THE DOOR

By J W Luman

I want to talk to you about The Open Door, and some thoughts in regard to our relationship together as it relates to the truth of The Open Door. May the Lord expand this glorious truth in our hearts of CHRIST, THE DOOR. He as The Door gives you and I entrance into one another, and He is actually the only true entrance we have into one another. Believers continue to find entrance into one another on the basis of some natural attribute. We try to understand one another, communicate to one another; we try to agree with one another and work with one another; we try to love one another - we try to establish lasting relationships, spiritual relationships with one another, but we go about it in a very carnal and natural way. We seek to establish eternal relationships by the same means that nonbelievers would establish relationships with one another in the market place or job place or social atmosphere of their lives. We try to make it work for us, and we just add the name "Christianity" to it, or add the name "Jesus" to it.

But there’s really only one entrance we have into one another in a spiritual and an eternal way, in a workable way; in a way that Christ is made manifest. And that entrance is given to us by Him, who is Himself, THE DOOR. By Him we have entrance into one another. Think about that for a while. We have spoken about the condition of the heart necessary for God to reveal His Son in you - and there is a condition of the heart necessary. See, it is the Father’s good pleasure to reveal His Son. God revealing His Son in you is the key to spiritual life. This is the key to growing up in Christ. This is what makes Salvation real. This is what makes Salvation a living relationship with the Living Son, rather than just a religion or a theory, or a set of spiritual beliefs or doctrines or spiritual principles. It is this matter of God actually opening the eyes of our understanding and bringing us in a very inward way, face to face with the Living Christ, who lives, has His being in us. And causing us in His face, to realize not only that He is in us, but that we spiritually exist only because He is in us; that He is The Living Spirit who is in us, and that by Him and Him alone we live, and move and have our being - in the reality of Christ. These things can be gotten a hold of theoretically as spiritual principles, or these things can be realized in the very face of Jesus Christ.

It is the realizing of these things in the face of Jesus Christ that takes us from a life of principles into the reality of the life of the Person; that brings us across the gap, and bridges the gap from Christianity being a set of doctrinal beliefs and spiritual standards, to Christianity being the very Living Christ being revealed and worked in us and through us. It’s the difference of Christianity being a religion, and Christianity being the expression of a Person. It’s the difference between us learning principles and actually learning Christ - not just becoming acquainted with Him, but actually having His mind formed in us. The difference is this bridge - bringing us from sense knowledge to true knowledge of the Spirit; from a list of beliefs to the understanding of faith; from spiritual principles to the reality of The Person. That bridge is God revealing His Son in you, and all the realizations that relate to Him are endless. The scripture, you will find, once God has revealed His Son in you, testify of nothing other than Him. Your whole Bible will change and become Christ centered rather than principle centered or doctrine centered or me centered. And the key, the bridge is God revealing His Son in you.

This is the revealing that Paul speaks of in every one of his epistles, not just in Galatians. In every one of his epistles he refers in one way or another to this knowledge, this wisdom, this understanding which only comes in the face of Jesus Christ; which only comes when God reveals His Son in you, and gathers up in that Son, in your heart and mind, all spiritual life and all spiritual reality. And this causes you to realize that it’s all gathered up in Him, and that the scripture is not testifying of things, but of HIM; the scripture is not testifying of principles and purposes, but of HIM, that all things real are found only in the Person of HIM and He is in you! There is a condition necessary for that revealing. We can clearly relate that to Paul, because he is the most recorded author in the New Testament. We can see the conditions necessary in Moses, Abraham, Joshua, David and Ezekiel. (Reference "The Condition of the Heart Necessary to God Revealing His Son in You" by J W Luman) They all saw The Son, they saw Christ; but they saw Him in an outward way, they saw Him in a prophetic way. They saw Him in a very real way, but not in an internalized way.

Paul sums up these characteristics that must be worked by the Spirit of God in a man before Christ can be revealed in that one. And in Paul Christ was revealed - not in an outward way, but in a very inward way; not in a prophetic way, but in a way that was the summation of all prophecy. And the summation of all of these examples is: a heart, a living soul must come to the absolute end of ourselves (not only to the end of our sin, but to the end of ourselves - to the end of our ambition, our trying, our desire; to the end of our talents, our ministries). We must be brought to the absolute end of ourselves and that condition is established in our heart, and we come to say, ‘Oh God, there must be something more than this!’ And there is - there is SOMEONE more! And in Him all of spiritual life will come to a meaning, a purpose and a fulfillment. That condition must be resident in our heart before God can reveal His Son in us, because in the revealing of His Son, He does not simply bring His Will upon us - He can do that any time; but rather He works His Will in us. And that’s the desire of the Father. So the condition necessary is a condition of nothingness, a condition of coming to the end of ourselves, that God may reveal in us His answer, His plan and His purpose in The Person of His Son, in the face of Jesus Christ.

We must all purpose in our hearts to allow God to work in us the condition necessary to the revealing of The Son. Because until The Son is revealed in you and I, we have not yet begun to know spiritual life; we have not yet begun to grow in spiritual life. Until The Son is revealed in me and in you, the plan and purpose of God that is eternal is not effective in a very real way. That doesn’t mean that the Lord isn’t dealing with us according to His plan and purpose, but He must work that in us so that we become an expression of that. It is the working of the increase of Christ in us that is the good pleasure of the Father and the desire of His heart.

The other day I was praying, ‘Lord, give thy servant a greater door into Thy Body. Open the door, Lord throughout the earth, give thy servant a greater door.’ And the Lord began to deal with me concerning the open door, and challenging me by the Spirit, whether I actually knew what I was asking for or not. Because at one point I said, ‘Lord, just open doors’. And immediately the Lord corrected me and said - ‘There is but ONE DOOR, and another door is simply of the imagination of your heart. Now do you want Me to open The Door, or are you after doors?’ And immediately I began to realize that doors just represented opportunities to preach, opportunities to go places and do conferences. I’ve had a life of that! So I told the Lord that wasn’t what I was talking about, but the Lord was challenging me on something. And the Lord asked me, do you know what constitutes an OPEN DOOR? Now I’ve learned that when the Lord asks me a question, to answer, No Lord, I don’t know. I need You to give me understanding. I’ve learned never to tell the Lord I understand what something is about, because when the Lord asks me a question it is always to provoke me into an area of the unknown, into a deeper area of understanding. I’m learning to be very real with the Lord and say I don’t know.

So the Lord began to deal with me concerning what an OPEN DOOR is - not just opportunities to go preach or speak, not different places. Although all of these things may be in some way involved, because I am looking for greater opportunities of true ministry and greater outreaches of This Word throughout The Lord’s Body, but it’s not just opportunities to preach. We’ve given up many opportunities to just preach in lieu of opportunities to truly minister to someone who wants to know Christ. When Ezekiel made his confession when he was sitting there among the captives, he came to the end of himself and said, ‘I don’t have anything to say! I’m sitting here on the river bank with the rest of the captives, and I don’t have any more vision than they have!’ If it’s another speaking engagement you’re looking for, or another sermon you’re looking to preach - you’re NOT going to see Jesus!

And in fact, if you have a prophecy yet to give or a sermon yet to preach - you’re not going to see Jesus. We must come to the end of all of that. I’ve come to the end of doors (plural) - I’m looking for THE DOOR, but now the Lord was challenging me if I knew what The Door is. So I said, Lord, show me THE DOOR, because I know it’s The Door you would have thy servant enter. The truth is there is only One Door- there are not doors. Doors are the imagination of our own hearts. That’s what’s wrong with most Christian ministry - we’re looking for doors and not The Door. And therefore we just walk through everything that looks good and we jump at every opportunity that comes along. Ministry is looking for another place to preach and believers are just looking for another place to go - opportunities. But the Lord has A DOOR that is set before us. It is an Open Door, and it is only going through that Door that we will find true ministry, and true fellowship, and the true desire that God is working in our hearts. We’re trying to answer that desire with a lot of things, and sometimes it seems that temporarily that desire may be fulfilled, but it isn’t; it’s just set aside temporarily and it just comes back as great as it ever was and we realize we haven’t found the answer to it yet in a very inward way. And many of us have experienced this. And yet it is going through This Door that we find an entrance into one another, into true fellowship, the true Household of the Lord; we find an entrance into the true purpose of God and into the true ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through This Door we find an entrance, one to another, and an entrance into the fulness of Him.

I’m going to give you now some scripture concerning The Door. Keep in mind as we go through these verses that there is only One Door - only one true Door spoken of in all of the scripture. "Search the scripture" Jesus said, "these are they which testify of Me." There’s only One true Door spoken of in the scripture, and the characteristics of That Door are as many as the scripture Who testify of That Door. These are only a few scriptures, but if we had the spiritual eyes to see, I am convinced that we would see Him in every mention of this term through all the scripture. There is but ONE DOOR! We have created doors in our own imagination, and we’re continually going through them to our own destruction and our own spiritual disappointments.

Genesis 4:7, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Genesis 6:16, "A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof.." Genesis 19:6, "And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him." Genesis 19:9-11, "And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came into sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great; so that they wearied themselves to find the door."

Exodus 12:7, "And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it." Exodus 12:22-23, "And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you."See, we say the Lord passes over the house, but this says the Lord passes over the door. The house was safe because of THE DOOR! The house was kept because of the condition of The Door! The household was secure because of the condition of The Door! Don’t tell me then it’s not going to make a great deal of difference which Door you and I have gone through to claim safety; which Door you and I have entered for ministry; which Door you and I have entered for fellowship, for life, for safety, for fulfillment, for purpose, for rest. It makes a great deal of difference which Door we have gone through; as to whether we have a genuine entrance into the Lord and into one another in His rest, in His ministry, in His fellowship; or whether we’re simply trying to make the imaginations of our own heart work.

The Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. But that is all because of the condition of The Door. They didn’t splash the blood around on the walls, so it wasn’t the condition of the walls that made the difference. And they didn’t put the blood on the furniture; so it didn’t make any difference what kind of furniture they had. They didn’t put the blood on the windows - they put it on The Door! The condition of The Door kept the household. Exodus 29:11, " And thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." There are many references to "the door of the tabernacle of the congregation". All of the offerings, whether they were burnt offerings, trespass offerings, had to be brought before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. That’s important. We have looked at the offerings and we usually emphasize the articles of furniture - the brazen altar, the laver, the golden altar, etc. But before the furniture even comes into view, and all the furniture has to do with the different characteristics of Christ in you - The Living Christ who is in you - right NOW! But before you ever come to see and know any of those characteristics, let alone any of those characteristics being worked in you in an inward way; you have to come by way of The Door. The offering is not brought before the Lord at the brazen altar: it’s brought before the Lord by the Door of the tabernacle. And then comes the altar, and then comes all the other ceremonies and things that were carried out. All of those were extremely important, but nothing takes place until it comes by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Until you and I come by The Door, we’re going to realize none of these things with regard to Christ - not in ourselves, and certainly not in our working out toward one another - fellowship, ministry, strength, safety, security. We’re not going to find that except we come by The Door; what we’re looking for together in Christ, in fulfillment of purpose and having worked in us His increase and the characteristics of His nature, that which pleases the Father. None of that is going to take place until we come by The Door. This Door is extremely descriptive and extremely meaningful: This Door of course is Christ, but it is Christ in a very meaningful way, in a very peculiar and descriptive way. We must come by way of The Door in order to realize anything of Christ, in one another or in ministry. Let us not be those who are just looking for doors. I had prayed that way, and I’m glad the Lord challenged me and said - there’s only One Door. Are you asking Me to open The Door, or doors? What are you looking for?

And that’s what it comes down to you and I with. In our quest for Christ, what are we really looking for? Because we’ll only find it when we come by The Door. So in Exodus through Deuteronomy you’ll find many glorious references to "by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation". You’ll be amazed at everything that is done having to be done in this way: it has to come by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And until the Lord challenged my heart I had never really noticed that. My emphasis was more upon the furniture in the tabernacle. These represent the very characteristics of the very Christ who dwells in you, and all of these characteristics are to be worked out in you and I as God reveals His Son. But oh friends, until we come by The Door... And coming by The Door is part of the conditioning of our heart, because it is really our heart that must come by The Door. It is really our soul that must be humbled and brought down, that we may not, in our exaltedness, but in His humility, come by way of The Door.

This is the thing certainly that the Lord would work in our hearts at this time. So you can see this in these and many other references, and they are all marked by "the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." Just inside of that Door is the brazen altar and then the laver, and then beyond that the sanctuary called The Holy Place and beyond that The Holy of Holies. But you get to none of it except you come by The Door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And that Door is open to all of Israel - all may come, but you must come by The Door. Our assembling must be by That Door or it’s just a meaningless gathering. It’s just a meaningless assembling. Except our gathering be by The Door, we are not gathered as the true Israel of God. I urge you to go through the scripture and look at all of the occasions that are clearly marked and regulated by The Door - by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. These spiritual types and shadows we are to experience in reality in Christ Jesus in our growing up in Him. All of these things by the decree of the Lord had to be by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. They didn’t go out and gather under some tree - they gathered by the Door. Now you and I can gather under a tree, in a tent, in a living room, or in a car, in a church building. We can gather in any kind of facility as long as we gather by THE DOOR. But we can’t substitute those facilities, those places for THE DOOR. And The Door is actually an understanding given of God concerning our relationship to Him and to one another by His Son.

THE DOOR IS AN UNDERSTANDING. I don’t mean just a figment of imagination or some academic understanding. No, The Door is an understanding of Christ. We only understand The Door in the understanding of Christ as The Door. And it is as The Door that God would reveal Him in us, that we may enter in to that understanding of Him, to that knowledge of Him; in that way that the Father would reveal Him in us. That we may enter in through The Open Door, and find through That Door all that our heart is desiring in the fellowship of Him, in the reality, the purpose and the fulness of Him. But it’s all by The Door.

John 10. This story will make a lot more sense to you when you understand The Door. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out." See, He doesn’t show us a door - HE IS THE DOOR. We enter in by The Shepherd. We enter in by Him! He is The Door. He is the fold of the sheep. A door isn’t something He shows us except He shows us Himself. "And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." By ME. Do we not understand that He is referring to His death, His burial, His resurrection? We must understand that Door is Christ crucified - not as a historical event, but as a living reality which we are made to be partakers of. The Door represents His death, His burial, His resurrection; not in a historical way, but in a present way, in an eternal way. We must understand that The Door is The Lamb slain; here, the Shepherd slain. THE DOOR IS THE CROSS, and all that The Cross represents. And The Door is not just for one thing, but that The Door is that by which we have entrance into all the fulness of God in Christ Jesus. And it is by That Door that we have entrance into one another. The Door, The Cross - His death, His burial, His resurrection - knowing Him in that way is the only way whereby we have entrance into one another. It’s the only way that we have entrance through all of the barriers that we put up to one another, all of the obstacles that we lay in front of one another, keeping ourselves from being totally given one to another and having total and complete communion one to another. The only answer to that is The Cross. The only answer to that is knowing Him in this way that The Door describes.

Revelation3:8, " I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it..." This takes us back to one of our first readings concerning the Ark and the door that God set in the side of the Ark. It was opened, and no man could shut it and no man could open it - only the Lord Himself could shut it and only the Lord Himself could open it. "...for thou has a little strength, and hast kept my word, and has not denied my name." Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door..." Listen to this: He who is The Door, now pictures Himself as One standing at The Door. "...and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me." This is you and I opening our hearts to Him as The Lamb slain, opening our hearts to know Him in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection, that we may eat His flesh and drink His blood; for except you eat His flesh and drink His blood and know Him in that way, He says you have no life in you. So here He is One standing before The Door, and inviting us to open The Door; that is, to know Him as The Door, to know Him in this way; to not shun the slain Lamb, to not turn from The Door upon which the blood is applied. Remember in Egypt? This is a blood stained door. It is a Door with blood down each side and across the top. It is a Door speaking of His death, consequently of His burial, and then certainly of His resurrection. It is The Cross! It is the only way that we have entrance into one another, and it is the only way that we have entrance into Him.

Revelation 4:1, "After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven..." Remember now, there is only One Door - not a bunch of doors. Just like there’s only one mystery. This is a great mystery, but there’s only one mystery. And it is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. That mystery takes into itself many things and gathers up into itself all spiritual things, but there’s only one mystery; having to do with Christ and The Church. And that mystery is only known by those in whom The Son is revealed. And there’s only One Door. "...and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." In the Greek, hereafter is "in the midst". I will show you the order of things, I will show you the divine order of the household. I will show you these things which must be in the midst, I will show you the order in which they must be understood. And what did He show him through That Door, which is The Cross? Ultimately he showed him again - The Cross. He looked through The Door - which is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and he ultimately saw The Lamb as though He were slain.

If you’re going to study the letter called ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ" then you have to approach it through The Door or it isn’t going to make any sense to you. And you have to understand that when you come by The Door, you’re coming to Him who is The Door - The Lamb as though He were slain, and that the order of all things then will be seen as they are seen through His death, His burial, His resurrection - that becomes the order by which we will understand all things. You’ve got to understand all things by His death, burial and resurrection. We have to understand each other as we are made to be through His death, burial and resurrection. You have to understand creation as it is made to be by His death, burial and resurrection. You have to understand The Church as it is made to be by His death, burial and resurrection. You have to understand all things as they are made to be, as they are seen to be, as they are set in order by His death, burial and resurrection. If you do not come by The Door, then you are going to walk after the imagination of your own heart.

Now here are some very apparent observations that we should make through these scriptures. First we should observe that sin can not go beyond The Door. Sin comes up to The Door, sin lies at The Door, and through obedience that sin can be met. Sin in any form can not go beyond The Door - mankind can not go beyond The Door. Man as a kind can not go beyond The Door. Nothing which offends can go beyond The Door. Everything offensive can be brought up to The Door, and man as a kind must come to The Door and must come by The Door. Jesus says, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Who is He? He is THE DOOR! But The Door is His death, His burial, His resurrection. Offensive things that offend, odors that offend - the smell of mankind, of humanity, the smell of self, the smell of self will - all of the things that associate themselves with the Adamic creation - they can come to The Door, but they can’t go beyond it, because by The Door Himself these things are abolished. Nothing which offends can go beyond The Door, yet everything that offends must come by The Door.

Another thing we observe is that there is rest, safety and peace only beyond The Door. The death angel did not touch what was beyond The Door, because the death that sanctifieth was upon The Door. The only reason death can not touch you and me is because we have come by His death, His burial, His resurrection. And He Who is The Resurrection says Himself that if you live by Me, then death can not touch you. but why? Only because of The Door. We have escaped death by His death, His burial, His resurrection. There is rest, safety, peace, lack of strife here. Oh, we have so much strife - that’s because we haven’t come by The Door - we’ve created little doors of our own, and we’ve called them "human understandings" - but they don’t work! The death angel doesn’t recognize them! He comes right into the room and strikes at the very core of our relationships and destroys them. Why? Because we’ve come through the wrong door; we’ve come through an imaginary door. When we come through This Door death can not touch your relationships, death can not touch your ministry, death can not touch your fellowship. I mean the things of death, the things of humanity, the things that would cause decay and corruption - the strife and the anger. If it’s in you, you haven’t come by The Door. I don’t look at you and say you don’t understand me and you don’t fellowship with me, "I was sick one time and no one came to help me", etc. Those may all be legitimate complaints, but if the strife is generated by those things in my heart, then I haven’t come by The Door.

Because if I have come by The Door and still I had those legitimate complaints, beyond The Door those complaints in my heart do not exist. We want to examine one another instead of ourselves; we want to complain about one another, and we can all find those shortcomings, but the only answer is that we ourselves come by The Door. Then we can minister to the shortcomings of others, rather than making an excuse out of them of why we won’t fellowship together, or why our feelings got hurt. I’m telling you, you will find genuine ministry beyond The Door. But most of us have not come by The Door - not This Door, not The Door. We have entered in with one another by false doors and so we have found offense one with another, and we’ve tried to make a relationship or a fellowship work based upon false ideas, based upon imaginations. And when the death angel comes, he finds a lot of things to touch, a lot of things to tear up, and a lot of things that are corrupt that he can put his hand upon. I’m not your fault, and you’re not my fault. We have either each of us come by The Door or we haven’t. And if we haven’t then we are going to be offended with one another and worse than that, we’re going to be offended by The Word Himself, and by the workings of the Spirit of God towards God’s eternal purpose and plan. That offense will be found in us, and will be exploited except we come by The Door.

Thirdly, it costs you your life to go beyond The Door. Lord, give us understanding. No man cometh but by Me. No man cometh... but by Me. Where is it that we are coming? Jesus is speaking of this in John 14. We’re coming to the place that He has prepared for us. How did He prepare, when did He prepare - except through His death, His burial and His resurrection? There’s where He made the preparation, there’s where He made the entrance, there’s where He fulfilled all things concerning The Door. There’s where He not only gave us entrance into a place, but He prepared the place. And what is that place? Some geographical location? No - it is the Father’s own bosom, it is the Father’s own household. He prepared a place in the Father for us; a place, a relationship. You can’t have a relationship that is contrary to the one that He prepared, and enter in by that relationship. But what is the cost of the relationship? His death, burial and resurrection. The relationship is with, and through, and by His death, burial and resurrection. We can not come to have a relationship with the Father different than the relationship that He has prepared for us. We can not know the Father by a way, a truth, a life other than That Way, and Truth and Life which He as The Door has set before us.

So where basically has He brought us? We are now talking about Salvation, but we’re talking about Salvation as a relationship, not a way out of hell. Too many times we sit back and we look at all the broken relationships around us and we say in our smugness, ‘Oh well, who needs them? I’m going to heaven. I’m not going to hell. Jesus loves me!’ How long are we going to be so ignorant and cold in our hearts? How long are we going to have this condition of me, me, me? When are we going to realize that Salvation as prepared by Him is a relationship in the Father’s House? And that the only entrance into that relationship for me or for you is through His death, burial and resurrection; not in an historical way, not in an academic way, but in a very real, experienced way - by knowing Him, by partaking of Him, knowing Him as The Door. Lord, deal with our hearts.

What then is The Open Door? I asked the Lord, ‘O God, give thy servant a greater open door into thy household’. I did that when the Lord corrected me about the door. What is The Open Door? In the first place, those who are crucified with Christ are The Open Door - those who are genuinely crucified with Christ constitute an Open Door - you can get into them! Through His death, burial and resurrection you can enter right in to where they sit, where they eat, where they sleep - to where they have fellowship. You can enter into them by The Door. They say, come in and sup with us. Their table is set with The Lamb. To go in unto them one must be willing to eat what is set before you - His flesh and His blood. You’ll find no room in there for anything else. But The Open Door that my heart is searching for throughout the Lord’s Body is those who are genuinely crucified with Christ, those who genuinely are set down in fellowship with The Lamb, in the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood; those with whom we may go in and have communion; those with whom we may go in and sup; those with whom we may go and find genuine communion and fellowship. This is a far cry from just having meetings and preaching conferences. No, the Lord has given an identity to the desire of my heart. I’m looking for The Door in people, I’m looking for The Door in the Lord’s House. I’m looking for The Door in the Redeemed of the Lord. And That Door is constituted by The Cross. That Door is represented by those who are coming to know Him in that way; who have been brought to a condition in their heart that they desire to know Him, not in the arrogance of the flesh, but in the reality of The Cross. That’s The Door I’m looking for, that’s the entrance that I’m looking for, that’s the entrance I want to provide to you, and that’s the entrance I’m looking for into you. And into all who would name the Name of the Lord, into all who would exercise the Kingdom of The Lamb of The Living God in all the earth - that’s The Door! Herein is fellowship.

Then there is ministry to consider. I mean, those who would enter into That Door, those who would come and say, I will come in and sup with you; those who would enter such a Door for ministry sake. There are some characteristics with regard to those who would come through such a Door to minister in the household. First, those who would come through such a Door for ministry sake can take nothing of themselves with them. In 1 Corinthians 2:1 Paul says I can not come in the excellency of my speech and the wisdom of my theologies. No, but I must come in the absolute nothingness of myself, bearing only the testimony of God, that your faith should not be in man, but in Him. Paul says I come in such a manner that the fact that I can even open my mouth and have an utterance is due strictly to the power and the working of the Holy Spirit. I come knowing nothing of myself, I come determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. You can’t enter into This Door and take something of yourself with you, because those who have entered in by The Door can not receive a Voice other than The Voice of The Shepherd. Those who have entered in by The Door and themselves now constitute an Open Door can eat nothing other than the flesh of The Lamb and can drink nothing other than His blood, and can find no fellowship at any other table. If you enter in there trying to take something of yourself you are as a thief and a robber to them.

Secondly, those who would minister through such a Door must be aware, they must have seen their calling. In 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 Paul says, For you see your calling, brethren - nothing of the flesh, nothing of might, nothing of nobility. No, God has just called dirt, God has called base things. There’s nothing in you that God has called. He has called you because of your nothingness, He has called you because you are a clay vessel, He has called you because you are base - base material - dirt! He has called you because of your ignobleness. He has called you - made of dirt, made of nothing; that He may reveal in you the allness of His Son, that no flesh shall glory in His presence! Those who would minister through such an Open Door must be aware of their calling.

Thirdly, to those who would enter in through such a Door into the lives of God’s people. We can only enter into lives through That Door who gives us access into the Father’s House, gives us access into Himself; and consequently gives us access into one another as the Household of God. Those who would enter in and have ministry through such a Door must lay down their lives one for another. You can read this in Colossians 1:24-29. It begins with, " Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church; Whereof I am made a minister..." It’s going to cost you your life to minister through This Door! You don’t bring your sermons through This Door! You don’t bring theologies through This Door! You don’t bring end time teachings through This Door! You don’t bring your prophecies through This Door! Like it or not this is true! You don’t bring anything through This Door except the laying down of your life one for another. You don’t come in here to instruct, you don’t come in here except to serve - except to lay down your life one for another. That’s the only way you come through This Door in ministry.

Fourthly, those who would come through This Door in ministry must be a partaker of the table. 1 Corinthians 9:13, "Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?" 1 Corinthians 10:17,18, "For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" There are so many aspects of being partakers, but those who would enter in through The Open Door and find ministry must be a partaker of whatever is on the table. We can not make demands on one another beyond that which we are enabled of the Lord to do, but we must freely be partakers with one another in all that we have to provide toward one another. We must be partakers of the same table in all aspects of life and of ministry. 1 Corinthians 10:21, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils." Please hear that down deep in the depths of your spirit. You can’t be a partaker of the table which has The Lamb and the Blood, and be a partaker of some other table at the same time. We are not called to a picnic here. We are called into the household of faith wherein we have continual communion one with another.

2 Corinthians 1:7, "And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation." Ephesians 3:6, "That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." Philippians 1:7, "Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace." Colossians 1:12, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Hebrews 2:14, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Hebrews 3:1, "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling..." Hebrews 3:14, "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." Hebrews 12:8, "But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." Hebrews 12:10, "For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."

1 Peter 4:13, "But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." 2 Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." We are not called to just give lessons to one another, to preach to one another, but to be partakers of Christ one with another. Those who enter in by This Door must be willing to be a partaker of that which is on the table - His death, His burial, His resurrection.

Then also, those who would enter in and minister through This Door must fully identify with that Household. Revelation 4:1, "After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." We must fully identify with that household, that is to say, to be not of this world, be not of this race, be not of this kind. For this is The Door into heaven. You can not enter into This Door and maintain your identity in the earth, in this race, in this world. You can not enter into This Door except that you fully identify with this household - One Household - in Christ - in heavenly places - not of this earth - not of this time - not of this creation. You can’t be of one creation and try to live in another. You can’t do it. It will frustrate you and The Door will become a judgment against you, rather than an entrance unto you.

Lastly, no man can open This Door and no man can shut this Door. This Door is not merely an invitation to come, to visit, to speak, to attend some services. Through This Door we are here for communion and if in communion we can visit - fine. We’re here to sit at the table with you and eat the flesh of The Lamb and drink His Blood, and together bring forth His increase in all the earth. No man can open This Door and no man can shut This Door - the Lord Himself has opened it, and it is opened to all who would come. But if we come, we can only come through His death, burial and resurrection. We can only come in the understanding of Him in this way. We can only come knowing Him as The Door. But if we will come, then let us come, let us come and dine! Come and dine with us who have no life but Him! Let that be our call one to another, let that be our invitation to all who have ears to hear. Come, let the Spirit say come, let the Bride say come, let all who have entered through The Door say come. Come and eat with us, commune with us, and fellowship with us beyond The Door!