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Open Heaven
What Is An Open Heaven
Bill
Johnson
An “Open Heaven” is where there’s
a nearness of Heaven to earth.
There’s
a sense of presence, there’s a sense of clarity of thought, of heart, and mind
that is unusual.
People
think for themselves within an open heaven and aren’t influenced by the spirit
of the day or the spirit that seems to have dominance in a certain geographical
area.
An open heaven is something that
was prophesied in Isaiah 64:1.
It’s a prayer, a prophecy with an intercessory cry,
where the prophet cries out “Oh
that You would rend the heavens and come down”.
Here’s
this cry for God to tear the Heavens open and to come down.
Faith is an anticipation for
what’s about to happen.
The
best way to increase the effect of the open Heaven over our lives until it
touches an entire city, is to simply steward what we’ve already been given.
If
you and I live with a continual awareness of the darkness that exists over our
city, we will eventually interpret that darkness as a darkness that is over us.
But,
what would it be like if we woke up every morning with a confidence that over
us is an open Heaven, what would that do?
It
changes what we’re aware of. When you have a shift in your knowledge of what’s
in your account, you’re going to write bigger checks.
When
our awareness is on what we have in God already, and when that awareness
increases, there’s greater odds that we’re going to take greater risks.
When we turn to the New
Testament, we see something happen in Mark 1, that I never realized until a few
years ago while I was studying the baptism of Jesus.
“At that time
Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out
of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him
like a dove.” Mark 1:9-10
The
gospel of John expounds that last phrase to “the
spirit descended upon Him like a dove and remained.”
That
phrase “and remained” is critical for
us, because the Spirit of God rested upon Him, and never had a reason to
retreat because of His behavior, attitude, conduct, thought life or any other
reason.
One of the things that God is
championing in recent years is that the Spirit of God is in us for
our sake, but He comes upon us for others to be impacted for eternity.
The
Holy Spirit is in us for us, but when He comes upon us it’s to alter the
environment, it’s to help us operate in power so that the people that we serve
are impacted for eternity and that’s the mandate.
We
see Jesus operating in that, where the Spirit of God came upon Him in the form
of a dove and remained.
Jesus
modeled how it’s done – baptized in water, the heavens were ripped open, the
Spirit of God came upon Him, and then He said, “I do
what I see my Father do, I say what I hear my Father say.”
You
do not see a reaction to the darkness around Him, you see a response to the
Father.
So my prayer is that God
would increase the awareness of the spirit that is already within us, and my
cry is that as our anointing increases and our awareness of His Spirit
increases, that entire cities would benefit from the Open Heavens over His
people.
Bill Johnson is the senior leader of
Bethel Church, Redding.
This is a transcription of a message Bill taught at
Bethel Church. For more of Bill’s sermons check out bethel.tv
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