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The Door
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HEY THERE !! OK, here we go again. My “exciter” is turned on!” Yeah, all you broadcast engineers know what that means in engineering lingo, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m just plumb excited today, my socks are blessed, and I can’t stand still.
Yesterday, while we were pouring our coffee, I mentioned a friend in Lake Charles who had this coffee roasting company, and all of the things we learned about coffee roasts. He was telling us that the darker the roast, the lesser the amount of caffeine, and the lower the tannic acid.
Fact is, the coffee we usually buy – a super dark roasted Columbian bean – has about 50% less caffeine than regular “store-bought” coffees and almost 70% less tannic acid. Some folks don’t like it roasted so dark. They complain that the coffee has a burned flavor, but maybe that’s because they’re so used to almost no flavor. Besides, I get heartburn quick when I drink more than a couple cups of that light-roast coffee.
Coffee break or no, we’re here today to talk about something a whole lot more important than coffee roasts. Let’s wrap up our round-the-table discussions we’ve been having the past few days on “The Door,” and the whole nature of worship.
Like I said yesterday, there are some promises made in the letter to Philadelphia that really open up our understanding. We’ll get back to that letter momentarily.
Many well-meaning Christians today have become so sidetracked in the keeping of commandments, laws and sundry ordinances, and in requiring their brethren to likewise keep those commandments, that any hope of real relationship with Jesus Christ gets lost in the maze of doing.
Della and I were at a gathering some time back where a visiting brother from Russia (whom we will refer to as, Alexei) reacted somewhat vehemently over our statements about knowing the Lord intimately. His whole life had been based on the keeping of commandments and laws, and the performance of his “duty to the Lord.”
He said, “You talk like you and the Lord have this close relationship – like you have some kind of private line to Him. Where do you get off thinking you’re so special? What makes you think you can hear His voice?”
I have to confess to being taken aback by his lack of understanding. I responded, “We are not something special. This relationship is supposed to be the norm for everyone.”
Alexei was quiet for a moment, and then, staring me straight in the eyes, asked, “OK! How do you get there? What do you do to know the Lord like that?”
My answer was direct and to the point. “It’s simple. By spending time in His presence. The more time you spend with Him, the more you know Him, and the more you know His voice.
“It’s not any different than the time I spend with Della. No one can counterfeit her presence or her voice to me because I know her and she knows me. It’s the same with the Lord. No one can counterfeit His presence or His voice. We know His voice because we know Him.”
Alexei broke, and tears came into his eyes. “All right. How do you spend time in His presence, getting to know Him?”
I answered, “Again, the solution is simple. In worship! Worship takes place only in the realm of the spirit, and that is where we get to know the Lord. Relationship is based in the spirit – not in the doing of things, the keeping of laws and commandments.”
Alexei began to weep and to say, “For more than four years, I have been asking how to have that kind of relationship, and all I’ve ever had were religious answers. I’ve been waiting for this all of my life.”
Della and I heard later that the revelation of intimate relationship with the Lord transformed Alexei, changing his whole personality and makeup as he began to engage in a life of worship.
The revelation of intimacy and true relationship with Jesus Christ is simplicity personified. That is the absolute truth! Living and being in His presence is no more complicated than being in a constant state of worship.
Worship is – no more and no less – the constant communing with Jesus Christ in the Spirit. There is nothing complicated about it. There is both a constant outflow from one’s spirit to the Lord, and a constant inflow of His Spirit in return. Love, adoration, and exaltation pour out of us to Him. His presence – His onoma – permeate our beings in return.
That said, let’s take a look at the promises made to those who understand – and follow through with action – what it means to have the Key of David, and turn it in the lock.
"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God...." A pillar is a part of the very structure, the framework, the makeup of the temple. The temple personifies the place of habitation of the Lord. This is not the temple of Solomon, and it is not modeled after the tabernacle of Moses. This is the temple on which David modeled his tabernacle. This temple is the personification of the place where the Bridegroom and Bride dwell together.
".....and he shall go no more out....." Once made a part of the very dwelling place of the Lord, the overcomer, the worshipper, the one who has been called into the Bridal Chamber, is promised this place forever. Obviously one does not stay in the Bridal Chamber forever, but it signifies that this person has been chosen to become one, chosen to become a part of the "other self," the "counterpart" of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout eternity.
And that's not the end of it!
".......and I will write upon him the name of My God....." That, of course, is the onoma of the Lord. To "write upon" the individual, is to delineate in visible characters, the indicated makeup and character of the one "writing." This is a common Hebrew metaphor, and it signifies the fact that something has become a visible part of the essence of the individual being "written upon." To have the "onoma of My God" written upon a person, is to have His character, makeup, personality, etc., made visible within and upon an individual, in a manner that all onlookers will recognize.
"......and the name (onoma) of the City of my God.....New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my God....." We only have to go back to ancient Israel, to the time of David, to understand this phraseology. David made Jerusalem the center, the high point, the capital, the very heart of the nation. From that day to this, Jews all over the world have regarded Jerusalem as epitomizing the heart and heart-beat of their existence. Without Jerusalem there is no Israel.
But, Jerusalem had a history ordained by the Lord long before David's time. As we have already noted, it was here that Shem, the son of Noah, first established a citadel, a dwelling place, an outpost in the midst of Canaan. That citadel, or castle, stood on Mount Moriah, and Shem called that place, "Salem," meaning: "peace." The Canaanites, and other nations who populated the country, referred to Shem as, "Malkiy - Tsedeq," the King of Righteousness.
Malkiy - Tsedeq, whose name we have anglicized to "Melchizedek," was a forerunner and a living type of Jesus Christ in that era. The fact that he established the city of Salem was a prophetic picture of the Lord Jesus Christ establishing the city of His dwelling, His Bride.
On the very hill where Shem established this citadel, his great-great-great (however many "greats" you have in ten generations) grandson, Abraham, offered up his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to the Lord -- or more accurately, Abraham acted in obedience to the Lord to offer up Isaac until the Lord stayed his hand.
Are you beginning to see the picture? And the pattern of the Lord?
Guess what happens next on this same hill.
Riiiight! This is the very same spot where David set up his tabernacle.
And it was this same hill where Jesus was crucified a thousand years later, offering up Himself as a sacrifice in order to buy back the Bride from the Slave master, Satan himself.
Ahhh! But, wait! We've missed an important event in this incredible cycle.
After David took the citadel from the Jebusites (**see history note), he called the name of the city, Jerus-Salem, meaning: "The foundations of peace." Then he established the real foundation of the city: The Tabernacle of David.
His tabernacle was the picture that God wanted Israel as a nation to see. In the very heart of the city on display for all to see atop the mount was the heart of the Bridegroom on display, with an open door signifying His invitation to them to become one with Him. This was the place David called, Zion; and it was thereafter referred to in a separate and distinct manner by the Old Testament prophets.
Jerusalem became a prophetic picture of the Bride whom the Lord was calling to Himself. Zion was the place within the Bride where the Bridegroom dwelled.
In spite of the incredible and astounding demonstration which the Lord put on display for Israel with the Tabernacle of David, not only in David's years, but also during the reigns of five of his successors, including Solomon (through the ministry of the praisers and worshippers, the descendants of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun), Israel rejected the Lord as her Bridegroom.
For a thousand years following the dismantling of the Tabernacle of David, the prophets began to distinguish between Jerusalem and Zion, representing Zion in their messages as the Bride, and Jerusalem as the larger body -- the family -- from whom the Bride was drawn. Zion was immortalized as the place of intimacy, the place of relationship between the Bride and Bridegroom.
With Israel's rejection of the Lord, He set about to have a Bride who would choose Him in a place of love, and not law: a Bride who would set her heart upon Him in the same way that He had set His heart upon her. It became necessary, therefore, that a new Jerusalem be established: a new city in which He would dwell, and in which His heart would be visible.
The New Jerusalem, therefore, was His Bride. For the overcomers within the Ekklesia in Philadelphia to hear that they would have upon them written the onoma of the New Jerusalem, was to hear that the Lord had made visible His stamp of approval upon them; that He had made visible for all to see that they were His dwelling place for now, and for the future, and forever!
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**History Note: When the Jebusites took the city of Salem, they renamed it “Jebus.” It was supposed to honor the name of their father, who was born with the name, “Jerus” (foundations). Jerus, incidentally, was one of the sons of Canaan, the son of Ham. Because of Jerus’s practice and habit of crushing the wheat of his enemies in order to render it useless for replanting and harvesting, his sons renamed him, “Jebus,” which literally translates to “crushing.” Thus for centuries, the city had been called “Crushing.” When David took the city, he rid it of the Jebusites and changed its name as previously noted. “Jerusalem” has been the name and prophetic purpose of that city for the 3,000 years that have elapsed since.
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The final segment of this promise was,
"and I will write upon him my new name."
What happens when a Bridegroom takes a Bride? She receives a new name -- His name! This promise is unique, however, in the fact that He, the Bridegroom, is receiving a new name. This, of course, is a new onoma. This means that the Lord Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, is receiving a new makeup, a new character, a new identity. Because He is taking a Bride, she also receives that onoma.
That almost seems a strange concept, and yet, it is not so strange.
The Bridegroom is becoming a new, and complete, individual: a new being, by virtue of the fact that He is being joined in one -- merged, fused, intermingled -- with His Bride. We have a faint picture of this in the natural realm, in the human relationship between bridegroom and bride, but the concept is somewhat lost on us because this, that is happening with the Lord, is in the spirit realm. The two separate beings are being merged as one new being. They, therefore, have a new onoma, a new makeup, a new identity, and a new realm of rank, power, authority, etc.
The promise to the overcomer, then, is that he or she is given this new identity. They two have become one, even as the Father and the Son are one -- even as the Spirit and the Son are one. This is the promise of union with the Lord, forever!
Therefore, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the Ekklesias."
Finally, let me take you to a prayer that the apostle Paul prayed. It gives us some real insight into this change of onoma.
In Ephesians 1:15-18, Paul writes, “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints……..”
(emphasis, mine)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard preachers talk about our inheritance in the Lord and how much we get out of it, and all the blessings we get from Him. Yet few seem to understand that there is real revelation and understanding that comes once we see the hope of His calling, and His inheritance in us.
Sure, we are beneficiaries! Sure, we have an inheritance in Christ. Sure, we have a calling from, in, and through Him.
But what about His calling? What about His inheritance? What about what He gets from us?
Let me take you back to the 23rd Psalm for a second. David had this same revelation. He wrote,
“He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
Once we change the focus of our understanding to His inheritance in us, we begin to see that His name is at stake in us. His reputation is at stake. His authority is at stake. His
onoma is at stake.
Creation didn’t just happen so the human race could come into being and get blessed by all the Lord has done, is doing, or will do. Creation happened because Jesus Christ desired a counterpart, another self, a co-equal, one with whom He could fellowship with, one with whom He could share all that He is and all that He is to become.
There’s a future here, Folks, that goes way beyond human reasoning and understanding. There’s a grand design in the works, and the Lord has seen its end from the beginning. That design is a joined – a conjoined – personality in the realm of the spirit that transcends anything we could possibly imagine.
It is a new onoma – not only for us, but for the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the
onoma that happens when all that He has set in motion in us is completed. We’re changed, and He’s changed, by virtue of the union that happens between us.
Do you see where this is headed? Now do you understand “the Door?” The Door is the entrance to intimacy. It’s the place of worship in the spirit. It’s the place where real change takes place in us. It’s the place where the plans, the purposes, the heart’s desire of the Lord Jesus Christ can come to fruition in us.
Enjoy the day, Folks! May the blessings of the Lord unfold in and through you.
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
EKKLESIA HOUSE
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
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This article may be reprinted, reposted, copied and re-used – in whole or in part – with proper attribution.
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