Enlightened Hope

Have you ever experienced or seen a security system where when you enter the right code it says “ACCESS GRANTED”.  Maybe I am getting a little old fashioned.  I mean, it used to be a code.  A few years back it was your fingerprint that gave you access.  Nowadays the latest thing is the eyeprint to give you access.

I want to share a verse and a revelation.  It comes from Ephesians 2:18…

For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit

So let’s make things clear.

We have acccess to whom? = We have ACCESS TO THE FATHER.  Who?  OUR HEAVENLY FATHER!

Through whom? = THROUGH HIM.  Who?  JESUS!   Jesus is the gate or the door!

What is the requirement (or the password)? = BY ONE SPIRIT.  Who?  THE HOLY SPIRIT!

There is one more thing.  We can have the correct password and we can have the door open but we have to walk through that door.

What is that walk?  FAITH!  Romans 5:1-2 says…

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we  have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access BY FAITH into this grace in which we now stand

We have ACCESS TO THE FATHER!  WOOOO HOOOO! We can come into the presence of the King!  I believe this is why Paul says in Ephesians 2:6…

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus

But aren’t we still down here on earth?  Yes but can’t you see, through prayer and faith there is no longer any barrier or emnity between us and our Heavenly Father.  So, in reality, through prayer and faith we are IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING.  We are seated with Jesus IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING – communing with them!

Read the whole of Ephesians chapter 2.  We are no longer under the wrath of God.  Jesus is our peace.  Jesus has destroyed the barrier between us and God and us and our brothers and given us ACCESS TO THE FATHER.

Ephesians 2
2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature  and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. NIV