FILTERS AND KEYHOLES
“I guess sometimes to catch a glimpse… of the way things could be, should be, or maybe even are in a parallel reality. Like peaking through a keyhole into a room you never knew existed; and you realise that doors to beautiful rooms are opened with small, plain, unassuming keys.”
I scrawled these words onto a page of my notebook on May 12, 2012 seated on a homebound flight after a weekend of preaching in Melbourne, Australia. I was finally alone with my thoughts.
My heart was a cyclone inside my chest.
My mind a psychedelic kaleidoscope of enlightenment, and I didn’t know why.
While I had been living ignorantly in my personal version of normal, there was a whole other world being inhabited by people who’d understood something greater, which I obviously yet had not.
I had travelled many times before, but that particular weekend I witnessed something of a different kind of miraculous. I saw something that had inspired me beyond immediate understanding. I had no scale by which to measure the significance of what I’d experienced.
I peered through a keyhole into a beautiful room that I had never seen before. A room adorned with pieces of furniture so stunning and textiles rich in colour. I watched a woman through that keyhole, seated in peace, contentment and deep-rooted joy. She had been my host for the weekend. I watched her interact with her children, all dressed in lush fabrics, with open faces, clear skin and vivid eyes. She was calm, she was confident, she laughed.
She laughed that kind of laugh that watered everyone around.
She spoke and the atmosphere shifted, it was nourished. Had it been easy? I don’t think so, but those corners were well lit now and adorned with sculptures set up like memorial stones as reminders of victories won in hardship. Her room, her life, they captivated me, and that 72-hour keyhole was enough to revolutionise my life.
My own room certainly was lovely, as far as I knew, but it was also all I’d ever known until now. My furniture had served me well. My world was dressed. It’s just that suddenly I realised how tired everything was.
My seat of bitterness didn’t have to be there anymore.
I realised the breakfast bench where discontentment had been served every morning for the longest time, was looking a little bit worn. I noticed for the first time that the mirror on the wall was tarnished. I’d not seen it before. I’d been looking at my reflection through a tainted and blotted filter, and everything had been distorted by fear.
Flooded with revelatory questions, like waves, I drank my cup of aeroplane tea and watched the seatbelt sign flick on and off as I wrestled my questions into a place of clarity.
How long has that room been there?
How long have I been oblivious to it?
It doesn’t even matter!!
What I really want to know is can I live in a room like that?
Am I allowed? And how do I get in?
Where is the key?
What is the key?
There is a key.
It is simple and profound.
Some find it difficult to grasp because their hands want a more elaborate key.
The key is to understand the heart of God toward you.
Until we have a revelation of His great love for us individually, we will be at the mercy of every wind that blows. But when we know His perfect intent towards us, we can build our spiritual homes and dress the rooms.
Proverbs 24: 3-4
It takes wisdom to build a house,
and understanding to set it on a firm foundation;
It takes knowledge to furnish its rooms
with fine furniture and beautiful draperies.
We must understand how He loves us.
There are two settings in which we witness the heart of God for humanity: one is in Eden the other is at the Cross.
Eden is our keyhole insight into God’s perfect intent for humanity. It was there He crowned us with His authority and nursed us in an uninterrupted communion with Him. We were His prize. We were His joy. We were His pleasure. We were in His image. We were powerful, whole, confident and anointed. Eden is our picture of His original intent.
The Cross is where we peer in on His heart again; this time it is a heart of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration. Restoration to His original intent. At the Cross every curse was broken. The Cross ushered in freedom and liberty. We now apply the filter of the Cross to all things.
Any confession or belief that attempts to put shackles back on a person is contrary to the work of the Cross. The Cross flings wide prison doors, sets eternal captives free and opens up a world of wide-open spaces.
We are free.
You! You are free.
There are many Christians still sitting in prison cells. Jesus has come and opened the door, liberation day has arrived, yet the prisoner has not arisen and exited the cell. They haven’t walked out of that old room and into the next.
This is exactly what I realised. Peering through a spiritual keyhole, spying in on the alternative environment being inhabited by a woman of faith, I saw just what could possibly be mine. Her faithfulness in diligently and faithfully adorning her world through the promise of God, suddenly gave me permission to do the same.
Maybe you’re like I was – your go-to recliner nestles you in hurt, you rehearse poor mindsets in the mirror and your servery dishes up a diet of nutritionally undervalued, even depletive, foods. In all your efforts, there is a deep reckoning that nags at you. You know that this is not right. There must be more.
I want to tell you there is! And it’s beautiful.
Everything about your God-intended room testifies of the freedom and grace found in His love. The key that will open the door is to know His perfect intentions towards you. Even in hardships, you can face your day with a smile, because you know He’s got you. You are an overcomer. You carry authority. You are dynamic. You are confident and at peace all at the same time.
Maybe like I did, you’ve just spied that other room.
Yes you are allowed to live in a place like that. Yes it is your inheritance. Freedom and victory are yours. He is the key. Pick up the key, apply it, walk into the room and dress it through His promise. It’s vital to you, and to the person venturing down life’s corridor.
I wonder who might just peer in on your room and find a new parallel reality they never knew existed.
