find all of the keys of the Kingdom in the Word of God. The keys of the Kingdom are the foundational truths that you need to live by if you are going to build your house on a foundation that is firm enough to withstand every storm or crisis.
Kingdom people hold the keys to overcoming every crisis that God allows to test them.
What if you go to work tomorrow and your boss tells you that you have just been fired? What if your spouse opts for a divorce?
What if you get cancer? With the keys of the Kingdom in your hand, you are ready for anything.
“I WILL GIVE YOU THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM”
Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…”
(Matt. 16:19). He promised to give us the keys that will make it possible for us not only to survive, but also to thrive.
Keys provide access to something. If I give you a key to my house, I have given you access to my house. I have given you a certain amount of authority and control over my house.You can step into it anytime you want to, day or night, whether I am home or not.
Notice that Jesus said, “I will give you the keys,” not “a key.”
He will give us more than one key because He wants us to have
more than one kind of access to His Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven operates by more than one principle. There are many ways to unlock its power.
Right after He promised to give us the keys of the Kingdom, Jesus went on to say this: “…whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19). In other words, when you take a key in your hand (one of the principles of the Kingdom), you can open or close things both on earth and in Heaven. Whatever you open on earth, Heaven will have to open for you, and whatever you lock up on earth, Heaven will lock up for you too.
Jesus said, “I will give you the keys…”
You have the authority to affect decisions. When the systems on the earth are not working, banks are struggling and collapsing, people are losing their homes, workplaces are getting shuttered—it is time to take out some different keys to unlock God’s provision.
Jesus also told His disciples this: “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables” (Mark 4:11). The keys of the Kingdom are mys-teries to those who do not believe. You live in the midst of a world that is confused, fearful, and frantic. God has handed you keys that He has not handed to people who do not follow Him. He has told you secrets that are going to seem like meaningless parables to other people.
This means that you have information your neighbor does not have. When the storm hits, your neighbor falls down flat under fear while you stand up and start walking in faith.
He gets all depressed while you start dancing. Both of you may have lost the same material possessions, but while he is say-ing, “Oh, woe! I am never going to recover,” you say, “I know that I am going to be all right.” When he says, “I’m angry about this,”
you say, “God allowed it, and He knows what He’s doing.”
You live on the same street, but your responses are very differ-ent. You are right there in the midst of the same crisis, but you are not like your neighbor. What makes the difference between you?
Some basic information. You have the keys; you can unlock doors that your neighbor can only pound on with frustration.
David wrote about this in one of his psalms: “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you” (Ps. 91:7). That can’t happen unless you are in the midst of a raging battle. You can’t experience that kind of pres-ervation unless you are in the middle of a serious threat to your survival. That is a crisis situation. David is saying that you are going to be right in the middle of the crisis situation, that you will not be exempted from it, but that the way it affects you will be different because of your position in the Kingdom.
When you and your neighbor both find out that you have lost your jobs, you are going to have a different mentality about it. You will not go into a depression about it. You will not question God’s decision to let this happen to you. Instead, you will look around, realize that you are still standing even though a thousand others lie fallen on one side and ten thousand on the other—and for that reason alone, you will rejoice.
You will not get jealous of the people who still have their jobs because you will understand that your security cannot be found in any job anyway. Your security can be found only in your iden-tity as a son or daughter of your Heavenly Father. If you belong
to Him, your position in the Kingdom is secure. It cannot be shaken. When crisis crashes in around you, you will reach into your pocket and pull out your keys.