5 Keys to Maintaining Open Heavens 預覽

KEY #3: You Must Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. (Matthew 22:37 NLT)

When we worship God, we must draw near to Him with our hearts and not just with our lips. The heart is the initial meeting point for heaven and earth. Praise and worship is continually happening in the heavenly realm, so when we choose to join in this worship on earth by pouring out our love for God in our hearts, we are creating a powerful connection with the eternal sound that reverberates from the angels, the living creatures, and all the other spiritual beings in heaven that give Him praise. (See, for example, Revelation 4:8–11.)

Let the heaven and earth praise Him. (Psalm 69:34)

The Key of David

I will give him the key to the house of David—the highest position in the royal court. When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them. (Isaiah 22:22 NLT)

In the Bible, keys represent authority. When we read through the Psalms, we gain great insight into the life of David, noting that he lived his life as a worshipper of God. And Revelation 3:7 says that Jesus Christ holds the key of David. Now, may I ask you a question? Where is Jesus Christ right now? As believers, we should respond, “He lives in me!” Yes! Jesus lives in you, and therefore you hold this sacred key within you. 

This is a supernatural key that is given to believers along with the authority to open and shut doors in the Spirit realm through praise and worship. The key is praise. Just as praise was a key for Paul and Silas when they were in prison (see Acts 16:25), praise is a major key to releasing and maintaining open heavens today.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

God inhabits the praises of His people (see Psalm 22:3 KJV), and Jesus told us that the heavenly Father is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth (see John 4:23–24). We not only praise the Lord for the things He has done, but we worship Him for who He is. We look to God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and we lift our affection to Him. We bring Him thanksgiving and adoration. As we lift up our high praises to God, He begins to draw near to us. As we worship Him, our agreement with Him and His purposes becomes like a sharp, piercing, double-edged sword that cuts through any demonic hindrance that has attempted to hold back the blessings of God in the earth. 

Recently, I was invited to minister in Graz, Austria. As my plane was landing and I looked out the window over the countryside, a song suddenly dropped into my spirit, and I began singing it:

We are welcoming the glory of the Lord, 

We are welcoming the glory of the Lord, 

We are welcoming the glory of the Lord.

Oh, the glory is welcome here.

We are increasing in the glory of the Lord,

We are increasing in the glory of the Lord,

We are increasing in the glory of the Lord.

Oh, the glory is welcome here.

Even after I got off the plane, this song continued to roll within my spirit, and when the pastor of the church where I would be ministering picked me up from the airport, I told her that the Lord had given me a new song to sing over Austria. I began singing it in the car, and soon she began singing along with me. It was wonderful. Those simple words welcomed the heavens to open up with great power over us. This brought a change in the atmosphere, and so we sang the song again in the corporate gathering that night. 

All weekend long, we sang new songs that God was birthing in us by His Spirit, and miracles flowed in that atmosphere without any striving at all. There is no warfare in the glory. We don’t need to struggle to establish places of spiritual power in our homes, churches, or cities. The Spirit is willing to do it, so the key is aligning ourselves with the Spirit’s agenda. 

After that ministry weekend in Graz, the pastor sent me an email, saying, “Thank you for explaining to us how God wants to give us a new song each day! Since then, I have received a new song nearly every day. This morning I received a new song, and it was breaking open the heavens: ‘I am chosen, nothing can defeat me!’ I cannot thank you enough for this encouraging teaching about the new song! And I will for sure sing His new songs every morning!”

Offerings of Praise

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous: and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart. (Psalm 32:11)

When I am ministering to a group, I will often invite people to “shout to the Lord,” and the resulting burst of praise breaks things wide open in the realm of the Spirit. It’s like a holy bomb that releases an explosion of power into the atmosphere, and it’s so tangible you can feel it! 

Just as the little boy brought his lunch to Jesus to be shared with more than five thousand people, we come before the Lord with our offerings of praise, knowing that He will receive them and multiply them back as a supernatural blessing over the masses. Then, just like the woman who broke her alabaster box and poured out upon Jesus its precious fragrance, we are broken before Him and pour out our hearts of love to honor Him. This releases the Spirit, releases God’s presence, and releases the light of God within us, and God begins to manifest His glory because He has been enthroned upon our praises.

We seed the heavens with our praise, and He seeds the earth with His glory. “And I have put My words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are My people” (Isaiah 51:16).