In the introduction to his life-changing book ‘When Heaven Invades Earth’, Bill Johnson tells of the occasion that “stirred me beyond words”. He was a young man at his uncle’s 90th birthday celebration. Uncle David and a few of his elderly friends were reminiscing about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the attendant miracles, during the days of the ministry of Aimee Semple McPherson.  For a moment he longed to have lived back in that past, but then, gripped by the belief that we can have that outpouring and something so much greater in our generation, he writes, “My heart burns for the coming move of God. I live for the revival that is unfolding and believe it will surpass all previous moves combined, bringing more than one billion souls into the Kingdom.”

Over four thousand years ago another man, Jacob, was similarly “stirred beyond words”. Like Bill Johnson, and huge numbers of men and women of God today, Jacob is known as a man who wrestled with God until he broke through into a place of blessing he had never known before (Genesis 32:24-30). But that was not the incident that stirred Jacob beyond words; the wrestling for supernatural blessing was the consequence, the product of an earlier experience.

The experience that stirred Jacob beyond words was a ‘revelatory’ one, the occasion of his dream of “a ladder set up on the earth, and it’s top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28:12). He named the place of this dream ‘Bethel’ (the house of God). “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:17).

Like so many of my contemporaries in faith and ministry today, Jacob was on a journey between the prophetic and the profound. Genesis chapter 28 begins with the prophetic blessing that Jacob’s father, Isaac, proclaims over him . . . an utterance that declares “blessing”, “fruitfulness”, “multiplication” and “inheritance” (Genesis 28:3-4). Most of us hold that prophetic message in our hearts. Through the contemporary church’s engagement with the prophetic over the last few decades, we’ve all received prophecy of an awesome day to come. And then following his encounter at Bethel, we read of the extraordinary blessing that Jacob came into, “the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, camels and donkeys” (Genesis 30:43).

The dictionary defines ‘profound’ as “Of the greatest intensity; complete. Far-reaching and thoroughgoing in effect especially on the nature of something. Situated at or extending to great depth; too deep to have been sounded or plumbed”.  Arguably, even more profound than his exceeding prosperity was the experience at Peniel where Jacob said, “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). I thank God for the prophetic, it is a permanent part of my life (see Sue’s book review – ‘The Seer’), but how we long for the profound, the fulfilment, the outworking, of all we’ve heard – complete and far-reaching in effect.

We have no idea if Jacob had any understanding of the Church – he preceded it by two millennia – but irrespective of his understanding of it, he saw it that day; “this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Paul would later write, “Moses indeed was a faithful in all His house as a servant … but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end” (Hebrews 3:5-6) – did you see that? We (the Church) are the house!

 And here’s the wonderful thing Jacob saw concerning the house of God:  it was the place where the spiritual realm was open – angels ascending and descending; and he declared it to be “the gate of heaven” – the meeting place or access point where we on earth touch and enter the heavenly realm of God’s kingdom authority and power! Have you seen it yet? God was showing Jacob that the Church, and our local churches, would be the place(s) where the sick, the troubled, the lost, the tormented would be healed and set free. It’s the place where the “kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

 Jesus was a house (John 2:19-22), and he was a gate (Matthew 4:23-24). We, or more accurately, our local churches are a house (1 Timothy 3:15), and we are a gate (Acts 2:43). Let’s wrestle with God until he bless us, let’s press forward from the prophetic to the profound.

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