An Open Heaven

“I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

John 1:51 (NIV)

Recently I was in a Sunday evening church meeting, and during worship looked up towards the ceiling with my eyes closed. To my surprise, I saw blue sky and stars, and I knew I was in a place where heaven was open. The place was Bethel Church, Redding, California. But I am certain God wants to bring an open heaven to my home city of Mankato, Minnesota, and to many other places as well.

What is an open heaven? This website is titled “In the School of Christ,” and T. Austin-Sparks devotes more than a chapter to this topic. For him, an open heaven means an ever-growing learning of Jesus Christ. This means learning by experience, not learning by book-reading or sermon-listening (although certainly we can experience Jesus through a book or a sermon). We could also call this “walking in the anointing.”

Well, what do all these spiritual-sounding words really mean? In practical terms, an open heaven should usher in the kind of atmosphere and works that Jesus offered when he spoke the above words in red to Nathanael. In another gospel, Jesus said he came to preach good news, heal the sick, and set the captives free. Under an open heaven we will see many people saved, healed, and delivered. Not a few, as we see now, but many, even an entire city.

And what about angels ascending and descending? Throughout the Bible angels bring messages from God to his people, and angels carry out God’s activities on the earth. Under an open heaven angels will be very active. In the same meeting where I closed my eyes and saw a starry sky, I also saw feathers floating in the air – tiny ones, almost impossible to catch. Does that mean angels were present? Well, I know angels were present, because they go with us everywhere.

Bringing an Open Heaven to Mankato

The picture above is of northern lights (aurora borealis) in Alaska. I could not find pictures that do justice to Jacob’s vision in Genesis 18, which Jesus references in John 1, above. Surely there is vivid light, glory, and beauty when the heavens are open. But how do we get there? Is it difficult to bring an open heaven to our city? I don’t know. I only know what I have learned in The School of Christ. This is what the Holy Spirit has taught me about an open heaven.

In late 2002 I was at a conference in Missouri with my pastor and a good friend. We went to 6 am prayer with a few others. In the course of our prayer time, I felt certain God was telling me to pursue passion, purity, and prayer. These were not new themes to me. But I set my heart to pursue these purposes with greater earnestness. Sometime in late 2006 God added a fourth pursuit to the list – power. Certainly other words could be chosen that don’t start with the letter “p.” Passion is loving God with all your heart. Purity could be called character. Power could be called anointing. But I’m using the words the Lord has given me. My reading since late 2006 has confirmed these as significant themes for me, for this time.

Passion

All of us are taught from an early age to “love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.” And those of us who are sincere Christians try to do that, to the best of our ability. But there comes a time when God gives us the opportunity to go beyond loving God as religious duty. I often think about a New Years Eve party several years ago where we went around the circle saying what was the most important event or accomplishment of that year. When my turn came, I said, “I think this is the year I fell in love with Jesus.”

Many others have pursued this theme: Gene Edwards in The Divine Romance, John Eldredge in The Sacred Romance, and others. John Piper’s motto, expressed in Desiring God and elsewhere is this: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” All our efforts to establish purity in our lives, or to pray fervent and effectual prayers must be undergirded and sustained by a strong passion for Jesus.

Purity

This was a primary theme of Promise Keepers, because all of us, especially men, face strong battles in this arena. Certainly the theme of purity begins with sexual purity, but that is only the beginning. One with pure motives is free of selfish ambition on the job and in the church. Purity dictates financial integrity in our dealings with business and government. Ultimately purity means there is no mixture, nothing to contaminate the anointing (thought, word, and action of the Holy Spirit) in our lives. None of us is ever perfect in this regard, but our lives should evidence greater purity with every passing year.

Prayer

Prayer is what brings heaven to earth. Most of us struggle to pray as much as we believe God wants us to pray. But I believe God is wooing many sons and daughters deeper into prayer in this time and place. Sometimes this is personal prayer, in our “prayer closet,” which may be driving down the highway. Other times it is corporate. One of my favorite prayer times is mornings in front of our wood stove at 6 am with my wife. Larger corporate prayer meetings have even more power of agreement operating, and we are seeing several churches in Mankato move toward significant corporate prayer.

Many excellent books have been written on prayer. I’ll just quote one verse that may seem unrelated, but to me is highly related: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NIV). To me this is a promise that as I fall in love with God and cooperate with him in purifying my life, he will answer my prayers.

Power

Passion, purity, and prayer are wonderful blessings to me, but what about my friends and neighbors, my brothers and sisters? Every blessing we get from God is meant to be given away, so he can give us more. All of us want to help others find salvation, healing, and deliverance. The challenge is to have anointing or power when we speak or act.

I have personally felt God wanting me to pray for supernatural healing in others. Several years ago my wife and I attended the Minnesota Prophetic Conference near Minneapolis-St Paul. As we left the meeting late one evening, one of the leaders broke away and stopped us halfway to the door. His name was Ian Andrews, and he wanted to pray for us to receive the gift of knowledge and gifts of healing. Of course we said yes. But it’s been a long time getting to the place God wants us.

Conclusion

If you want a Bible verse on these four points, try this one. James 5:16 (NLT) says: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.” Here is a slight paraphrase: The passionate prayer of a pure person has great power and wonderful results.

Although I’ve outlined these four points in a sequence, they don’t necessarily happen that way. A baby Christian can pray in power for someone and see the results. Long after we move in power for healing God will still work on purity in our lives. But every step in each dimension reinforces the other dimensions. There’s a beautiful synergy, and it results from letting the Holy Spirit teach you today what he thinks you need to experience today.