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The House of God and the Gate of Heaven

The following is a word of encouragement from Jake Kail:

Genesis 28 tells the story of Jacob’s encounter with God in a powerful dream. In the dream, he saw a ladder going from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. The Lord was above the ladder, and spoke to Jacob, reaffirming the covenant He had made with Jacob’s grandfather Abraham.

Verse 17 records Jacob’s response as we awoke from the dream:

And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
-Genesis 28:17

This is the first time that the term house of God is used in the Bible and it is paired with another term, the gate of heaven. A gate is a point of access; the gate of heaven is the place where heaven has access to enter into the earth. It is where God’s presence, power, righteousness, and love come in and establish His kingdom among us. This is what we want to be! A people who see God’s “kingdom come and will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

The other day this thought came into my mind: we cannot be the gate of heaven if we are not first the house of God. The house of God is the gate of heaven. If we desire to bring heaven to earth, then we must focus on being the house of God.

What God Calls His House

One of the primary descriptions of the house of God comes from Matthew 21:13: “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.” If we want to be the house of God—the place that God dwells on earth—then we must be a people of prayer. If God says that His house is a house of prayer, then we have no right to make it anything else!

The more that we continue to be the praying church that God has called use to be, the more we will be the house that He dwells in. It is from this place that we will see the kingdom of heaven advancing in our midst.

So, let’s keep responding to the fresh call to prayer that the Lord has given us. I encourage you to keep coming out to our pre-service prayer times and stay tuned for some more prayer opportunities in the near future. Let’s be the house of God and the gate of heaven in the earth!

 

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Threshold Church exists to love and worship God and to advance His Kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit. Come Join us on Sundays at 5 PM