STOP PRESS! by Tim Harrold
Following on from the previous article, “This week in 2007…”, in which I describe finding a key on 5 January 2007 – THIS VERY DAY, this morning, exactly 8 years later, I found another key on the pavement outside my house!
I’d taken my wife to work, come home, got out the car, and noticed a couple of what I thought were rusty nails on the ground. I hadn’t noticed them earlier. As I began kicking the nails to one side, I saw the key. I bent down to pick it up – along with what I now saw were actually 3 nails (ecept they turned out to be screws).
It is a simple silver key, possibly for a filing cabinet, a cash box or brief case, with the number 455 on it.
I believe God led me to find this key, and that it signifies the opening of doors for Thurrock and unlocking of situations across the borough. I believe that the timing of the finding of the key is ‘key’ – 8 is the number of completion, and the indication of moving up the scale into the next octave.
With the Thurrock Church Retreat Day taking place on Thursday 8 January, I believe this could turn out to be a very special week for the borough. There are other meetings too that Transformation Thurrock is involved in this week about developing a deeper understanding of kingdom culture in the borough, and a revival mindset across South Essex.
We have been given the key!
I have looked up ‘key’ verses, using 455 to mean chapter 45 verse 5…
Genesis 45:5 – prophetic
And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
Thurrock has been like Joseph, abandoned and hidden, but now comes into its destiny
Psalm 45:5 – power
Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet.
Thurrock can win its internal and external spiritual battles
Isaiah 45:5 – provision
I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me…
Thurrock is being raised up through grace, despite a lack of previous relationship
Jeremiah 45:4-5 – protection
4 But the Lord has told me to say to you, “This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth.
5 Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.”’
Thurrock is set aside
Ezekiel 45:3-5 – possession
3 In the sacred district, measure off a section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide. In it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
4 It will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and who draw near to minister before the Lord. It will be a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.
5 An area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide will belong to the Levites, who serve in the temple, as their possession for towns to live in.
Thurrock has a significant place in the geography of the Divine, with an important role to play
Page 455 of the Spirit-filled Life Bible…
2 Samuel 23:10 – potentiality (re. David’s Mighty Warriors)
The Lord brought about a great victory that day.
Thurrock’s true identity in Christ is a mighty warrior who, like Gideon, needs to realise this…
Other key scriptures, emphasising the symbolism of the key image…
Matthew 16:19
(Jesus said:) ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’
Revelation 1:18
I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.