PSALMS 87:1-3-  HIS FOUNDATION IS IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS.  THE LORD LOVES THE GATES OF ZION MORE THAN ALL THE DWELLINGS OF JACOB.  GLORIOUS THINGS ARE SPOKEN OF YOU, O CITY OF GOD!  SELAH.

Beth-el does not only mean “house of God” but the “Gate of heaven!” When Jacob had his dream of a ladder set up on earth that reached to heaven and there angels were ascending and descending on it.  Gen. 28:16-18 says, Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it!”  And He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God, and this is the GATE OF HEAVEN!”

To me, the spiritual significance of Jacob’s dream and ladder, is that many are ‘waking up’ from a dream of going to bed searching for God and their place, to an awareness that the Father is there, right in the midst of them!  You may be waking up outside of the camp, so to speak, in a new situation that you are afraid!  But you can find the house of God, not church as we have known it, but the place where the oil is flowing and covenant is established in the Father’s House!

The stone that he laid his head on became a ‘pillar’ where he poured the oil and where he made a vow to the LORD that brought the provision of the Lord to him!  Gen. 28:21-22-  “so that I come back to my Father’s house in peace, then the LORD will be my God.  “And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”

This is the present truth that church is moving from a feminine, passive gender where there is only comfort and solace and hope, but a place of the Father’s kingdom where the ecclesia becomes the “embassy” of the kingdom as the “Gate of heaven” on earth!

I. Tim. 3:15,16-  but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house (hold) of God, which is the church of the living God, THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH.
  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:  God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.