Arriving before the grocery store is even open, you peer expectantly through the window. Inside, clerks scurry to prepare for the sale. As you wait for someone to unlock the door, you flip through your store flier and coupons. Suddenly, it opens. “Welcome to our store, ma’am. I see you’re the first one here today. Please come in.” The clerk is kind and inviting.

“Oh, I can’t thank you enough for opening the door,” you gush. “I am so grateful to be at a store that cares about their customers having a way in. I appreciate all you did in coming over and unlocking it for us. I won’t be entering--I’m just going to wait out here on the sidewalk and contemplate that the door is actually open.”

Uh…no—yet we often limit the promise of Eph. 2:18 in the same way. By His death and resurrection, Christ—our Intercessor in heaven-- has opened the door, and given us access to the Father. But we often forget the Holy Spirit’s work—our Intercessor on earth—of leading us through it.

“We need not ask ourselves how often we have thanked God that the door is open, and that nothing remains to bar us from His presence. But…ask: How long do I spend each day in the place to which that opened door leads? How often do I use the open door? What do I know of the vast treasures of love and of knowledge on the other side of it?” (H.P. Barker).

With the Spirit praying with us, in us, and through us, we have free access to heaven’s storehouse!