Open Heaven Access Through Righteousness
A Word by Candice Smithyman
The heavens have been shifting rapidly as we approach the Hebrew New Year of 5780 and Rosh Hashanah at sundown on September 29, 2019. God is getting His people ready for double portion and one of the access points we have been given in the heavenlies is understanding our righteousness. At the beginning of 2019 the Lord had me share about standing in His righteousness and how this was a key for advancement this year. Well as we approach the new Hebrew calendar year God reminded me with two dreams this week that the righteousness of God is essential if we want to have open heaven access this New Year and always. In the dream, the Lord was sharing with me the importance of having a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.
In Matthew 5:20 (NIV) the scripture reads, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Now no one on this earth can possibly have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees of their own doing. We know it is impossible to keep the whole law, yet Jesus kept the law to the letter.
As Matthew 5:17-18 (NIV) reads, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
Jesus kept the whole law of God and as born- again members of His family we have met God’s requirements also. In addition to God’s requirements, He also lived to intervene by faith on our own laws. These laws are civil laws, standards, basic rules, and expectations that we incorporate into our lives and into our identities. People need laws because laws reveal lack areas and they have the appearance of covering fallen humans who need order, direction and guidance. There are good laws and bad laws, there are valid ones and invalid ones. No matter the laws, rules, standards or expectations, the good news is that Jesus came to meet the higher laws of God and satisfy God’s requirements for those who could not, which is us, fallen humanity. He also came to satisfy the failure of us not keeping our own laws, rules, standards and expectations that we consider to be a part of our identity. When fallen humans need an identity they will make one out of rules, regulations, standards and expectations. However, this is called self-righteousness or false righteousness. The Word of God tells us that we have been given His very own righteousness in our death, burial and resurrection in Him, and we have been stamped not guilty and we are enough in God’s eyes.
The Apostle Paul was challenged by the laws of God. He called them good and holy, yet he could not keep them. They were reminders of his failures and shortcomings and the more Paul wanted to please God and do what was right the more he discovered he could not.
He says, in Romans 7:4-6 (NIV), “So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
Paul was reminding the Galatians that the Law has a place but it is not the power of the promise, only Jesus is.
In Galatians 3:18-22 (NIV) the word says, “For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.”
Since righteousness comes by faith alone, Paul had to remember that the law was only a tutor to lead him and us to Christ. It was not the promise of our inheritance. What is the promise of our inheritance? It is that we are new creatures in Christ with a new identity that affords the benefits and blessings of being heirs to the promise.
People talk all the time about wanting open heaven access in the here in and now. It is possible, but we must understand first that we are heirs of the promise and we get our royal identity in Him alone. We do not get it from what we do, say, or connect ourselves to, that is called self-righteousness. God gives us His very own righteousness so that we can surpass that of our own self- righteousness based on the law, our titles, or what we can and cannot do, which is the performance of life.
In order to have open heaven access in the new Hebrew calendar year of 5780 and the new Gregorian calendar of 2020 we need to understand His righteousness is our access point. When we learn to walk in the royalty that we are by access through His blood then we walk without condemnation and this means we have freedom to exercise our faith that gives us access to open heaven encounters. You can only access the heavenlies by faith. The enemy wants us to live far below our inheritance as the children of God and under death and condemnation, but when we refuse to allow the law to strong arm us and we endeavor to live as free children of faith we will access heaven and its riches available to us.
The Apostle Paul did not want God’s chosen to live anymore in condemnation, fear, shame or anxiety because Jesus bought our freedom and wanted us to realize the fullness of the purchase by His blood.
Romans 8:1-4 (NIV) says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
This is our access point as the royal children of God. We can rest through the Spirit by faith as we have open heaven access because of His righteousness. We are not called to live by a false righteousness of bragging over all we do that is good or suffering terribly even for doing what is wrong, because in essence the righteousness that God is looking for is one by faith in what Jesus has already done. This is intense. This means access to open heaven encounters, heavenly riches and resources comes by faith that we have acquired these things already and have access everyday because of our righteousness in Him.
In Hebrews 4:14-16 (NASB) the author says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
We have access now, let us walk in this confidence! When Jesus walked the earth He was willing to heal and do miracles everyday and never questioned His inheritance and the open heaven access He had. He made a way for us that we would not either, yet we do because humanity carries a self-righteous focus. The enemy always reminds us of our sin, lack and weakness, so we must in the Hebrew Year of 5780 not let another day go by without making a commitment to live in the righteousness of Christ alone. We must wear His royal robe and crown that He gives to us in His word, and sit at the Royal Table in our hearts and minds with Him daily. Only then will we bless His heart and live out His desire, shared through the Apostle Peter, which is to be a royal and chosen generation.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (NIV) says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Therefore, we have received mercy and open heaven access by His very own righteousness through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. Let us then go forth and live as chosen royal people of God. Those who practice this heavenly perspective daily will be leading the next generation of believers into the victorious second coming of the King.
Dr. Candice Smithyman
candicesmithyman.com
