Picture: Waiting For The Word (CC)
O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that the mountains may be shaking before you. Isa 64:1
Isaiah sees the troubles his people are going through and calls on God: If you only let, if you only would.
If you only broke open the heavens. If you only had made a pathway, a doorway between our worlds. Between the supernatural, the heavens, and our world down here. Had you only come down to help.
In a German translation there is one additional word that gives me hope. The word is already. It says there
Would that thou hadst rent the heavens already, hadst come down already. Isa 63:19
This word already turns the verse into a prophecy, expressing hope and expectancy. Isaiah expected God to tear open the heavens, tear down the borders, the limitations between these two realms, and to break into our reality. He even knew that it would happen, and could hardly wait. He wanted it to be now.
We often even today yearn and cry for this breakthrough. But I believe that it already happened. This prayer is answered. This prophecy fulfilled.
Immediately upon coming up out of the water, he saw heaven torn open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. Mar 1:10
The baptism of Jesus. The word translated to tear open is also used in Matthew 27 twice to describe what happened with the veil to the holy of holies and the grave stones when Jesus died. The curtain was torn from top to bottom, and the rocks split. This word does not describe the mere parting of some clouds. Heaven was torn. And the Spirit came down.
The consequence: an open heaven.
Communication between God and his Spirit never seized. It never can be broken. Both of them, together with Jesus, live, think, feel as a unity, united, as one. No power on this earth can stand between God and his Spirit. Not even one that is not from this earth. Agree?
The consequence: heaven over Jesus stayed open.
On Pentecost, the Spirit came over the church. He lives in you and me.
The consequence: heaven is open over you.
The only thing that can hinder communication between us and God, is when we do not honor the Spirit. Not to give him freedom in our lives, worse even, not to invite him into our lives, is what prevents this free, open heaven. This ever lasting and always open pathway to God.
Let’s slaughter a holy cow. When our prayers are not answered, one possible reason we usually state is the story of Daniel: when Daniel prayed, Gabriel had to fight the prince of Persia to get the answer to Daniel – and was only able to leave when Michael, the prince of Israel, took over. But if heaven is open, does this still happen? I dare say no.
Why in Daniel’s time? Isaiah’s prayer had not been answered yet.
Right that moment, when the Spirit broke open the heavens and descended like a dove upon Jesus, that moment the father acknowledged Jesus as his son before men. It’s the same with us. In salvation we become children of God. In the baptism of the Spirit lies the acknowledgement as sons. God acknowledged us, but we need time to learn to believe it. This is a process. It takes considerable efforts of persuasion.
God works with and in us and through people around us to convince us of the truth that we are his sons. That heaven is open above us. That with God, everything is possible. That we only have to ask, and he will give us our desires. This is why God reinforced his acknowledgement once again, on the mount of transfiguration, in the time of Tabernacles, towards the end of the process. Not for Jesus, for us. And this time, we believe.
God is a father. He truly is the prototype, the concept, the archetype of the best father, the perfect father. His greatest desire is to see his sons prosper, to see them well, to see them grow into the manifestation of his image – for them to become like him. He wants to overwhelm us with blessings. He disciplines us so his blessings won’t kill us. He prepares us to live in abundance. He builds us up so we believe and know that we are his sons.
So we believe that heavens are open over us.
Do you believe that?
