Think with me for a
minute:
Genesis 28:17 says,
"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!"
In this case, the gate of
heaven was described as “a ladder, set up on the earth, and its top
reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on
it.” [28:12] From earth. To heaven. The house of God is the gate of heaven. Hmmm.
Principle: the house of
God is the gate of heaven. It is specifically the means of accessing heaven from earth.
I Corinthians 3:16 (or
6:19) declares that in our day, the house of God [the “temple” of God, the
habitation of God] is you. Well, and me. We are – specifically, our bodies are –
the temple, the dwelling place of God.
Therefore (and this might
stretch you as much as it stretches me): you are a gate of heaven. Note: not a
gate “to heaven,” but “of heaven.” There’s a difference.
In Jacob’s vocabulary, there
is “a
ladder, set up IN YOU, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of
God were ascending and descending on it.”
So I’ve been reflecting
on what it means that I am a “gate of heaven.”
·
For people who
don’t have any other access, I am an access point to Heaven.
·
I can, myself,
access heaven. I can take day trips there. (John 3:13: “No one has ever
gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ” Jesus is announcing that, as early as John 3, he
has taken day trips to heaven.)
·
Heaven also has
access to earth through you. But (“set up on the earth, and its top reached to
heaven”) it takes my initiative on Earth to release Heaven.
·
If my NT “gate
of heaven” is like Jacob’s OT “gate of heaven” (I’m not quite ready to make
that as an assumption), then angels have access from heaven to earth, and from
earth to heaven through me. One word: Whoa!
If nothing else, this
perspective requires that I take seriously my role as a son of the Kingdom, as
a “king and priest” [Revelation 1:6 & 5:10] of our God.