Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

I have said to you that Jesus is the door and that faith is the key. Now put your key in the door, unlock the door, and be set free.

Here in Isaiah 61 are the promises of the gospel of salvation. Humility, a broken heart, a preaching of the gospel, being set free, the unlocking of the prison door and most importantly a transformation. Comfort, beauty, joy, praise, righteousness and the Lord Jesus Christ being planted in your heart so that you might demonstrate His glory to a lost and dying world.

I rewrote the parable of the talents in order to demonstrate that placing your faith in Jesus Christ changes you. It also showed how placing your faith in anything else will not save you.

We all change and grow, becoming more than what we were as a child. Did that change come about by trial and error? Did you learn from your mistakes? Did you learn by gaining knowledge, discovering success from being smarter than the next guy and being promoted by performance? This is not the change I am speaking about. Those changes do not identify you as a Kingdom of God resident. There is no entry into eternal life in willful change.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Yesterday I said faith is the key. Those two who were changed placed their faith in Christ. Faith is the key to unlocking the door, Jesus Christ, and allowing Him into your heart. Sounds easy enough, but is it really all that easy?

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith is how we hear God. Think of faith as the language of the Spirit. God is Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit instructs us in all things. These instructions, are they written in English, French, German, and Chinese or are they written upon your heart by He who has taken up residence in your heart?

Hearing words is a process of the spoken language. If you have not learned but one language, can you understand another who speaks fluent languages you do not know? Of course not.

Finding this key of faith has to be as difficult as finding a treasure without a map. Guess what, He provided a map. It is called the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it will lead you to find the key of faith.

Matthew 13:23a But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it;

The good ground is one that has been prepared to receive the seed. The Gospel is the seed, your heart is the good ground but it first needs to be broken.

Psalm 34:18, 51:17 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.