possible for him to have this experience without praying?
o I’m sure that all things are certainly possible with God, but we must understand that Peter had positioned himself to hear from the Lord.
o He could have been in a million different places, but he chose to go to the housetop to pray.
o As a result, the vision that he saw changed his whole life.
o How many times have we missed it because of our wrong choices?
B2. Peter Was Hungry For God
The above Scripture also mentions that Peter was very hungry and wanted to eat.
o The Scripture was speaking about “physical hunger”, but I also believe that Peter was hungry spiritually, or he would not have been praying on the housetop in the first place.
o He was definitely in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.
o Oh, how great are the lessons that we can learn from those who have gone on before us.
(C) Jesus … ‘As He Was Praying, Heaven Was Opened.’
Luke 3:21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened
We see the heaven was opened once again when Jesus began to pray at His own baptism.
• Prayer is like a “key” that has the power and potential to open up the heavenly realm for God’s people. If prayer is a key, why don’t we use it more than we do?
• Have we lost our key, or possibly misplaced it somewhere?
• Or could it be that we just don’t have a full understanding of what prayer can do?
2. DILIGENT OBEDIENCE
A. Blessings For Obedience
Deut. 28:1-14 – 1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany (‘overtake’ AMP) you if you obey the LORD your God: …
Once again, we see the Lord strongly emphasizing the importance of obeying His commands.
• He uses the adjective fully (kjv ‘diligently’), which is characterized by persevering or painstaking effort.
• Most of the time, it’s going to take everything that we have within us to obey the voice of the Lord.
• He will not always ask us to do the “easy thing” for His kingdom.
• Sometimes, we will find it very difficult to obey, yet, deep inside, we will know exactly what we need to do.
• We must not reason things out with our minds, but we must listen and obey Him by the Spirit.
B. If We Obey … ‘The Lord Will Open The Heavens.’
Deut. 28:12 – 12 The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.
There are thousands of promises in God’s word that are available to each and every one of us, if we would just learn how to lay hold of them.
• However, thinking that we can just name it and claim it, and everything will be all right has deceived some of us.
• There’s more involved in this process than just speaking words that have not taken root in our hearts. His word must be made a reality to us.
• We must learn how to appropriate His word into our lives.
If we truly want to see the heavens opened over our homes, our churches, our schools and our nation, it’s going to take more effort than just saying a lifeless quick prayer in the morning before going to work.
• It’s going to take a genuine commitment on our part.
• Are we ready to start pressing in to what God has prepared for our lives?
3. SACRIFICIAL GIVING
(A) Acts 10:1-6 Cornelius 2… and prayed to God regularly. 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" 4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
Cornelius’s prayers and giving had come up to God as a ‘memorial’ unto God. Strong’s concordance no. 3422 – a ‘reminder’ (memorandum), i.e. ‘record’-memorial.
His prayers and generosity to the poor brought salvation to his household!!
(B) Malachi 3:6-10; 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in
my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
God wants to pour out a deluge of blessings upon us –more than we can hold.
Applying the law of ‘First Mention,’ we can see the implication of “floodgates of heaven” (vs 10 above) when we go to our next scripture …
(C) Genesis 7:11-12 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
