Generation Builders Magazine 2016

unfortunate position of being locked outside, having lost your
keys! You hammer on the door, trying to get someone’s attention,
hoping someone will answer. How foolish would it be to do that
if you already had the keys! You could open up the door and walk
straight in.
Many believers treat prayer like they are beggars, shivering in
the cold, hammering away, trying to get God’s attention. When
we realise that Jesus has already given us the keys and we have
access to an open door it changes the way we approach prayer.
When I started working at Bethel church in Barnsley in 2001
one of the first things they gave me was a copy of the keys.
That meant I had access to the church any time day or night. If
I wanted to, I could enter the church at 3.00 am. If the police
stopped me I could show them that I had the keys and they knew
I had a legal right of entry. When I left that church in 2014, I had
to hand my keys back. Now I am restricted to accessing that
building only when it is open to the public. It doesn’t matter that
I was there 13 years. It doesn’t matter that I know the pastor. I
don’t have the keys, so if I enter without permission I am a thief.
The church will never pray correctly and never be victorious,
praying like it doesn’t deserve to pray. But when we understand
that we have the keys to God’s Kingdom and can access His
throne room any time, day or night, we have discovered a
powerful truth!
The Master Key
A number of years ago I was ministering in the nation of Zambia.
On the last day we were flying home and
needed to leave the hotel very early in
the morning. I contacted reception the
night before and asked them to give me
an early morning wake up call. The next
morning I woke up suddenly and looking
at my watch, I realised they had forgotten
to call me! I had only a few minutes to get
downstairs. Quickly dressing I grabbed my
bags and went to the door handle. Disaster struck as I pulled it,
the handle fell off in my hand with the door still locked! I began
to shout, but it would do no good as even if my friends heard me,
they only had keys for their doors.
Eventually I got someone’s attention and a porter came with
something very special. He had a master key to the hotel. It was
the key that opened up every door! He quickly used that key to
let me out.
Notice that Jesus, spoke about the “keys” to the Kingdom, plural.
There are many keys in the Kingdom. But hidden in the Word of
God, is a master key. This is a key that opens up any and every
door and it is a key that God longs for His Church to discover.
This key is called the key of David. Jesus spoke about this key in
Revelation 3v7: “These are the words of him who is holy and
true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can
shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”
See that whatever He opens remains open. This shows us that
not only is the Key of David a master key that opens every door,
but also it brings permanent breakthrough. Many times in life
we see the same old problems reoccurring. But the key of David
enables a permant breakthrough. Things open and shift and
remain that way. Not only does the key of David open things,
it also shuts the door. We need to shut the door to sickness,
negativity, unbelief, bad habits, doubt, fear and so many other
things, in our lives. The believer that has the key of David is able
to do this.
What is the key of David?
The key of David
enables permanent
breakthrough
I believe that in naming this master key after King David, the Holy Spirit
is pointing us to the life of David. There are two distinguishing marks of
the life of David. Number one – He was a worshipper. Number two – He
was a pursuer of God’s presence.
This is also where our victory lies. In being a believer that puts on the
garments of praise and boldly and passionately lifts up the name of
Jesus; we are given the keys of victory. And when like David we say
“My heart says of you, seek His face; your face Lord I will seek” (Psalm
63v1), we find the master key that gives us access to keys to Kingdom
breakthrough.
Several months ago I lost the spare key to my car and couldn’t find
it anywhere. That car was being sold and the new owner insisted on
having the spare key. Faced with the prospect of knocking loads of
money from the agreed price I was in a panic and looked all over the
house and couldn’t find it anywhere. I went to bed that evening and
prayed saying “Lord, you know where that key is, you need to tell me”.
As soon as I woke up, the Lord told me where it was, in a very very
obscure place, but I picked it up straight away. The lesson - I worried
and stressed and couldn’t find that key, but as soon as I prayed, the key
was there. Easy.
Here is what God said: “Many of my people are faced with closed
doors, they are hammering on the door trying to get it to open and
are begging for the keys. Others once knew what it was to live with the
open door but now all doors have closed and there is a panic that the
keys seem to have been lost.
There are keys that open up doors to finance,
ministry opportunities, family being saved,
marriages being restored. There are keys
to abundance, joy, peace and deliverance.
For church leaders there are keys to new
buildings, keys to your city and community.
For evangelists there are keys to nations,
regions and miracles. As long as you stress,
panic, strategies and try to find the key to your breakthrough in your
own strength, the way will remain hidden. But in my presence, keys are
found. The key to your breakthrough, the key to your open door.
For the Lord says “I am the One who holds the key of David, what I
open no one can shut and what I shut no one can open”. The name
David means “Beloved”. As you walk in the reality of being the Beloved
of God, as you embrace your identity as His Bride, as you rest, enjoy
and abide in His presence, and live in the simplicity of being a lover of
Jesus, it is in that place that keys are found. Christ still gives the keys to
the kingdom to His Church, but not the Church that walks in the flesh,
but the Church that walks in the Spirit.
I see in the Spirit, keys, lost keys, abandoned keys, keys long forgotten,
but keys ready to be found and put into locks that will open with
ease to those who have the keys. There is a door of blessing, a door
of breakthrough, a door of destiny and Christ has the keys. The Lord
urges His people to go back to His presence, back to the place of prayer
and fasting, back to the intimacy of worship, become His beloved and
find and pick up the keys He intends for you to have.”
Heaven on earth
In Psalm 62, David says “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld
your power and your glory.” Have you ever stopped to think that under
the Old covenant David wasn’t actually allowed access into the glory of
God? Only the High Priest could access God’s glory and he only once a
year.
Yet because David was a worshipper and a pursuer of God’s presence,
he found the keys to a dispensation that would only come later, after
the death of Jesus.