Through the Open Door

Through the Open Door is an article by Apostle John Boney: After the encounter of Saul with the Sovereign Lord in Acts 9 we enter into a series of events where the Lord continued to establish his authority to do what he pleases, whether the people, including his disciples, were in agreement or not. Peter and the other post-Pentecost apostles had done a good job in ministering to the people within the confines of their limited orbit, even though this contradicted the original commissioning and mandate that the Lord had given to them in Acts 1:8. Borders and even METRONS are meant to restrict action so that our authority is not dissipated by attempting to use it where it had not been assigned. Yet this is often an issue of timing for us, given the declaration of the Lord; “other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd” (John 10:16). The same Jesus who continued to declare to his disciples that they “must go over to the other side” (Matt. 8:18-34), having now become both Lord and Christ, exercised his authority to go beyond their mindsets, mental limitations and strongholds. He would now force upon Peter a mission that neither he nor his fellow apostles had considered, even though they had heard and received the original commissioning.
There is no disconnect between the events of Acts 9 and 10, it is the same Sovereign Lord who is acting, taking captive the powerful contrarian Saul of Tarsus, encountering the house of Cornelius, and confronting Peter’s theology. Peter would become the bridge to initiate the ministry to the Gentiles even though Paul would be the primary apostle to fulfill that ministry. Yet Peter and the other apostles had to be pressed into the encounter with present truth, so that they would not begin to oppose it. Fertile minds actively resist that which they do not understand, or even more so, that about which they do not have a personal revelation.
So far as we know, the angelic realm is not beset with the limitation of the human realm. So God would choose to use angels several times in this time of transition. Would that God would find men who are sufficiently unmoored from the restraints of past traditions that they could be used of God to redefine the boundaries of this present season. If God is to accomplish his purpose through us, he must thoroughly renew us or else we would be found working against the divine agenda. The reality is that many of the things we have learned and heard must now be reexamined in terms of their currency, or even more directly determining whether they are yet legal tender in this present phase of the unfolding of the divine agenda.
Though angels have been used, yet the angels must now begin to come from among our brethren and not from the spirit realm (Rev.19:10; 22:9). Our sovereign Lord must never have to say again in this time that “ I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land…….but I found none” (Ezek. 22:30). Neither should he say again that “he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him” (Isa.59:16). Neither should it be said be declared by the heavens that “there was not found in the earth a help meet for Adam” (Gen.3:20). There must be a compatible company of people on earth ready to respond to the voice of the spirit of the Lord, ready to bridge gaps to go beyond the limitations of past moves of God, having been made ready to go where the Lamb is going (Rev.14:1-5).
When the angel rescued Peter from the prison (Acts 12:1-9) he gave him 5 commands that must become a significant part of our preparation to go through and beyond the open doors.

1. Get up QUICKLY (Isa.60:1-220
2. Put on your belt (Eph.6:14)
3. Put on your shoes (Eph.6:14)
4. Put on your garment (Rev.16:15; 2 Cor.5:2,3)
5. Follow me (Rev.14:1-5)

May the Sovereign Lord be your constant companion and guide in 2019.

-Apostle John Boney