Who are the gates of our hearts open to?
Let the King of Glory In!
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” (Psalm 24:7-9 KJV)
“We might understand that the Lord here declares His willingness to take full control in our hearts and lives if we will lift certain gates which may have debarred His entrance in the comprehensive sense in which He would occupy. We might think of these gates as representing the various phases of the self-life, such as self-esteem, self-confidence and self-gratification. [Each of these qualities must be sanctified for spiritual use.] All of these would constitute a strong gate or door, preventing the Lord from taking the place that He would in our heart. The bolt that holds this gates…is UNBELIEF. Perhaps the gate seems heavy, and we have sought to open it in vain because the bolt of unbelief has held it so firmly. It has scarcely seemed possible to us that this gate could be swung aside to give our great King free access, and unlimited control.
The Lord desires not a partial control in our hearts…
The Lord is really anxious to have us lift the gates and permit Him to come in”…
Convention Report Sermons, 1915, pg 12-14; Brother EF Crist: Our Spiritual Development (Thanks Sister Rosalie!)
We promise the Lord total access to our lives when we surrendered our lives to Him in consecration.
We spend the rest of our lives opening the gates.
What keeps us from opening these gates immediately? What do we fear? To some extent we may not be aware of what we have not yet surrendered. This is revealed and made plain as we face the spiritual challenges in our lives. If there is any holding back due to fear, it helps to realize who we are opening the gates to: the LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
He is the God who keeps His promises, mighty to deliver.
Who is the King of Glory? Jesus represents the God of Israel. God is the Lord of all the hosts of heaven and earth, and Jesus has been given all power in heaven and in earth.
There is no conflict or challenge beyond their ability.
In Song of Solomon 5:2 Jesus is described as knocking on the door of his beloved’s home. “A voice! My beloved was knocking: ‘Open to me, my sister, my darling, My dove, my perfect one!’ ” Perhaps John had these verses in mind as he wrote to the Church of Laodicea. His beloved describes herself as ‘asleep, but my heart was awake.’ She delays responding to him with two excuses. “I have taken off my dress, how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet, how can I dirty them again?” Song of Solomon 5:3 Whatever excuses we have for not responding to the invitations of our Bridegroom are shortsighted, similar to the quality of excuses cited in Luke 14:16-20.
Sleepiness and delay result in spiritual hardship. This is part of the warning to the Laodicean stage of the Church. Revelation 3:15-19 His beloved one finally does open the door, but he is not there. She searches for him and is struck and wounded by the watchmen of the city. The message she wishes him to hear is ‘I am faint with love.’ Song of Solomon 5:8 (This is the same expression as in Song of Solomon 2:5, translated in LXX as ‘wounded by love.’ (Soncino) Perhaps she wants him to know: ‘My love for you is strong, and I am willing to go through challenges that wound me because of that love. I must find you.’
The lesson for us is to be fully awake and aware, to listen for the knock of his callings in our everyday experiences, to not delay to meet him in fellowship, study and prayer, to be ready to join him in journey and service. It is our privilege to make the time and to seize the opportunity of the moment in response to his invitations. There are opportunities to express his love, to discover his truth for ourselves, to brighten the lives of others, to share the joy of his cause. But if we don’t open the door to him each day, we may miss the opportunity of his companionship, the key that unlocks the potential of every opportunity.
“Do not delay.
The golden moments fly.” Longfellow
Let the King of Glory In!
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” (Psalm 24:7-9 KJV)
“We might understand that the Lord here declares His willingness to take full control in our hearts and lives if we will lift certain gates which may have debarred His entrance in the comprehensive sense in which He would occupy. We might think of these gates as representing the various phases of the self-life, such as self-esteem, self-confidence and self-gratification. [Each of these qualities must be sanctified for spiritual use.] All of these would constitute a strong gate or door, preventing the Lord from taking the place that He would in our heart. The bolt that holds this gates…is UNBELIEF. Perhaps the gate seems heavy, and we have sought to open it in vain because the bolt of unbelief has held it so firmly. It has scarcely seemed possible to us that this gate could be swung aside to give our great King free access, and unlimited control.
The Lord desires not a partial control in our hearts…
The Lord is really anxious to have us lift the gates and permit Him to come in”…
Convention Report Sermons, 1915, pg 12-14; Brother EF Crist: Our Spiritual Development (Thanks Sister Rosalie!)
We promise the Lord total access to our lives when we surrendered our lives to Him in consecration.
We spend the rest of our lives opening the gates.
What keeps us from opening these gates immediately? What do we fear? To some extent we may not be aware of what we have not yet surrendered. This is revealed and made plain as we face the spiritual challenges in our lives. If there is any holding back due to fear, it helps to realize who we are opening the gates to: the LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
He is the God who keeps His promises, mighty to deliver.
Who is the King of Glory? Jesus represents the God of Israel. God is the Lord of all the hosts of heaven and earth, and Jesus has been given all power in heaven and in earth.
There is no conflict or challenge beyond their ability.
In Song of Solomon 5:2 Jesus is described as knocking on the door of his beloved’s home. “A voice! My beloved was knocking: ‘Open to me, my sister, my darling, My dove, my perfect one!’ ” Perhaps John had these verses in mind as he wrote to the Church of Laodicea. His beloved describes herself as ‘asleep, but my heart was awake.’ She delays responding to him with two excuses. “I have taken off my dress, how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet, how can I dirty them again?” Song of Solomon 5:3 Whatever excuses we have for not responding to the invitations of our Bridegroom are shortsighted, similar to the quality of excuses cited in Luke 14:16-20.
Sleepiness and delay result in spiritual hardship. This is part of the warning to the Laodicean stage of the Church. Revelation 3:15-19 His beloved one finally does open the door, but he is not there. She searches for him and is struck and wounded by the watchmen of the city. The message she wishes him to hear is ‘I am faint with love.’ Song of Solomon 5:8 (This is the same expression as in Song of Solomon 2:5, translated in LXX as ‘wounded by love.’ (Soncino) Perhaps she wants him to know: ‘My love for you is strong, and I am willing to go through challenges that wound me because of that love. I must find you.’
The lesson for us is to be fully awake and aware, to listen for the knock of his callings in our everyday experiences, to not delay to meet him in fellowship, study and prayer, to be ready to join him in journey and service. It is our privilege to make the time and to seize the opportunity of the moment in response to his invitations. There are opportunities to express his love, to discover his truth for ourselves, to brighten the lives of others, to share the joy of his cause. But if we don’t open the door to him each day, we may miss the opportunity of his companionship, the key that unlocks the potential of every opportunity.
“Do not delay.
The golden moments fly.” Longfellow
