School of Christ - Part 4

The Challenge and Meaning of an Open Heaven


My aim, in cooperation with the Lord, is to make everything preeminently practical. So we apply the challenge immediately and I ask you, "Is the Holy Spirit within you presenting God's fullness in His Son in an ever-growing way?" Is that the nature of your spiritual life? If not, then you must have some definite exercise before the Lord about it; there is something wrong. The anointing means that, and if that is not the nature of your spiritual life, there is something wrong in your case in relation to the anointing. To Nathanael the Lord  Jesus said, "Henceforth" (our old English word is "hereafter", but I think many people have mistakenly thought that means the "after life") "ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Hereafter, of course, was the immediate hereafter, the days of the Holy Spirit which were coming soon. With an open heaven you see, and you see God's meaning concerning His Son.


That open heaven for the Lord Jesus was the anointing. The Spirit descended and lighted upon Him. It was the anointing, and it is the same for us. The open heaven is the anointing of the Spirit from the day of Pentecost onward upon Christ within us. That open heaven means a continually growing revelation of Christ.


Oh, let me urge this. I am brought back to urge this. We must not just other things too soon, but make sure that we are right on these matters. The open heaven at once brings God's revelation in Christ to your very door, makes it available to you, so that you are not dependent in the first place upon libraries, books, addresses or anything else. It is there for you. However much the Lord may see good to use these other things for your help and enrichment, you have your own open heaven your own clear way through, and no closed dome over your head. The Lord Jesus is becoming more and ever more wonderful in your own heart, because "God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness" hath "shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).


~T. Austin-Sparks~


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