When the Heavens Open, Everything Changes

Today I want to give you a word that I know is going to be a blessing, and God told me to give this word because there are people here who have been fighting for things that God has already signed off on. Look, God has already done this, He put His seal on it, but those people, Pastor, are asking themselves, “What is happening? Why do I still not have what I should have had by this date?” Do you know what God is saying to you? Today I have decided to open the heavens and turn them in your favor. Amen. Hallelujah!

Today I have decided to open the heavens and turn them in your favor. This Sunday I will be sharing with your pastors; I will be with Roberto and Mercedes Miranda, and we will be sharing here. And at this moment, allow me simply to extend a very special greeting to the vice consul of the Dominican Republic in this state, our dear Geraldine Baez, who is here. Hallelujah! Thank you for your kindness, and thank you also to your fiancé, David, for his graciousness.

So I am ready to share a word, and this word is going to be a tremendous blessing. Amen. Will you receive this word? From Santo Domingo, from the eastern district, receive this word. Glory to God. That’s right, sister; the blessing is going to fall on you first because of what you just did. Amen.

Let us read Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 7, which is where we will share today’s word from. This is a word that blessed our lives and changed the focus of our church in the Dominican Republic. Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 7. Tell me if you have it there. Let us see what Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 7 says. Listen carefully. The holy Word says:

“…And on this mountain He will destroy—listen closely, pay attention to me—on this mountain He will destroy the covering that covers all peoples…”

How many peoples? All of them. All peoples have a covering. So the other part says:

“…And the veil that envelops all nations…”

How many nations, I ask? All of them. So all peoples have a covering, they have a veil, but the nations are also covered. There is something covering the nations, and there is something covering the peoples.

I want to tell you that this something that is covering—as it says here, He will destroy on this mountain the covering that covers the peoples and the veil that envelops and covers the nations—there is something that must be destroyed. There is something that cannot remain there; it must be broken. There is something that we must break once and for all, and here it says that it is a covering over the peoples and a veil that envelops the nations.

So that you may understand a little, by way of introduction, what I am telling you: I am from the Dominican Republic, I am a pastor in the Dominican Republic, and if I do not know which covering must be broken in the Dominican Republic, then my ministry as a pastor will be limited, because something has to be broken for the glory of God to fall upon a place.

Let us look at it this way. If I speak to you, for example, about a city—let us say Seattle, the city of Seattle—if I mention that one, which is here in the United States, I will find that there is a covering over that city. A very well-known pastor from here in the United States visited the city of Seattle, and in the early hours of the morning he began to feel depressed and began to feel as though life had no meaning.

Suddenly he began to wonder, “What is happening to me?” The truth is that what was happening to him was nothing new, because it is a condition in that city. When he analyzes it, he drops to his knees, as you did at 3:00 in the morning, because when the Lord alerts you, you have to wake up. And he dropped to his knees at 3:00 in the morning and began to pray, and then the Lord gave him insight into what was happening.

Do you know what was happening to him? He was slowly being invaded by a spirit of depression and suicide. When he analyzes the situation, he realizes that the city of Seattle is the city with the highest suicide rate in the entire United States. If a pastor, if a minister, does not know what covering is over a people, then that covering will never be broken.

I am a pastor in the Dominican Republic, and because I am a pastor in the Dominican Republic, I must know which spirits I am fighting against. But those spirits are not only in a city; those spirits are also in a person. Each person knows what he or she is fighting against. What you struggle with is not what I struggle with. What is tearing down your life is not what tears down mine. I must know which area of my life I need to guard, and I must know where I need to bring order and where I need to make God attentive to what is happening to me.

But that can also happen to a family. A family can also face certain situations. I will put it to you this way. There are families that struggle against prostitution, while others struggle against divorce. There are families in which everyone gets divorced, or in which no one gets married. Or, as a woman once told me, “Pastor, I am about to turn 60, and in my family, when we turn 60, we go crazy.” Do you know what she was prepared for? To go crazy, because she had accepted the covering that was over her family.

You do not have to accept a covering that does not bless you. You have a mouth full of authority to break things and establish what you want. If that applause is for God, give Him the full applause, because tonight God is coming with good things.

However, when the woman told me she was expecting to go crazy, I said to her, “Look, ma’am, I rebuke every spirit of madness from your life.” And I told her, “The curse that touched your family does not have to touch you.” Some people believe that if their family had cancer, they have to have it too. Well, I am going to tell my ancestors something: if they did not leave me an inheritance, then they had better not leave me any diseases either, because what I want is blessing.

If the applause is for God, then give it, and give it well. Boston still hasn’t gotten going. What’s happening? Give Him more. Give Him more, because I am almost finished. Quick and painless.

Well, let me tell you the following: from this, I have learned a truth that has brought me blessing and benefit. And tonight I am going to leave it here, because there are people here—listen closely—there are people here who, this very month, and write it down so you will know whether a prophet passed through this house, this very month, there are people who have been fighting for years for something they know belongs to them and is rightfully theirs, and tonight heaven opens and takes your side and turns in your favor.

Praise Him, for He lives. Praise Him, for He lives. Well, let me tell you that there is something that has to be broken. I simply want you to allow me, quickly, succinctly, and in detail, to tell you the following. Look, brothers and sisters, there are people who live under such a great measure of God’s favor and grace that every day they see the hand of God visit them.

I will tell you more: there are places where the grace of God is so abundant that when you arrive, you can feel that there is grace there. It may be a house, an office, a church, a place, a town, or a country where, from the moment you arrive, you feel that there is grace, that there is an abundance of God in that space, that there is favor from God. I have arrived at houses where, the moment I walk in, I say, “Wow, the glory of God is here; there are people here who have God.”

But there are other places where, the moment you arrive and walk in, you feel as though the water and electricity have been shut off. Suddenly you feel as though you have been shut in, and you feel a literal weight. Those of you who are intercessors, both women and men, know very well what I am talking about today—the people who intercede, the people who enter places—because they are more sensitive. And their sensitivity allows them to feel how spirits are binding those places.

There are houses you visit where, the moment you arrive, even if they give you coffee, your head begins to hurt. They give you the coffee, but it hurts. And your head grows heavy, and some places are so oppressive that you feel nauseated. I know I am speaking to people who understand me, isn’t that right? Do not think that I am becoming overly spiritual or that I am planting some strange idea either. I know very well where I stand, and I know very well what I am talking about. The spiritual world is complicated; it is complex. I do not understand it, but at least I know that I can count on the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to mark the territory and establish what I want.

Well, I will put it to you this way: that is called the favor of God. The favor of God is something so abundant in a person who has learned to depend on God that, when that favor comes and that grace comes, do you know what that is called? The heavens are open. So open heavens means a place where the favor of God abounds; it is a space of easy access to the divine.

Brothers and sisters, there are churches where you sing song number 1, number 2, number 3, and you feel nothing. Then number 4 and number 5—and look, number 5 is powerful—“Praise Him, for He lives,” and you still feel nothing. Nothing.

But there are other places where, from the moment you arrive and walk through the door, you immediately feel that the grace of Jehovah of Hosts is there. Praise Him now.

Now then, walk with me. I am going to tell you something. People talk about an open heaven, and I am going to tell you how the heavens open and which heaven must be opened. I will leave you with that, and then I will go. And I will come back on Sunday.

But I am going to tell you this. Look, everyone here, if you do not already know it, must learn it today: there are three heavens. How many are there? Three heavens. And how do I know that there are three heavens? Second Corinthians 12:2–4. What does it say? I will not read it to you, but I am going to paraphrase it. Paul says that he knew a man who had been in the third heaven, and he is referring to himself. He says that he had been where? In the third heaven. No one reaches number three without passing through number one and number two.

So if he was in the third heaven, he passed through the first and passed through the second. And he reached the third. But he says that God was in the third. If God is in the third, there is no fourth. Because if there were a fourth, it would be higher up. Praise Him, because He is higher up. There is no fourth heaven; there are three. Three heavens.

Now then, how do I get heaven to be open over my house, over my children, over my finances, over my marriage, over my body, over my health? How do I accomplish it? I am going to give you that quickly, and then I will go.

Did you hear what it says? The first heaven is the heaven of human beings; it is the heaven where we are. This is the first heaven, where we live. Do you know how far the first heaven extends? As far as airplanes fly. The first heaven extends as far as airplanes go. Everything we control, everything we manage—that is called the first heaven.

If you go outside during the day and look up, everything you see is the first heaven. If you go outside now at night, you will see beyond the first; you will see the second. During the day, you see the first, and at night, which one do you see? The second. Praise Him now.

The thing is that the second heaven is a little higher. Let me speak to you a little about the first before moving on to the second. In the first heaven, the heaven of human beings, everything we have, do, and manage is limited to what our senses permit us. This is a heaven of the senses: what I like, what I smell, what I see, what I touch, what I can feel with my hands, what I feel, what I taste—because the only thing that allows me to access what is on this plane is my senses. I see this; I can see it, touch it, taste it. I have control of the first plane through my senses. Those are called sensors. So I can relate to the natural heaven; I can relate to the natural heaven through my senses.

That is why we cannot have a church that belongs to the first heaven, because no one will put limits on the problems. In the first heaven there is never any satisfaction. In the first heaven we never tire of touching, seeing, talking, speaking, and complaining. The first heaven is a heaven of complaints, a heaven of lamentation, a heaven of needs. It is a heaven where people still do not have a supernatural experience that allows them to know that, even if the refrigerator is empty, we do not depend on what we have that day; we depend on what Jehovah said. And if it is empty, I am giving thanks—not because it is empty, but because whatever is empty in a man or woman of God is about to be filled. Praise Him, for He lives. It is about to be filled.

Are you beginning to understand? So the first heaven is a limited heaven. But there is a second heaven, which is a different heaven. In the first heaven we gain access through our senses, but in the second heaven we gain access through our soul. The soul is the intermediate part of a person. So on the first plane I make contact with myself, with my senses, but on the second plane, do you know what I make contact with? My emotions. What I depend on in the second heaven—it is a heaven of emotions, of unforgiveness, of lack of love. Why? Because there, in the second heaven—Paul is the only one who speaks about it—and do you know what Paul says about the second heaven? That it is where the spiritual hosts of wickedness dwell.

The second heaven is where the demons are; it is where the spiritual beings of wickedness are—the heavenly realms, as Paul calls them. Realms where powerful entities move.

And now I am going to tell you something: the multitude of spirits that are over nations and peoples are affecting the way people behave. Demons are causing many people to make bad decisions. That is why I only have contact with the second heaven through my soul. The devil cannot touch my body unless God gives him authority; he has to go and obtain a document from heaven in order to touch my body. Because if the devil could kill me, he would have killed me already, but he cannot.

Do you know why he cannot? Because the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and defends them. If you understand, we are beginning to grasp this little thing. But listen to what it says now. And with this I am going to leave you.

For the demons in the second heaven to make contact with me, they have to affect the middle point of my life. What is that? My emotions. My feelings. What does Satan want to do every day? Damage your emotions, hurt your feelings, make you depressed, make you not feel like praising God.

Do you know what an ordeal it is, brothers and sisters? To bathe, use water bathing, iron clothes, put on perfume, use soap, use gasoline to come fill a church, and when you arrive, say that you do not want to worship—no, give the Lord a round of applause, because that cannot be happening. How is that possible? What happens is that there is an unfathomable spiritual war. Sometimes we cannot explain how a person arrives at church and gets sleepy. The service ends, and they leave the church looking for people to talk to. Oh, but there is no one for me to talk to; I have a few little points, I have some matters to discuss. Why do people wake up when they leave church? Because we will continue going through the struggle we face in here unless we understand that this is a spiritual world and that the devil is trying to affect my emotions. That is why, brothers and sisters, when someone does not welcome you with a hug, do not worry about it; keep moving forward, worship God, worship God.

The second heaven is the cloud that must be broken through, because the demons are up there, moving—do you know over what? Over our heaven, over the heaven of human beings. Now, the third heaven, which is higher up—the way I relate to the third heaven is neither through the body nor through the soul, but through the spirit.

The Bible says that whoever is joined to Jesus is one spirit with Him. The Bible says, brothers and sisters, that neither blood nor body inherits what is above; the spirit does. So the place where the things of God establish themselves in a person’s life is in their spirit. Thus, the third heaven makes contact with me through my spirit.

My spirit is being filled with grace. My spirit is being filled with strength. When the spirit is in control, the soul submits, and the body goes without saying. Do you know where the body of a spiritual person goes? Wherever the spirit says. Do you know where the body—the spirit of a carnal person—goes? Wherever the flesh says.

So now I have a situation. Do you know what it is? The situation is this: the heaven of human beings, the heaven of demons, and the heaven of God. There are things that the heaven of God has already determined for me, but in the second heaven there is opposition to my receiving what belongs to me. Because the second heaven is between God and human beings, resisting so that the glory that has been decreed will not come down here, will not reach this place. So, brothers and sisters, what must be broken through is the second heaven.

And how do I break through the second heaven? I break through it by worshiping God. When I worship God… give it, give it; do not resist. When I worship God, I break through the second heaven. The second heaven begins to break open from the moment I start worshiping, and you will ask me, why? I am going to tell you why. Because God said that wherever He is worshiped, there He would dwell.

I am going to tell everyone here: very good instruments, very good musicians, very good worship—but in heaven they sing better. Is that true or not? Is that how it is? Let me tell you that an angel has never played the wrong chord or struck the wrong note, never; those little angel fingers land exactly where they are supposed to land. The angels who worship have never had their voices crack, because when they sing, they are perfect. But do you know what God said? God said, “Although My heaven is perfect, when they worship Me down there and sing music to Me, even if they do not play the chords very well, should that be the case, I will leave My perfect heaven and go into their presence.”

Give the Lord a loud round of applause. Give it to Him loudly; I cannot hear you. I will be there. I will be there.

Now, three great archangels moved in heaven. The first is Gabriel, the one who carries messages. He has a host of angels who move about running errands. Look, the brother prayed because he wants such-and-such a thing—angel number one, quickly! So they are running the errands. Gabriel is in charge.

There is another one named Michael. Do you know what Michael has? Zero errands, all sword. They are the warrior angels. Those are the ones who come down when you say, “Father, defend my cause.” Michael says, “Angels, quickly, draw your swords; go defend that child’s cause.” Notice that I am almost leaving now. Odalis has to take me.

Well, let me tell you about the third. The third is named Lucifer. He is the worshiper, the one who made heaven vibrate. It says that he had tambourines embedded in his body and that the grace he possessed was so great that, when that archangel went through heaven with all those little drums—ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling—everyone would say, “There goes Lucifer! Oh, look at Lucifer!” And he began to feel proud, and proud, and more and more proud, and then it came out of him. They fired him from the job. They threw him out, because some people think that if they are not there, everything will fall apart.

If the devil was thrown out and has not been missed, praise Him, for He lives! Give Him a great round of applause. Give Him a great round of applause. Wait, brothers and sisters; do you know what? When they threw him down, he said, “Well, I am leaving,” and he took with him every one of his angels he could, all those who worshiped. Brother, even the one who ran away left; he took him along, and the little brother left too. They all left. They left heaven with nothing, and then God said, “Now what shall We do to have worship in heaven?” And the Son said, “I would sacrifice Myself to raise up a people to replace the devil and the demons.” Give Him a loud round of applause. I cannot hear you. Give Him a round of applause. Do you understand me?

Now listen to what happened. Jesus comes and raises up a people on earth, tells them that they are the worshipers, and presents the redeemed to God. Do you know who holds Lucifer’s position now? We do. Every time we say, “Glory to God,” the atmosphere trembles. Every time we raise our hands, the atmosphere trembles. When you say, “Glory to God,” when you raise your hands.

Now, I am going to ask everyone here—if you are holy, tell me the truth. Is it not hard for us to worship God sometimes? Do you know why? Because since the devil is not doing it, he does not want you to do it either. The church’s position is that when you raise your hands, the devil has problems. Can you imagine a church? Imagine that today, here in the United States, all the churches at this hour come into agreement and begin to worship and cry out and worship with their hands raised. Tell me, where would the devil have to run? No one can withstand a worshiping church.

Then listen to what the Bible says. The Bible says, “Arise, O God; let my enemies be scattered.” Is that what it says? How does it go? “Arise, O God; let whom be scattered?” “My enemies.” Well, I am going to tell you this: when you worship, God arises, and the enemies in the second heaven know that He is coming to the first heaven. Therefore, the enemies in the second heaven are scattered because they literally run away—running. That applause is lacking something. That applause is lacking something.

What is going to happen is that, in this season, the church is going to experience a time of open heavens, and people who had not seen the glory of God will begin to feel it. Do you know what happens to us when heaven opens? And when we see that everything is in our favor? What we do is this: the devil must return everything he stole from us; he must return it, he must return to us everything he stole. But now, do you know how it is? Are we now going to go to the gates of hell and say, “Mr. Devil, give me what belongs to me”? No, sir. Now it is done differently. Now we go to Jesus, because Jesus took the key away from him.

The Bible says in Revelation 1:18 and 19 that the key to hell and Hades—do you know who has it? Jesus has it. If Jesus has the key, I no longer have to go to the devil and tell him to give me what belongs to me. Now I go to Jesus and say, “Jesus, since You have already given me power and authority, now lend me the key. Lend me the key, because I am going to go to hell; I am going to take what is mine, I am going to take my marriage, I am going to take my children, I am going to take my family, I am going to take my finances, I am going to take my house.”

I cannot hear you. I am going to take what is mine. I am going to seize it. The church is not going to ask permission now; it seizes. What is yours—seize it. Do not make things easy for Satan; seize it. As for your child, do whatever you want with your life; tell him, “Look, move quickly, because I am going to send some mighty angels to do with you what they have to do.” You can declare with your mouth that the devil has no authority.

Then it says, “Arise, O God; let Your enemies be scattered.” Why are the enemies scattered? Because when God arises, the devil knows who is coming. Brothers and sisters, the devil is a devil, but he is not crazy. He knows what is coming; he knows the authority he left behind. He knows that heaven moves by authority, and I am going to tell everyone here something: the devil is not God’s enemy, as some people say. God is the Creator, and the devil is a creature. How could God stoop to [inaudible] with the devil?

God cannot do that. God is superior. And you even have to know which enemies to choose, because not everyone who rises against you can be your enemy. There are people whom you have to leave as adversaries, but you have to tell them, “I will leave you as an adversary, because you do not qualify as an enemy.”

Even for that, Pastor, you need discernment. I cannot give just anyone the privilege of tearing my soul apart, of destroying it. Not everyone can come and destroy my emotions. Some people want to hurt me, but I am going to look them up and down. Do you know why David is a champion? Because he destroyed a giant. If he had killed a dwarf, no one would have said anything.

Give the Lord a round of applause. They would not call him the warrior; they would call him the bully. Praise Him, for He lives! Praise Him, for He lives! We are warriors because we destroy giants. No matter how big the problem may be, you are not here to complain or cry or seek pity. And I am going to tell everyone here something: if there is a problem in your life, do not tell anyone who is not going to solve it for you, because some people tell everyone their problem. I do not tell everyone about my affairs if that person has no solution; it is better not to tell them. I communicate what I need to the Lord of Hosts, because He is the One who changes; He is the One who transforms things.

Roar, lion! Roar, lion! Is this not the Lion of Judah? Then let Him roar, because hell cannot withstand a victorious church, a church that roars. No one can withstand the lion’s roar. No one can withstand the lion’s roar. Roar! Roar!

What happened, Daddy? What happened? I have to establish this, and it has to be learned: in the Dominican Republic, I cannot be a pastor unless I am a warrior.

So, brothers and sisters, when I master that and can worship God, I open the heavens over my home, over my family, over my personal life. When I worship God, the heavens are going to open. You see how some people make a declaration and God acts right then and there? It is because they have an open heaven.

But where was Daniel when he prayed? Have you read Daniel 10? It says that Daniel prayed, and what happened when Daniel prayed? Have you read that in the Bible? Have you read Daniel 10? Well, look, I am going to tell you: when Daniel prayed, the Bible says that God heard him immediately, but He could not answer him because the princes of Persia and Greece were opposing Him. Where was Daniel when he prayed? In the first heaven. Where were the princes of Persia and Greece? In the second heaven. And where was God, who heard him at once? In the third heaven.

There are things that belong to you which the devil is opposing so that you will not receive them. Do not listen to people who say, “Pray only once and do not pray anymore, because if you pray twice, that shows a lack of faith.” No, brothers and sisters: pray three times, pray four, pray five, pray six, pray seven, and pray until God performs the miracle.

Give Him a louder round of applause. I may tell you on Sunday something about how we turned a nightclub into a church. I am the pastor where the largest nightclub in the Dominican Republic, Las Vegas, used to be. That is right. The largest one. That was the place where the devil operated throughout San Vicente de Paul, a major avenue in the eastern part of the city, full of nightclubs, full of places of perdition. And God tells a church of about 300 people that the church is not great when it stays inside; the church is great when it goes out into the street.

We went out into the street. And do you know what we took? Anointing oil. And a Bible. And we began to anoint the street. I do not know whether a street can be anointed, but I anointed those streets. Forgive me, but I anointed them. And I did not pour out a little oil; I poured out a lot, because I said, “Pour out plenty of oil, because if the devil does not leave, he will slip.” And we went out into the street. We went out into the street with the family.

You know what Odalise was like. With the family—Mom, Dad, the children—everyone went out to pray in the street, decreeing that corruption, homosexuality, lesbianism, and drug addiction were leaving that avenue, and declaring that the devil had no right, because the devil has a right only if the church does not claim what belongs to it.

Do you know something? An heir is not the owner until he claims his inheritance and removes the one occupying his property. The nations—do you know what Jesus said? Do you know what the Father said to Jesus? “Ask Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance.” And do you know what He told Him at the cross of Calvary? “The nations are Yours.” And do you know what Jesus said? “What is Mine belongs to you.” Do you know whom Boston belongs to? Boston belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, from the moment I arrived, I began to observe the spirits at work in Boston. Boston is an extraordinary, beautiful city, but it has Harvard, it has Berkeley, it has the universities, so it [inaudible], and pride will come, presumption will come. Everyone here, say to the Lord, “We are going to combat every spirit with the simplicity and humility of the people you have raised up for the glory of God.”

Give the Lord a mighty round of applause. Do you understand me? Give Him a little more. Give Him a little more; the Lord tells you, “Tonight, I know your address.” When we went out into the street and prayed, and the glory of God fell on San Vicente de Paul, and now I am not going to tell you anything more; the only thing I am going to tell you is that, in that place, we asked God for the largest church in the eastern area, and today we have a church that brings together almost three thousand people, there on San Vicente Avenue. The devil can gather everyone who goes to the nightclub; the devil can gather everyone who goes to commit wrongdoing, to do evil things—and do you know what happens? God now has more people on San Vicente than Satan does, because we now gather the largest number of people that can gather on that avenue, and the people are worshiping God.

If the heavens open, a city changes. If the heavens open, your home changes. If the heavens open, your finances change. If the heavens open, your life changes. Give the Lord a mighty round of applause and stand to your feet.

Give it to Him louder, louder. Applaud louder; I cannot hear you. “I am coming to your house,” God tells you. “I am going to visit your house. I am going to visit the situation you are going through.” Raise your hand to heaven. Repeat after me: “Lord Jesus, tonight I declare that the heavens are open and that they are working in my favor.”

Say, “Everything the devil has interrupted in my life, I declare tonight that God is reactivating it.” Say, “Everything that was dead will come to life: my home, my family.” Claim your husband and claim your wife; do not let the devil destroy your home. Do not let the devil destroy your home. Do not let him destroy your children; do not let him destroy your business. Do not let him destroy your health. The devil has no right; you can declare it at this hour, and what you declare will happen. May God bless you all. Give Him a mighty round of applause.