The Valley of Achor will become the Doorway of Hope.

The year 2024 was called the Year of the Door

The number 2 is the Bet. It symbolises both unity AND division (like most Hebrew numbers, there is a positive and a negative)

The number 4 is the Dalet. It is a pictograph of a door.

One of the scriptures God has given me for this year is Hosea 2:15:

The valley of Achor (trouble) will become a doorway of hope!

The valley of Achor was geographically the doorway to Canaan, the promised land. It became a place of trouble when Achan (one of the conquering Israelites under Joshua) took some of the devoted things (the things dedicated to God) and was stoned to death for his sin. What should have been a victorious pressing in to take the promised land resulted in judgment and wrath because of disobedience.

Canaan is the land of abundance, blessing and rest. It symbolises the spirit-filled life. The way in is through the doorway of hope which is Jesus Christ. He IS the door and HE IS our Living hope! He is the one who takes our trouble, our disobedience, our perversity, our fear, our shame and He redeems it in His grace and mercy and He turns it into a doorway of HOPE. He IS hope and He can do no other!

The great and effective door Paul speaks of and the door that stands open in heaven that John speaks of are both doorways into fullness in Christ, into greater measure of revelation of the Rock who is Jesus.

We will not find hope anywhere else but in Jesus. When we walk into His presence, into the realms of His Kingdom, we walk through the doorway of hope!

What positions us to walk through this doorway?

To answer this it is helpful to look again at the number 4: The root of dalet is dalal which means impoverished or poor. This is speaking of a heart posture!

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3

The Greek for poor is ptōxós (from ptōssō, "to crouch or cower like a beggar") – properly, bent over; (figuratively) deeply destitute, completely lacking resources (earthly wealth) – i.e. helpless as a beggar.  (ptōxós) relates to "the pauper rather than the mere peasant, the extreme opposite of the rich” Strongs 4434

This is not a middle class concept of relative poor-ness hinging on where we do our grocery shopping or where we go on holiday, this is absolute destitution! Without Christ, we are less than nothing and have less than nothing. 

A heart posture of deep humility and paucity of spirit is required for us to enter through the doorway of Living Hope. It is a posture of faith—not leaning on our own understanding! Our own sense and reason will not carry us through the doorway of hope. Our flesh profits nothing!!

Not every doorway is a doorway to hope. Not everyone passes into Canaan.

Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Job 38:17

We are in glorious and perilous days. Two doorways leading to very different destinies.

There is no middle ground, no fence to sit on. We choose the door we will walk through!

We will see these two doorways, the doorway of hope and the doorway of the shadow of death, become increasingly polarised in the church.

The Bet: 2 options / 2 directions / 2 destinies… division!

The division of the church continues. The true remnant church will increasingly separate from the Pharisee church, like sheep separating from goats, those who worship God in spirit and truth from those who bow to cultural norms and political and religious spirits. The true church is being separated unto holiness to become a bride who will marry Jesus, and the false church unto religion and works of the flesh to become a harlot bride who will marry the world. Lord have mercy!

But even as we stand at a place of great division, great unity is coming for those who posture their hearts in humility and walk through doorways of Living Hope. UNITY for the remnant church: the bride. Unity in marriages, families, and churches. But for those who walk in pride, there will be an increase in darkness and division.

Which way will you go? Will you circumcise and consecrate your heart and walk in faith through the Doorway of Hope, or will you proceed in pride and self-righteousness, sense and reason and walk through the doorway of the shadow of death?

See I set before you this day life and death, blessing and cursing, THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE! Deuteronomy 30:19

When we position our hearts in humility, King Jesus moves all of heaven towards us. Humility is the start point for elevation, for promotion, for healing, for breakthrough, for the receiving of Kingdom treasure.

Jesus, our Living Hope, is also the One who intercedes for us continually before the throne of God. His blood cries out and speaks a better word over our lives. Many have walked through and are walking through the valley of Achor, teetering on the edge of Canaan but unable to enter. Many are trapped; they long to enter the rest of God and live in the fullness of His promises and His rest, but instead, they feel as if they are imprisoned, tormented, living half-lives.

I see Jesus repeatedly standing before the entrances to tombs and caves, just as he did with Lazarus (John 11). The word says he was deeply moved and troubled, but this does not do the Greek justice. In the Greek, it says he was moved with anger, snorting like an angry horse, roaring with rage, and expressing strong indignation.

Death is intolerable to Jesus Christ the Messiah! Jesus is not content to leave parts of your soul in the valley of trouble in prison or in the realm of the dead. He died to give you life!!! Abundant life! His sacrifice paid for all of you to be delivered into wholeness.

I feel compelled to partner with Jesus in this place of roaring over these prisons and the pain and suffering of those entombed. He calls His beloved out just as He called Lazarus out! Church, join in with Him in spirit! Decree and proclaim Isaiah 61 and join with Him to call out the captives!!

The Spirit of the Lord God is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1

As I meditated on ‘The valley of Achor (trouble) will become a doorway of Hope’

I realised that the doorways of destiny are the same doors that keep our souls shut away in prison.

Biblically, valleys and prisons both symbolise death (the valley of the shadow of death)

Satan is working with all his might to keep them shut, but Jesus commands them open!!!! He wars on your behalf, as He did with Lazarus. He is moved in His Spirit!!! He has conquered death, and he will roll away your reproach and bring you out into freedom!

As we come out of bondage, we step into destiny. Our pain becomes our platform, our mess becomes our message, and our test becomes our testimony. The enemy of our souls works very hard to keep us locked up, in the place of troubling, always just this side of Canaan, because he knows how devastating it will be for his kingdom when we come out. There is nothing he fears more than believers standing in their authority in Christ, taking ownership and occupying their portion of the land.

You might feel that you are surrounded by trouble but Canaan is close! The fulfilment of the promises over your life is close! Destiny is close!

Your prison doors are opening! Captives, you are being released! Not into aimlessness and bland comfort but into destiny! Into purpose! You are being delivered into identity for God's purposes and for His Kingdom rule—for His glory! King Jesus, the man of war, Jehovah Tsabaoth stands before you. He has fought and won the battle. Captivity is taken captive. You are positioned for breakthrough!!

Activation:

Sing praises unto God from your prison and from your valley. Your sacrifice of praise (which is a place of consecration) causes earthquakes in the spirit that shake foundations and open doors! (Acts 16:25-26) Sing, oh barren woman! Position yourself in faith!

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Habbakuk 3:17-18