14.2 The Door of Entrance
Our first thought regarding entrance is the One entering and the moment, action, and manner of that entrance. We are also first concerned with the entrance of God into creation. Nonetheless, there are many other aspects of entrance, including the door, and that any person or thing can enter. You have a place or a room; someone that should be there is not yet there. Their arrival is anticipated. The Door opens, and that other, who was not inside the space, suddenly is very much inside the space, impacting all.
With God, the manner of entrance is the most important thing among several, followed by the purpose for now being in that space. Completing a purpose is always the end goal.
The Power Flowing Through. Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. – Paul invented a term for the entrance of God – the Ekenosis, out from emptiness and into visibility. The manner of the Ekenosis is lowliness of heart. Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4).
The Greek word translated into thanksgiving is eucharist, to speak good grace. God enters, speaking well of, speaking good words towards, everyone in the space (Ephesians 1:3). Knowing God is life; the entrance of God is power, but the manner of entrance is how we KNOW both life and power.
The Pathway Itself. Isaiah called the pathway itself “A Highway for God.” Yet here is how John saw the same thing. – I stand at the door and knock; if anyone should hear My voice and open the door, I will go in to him (Revelation 3:20). You see how God never forces His way in. The Door must be opened and He must be invited. Yet we are that Door and that Highway for God into creation.
There is no entrance for God except we be just like the Lord Jesus, meek and lowly of heart. Yes, God gave us hearts to rule, but God-rule means lifting others up. Our giving of thanks inside of and for the sake of all is God’s entrance through us into our world. Lowliness of heart is a power we have never considered.
Considering the Gospel Words. The concept of a “door” and the meaning of an “entrance” fill the Bible. In our search for the flow of Gospel Words, however, we must think also in terms of Acknowledging Response. If we respond with “Yes, Lord,” it means Jesus has entered as Lord. If we receive a “call,” it means that Voice has entered our knowing. If we ask, it means the answer to our request is already on its way. Our flow of words must consider all these entrances.
Then, I saw that every sacrifice in the outer court is featured at the Door into the Tabernacle. That Door is shown to be the primary feature to which everything in the outer court points. Jesus’ entrance into us and our entrance into Him are two sides of the same thing. The ruling thought is our bold proclamation of entrance which we already possess.
A Flow of Gospel Words. I will meet with you – offer of his own free will – enter the land to possess it – the King of glory shall come in – a doorkeeper in the House of God – Enter into His gates with thanksgiving – the entrance of Your word gives light – the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me – Prepare the way for the people – Prepare a highway for God – Follow Me – The Way by which you are led to Life – Enter into the joy of your Lord – All authority given, go therefore – It will be given, you will find – enter through great travail – Our manner of entry to you – Give thanks inside of everything – God always leads us – All things are out from God – God has placed inside of us the Word – God sent His Spirit into our hearts – Led and carried by the Spirit of God – Called according to His Purpose – Every good thing of Christ into you – Called inside of hope – Give thanks for the sake of all things – In lowliness of mind esteem one another as better.
He Himself called an invisible God into visibility – In outward appearance as a human, He humbled Himself – Gaining Christ – For which I was seized by Christ – The grace of God become visible, bringing Salvation – Be diligent to enter Rest – Hope enters the Presence behind the Veil – With His own Blood, He entered the Most Devoted once for all – The Word penetrates – All aware of God – Having already a free and bold proclamation of Entrance – God’s enabling presence carrying you – He came unto you – Gives authority to be conceived of God – Hear the voice of the Son of God – All whom the Father gives will come – I am the Door, enter by Me – I receive you towards Myself – I will appear to you – The Father and I will make our Home with you – The Father sends the Spirit – I chose you for Myself – I send you – He loved us and sent His Son – The Son is presently and actively come – I give the Tree of Life – Open the door, I will come in – Now has come the Salvation of God.
Acknowledging God as Father. Receiving, acknowledging, enjoying, these are the female side of entrance. Nonetheless, even though we speak of God as entering, God is forever invisible. His entrance is always through another who shows God as He is. This is what the living action of giving thanks, of speaking good grace towards everything in every step forward, is to God. In fact, giving thanks is the male action, for by it God enters into the knowing of everyone.
God as Father is God as Source. God enters through one who recognizes all sufficiency as coming out from God. A rebel pretends “to put self to death.” A son draws every part of self out from God as Source. “He humbled Himself” means God is my All-Sufficiency.
A Flow of Our Words. God, You are entering my world through my words and through the touch of my hands every moment. You are coming through me continuously. My heart is yours, Father. As I humble myself with You, so we together enter into the lives of my brothers and sisters. Your knowledge enters the lives of others everywhere I go.
Father, I ask because Your answer is already on its way. I am led by our Devoted Spirit, for there is no other. I give You thanks inside of all, for goodness always surrounds me. Father, Your Word flows through me, shaping me first by its mighty power and then going forth to bless and give life. You send me, and I rule inside of Life.
The Tension. You are in a room with many others, God enters that room. All eyes are on God. He walks up to you to speak. What does He say to you? What does He say about you? What is the manner and tone of His speaking? The answer to these questions will cause HOW everyone inside that space will define you forever. That is power. It is also tension. As sons birthed out from God, we possess that same power flowing through us towards others. Our entrance defines everything for everyone. What and how do we speak?
The other side of tension is – when I enter, how will I be received? – He came unto His own and His own received Him not. Will I be welcomed? Will I meet hostile looks and harsh words? Or worst of all, will I be utterly ignored?
The Entrance of Perversion. Adam chose word under his own control because he despised God, his wife, and his children. The entrance of contempt into any space brings with it war and ruin and death. As Ezekiel foresaw, when people see the lies for real, they will be astonished at how small and meaningless they are. Contempt is different. Contempt is the stomping horror of all infliction of pain. Contempt is the cause of everything evil.
Contempt may be fueled by demons, but it is utterly human. Arrogance is for self, to lift self up, but contempt is towards others, to drive them down. Contempt is the driving force behind the other perversions; it “exalts” God, not to honor Him, but to demean those who seek to know Him. It is the voice behind all Nicene theology.
A Flow of Darkness. Die to self – you are nothing – you are a sinner; you will burn in hell – you don’t measure up – you are in trouble with God – God hates you – God “loves” you, but hates the way you are. – Know your place – submit to me, I am more anointed than you – sheeple – deplorables – useless eaters – untouchables – upper/lower class – you are in my way.
A Christian man wanted me to friend him on Facebook. His page was filled with King James Bible verses, all of them harsh in some way, presented as contempt, using Bible verses to beat everyone passing by, as the entrance of sin and death. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the servants… (Luke 12:45). Contempt is the entrance of arrogance.
The Actions of Overcoming. The second overcoming is that we do not hurt others out from a second death. That’s another way of saying that all contempt is gone from us; that is, we have given our contempt to God. Yet the other side of no-contempt is the Ekenosis, placing ourselves beneath in order to lift others up.
God is changing how I see others, and it is a very wrenching experience. Let me paraphrase from 2 Corinthians 5:19. – God is inside of me reconciling this individual to Himself as me (I am the visible component), having no thought in His mind (my mind as well) concerning how much pain that person has caused God or me or others. – God intends this entrance of Himself through me, then, to be towards every next encounter in every next moment.
The Meaning of Victory. I am also grappling with this fact, that I do not and cannot know the meaning of another person, how they tick and why they do what they do. And that person does not comprehend me in equal measure. But God does. – God saw the light and it was good. God sees and God loves by calling forth goodness, that is, the Eucharist. What does that mean? It means that God through Jesus TRANSFERS His own goodness to the other person, and that goodness is then registered by God in His seeing.
The meaning of Victory in the Door of Entrance is to see as God sees, that is, to extend goodness towards that which cannot be good in itself. – Synergeoing with God making all things good.
Personal Fellowship. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our home in intimate closeness with him. – I will go in to him, and I will dine with him and he with Me. The entrance of God into us is first for the deepest levels of personal fellowship inside the fellowship of Father and Son.
In a similar way, the entrance of the members of the family in Christ Community into the Tabernacle at least three times daily is for the joy of dining together or for the deep sobriety of worshipping together. That entrance is marked either by joyous greeting or by the sober acknowledgment of God. Paul said, “You know the manner of our entrance to you.” This was the foundation of his care for all the Churches.
Relationship with other Pathways. The relationship between life and devotion is one thing, but the relationship between entrance and acknowledgment is uniquely different. The female of entrance is a continual welcoming, a recognition of joy. You could say that this second interaction is shallower and more immediate than reciprocity, but that does not make it less important. Jesus is Life only when welcomed.
Then, on the one hand of entrance is the Life coming through and on the other is the costliness of setting all free. In the Ekenosis, Jesus called an invisible God into visibility, humbling Himself. What happened next? Even unto death – propitiation, the visible expression to us of His Love.
Two Principles for Kingdom Building. Synergeia: Those who love God synergeo with Him to call all things into goodness. Our seeing and our speaking is always immediately together, as it was with God in Genesis 1. To see as God sees is not a cliché, but the deepest form of placing one’s self under another to lift that other up. Thus to give thanks for the sake of all, to speak good grace into, is Truly the active entrance of the All-Carrying One.
Symmorphy: The Ekenosis, God manifest in the flesh, is to share the form of humility with God and God with us. We are not “stealing” from God, rather, we honor Him, when we regard our lowly form equal with His visibility. Sharing our lowly form with God who carries all is the only form by which creation can also know “God-with-me.”
Guiding and Influencing. The goodness of God leads to repentance. – Restore such a one in a Spirit of gentleness, meek and lowly of heart. God establishes entrances as a means of respect and He places doors in every entrance that signify welcome or refusal. The idea that God would provide an entrance for Himself into us as well as for us into Him signifies the highest form of respect towards us and us towards God.
Of truth, this is the primary purpose of governance – the protection of property. The Door is the significance God places upon that which is His and that which is ours. All guidance rests only upon respect for the other. All suggestion is invitation only. All final decision is the property of each. Meek and lowly of Heart is the RULE of God.
Building and Protecting. The entrance welcomes that which comes, but the door protects that which is already within. The gates of the City of God are pearls; that is, we enter the House of God, the Church, through our response to things we don’t like, placing goodness upon all. A pearl is goodness placed upon irritation – for the sake of another.
Two things cannot enter, pretense and fakery, and the refusal to believe that God is telling us the Truth. These bypass the Door and attempt to enter some other way in order to steal that which belongs to another. All construction is to protect. Here is something to ponder – evil does not endure forever, but safety and protection do.
Interaction and Sharing. Synergeia is sharing life and work together. Symmorphy is sharing home together.
God does NOT believe in “oneness.” Paul is very clear that the Body of God is MANY moving together as one. There is no vanishing into a “group,” or disappearing into a “blob.” There is no “Christ” without Jesus. There is no Love without you and me. Walls, doors, gates, rooms, entrances, passageways, everything of God is about respect, about delineation, about protecting what belongs to each. Interaction and sharing take place in no other way. The Door and manner of Entrance denotes the utmost Respect.
Our Conclusion. Writing “The Root of Essence” was easy, simply giving expression to things well-known. But writing “The Door of Entrance” has opened to us things we had never before seen in this light and arrangement.
Quoting from earlier ~ “Our giving of thanks inside of and for the sake of all is God’s entrance through us into our world. Lowliness of heart is a power we have never considered.” ~ The power of entrance is the power of Respect, of highly valuing every created thing and all belonging to it.
According to Paul in his letter to Titus, to be like God is to welcome Jesus’ active entrance into us continuously. David was KING, yet he was always running into God.
Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is “The Bond of Connection.” This is Jesus as Covenant and as Propitiation. For that lesson, you could read/listen to Chapter 3 “By This We Know Love” in Our Glorious Salvation.
That is the context, but here we are considering power. This is the power that sets free. This is fascinating, for Entrance is the power that rules, but Covenant is the power that sets free. Yet Covenant is also inheritance, thus we see all creation as our inheritance, beginning with our Jerusalem. The issue in our world today is – to whom does the inheritance belong – to those who steal or to those who respect and set free? Love, having set free, receives all back again.