Key to the Secret Place

There’s something interesting about keys in the Bible. The Bible mentions keys a few times and the concept connected with the image of keys has some real importance for us to consider. I want to know what these keys mean and I want to know how to use them.

Keys provide access to locked doors. A key is a symbol of authority—the one who has the key gets in. I remember when we were missionaries in the Philippines we only had municipal water over certain night hours. We stored that water while it flowed so we could have the use of it during the day when we needed it more. One night the water wasn’t flowing. After a few phone calls, we learned that “The man with the key hasn’t shown up.” Apparently that key provided access to the pumping station and although the key was designed to unlock the water for us, the man of authority wasn’t available to make it happen. The authority was there, but it wasn’t being used. Get where this is going?

I know there is more to this and I pray that the Lord opens, or should I say “unlocks” this more for me. There is a key of David that is revealed in Isaiah 22:22:

• The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open.

The use of the word shoulder shows complete authority. This is describing Jesus, especially when we connect it with Revelation 3:7-8:

• “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens” “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

And then somehow this verse in Luke 11:52 shows another key:

• “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

Revelation 1:18 describes other different keys:

• I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

To me, it looks like there are more than one key. There’s one each for Hades and Death, a key of knowledge, and then the Key of David which seems to be related more to the Kingdom of God. Matthew 18:18-19 indicates plural keys:

• And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 6:33 clearly tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God, and Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:10 to pray for the Kingdom of God to come on earth. We know that there are two kingdoms; a spiritual supernatural kingdom, and a real physical kingdom. In the old covenant, the physical preceded the manifestation of the spiritual, and in the new covenant, the spiritual precedes the physical at least in the case of the Kingdom of God. Currently, the Kingdom of God is a supernatural spiritual place of authority for the church which will ultimately manifest physically when Christ takes his place during the Millennial Reign. Jesus kept telling his disciples about the kingdom and he taught them about kingdom principles, but they could only see a physical kingdom where Jesus would overthrow the Roman occupation of Israel and return Israel to it’s kingdom as in the time of David. They missed it. The church has missed the spiritual kingdom too, but something in Revelation 3:7-8 tells me that the revealing of that is here. We believe that the seven churches mentioned in Revelation relate to the seasons of the church age and the final age will be a combination of the Philadelphian Church and the Laodicean Church. The Philadelphian church will be caught away before the “hour of trial” that comes upon the earth leaving the Laodicean church, the lukewarm church, to enter the tribulation.

This season of the church age, the Philadelphians, will be the matured church as Paul described in Ephesians 4:11-13:

• And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Paul describes the church for which Christ is coming as being without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27). A mature church, at it’s most ripened, most blooming moment, and full of fragrance ready to be gathered to Him.

I’m seeking for that key that will open some mysteries that I want to enter into:

• Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
• Mark 4:11 And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,
• 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
• Ephesians 1:8-10 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
• Colossians 2:1-3 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The mystery of the secret place is available to the church. He has provided keys to unlock this for us, and desires that we enter in. He tells us to ask, seek, and knock—we have to put forward effort and look for it as a precious jewel. Paul had great conflict that the church of Laodicea would obtain and enter into that secret place. We know from Revelation that they don’t. I want to be an integral part of the Philadelphian church—the church that finds that secret place in the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Don