Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
For years now ladders have been a very powerful prophetic metaphor in my walk with Christ.
The first mention of the house of God on earth was at Bethel (Gen. 28: 10-22) – Jacob had a dream in which he saw a ladder set up on earth and extended to heaven. It is important to see the ladder was not a pull down attic ladder like we have in our houses. The reason is that Jesus is that ladder Jacob dreamed about – Jesus is Jacob’s ladder (John 1:51).
Jesus stood on the earth and connected earth to heaven and that is what the Father wants us to do. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). Like Christ, we are sent into this world to be ladders connecting earth to heaven and that also includes angelic activity similar to what Jesus experienced (John 1:51).
A good question is how does this practically work? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave the beatitudes and the very next thing He said was directed at His disciples. He gave them two powerful metaphors – salt and light (Matt. 5:13-16). This is how we practically become ladders.
The ladder stands on the earth, that has to do with the salt and the other end of the ladder extends into heaven, which has to do with light.
Jesus said we are “the salt of the earth”. Earth is literally the ground, the soil. It is where we live our lives. He also said we are “the light of the world”. The world is kosmos; it is the world system with all its philosophy, beliefs, fashion, music and politics and on and on.
In this sense, salt and light balance each other. Salt is hidden away on the earth; when it is poured out you don’t see it at all. It just melts away into whatever or whoever it flavors or preserves. It works out of sight to preserve what is on the ground, but light shines on the outside, and light is open and working visibly. In other words, salt is the influence of our character and grace that we have as believers in Christ; it is quiet but very powerful.
Light is the communication and demonstration of the Father’s heart to the world. The Father originally spoke to Jacob at the top of the ladder (Gen. 28: 13). Light is the glory of God in the face of Christ. We have to be intentional about the light. We have the light, but we must let it shine forth.
So there are two ends; on the one end, there is the earth where we live and go about our daily lives, and on the other end, there is the spiritual realm. On the one hand, on the earth we affect society’s thinking and living by the grace and character upon our lives. On the other hand, we are light so that everyone can see and have opportunity to experience the glorious Person who lives in us and rests upon us.
We are not to be just a subtle influence like salt, but we are to be a very open and intentional influence like light. Salt can’t change corruption into incorruption. Salt can only retard the corruption. We have to let the light of the glorious gospel of the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son shine forth to transform corruption into incorruption.
Many Blessings, BW