In considering the things that God has provided for us, it is very important that we talk about the treasury, the vault where all the resources are stored.
As we enter into a Scriptural study, we will begin to understand what spiritual access really means, and we will become aware of the fact that we have the key.
Probably one of the greatest mysteries in the Scriptures is the truth concerning this access and what we actually have access to. Once we see how God has opened the door, I think we will all change our thinking from the idea that God has to do everything sovereignly, to the realization that He has made the provision and opened the door, giving us access to all of His provision, and it is our responsibility and our initiative to get into those provisions, to appropriate them, and learn how to use them.
First of all, it is very important that we understand what the word “access” means, what it means that we have access into Him, into the fullness of what He has provided. I want to show you, in a very limited way, what God has in the treasury, what is stored in the vault, the access that you have, and what you should begin to believe God to see manifested in your life.
Revelation 3:7–13: And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
‘Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them to come and bow down at your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.’
It is very important that you grasp this truth. God says, “You keep My Word of perseverance, and I will give you immunity from the things that are going to happen on the earth; I will give you access to the blessings that I have for you.”
‘I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, in order that no one take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it any more; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”
Large aircraft plants and other factories that manufacture goods for the government place great emphasis on security. Each employee wears a badge, and only those who have the badge are allowed to enter. The guard at the gate must clear everyone and make sure that only those wearing the badge are admitted.
Inside the offices there are files and vaults to which only a few employees have access. This is very similar to God’s arrangement. The Lord says, “Why, you dear people who love Me—I’m going to write on you the name of My God, and the name of the new Jerusalem. I’m going to put My new name upon you.” That is your badge or mark of identification, giving you access right into the vault. The treasury that is restricted to others is accessible to you.
This important truth is found in many Scriptures. The Lord says in Revelation 3:7, “I have the key of David.” The expression “the key of David” does not occur very often in the Scriptures. The only place that gives the real vision of its meaning is the twenty-second chapter of Isaiah.
Our passage from Revelation 3 is quoting this prophecy of Isaiah about the key of David and about opening and closing doors.
In order to understand the book of Revelation, you must understand that there are literally hundreds of illusions to and quotations from the Old Testament that are made alive in the phraseology of the book of Revelation. The many truths that are taken from Old Testament Scriptures and revealed in the book of Revelation are phenomenal.
As we read Isaiah 22:20–24, recognize the fact that this describes a contemporary situation, which had to do with a treasurer who was at fault. Because he was inefficient, he was removed from office and in his place Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, was chosen to be the treasurer. He was clothed with the tunic which was the official garment of the treasurer, and the key of David was laid upon his shoulder. Referring to this prophecy of Isaiah about a treasurer being appointed, the book of Revelation speaks about Jesus Christ as the true treasurer of all the riches of God.
“Then it will come about in that day, that I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and I will clothe him with your tunic, and tie your sash securely about him. I will entrust him with your authority, and he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of Judah.
“Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, when he opens no one will shut, when he shuts no one will open. And I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, and he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house. So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and issue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars.”
The man who had the key of David literally controlled the storehouse containing the vast wealth that David had amassed for the building of the temple. The gold and the other precious material used in the construction of the temple is estimated to have equaled between two and five billion dollars in our money. There were shields and vessels made of solid gold and the entire inside of the temple was overlaid with gold. This fabulous amount of wealth that David had accumulated was stored in a vault under strict security, and only the key of David would open the door. The key of David must have been very large and intricately made. In those days they probably had nothing like a combination lock, so this must have been a massive key to be strong enough to open the heavy door of the vault.
In the days of Isaiah, God said, “I give this man Eliakim the authority to open the national treasury and no one can shut it. And when he shuts the door, no one will be able to open it. I’m going to make him like a father to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. He has the authority.”
Notice also another promise, “And I will drive him like a peg in a sure place.” King James translates this “nail,” but “peg” is a better translation. This is a large peg, for everything hangs on it: the little vessels and the big vessels—teacups, little bowls and jars—everything hangs upon this one peg.
Everything hangs on our Lord, the son of David. In Revelation He says, “I am He who has the key of David.” Jesus is saying, “All things that the Father hath are mine. Everything in heaven and earth has been committed unto Me. I’m the one who opens, and no one can shut. I shut and no one opens. As for you, I have set before you an open door.”
If you go into that huge vault and come out with a penny, you’re a fool. It’s all very legally yours. You’re an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. We will suffer with Him, but we also have access to His huge storehouse.
This is leading up to a fact that is going to be very disturbing. Most of you do not actually realize at this point how much is available to you, what you really have total access to.
If you realized it, you would see how true the word is: “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2). You don’t take advantage of your privileges. None of us do.
We are constantly concerned about our needs, and our prayers are always rather limited. There’s limitation in our thinking. We’re afraid to ask audaciously of the Lord and to reach into the fullness that He has provided. Even though the Lord says, “It’s all yours,” somehow we believe there is some merit in taking just enough to maintain a spiritual starvation diet. We expect just enough deliverance to keep us from being unmercifully harassed and oppressed. But to enter into the fullness and to believe that there is something more than that available goes beyond the thinking of the average believer.
We read the beautiful promises in the Word: “All things are yours,” and “all things are possible to him that believeth”; and yet they seem to be promises that we are not prepared for. We’re not prepared in our thinking to accept the bountiful provision of the Lord. I wish we could change that right now! Oh, I wish we could change our way of thinking and actually believe that all things are ours.
How are we going to get out of this beggar’s stage and move into the place that belongs to the sons of God? When will we finally do violence to this unbelief, to this acceptance of limitation as far as God’s intention toward us is concerned?
His dealings upon us may be very drastic. He may chasten us severely. But He only does it so that we’ll become partakers of His righteousness. He’s only doing it so that there will be a tremendous release to us away from our limitations and into His fullness.
He deals drastically with this attitude within our heart that holds us back from the fullness of God. He will have to continue working on us until it finally dawns upon us that He wants us to get out of our lethargy and aggressively reach in.
The Lord says, “I am the treasurer, and I am giving you access to the treasury. I’m opening the door, and nobody can shut it. When I lock the door, nobody gets in. I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”
God’s treasury is the miracle treasury of all time. It can never be exhausted. No matter what you take out of it, there is still the same amount remaining. Never has there been a vault like this miracle vault.
Suppose you would come and say, “I’m going to exhaust everything that God has,” and run off with all of it. If someone were to come immediately after that and look in the vault, he would find just as much as there was before you entered in.
You can no more exhaust God’s provision than you can exhaust God. Don’t think you’re going to make God impoverished by the fact that you ask large. He likes that. He said, “Ask, that your joy may be made full” (John 16:24). “I’ve come that you might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). There’s a great deal more for you that you have any idea of.
Oh, this idea of living on cheese and crackers when your ticket provides for three tasty meals a day. You probably know the story of the poor immigrant who had barely enough money to purchase his ticket on the boat. In order to have food for the trip, he brought along a supply of cheese and crackers and this was all he ate, day after day. Finally he decided, “I’m so tired of this food. I must have one good meal.” So he asked the steward, “How much does it cost to buy a meal in the dining room?” The steward told him, “Why, nothing. All meals are included in the price of your ticket.” Now if you eat only cheese and crackers, it’s your fault; you can have the filet mignon. You can have everything. It’s such a tragedy that people could have so much that God has for them, and yet they are content with so little.
Sooner or later this walk will have to come to the place where we break through with that urgent appropriation, not as though we were trying to convince God to give it, but with earnest appropriation that reaches out and does violence to the limitations upon our thinking, upon our appropriation, and dares, with audacious faith, to move in and claim God’s provision in the name of the Lord, believing it is for us. The problem is with us. We’re thinking like paupers—when we’re the heirs of God. He has the key, and He’s opened the door.
He has given us the key. Jesus says in Matthew 16:19:“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
How are we to understand that verse of Scripture? We have the keys, and before we ever put the key in the lock, God has already done it. Whatever we loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Whatever we bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.
Those are marvelous keys: they never stick in the lock, they never jam. The door opens instantly. It’s like the door at the supermarket: the minute you step on the mat on the outside, the door flies open. God has given us the keys and the minute we reach for the marvelous blessings of the Lord, the door will be open. That is the way God works.
The women who were walking up the hill on the day after the Passover asked each other, “Who is going to roll away the stone so we can get to see our dead Jesus?” They didn’t realize that they would find the stone already rolled away and that Jesus would be alive and gone. So many times we lament and back off from things that are really ours in the Lord. We anticipate problems that will never happen, because God has made a provision for another answer for us.
The devil builds up fears in your heart, and when you accept them with a kind of negative faith, you begin to attract to yourself the things you fear. If you would only begin to anticipate the fullness and the blessing and the release of the Lord, how much better off you would be.
It is very difficult for us in this particular day, for we have been conditioned to restrictions. The days when freedom and liberty were a part of people’s thinking are pretty much gone. Government restrictions regiment our life more than we realize. Incidents that we read of in the Bible could not be fulfilled today without direct government interference and persecution. For example, the sanitation and health departments would have been there at the feeding of the five thousand, making sure we had the proper permits to use the wilderness area. Imagine how the environmentalists would have protested those five thousand people trampling down the weeds in the wilderness. Bureaucracy is adding more controls and red tape every day, and very soon those of us who want to serve God will face many restrictions. To stand and raise our hands in worship will be considered a crime. Knowing that we have access to God’s vault will make all the difference.
People apply the principles of having access by the use of various phrases: “I can get in,” meaning, “I have a key”; “I can get it for you,” meaning they have a source where they can buy it wholesale; “I can reach it”; “I can open it for you”; “I can fix it for you”; “I don’t have any money, but I can write you a check.”
In this day and age many things are happening in the world. A recent article written by a learned man points out some interesting facts about the desperate situation of our planet and its future. In the past, civilizations declined slowly, through centuries, but now a nation can go into eclipse practically overnight. There is an interaction that affects other nations, and this is the disturbing thing we see happening now. It is calling for drastic changes but no one seems to be able to do anything about it. In this present civilization, we are creating serious situations with our garbage and nuclear fallout. Our environmentalists refuse to let us produce nuclear reactors to generate electricity for our own use; it appears we’d rather have power shortages. But we manufacture them for other nations and then let those nations ship us their radioactive materials to dispose of. While we sit here in the dark, literally, we could die because of the radioactive garbage from the rest of the world. How stupid we are!
Who’s going to do anything about these conditions? Not the legislators—they’re too busy investigating petty matters. Not the police—their hands are tied. The scientists can’t do anything, neither can the philosophers or religious leaders. The statesmen and industrialists are helpless. Only we have the key.
What key do we have? The key to judgment of the earth. The key to bind, the key to loose, the key to create. We have the key to become anything on God’s earth that we can envision. We have the key of change. We have the key of dropping off our heredity and our nature. We have the key to liberate all creation. That’s quite a key! All of this is in the vault. I’ve set before you an open door. These are the things that you can walk in. You have access to them. Marvelous! Look around. There are treasures unbelievable. This is what you have the key to. This is in the treasury. And it’s very legally yours.
What is in the vault? In the vault there is authority over principalities and powers. We can bring them down just like a farmer shoots down the hawk that is killing his chickens. We have authority over the futility of creation. Drastic changes are needed. Traffic jams tie up traffic for hours. About five o’clock in the afternoon our freeways become endless parking lots. We have authority. We can do something about it. You may say, “I can’t do anything but try to hang onto my victory when I’m on the freeway.” You can go further than that. We don’t know what we can loose and what we can bind. We don’t realize how we can rise and prophesy against these situations.
God has to deal with us, not the world. He will deal with the world when we understand that the authority was committed to us to deal with them. How about the kings and nobles of the earth? Our heritage is to bind them with chains and fetters of iron (Psalm 149:8, 9). This is the heritage of the people of the Lord. That’s your privilege. You have authority over sickness, over spiritual oppression, over bondages, over death, and over Hades. He has the keys for all of it.
Here’s the answer to limitations. Here’s the answer to your stupidity. If you are wise enough to be aware of your ignorance, then ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, for His wisdom. If you are stumbling around in circles, ignorant of His will, this is your answer. To bring meaningfulness to your life, we must be in tune with God’s plan and purpose for us. This is the answer to fear and torment, to the things in your nature that are wrong. It’s the answer for changes that we want to see. In this vault are the keys to answers to your prayers, answers for your need.
Part of His provision is in the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Believe for them and loose them in the name of the Lord. Appropriate the gifts of the Spirit. Use God’s omnipotence to blast the demons into the pit. Use His wisdom. If you are being defeated in some problems because Satan bullies you around and gets your goat, use God’s longsuffering and kindness and meekness. Put on His bulletproof vest and you won’t be so vulnerable. Put on His righteousness as a breastplate.
One of these days when we learn who we are and what we can do, the demons will be a lot more respectful. They will realize that we have access to all things that pertain to life and godliness, to all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. What a vault! It’s full of everything we need—not only a blessing for the moment, but a perfect present provision for every need, for all time, anywhere. You’re the only one who can shut the door on yourself. And what you imagine is a closed door is not really closed at all. God said, “I’ve set before you an open door.” It’s open. The door is open!
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ (it was given to Paul to tell us about these fantastic riches in the vault; they are unfathomable, too deep for us) and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery (this is the Kingdom administration) which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Ephesians 3:8–10.
Let me draw you a picture. Visualize these big principalities—so scary, so frightening, so intimidating—exercising their rule over things, creating steam rollers to mow man down, to squash him, to end him. Who can buck such a system? One principality says to another, “Everything is going all right, except—I can’t figure out what’s in that vault.” The other principality answers, “Yes, I’m worried about that too. You see that little fellow, Joe, over there? Look at that! The Lord opened the door for him. Maybe now we’ll see what’s happening. Well, let’s all get lined up here. We’ll take him when he comes out.” Now here comes little Joe. The principalities and powers say, “Let’s roar against him. Like a roaring lion we’ll devour him.” Little Joe says, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” P-o-o-o-o-o-sh, down they go! He administered the authority that was in the vault.
The wisdom of God, the great provision, the unfathomable riches of His grace, is all going to be made known to the rulers and principalities through the Church. God says, “Son, I’ve taken the sting out of Satan. Now you bruise him under your feet. Stomp on him!” Satan has been deceiving people and lousing them up for so many thousands of years that this is a kind of poetic justice on the part of God, as though He were saying to us, “You’ve been stomped on, you’ve been kicked around, but this is My plan: you stomp on him!” We look in the vault and there’s a sign hanging on the wall, signed by the management, that says, “Now it’s your turn. You have the key.”
This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access….Ephesians 3:11–12. You have bold and confident access to all these privileges and blessings that belong to you in the name of the Lord Jesus. We don’t believe in what God has done. I don’t think we realize the insidious brand of unbelief we have. We don’t realize how it is sapping away our privileges and our blessings from the Lord. It’s there without our knowing it. Ask God to deal with this unbelief. We know now what the treasure really means. We know what He has ordained for us to have.
You may have been struggling and struggling, but it wasn’t a struggle to get the blessing; you’ve been struggling with an unbelief in your spirit. Look how little faith you really have. When you hear a sermon, you con yourself into it. But when the first adverse circumstance comes along, you get discouraged and you despair. That’s not faith! That means you’re living by the inspiration of the moment. If the Word of God inspires you, you say that you have faith. If the circumstances discourage you, then you give up the promises of God. When will we assume our place in God?
When will we come into this glorious administration of these great riches that Ephesians talks about, and begin to believe God for it. It is God’s purpose to manifest His great wisdom to the rulers and authorities through us. You say, “The devil’s too smart for me.” Recognize that authority is more important than wisdom. Even when you don’t understand what is coming against you, just say, “I take dominion over it!” You may feel the enemy coming and hear him yapping. You don’t know whether there is one demon or a dozen, but you pick up a rock and throw it in the dark. The discernment is not necessary, just the authority to chuck the rock.
Lord, bring us to the place that we walk in the authority that is ours in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of how much revelation we have. Walk in and enforce the victory of the Lord. Principalities and powers will be groaning and shrieking. Rulers of this age are coming down. All of them are going to be sliding into the abyss and the memory of them will be blotted out for all eternity. It’s just important for us to know that we are to be a channel for God’s authority to be manifested. We don’t want to walk with any unbelief in our heart.
Let me give you one little word of caution. Even your response to this message may be a response that is inspirational and born just for the moment. You may feel like the children of Israel after they had spied out the land of Canaan. At first they were afraid to go in and take the land. After they had been rebuked and judged by God, they decided to do it anyway, moving in their own zeal and the inspiration of the moment, to their hurt. If this conditioning of unbelief were so easy to overcome that a little inspiration in a service and a revelation of truth would be enough to see it accomplished, a lot of people would have broken through to the fullness of what we are talking about. You will only walk in this to the extent that you do violence to your unbelief, repent over it, and seek God day after day, crying out to Him every time you’re aware of that conditioning of unbelief, asking Him not only to pull out the nail, but the nail hole as well—that thing in your thinking that still responds to the former doubts and fears.
I know this is important for you and I’m not trying to discourage you. I’m just trying to show you that you can make it. You can make this. It’s set before you. The door is opening. But there is a lot of conditioning of unbelief that has to be taken out. The disciples watched Jesus perform miracles, and yet we read that He marveled at their unbelief. They walked with Him, they slept with Him, they talked with Him day after day. They listened to Him, they saw His signs and His wonders—and yet He marveled at their unbelief.
We can’t even understand how deeply this unbelief is ingrained in the old nature. Let’s crucify it. Ask God to deal with it and to smite it down. We’re going to walk in God as we’re conditioned in faith, as we respond in faith to everything that happens to us. In everything we give thanks, in everything we worship. We will take no assault of Satan or anything that comes against us, except to glorify God that in this Satan is defeated. There must be something within us that believes this is just fantastically true to God’s Word. Don’t think, “Now, hop, skip, and jump, and by tomorrow it will all be working.” It will take you that long just to discover the superficial areas of unbelief.
Lord, open our hearts to this. What we prayed for, we’re going to have. But first of all, condition us, Lord, that we’ll not be discouraged by any of the opposition of the enemy, but that we’ll be a people determined, like Caleb and Joshua, who wholly follow the Lord. We’re going to believe for this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.