Heavenly Portals, Spiritual Warfare, Kingly Anointing, The Third Temple

The current outpouring leaders, apostles and prophets are claiming that the ‘glory’ of God and ‘anointing’ is particularly manifesting ‘itself’ in particular geographical areas – hence the cry to “get some” from Lakeland or any of the other ‘revival centres’ or ‘hubs’ linked to the New Apostolic Reformation such as Toronto, Atlanta, Heritage and Dudley. The unbiblical and unsubstansiated claim, is that these geographical areas are now under an open heaven thanks to man-made religious activity, in a way other areas are not.

You can read what John Arnott of Toronto said here about angels going around all the past revival locations with new backpacks of anointing here.  Prophets Bobby Connor and Bob Jones, like the shamans they are, claim that the Lakeland blessing/revival to America must go through the Native American ‘Gatekeepers’ first here.

Todd Bentley says of open heavens here, in a great distortion of scripture (for heaven opened in the sense scripture means it, when the veil to the Holy of Holies was rent in two after Christ’s death on the cross):

“Open heavens occur over certain geographical areas that are marked by God. For example Jacob experienced an open heaven at a place which he named Bethel (located near a village called Luz, Israel) where he had an amazing dream about a ladder that stretched from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. When he awoke he “was afraid and said, ‘What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God – the gateway to heaven!’”

Some places, because of their spiritual history, are noted to be locations where people will often experience an open heaven. In fact, there are places where the heavens are open more than in other places. Most of you are familiar with previous moves of God in places such as Toronto (The Toronto Blessing), the meetings in Pensacola, and Argentina, just to name a few. Just like in Jacob’s day, today, there are certain places where heaven is open, geographical locations where you are more likely to have an encounter with God.

In certain places I’ve been blessed with an open heaven, where, in prayer, God gives me His perspective and His heart. Then I have an encounter, an impartation, a heavenly download that I receive out of being in His presence. I begin to see things. I begin to hear things, and I carry that out of the prayer closet, out of that place of having ascended into the heavens in prayer  — bring that revelation into the here and now — and the manifestation of that revelation then begins to take place.  The bottom line is that God is glorified.

In fact, at the time of the release of this teaching, there is a kingdom invasion happening in a certain place—Lakeland, Florida—dubbed The Florida Outpouring! To God’s glory, what is so amazing is that an open heaven, one open heaven, over one city, literally touches ends of the earth! Just praise Him!!” (Todd Bentley)

Encounters with God

“Encounters with God” in specific locations or specific periods of time hint at a sporadic and intermittant relationship with a distant God more befitting the Old Covenant (though still not agreeing with it) - it certainly  does not reflect the New Covenant ongoing relationship with a continually indwelling God who never leaves us or forsakes us, wherever we may be. Todd’s saying is the sort of thing someone who does not really know God or the gospel would say.

I have noted many times where Todd talks about Jesus Christ or the angel of the Lord “coming to him” – sometimes in physical one-on-one visitations - yet apart from the unscriptural, dubious and often contradictory nature of Todd’s visions, the Bible says that Jesus and the Father is already there   dwelling within us by His Spirit if we are truly born again (John 14:23). God does not need to “come” to us in this sense each time, He is here by His Spirit continually already.

The claim that there are places where you are ‘more likely’ to have an encounter with God is not a Christian idea, and is more akin to Babylonic Roman Catholicism (which Todd is associated with and has never renounced). For scripture tells us that not only does God make His home in us always, and He will never leave us or forsake us, and that ‘in Him we live and move and have our being’ but that God’s ears are ‘ever attentive to our prayer’ and that ‘with faith we can confidently approach the throne of grace boldly’ and the veil is ripped in two, so we can forever now have access to the Father. It also says we can all with unveiled faces reflect the gloy of God within each one of us.

God does not fragment or compartmentalise Himself into little boxes. If we have Him, we have Him and Have all  of Him, all His character and all His resources and all His promises in Christ. How can we then have ‘more’ of Him or more of His glory in this sense, when he and his glory is already within our ‘jars of clay’, let alone when in a certain ‘anointed’ city – even Jerusalem? More submitted to Him, yes. More obedient to Him, and more like Him in character, yes certainly, as with knowing Him more – all through the process of sanctification and an act of our will regardless of locale, but obtaining more of Him and getting better access to Him through a certain man, ministry or a geographical area? No, impossible and Christ denying, as Christ has already given all  of Himself, the new and living way is already opened, and we are seated with Christ in all His fullness already.

Even under the less glorious Old Covenant, King David knew God was present everywhere and knew all things and was with him always. Compare what David says in the beautiful Psalm 139 to the current talk of portals and hubs. it is incomparable and ludicrous! Todd’s is another God to David’s that is somehow more reached through these portals than in and through Christ Jesus!

“You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”

Furthermore, ’an encounter with the Father’ is NOT just about spiritual experiences, feelings, manifestations and prophecies. That is a shallow and ignorant faith indeed, and a shallow and ignorant teacher that teaches it! Alas, how many in these times have a crisis of faith when they do not ‘feel’ or ‘experience’ God with them anymore.  Scripture says we walk by faith and not by sight, and  “sight” in this context can also include feelings, manifestations and spiritual experiences.  Sadly today people’s experiences and emotions have become their God as they are led by them over faith. In hard times they often lose it because they have never known or clung hold of the real God as they do not have real faith – which comes through hearing and knowledge of the word.

I am not saying we should not have experiences with God. I am not saying that the reality of our prayer life and relationship does not spill into the present with visible signs and wonders. BUT if that is all there is to our so-called ”relationship with God” – feelings, emotions, experiences, signs and wonders - there is a problem. A major problem. An apostate problem. A life and death problem – away from me, I never knew you!

Ascending into the Heavens

Furthermore, note the arrogance and the scripture twisting in Todd’s phrase; out of that place of having ascended into the heavens in prayer  — [i] bring that revelation into the here and now.   Todd is claiming HE brings answers to prayers into fruition through his actions of ascending into heaven and then bringing it into the present. He claims to bring the manifestation and glory of God through his own works. What an arrogant Christ-denying man! Even Abraham, a far more godly man than Todd, could not bring the trustworthy revelation of God into the here and now. He tried through his own actions and wrongly birthed Ishmael – an action which the world is still suffering from. Man’s actions in this sense leads to spiritual death.

Note here too Todd’s other arrogant boasts of ascending on high that mimic Satan’s almost word for word such as in this article Lofty Supreme Ruler -

“You see, I want to be fruitful; I want to be far above. I want to be a conqueror; I want to be a mountain of strength; I want to be greatness. You know, we like that word greatness. Well, he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High automatically comes into everything that the Almighty is. It happens.” (Todd Bentley)

Compare this and out of that place of having ascended into the heavens in prayer   to Satan’s speech:

“I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the sides of the north. I will ascend the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14: 13-14)

On 23rd June, I heard Todd Bentley blasphemously applying the messianic promises of Psalm 2 to himself. He claimed to be that King that could climb and sit on that Holy Hill (although generously allowed the Wagner’s apostles commissioning him to sit on that Holy Hill with Him, and others that would accept this kingly anointing).  He claimed the nations for himself as his inheritance.   The nations are Christ’s,  nobody else’s. The Lord rebuke Todd and the new apostles for their blasphemy and arrogance! The kingly anointing imparted at Lakeland was an antichrist anointing, as Jesus is the anointed one who inherits the promises of Psalm 2, nobody else – He is that king on that Holy Hill. Todd is claiming to be another anointed King who dares to take Jesus’ throne and therefore removes Jesus off his throne. How dare he!

Rob De Luca’s prophecy of Jesus getting off his throne here is far more chilling in this context. In this false prophecy, Jesus knelt and put a ring on the “bride” – and the apostles commissioned Todd and gave him a ring on that night that Todd preached on Psalm 2 and claimed it for himself and the apostles. There is far more to their action than meets the eye – it was not just about having some kind of fraternity ring!

Portals, Hubs, and Jacob’s Ladders

“Jacob experienced an open heaven at a place which he named Bethel …. ‘What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God – the gateway to heaven!’” (Todd Bentley)

The place Bethel means the ‘house of God’, and the New Testament shows that the house of God is now the body of believers and not in a temple built by human hands, or indeed a specific geographical area.

We heard him say, ‘I’ll tear down this temple made by humans, and in three days I’ll build another temple, one not made by human hands   (Mark 14:58]

For we are the temple of the living God!   (2 Corinthians 6:16b)

“In whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit”   (Eph. 2:21-22). 

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple”  (1 Cor. 3:16-17). 

 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body”  (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

“I will …  set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”   (Ezekiel 37: 27)

As Jacob says ‘Bethel is the gate of heaven’ so Jesus says  ‘I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be safe, and will come in and go out and find pasture.’  (John 10:9) and I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me   (John 14:6)  Jesus is the gate and way to heaven.

Scripture demonstrates that Christ is the true Jacob’s ladder and the one who opens heaven.

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man’   (John 1:51)

Adam Clarke comments on this scripture -

“That by the angels of God ascending and descending, is to be understood, that a perpetual intercourse should now be opened between heaven and earth, through the medium of Christ, who was God manifested in the flesh. Our blessed Lord is represented in his mediatorial capacity as the ambassador of God to men; and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man, is a metaphor taken from the custom of despatching couriers or messengers from the prince to his ambassador in a foreign court, and from the ambassador back to the prince.”

Todd Bentley has taught on “hubs” at Lakeland (eg on May 30th). He said God was restoring ‘hubs’ by restoring the apostolic. Todd called Capernaum an example of a HUB, because of the great miracles that Jesus did there, and how Jesus couldn’t perform miracles in His own town, because it WASN’T A HUB! This of course is not even remotely true. Scripture specificaly says it was because the people in Jesus home town lacked faith.

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that all who deny these essential truths as to Jesus being the ONLY gate and the ONLY true ladder are antichrist. Stating that a gateway or portal is found anywhere other than in Christ Jesus (as Todd Bentley et al do) is then not just foolish and wrong and biblically illiterate. To claim that a geographical place is a portal to heaven, or is under an open heaven in this sense, is antichrist.  It is an antichrist Jacob’s ladder or an antichrist gateway as it replaces or supercedes Christ, the true gate and door (or portal) that men enter by.

“But Todd preaches Jesus!”  some will say. Do not mistakenly think an antichrist has to deny the existense of Jesus to be antichrist! Do not think an antichrist is afraid to use Jesus name for his own end and to preach on Him! Many cults use Jesus name, but their Jesus, though sharing the same name, is different to the real Jesus in character or destiny – hence he is “another Jesus”. All an antichrist has to do is take away from what Christ has done and achieved, effectively create another Jesus and another gospel, and create new gates and portals of his own  to ‘heaven’ and thus lead the flock astray from the true Christ and the true gospel. And this can be apparently done in Jesus name as Todd Bentley and the new prophetic movement aptly demonstrate.

Jacob the High Priest and Man-Built Towers Reaching to Heaven

In a vision I had last year, I saw the antichrist ‘priest’ who sat ‘in the temple’ (that is sat extolled among the people of God as they are the true temple of God - he does not need to sit in a literal third temple in Jerusalem) taking blasphemous names upon himself. This ‘High Priest’ had a symbolic blue sapphire stone over his third eye area on a linen strip of cloth wound around his forehead, and his name was figuratively called “Jacob”.

A couple of months ago, I had a dream of this same Jacob being birthed through Todd Bentley’s “revival”, and in another vision, God called what was happening through Todd at Lakeland ’Babel’, and I saw the tower of Babel (that is Babylon) being built up high heavenwards with the work of human  hands.

I understand now that this antichrist “Jacob” is a symbol of an antichrist Jacob’s ladder, in that the man (and his group) and his and their words, actions, anointing and impartations and/or his and their geographical places, was in some way claiming to be a ladder to heaven for blessing to come up and down on. This is in place of Jesus Christ - although they use Jesus’ name and mention the cross, it is another Jesus, another cross and another gospel they really point to, as they subtract away from its real victory and message as well as lead to another gate. In the same way, a figurative man-made Tower of Babel made through man made religious works seeks to rise up to heaven’s heights and bring up and down blessing and revelation - bypassing and replacing Jesus Christ, the ONLY living way.

It is noteable that the colour blue I saw on “Jacob” the priest’s forehead is symbolic of the new prophets – for instance they claim the coming religious civil war will be between the blues (them) and the greys (those that adhere to scripture over the new revelation). I also note the blue stone was placed over the third eye area which is the occult chakra gateway for revelation and enlightenment. It is also clear the connections that the new prophetic-apostolic movement have with Babylon, with their pushing for unity, regardless of truth, and their leading to converge with Rome. I also find it interesting that Orosius, the historian, said that the tower of Babel had 25 gates each side. C Peter Wagner has 25 inner apostles in one group as his ’gates’.

The name Jacob also means ‘deciever’.

Other Leading “Christians” Statements re Open Heavens and Portals

Randy Clark (a key player in imparting the Toronto Blessing) says of open heavens and portals:

“I believe Tommy Tenny is right in stating that wherever there has been a visitation in the past that the heavens are thin there and it is easier to receive another visitation.  It is easier to punch through, so to speak, through prayer where the heavens are thin.”

John Paul Jackson, a Kansas City prophet, says of portals:

“A heavenly portal is a spherical opening of light that offers divine protection by which angels and heavenly beings can come and go, without demonic interference. God has designed portals to begin in the third Heaven, travel through the second Heaven, and open upon Earth.”

Patricia King (Todd’s spiritual mother) says on ‘Opening “PORTALS OF GLORY” here  -

“A “portal” is an opening (door, window, or opening). A heavenly portal or a glory portal is a heavenly opening through which God’s goodness manifests. I have seen a portal in a vision and it was a circular opening where a column of light poured down into the earth. There were angels ascending and descending.”

Note how the angels ascending and descending refers directly to Jesus claim in John 1:51 to be the ONLY Jacob’s Ladder and ‘portal’ to heaven, and so any other portal to advance up and down on “heavenwards” is biblically antichrist. Patricia King prophesies by the spirit of the antichrist, though she does it “in Jesus’ name”!

Patricia King then goes on to say that:

 ”Portals can be opened over:

Your personal life. When you have a portal of glory opened over your life, everywhere you go, the blessings and favor of God are evidenced.

Any land that you own.

Your church.

Your community.

Your nation. 

The following are ways that you can position yourself to open portals of glory:

Obedience Deuteronomy 28:1-13

Tithes and offerings Malachi 3:10-12 

Repentance Example of Christ’s identificational repentance at His baptism Matthew 3:14-17; Dan 9,10

Worship and Praise 2 Chronicles 5:13,14 (the singers/musicians at the dedication of Solomon’s temple declared, “The Lord is good and His mercy endures forever.” Praising God for His goodness and mercy creates an environment for the glory.

Prayer 2 Chronicles 7:13,14

Faith Hebrews 11:1

HINDRANCES TO OPENING PORTALS OF GLORY

Unbelief

Lack of understanding on covenant and new creation realities.

Fear of the unknown

Fear of not receiving.

Jealousy, competition and strife.

Critical or judgmental attitudes.

Unconfessed sin

Lack of consecration to God.”

There is nothing about Jesus being the mediator here, or His finished work – it is all about our own manmade religious works.

This is what Rick Joyner claims about Todd and open heavens in a recent prophetic bulletin here:-

“I saw faith become a fist that punched a hole through an overcast of clouds. This was the demonic oppression over America. As the holes opened up, angels started pouring through them. The bigger the holes were, the more angels that were coming through them. They were carrying the resources of heaven that included everything we needed. Heaven is about to invade earth. This is going to cause a great distinction to develop between those who know and serve the Lord, and those who do not.

Todd Bentley did punch a hole through the darkness over Lakeland, and heaven has been pouring through the hole, and it is getting bigger.  What is happening in Lakeland is stirring up the faith of many more. The “faith barometer” has begun to rise all over the body of Christ. Now many others are reaching up to do the same thing. The sizes of the holes are dependent on the size of our faith. I pray that what is happening in Lakeland keeps going and keeps growing, but what is now being released will go on regardless of how long the revival goes on in Lakeland. A fire has been started that is already too big to stop.”

Note the reference to a type of Jacob’s ladder again, that angels ascend and descend by to carry the “resources of heaven and everything we needed”. And this is because an evil and blasphemous man, Todd Bentley, “punched” a hole in the heavens, as compared to the figurative punch in the air of triumph by a perfect man, my Christ on the cross, crying “it is finished”, in whom already are all the resources of heaven and all that we need, and through whom heaven opened to the penitent. The claim that Todd Bentley has done something like this is ANTICHRIST. Yes, antichrist  in the true sense of the word. Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection punched the whole in the darkness and crushed the serpent’s head and bound the strongman so the enemy’s camp could be plundered. It enabled sinful man to be forgiven and reconciled to God and to at any time to approach the throne of God boldly – and more than that to be seated with Christ in heavenly places.

The kingdom of God is taken one man at a time, as he repents and finds forgiveness in Christ Jesus, or is healed and delivered in Jesus’ name. Physical land is not taken.

The Proof of the Pudding

If   what these guys was saying was true, (which it is not, as it is proven to be unscriptural, but for the sake of arguement, let’s pretend for a minute it was true), does it not then follow that Lakeland, Toronto, Brownsville etc should be full of supernatural activity and glory OUTSIDE of the meetings and the direct minister’s sphere of influence and activity? There should be real revival going on there without the need for their influence or even their being there. If the ‘heavy heavy weighty glory’ and the heaven with a hole in it is above the town, with myriads of angels pouring out of and descending into the geographical area,  it follows that many townsfolk would feel this and be affected in some way who are in no way connected with the revival. People should be coming to Christ in droves without evangelism outside of the meetings. It follows that without  the minister’s cues and the hype to manifest either in the meeting or via the media, to be healed, get visions or encounters with God, that people outside the meetings should manifest because it is God and not the minister or hype causing it. If these manifestations are truly heaven sent, then they should equally be happening outside the meetings.  But there is no record of twitching or jerking outside of the leader’s direct sphere of influence, indicating it is not God but another agent causing it -for God is surely greater than Todd Bentley’s sphere of influence!

All Todd Bentley and Lakeland articles here