Behold, He Stands at the Door

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). This scripture is a classic example of scripture taken out of context. I have heard this scripture quoted many times as an invitation for the lost to accept Jesus as Savior. But Jesus is not speaking to those outside the church - He is speaking to those in the church. He is addressing the church of the Laodiceans which represents the Harlot church.

Notice that Jesus has nothing good to say on the behalf of the Laodiceans. They are lukewarm and have need of nothing … including the Lord Himself. They are comfortable in their own lives and comfortable with the belief that they have no need to change; however, Jesus says they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He gives them counsel “to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eyesalve, that you may see”. He continues to reason with them by revealing His love for them by saying “as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:18, 19).

After saying these things, Jesus then speaks about standing at the door and knocking. This might not seem to flow with the previous verses where Jesus is rebuking this church. But actually, it flows perfectly. He is giving revelation concerning how we enter into relationship with Him. The Laodiceans had only a superficial relationship with Jesus, but our Lord is about intimacy or fullness of relationship. You do not achieve intimacy with the Lord or fullness of relationship by virtue of being born again. You must grow and mature in the things of the Spirit in order to know the Lord. You must fellowship with Him and spend time with Him to get to know Him just as it would take time to know anyone else. But there is something you must do before you can even begin to have true relationship with Him, and this is what Jesus is revealing in Revelation 3:20.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock”. Jesus is standing at a door… but what door? To answer this, you must first understand what happens when you are born again. You were born again of the spirit … and it is your spirit that received the “incorruptible seed” of I Peter 1:23. Now you have been “saved”, that is to mean - translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light… from the world to the kingdom of God. You are now “in the spirit” or “in Christ”. This is the beginning of the process of eternal salvation.

Now begins the work of your heavenly Father, by Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit to shape you, train you, break you, and humble you so that you become a vessel of honor - fit for His use. This work is done in your soul - your true self - your mind, will, and emotions. These are the entities that make up your true personality and character. When you were born again, your spirit was changed dramatically, but your soul was left intact. God’s plan is to bring you to a place of understanding and cooperation with Him so that He can impart His nature into what was once your own nature - your carnal nature. We have described this as “dying to self”. We can also describe this as Paul did in Hebrews 10:38-39 as the “saving of the soul”. “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” I Peter 1:9 says “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls”.

The door before which Jesus stands is the door to your soul. He has gained entrance into your life through your spirit. But whether you understood this or not when you were born again, He desires to become and is worthy to become Lord of your life. He gives you free will - to “hear” and “open the door” which gives Him permission to come in and fellowship with you and you with Him, or to ignore the knocking and keep that door closed. Opening the door will give Jesus permission to “rebuke and chasten” and lead you to overcoming sin and the world, thereby bringing you to the fullness of all that God has for you - life and that more abundant - manifestation as sons of God and partakers of the “great harvest” and all the eternal rewards that go with this blessing. Keeping the door closed will keep you in your carnal thinking - which is death - and separation from the fullness of the Lord. The Laodiceans “had need of nothing” because they were content in what they thought to be godliness and what they thought would work to their salvation, without having to pay the price of the “fellowship of His sufferings”. This is and will be the character of the Harlot church.

This teaching is very contradictory to the prevalent message of today. Most teach about grace - and present it in a way that says that grace will take care of your sin without you having to do anything but confess your sins and “trust Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”. But the word of God does not teach this. We are to overcome sin, not continue to allow sin to be our master. The true gospel is one of the empowering and the overcoming of a people that choose to lay down their lives so that they can become the image of God, fellowship with Him now and for all eternity with an unfathomable joy and peace that the world cannot comprehend, and become a demonstration of the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that will lead many to repentance and knowledge of our Lord.

“Even the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:26-28). Perfection comes as we receive this revelation of the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, and walk it out. The “incorruptible seed” will lay dormant unless it “falls to the ground and dies”, but if we die to self we will bring forth much fruit. The process of dying to self is accomplished through the opening of the door of our soul for Christ to come in. When we open that door (which is opened by revelation of our need for Him to be Lord over all of our life and our agreement to let this happen), then Christ is now truly in us.

You are “in Christ” when you are born again, but you will not begin to mature and show forth Christ-likeness until Christ is “in you”. This was the problem Paul was encountering with the Galatians. He asked, “having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh”? (Galatians 3:3) He goes on to write to the Galatians in chapter 4, verse 19; “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”. The Galatians to whom he was writing were born again and “in Christ”, but Christ had not yet been formed in them. They had not yet opened the door for Christ to be in them.

Once we have opened the door for Christ to be in us, then we must be like John the Baptist who said “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The process that the Lord will take you through is one of breaking the “outer man” that covers the incorruptible seed with carnality and bring our carnal nature into submission. As we yield more and more to the lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives, He will occupy more of our internal structure and we will increasingly become more like Him. He will accomplish this by bringing us through many hardships and sufferings that require us to trust Him. Each step along the way we will face the decision to either trust Him and press on, or rebel and turn back to our own ways of dealing with things. It is truly the road less traveled. However, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). It is through suffering and the fellowship of His sufferings that we grow and abound to a place where the glory resident in the incorruptible seed bursts through that which had previously hidden the glory of the Lord and we become vessels that manifest His glory wherever we go.

Attaining this place of His manifested glory in our lives is His desire for each one of us. He never leaves us or forsakes us along the path of this life. Sadly, many choose to leave Him - yet He still abides faithful. He is a holy, righteous, perfect God who deserves nothing less than our all. We have nothing of ourselves and are nothing of ourselves, but He chooses to give us access to all He has if we will love Him, honor Him, and seek Him with all our hearts. We are bought with a price - and what a price - so that we are no longer our own. We must come into the revelation that we have no rights and it is our reasonable service to do His will. In return, He will “do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

One thing that He will do that is beyond our imagination (if we will press on to completion) is what I term “His appearing”. This is the place where we manifest as sons of God. I John 3:2-3 says “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”. It would appear that John is saying that we are all sons of God right now, but please understand that a true son is the image of God and is like The Son of God in every way. I believe that John, speaking by the Holy Spirit is speaking from a viewpoint that those who truly love God will press on to achieve this place of manifestation. He is “calling those things that are not as though they were”. He qualifies this by saying that every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself - or seeks to overcome sin and worldliness in his life, just as Jesus was sinless and overcame the world. But notice that he says that when Jesus “shall appear” we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is. I believe “His appearing” takes place when we have been prepared to enter into His rest - a place where we cease from our own labors and do only that which is done by and through the Holy Spirit - just as Jesus did when He walked this earth.

Jesus discussed “His appearing” in Luke 17. In verses 22 - 24 He says “The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightening, that lightens out of the one part of heaven, shines unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day”. Where there is lightning there is a storm. Storms represent the trials, tribulations, difficult circumstances, hardships, and failures that we must walk through to bring us to a place of death to self. It is the “taking up of our cross daily” or “dying daily”. The lightning that accompanies the storms brings forth light or revelation which brings forth change in our lives. Each successive storm brings new revelation as we experience God bringing us through the storm - as well as more brokenness, more humility, and further change; until we are completely changed and no longer walking according to the old nature or carnal nature. As we are changed, we will develop an increasingly strong desire to become like the Lord - to experience Him intimately and see Him as He is, which is described here as one of His days; a day in which He appears. This is not talking about the tribulation period - but a personal appearing in the appointed time to each of His disciples that have been fully prepared. In Exodus 33:20, the Lord told Moses “you cannot see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live”. This is why we must die to self before He can appear to us.

As we continue through Luke 17, verses 26-29 describe what life will be like as these events (His appearing in believer’s lives) take place, which will be business as usual. No one will notice until destruction comes - which means that as the sons of God are manifest people will be confronted with Jesus and will either be killed (their carnal nature revealed and destroyed bringing forth life) or they will flee (not yielding to the truth), thereby retaining their carnality and the spiritual death that accompanies it. Jesus emphasizes this in verse 33: “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it”, speaking of dying to self. Verse 30 says “Even thus it shall be in the day that the Son of man is revealed”.

“In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife” (verses 31-32). When Lot and his wife and two daughters were delivered from Sodom, the angels gave specific instructions to “look not behind you” (Genesis 19:17). But, Lot’s wife “looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). Because of her disobedience, Lot’s wife could not go on to fulfill her destiny. This correlates with Luke 9:62 where Jesus said “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”. So it is with us, when we encounter the Lord at “His appearing” we must go forth with our eyes fixed upon Him and carry nothing with us that is of this world. It is the “point of know return” where we enter into a new spiritual realm that rises above the world and has no attachment to it. We will still be in the world, but no part of the world will be in us.

“I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered, and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (verses 34-37 of Luke 17). Many interpret these verses to be “rapture” verses, but the truth is that these are “His appearing” or “manifestation of the sons of God” verses. Here we have three mentions of “two” people. Three is the number of completion and two is the number of witness. Jesus is figuratively speaking of the completion of each of these “two” people who are actually the same person that is witnessing His appearing in their lives. At His appearing, each one became like Him, complete with a glorified body, and the old nature was left. They have now become the “flying eagles” which is a figurative term for manifest sons of God. Eagles are flesh eating birds, and their job is to consume the flesh, or rather, destroy that which is carnal in others, which gives meaning to Jesus’ statement of “where the body is” there will the eagles be gathered. In Matthew 24:28 Jesus says wherever the “carcase” is, there will the eagles be gathered. The eagles have left that which is of the flesh and being obedient to the Lord will not look back at that which is left behind.

Paul speaks of “His appearing” in Colossians chapter 3 and provides the basis for this event occurring in our lives. Verse 1 - “If you then be risen with Christ (you must die first before you can be resurrected or risen), seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God”. Verse 2 -“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (press on to the deeper things for there is more to be attained - you have died to the things of this world so don’t “look back”). Verse 3 - “For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (your “life” or your former nature is now “hidden” or “buried” with Christ in God). Verse 4 - “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory” (when we see Him we shall be like Him - and His glory is now manifest through you touching, changing, and subduing the world around you).

In II Timothy 4:1, Paul says “I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom”. Hebrews 9:27 states that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement”. If one has come to a place of complete death to self, then this requirement of death has been fulfilled without a need for physical deathand “after this the judgement”. Paul is giving some very key revelation in II Timothy 4:1. He is saying that when Jesus “appears” He shall also judge because judgment comes after “death to self”. He says He will judge “the quick and the dead” (which relates back to Luke 17 and the two people who are really the same person). The “dead” are the ones who have fully died to self and the “quick” are the ones who have been made alive through the power of His resurrection and have overcome death. These “quick and dead” are judged to be righteous by the Righteous Judge and now become vessels of “His appearing” to others who experience the release of the Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus wherever these vessels are sent. These “flying eagles” are now released to soar and establish the kingdom of God here on earth, which is why Paul said “at his appearing and his kingdom”.

I John 2:28 gives further evidence of this concept. “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” There are two types of “appearing”. The first type is the manifestation or the personal appearing of the Lord to those who have fully died to self and have become manifest sons of God. The second type is the appearing of the Lord in and through the sons of God. John is speaking of this second type as he addresses “little children” who include all who have not yet matured in the things of the Lord. He encourages them to abide or continue steadfastly in the Lord so that when they encounter those who are manifesting the presence of the Lord they will not be “ashamed” or seek to hide or flee from His presence but will be drawn into a deeper relationship with Him because of their “confidence” in Him.

Hebrews 9:28 gives us a key to experiencing this personal manifestation of the Lord in our lives. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” The key is continually seeking Him. Jesus promises that if we will seek, we will find. We cannot find the way to finding Him - for He is The Way. We cannot do anything apart from Him. He must do the work in us and provide for all our needs along the way. We must simply keep “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2) and not allow ourselves to “weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9). “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away” (I Peter 5:4). This crown represents the authority of Christ that is given to the sons of God to go forth in His power and destroy the works of the devil.