Compiled by: Herman Abrahams (Senior Pastor), Cornerstone Faith Ministries, P.O. Box 740, Westridge 7802, Rep. of South Africa.
E-Mail: Mentorship2003@yahoo.co.uk
Note to the reader:
If you have been blessed with this sermon compilation, I would be honoured to receive an e-mail from you simply telling me where in the world you are based- I do not need any other information. I am requesting this info so that I can have the pleasure of giving thanks to Almighty God, that all over the globe, the ministry which he has entrusted to me, is blessing the body of Christ and helping to extend the Kingdom of God.
Thank you.
Herman Abrahams,
Cape Town, South Africa.
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Doorways to touching Heaven
(OPENING "PORTALS OF GLORY")
1. Obedience
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(A) Deuteronomy 28:1-13
Dt 28:1 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.
Dt 28:2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:
Dt 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
Dt 28:4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
Dt 28:5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
Dt 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
Dt 28:7 The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
Dt 28:8 The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
Dt 28:9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
Dt 28:10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you.
Dt 28:11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.
Dt 28:12 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. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.
Dt 28:13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
2. Repentance
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(A) Matthew 3:13-17
Mt 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
Mt 3:14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Mt 3:15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
Mt 3:16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.
Mt 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
B) 2 Chronicles 7:13,14
2Ch 7:13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
2Ch 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
(C) Daniel 9,10
3. Prayer
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A) 2 Chronicles 7:13,14
2Ch 7:13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
2Ch 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
.
B) Acts 10:4 Cornelius –– His prayer and His Giving – A MEMORIAL BEFORE GOD
1. At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need 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. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. 8 He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.
C) Acts 10:9-16 – “The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened….”
D) Isaiah 64:1-2 – “Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!”
E) Luke 3:21 – When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.
4. Tithes and offerings
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A) Malachi 3:10
Mal 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” syas 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.
[Cf GENESIS 7:11-12 - Law of first mention (in hermeneutics) – “floodgates of heaven”].
11 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.
B) Cornelius – Acts 10:4 – His prayer and His Giving – A MEMORIAL
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.
5. Worship
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(A) Alabaster Box - (ANOTHER MEMORIAL - cf Acts 10 – Cornelius)
Matthew 26:6-13
Jesus Anointed at Bethany
6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
(CF Luke 7:36-40; Mark 14:1-9)
