“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” – Revelation 3:20 NLT

“You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” – Psalms 23:5 NLT

Right now Jesus is saying, “Open the door so I can come in and prepare a feast for you, honor you, anoint you, and bless you.” Who wants to feast with God? Who wants to be honored, anointed, and blessed? God is looking for you to open the door so He can show Himself powerful on your behalf.

I’m reminded of chapter five of the Song of Solomon. The female character is awakened by her prince calling at her door, “Open to me, my treasure, my darling, my dove, my perfect one.” But she responds, “Ah, man. Do I have to get up and get dressed? And I don’t want to walk to the door and get my feet dirty…” The prince was knocking and calling because he wanted to have intimacy and fellowship, but his beloved didn’t want to be inconvenienced or to move outside of her comfort zone.

Will you open the gate for Jesus? When you keep a gate, you decide what comes in and what goes out. You hold a key position and you permit or prevent access. Gatekeeping implies alertness and access — the opposite of what the girl demonstrated in Song of Solomon. Remember? She didn’t want to be inconvenienced. She didn’t want to press beyond her comfort zone. She was neither alert nor terribly interested in doing what was necessary to provide access. Eventually she did get up and open the door, but she was too late. She missed her time of visitation, her window of opportunity.

OPEN THE GATES! THE KING OF GLORY IS COMING!

God wants to bring His glory into every area of our lives. He’s calling, “Open the gates!” We are gatekeepers over our bodies, our minds, our wills, our emotions, and our spirits. We’re also gatekeepers over our environment, our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our churches. You and I decide through the language of faith to give access to the King of Glory and invite Him into our areas of influence. In order to do this, we must rise up against the gravity and weight of the world around us. We must push against the pressure of our current culture. We must throw off the heavy blanket of conformity and fearlessly resist the oppressive mainstream programming enforced by the bullying “cancel culture” of our age. We have to become the counterculture. We have to rise up and become the CHRIST-culture!

Rise up, gatekeepers! For openings of heavenly time, spiritual and eternal, have been brought forth. Doors are opening between the natural visible and the supernatural unseen. The Lord God is about to step into our present time with His glory. He is coming in battle array as Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Rise up, gatekeepers! Open the gates that have been held down by this world’s oppression, suppression, and depression. The King of Glory wants to come in with salvation, power, love, light, justice, healing, liberty, goodness, grace, mercy, hope, restoration, complete and perfect wholeness in every area that we will permit Him into.

Rise up!
Matt

Matt Neese
Wellspring.Live

NO REGULAR MEETING ON SUNDAY

This next Sunday, February 7th, there will be no regular Sunday meeting. Many of our men will be participating in the annual men’s retreat. The women will have a special celebration together at the Neese house. No childcare will be available, but children are welcome with their mother’s supervision. If you have questions or need the address, please email Sako Neese at sakoneese@gmail.com.

DAILY WORD FOR FEBRUARY 3, 2021

What does the life of a peace-seeker look like? What does it look like to chase after peace? How do the words “seek” and “pursue” describe the life of a person of faith?

Hebrews 6:1 says that the first two of the six elementary principles of Christ are repentance from dead works and faith toward God. The beginning of our walk with Jesus is turning away from everything outside of our faith pursuit of God. Everything else is missing the target, the bullseye. We turn away from aiming our lives at anything besides Christ (it’s all evil, dead works), and we turn in faith towards obediently following our Prince of Peace.

Peace in Hebrew is “shalom”. It means wholeness, health, and goodness in every aspect of our lives. It means lacking nothing. Shalom is the epitome of a blessed life, and Jesus is the personification of shalom. He heals our relationships with Father God and our spiritual family. His desire is to bring wholeness and right alignment to our bodies, minds, wills, emotions, and spirits. He wants to bind together every broken place and heal every fracture.

Turn away from evil and do good; seek Peace and pursue Him! Reject the rebellious spirit of this world and throw yourself completely into the good pursuit of Christ. Follow Him and allow Him to restore you to unimaginable wholeness.

• 2/3 Genesis 34, Psalms 34, Judges 10, Matthew 22:23-46
• 2/4 Genesis 35, Psalms 35, Judges 11, Matthew 23:1-22
• 2/5 Genesis 36, Psalms 36, Judges 12, Matthew 23:23-39
• 2/6 Genesis 37, Psalms 37, Judges 13, Matthew 24:1-22
• 2/7 Genesis 38, Psalms 38, Judges 14, Matthew 24:23-51
• 2/8 Genesis 39, Psalms 39, Judges 15, Matthew 25:1-30
• 2/9 Genesis 40, Psalms 40, Judges 16, Matthew 25:31-46
• 2/10 Genesis 41, Psalms 41, Judges 17, Matthew 26:1-19

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