Sermon Central
-
Three Keys To An Open Heaven Series
Contributed by Herman Abrahams on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: When we commit ourselves to seeking the Lord on a regular basis through persevering prayer, diligent obedience and sacrificial giving we will start experiencing an open heaven from God.
2. DILIGENT OBEDIENCE
A. Blessings For Obedience
-----------------------------------
READ 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 an see the implication of “floodgates of heaven” (vs 10 above) when we go to our next scripture …
