Okay, here's the second key, very, very simple one, and we'll find it here in Matthew, Chapter 10, very simple key. Here it is, Verse 40; He who receives you, receives Me. He who receives Me, receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward. Okay, let's just pick it up there. Notice there He talks about the word receiving. Now to receive someone means to reach out and welcome them, and unconditionally accept them, embrace them in your life, to recognise in them there's something unique, and something possible that can bless you. You receive them. It tells of Jesus, He came to His own, and His own would not receive Him. They were offended by Him, so guess what? The Son of God would not be the Son of God to them. Until they receive Him, He cannot save them. Isn't that extraordinary? Until they receive Him - and there will come a time when Israel will receive Him, but they didn't receive Him. Think about this - if you receive the Holy Ghost, then you receive God's power to change your life, but you have to receive Him.
There's this whole thing of receiving. Jesus makes it very clear in that principle, He says: if you receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, if you recognise what God has put on the person's life, and receive the person as that to you, then God will ensure that what He has for you, will flow into your life through that person. If you look at a person and see the shortcomings, the character faults, the humanity; if you see only that, then you won't receive them. You will judge them, and when you judge them, you'll start to dishonour and reject them. You'll stop the gift flowing into your life. It's a most extraordinary thing, if we can receive and make people welcome, and not be judgemental of them, we will unlock what God has for us in their life. I wonder how many people God brought into your life to help you, and you shut down what they could do, because you judged them?
There's a situation - I won't go into it, I'll just give it to you right now - Jesus was going through the town of Samaria. There were sick people, there were demonised people, there were troubled people, tormented people, and Jesus was there to help them; and it says: they did not receive Him, because He looked like He was going to go to Jerusalem. So the disciples felt greatly rejected, and they said: let's call down fire on these people. Jesus said: no, leave them alone, you don't know what spirit you are. Now get this, here's the thing; because they didn't receive Him, it stopped the gifts flowing to touch them, and that day that He walked through that area, there were people could have been healed, but weren't; there were people who could have been blind eyes opened, deaf ears opened, but they weren't, because of one thing. They just did not receive Jesus. Now why did they not receive Him? Very simply, they had a prejudice, a racial and religious prejudice.
Prejudice can stop you receiving people. Racial prejudice can stop you receiving people. Religious prejudice can stop you receiving people. Intellectual or social prejudice can stop you receiving people. One of the things, the great things that God had to teach us, when we went to Dannevirke - we did come from an educated background. I did a masters degree, and met Joy in university, we did university degrees, but when we went to this church in Dannevirke, there wasn't a single person with any qualification above School Certificate, not one. Socially, it wasn't great either. They were all workers and labourers and whatever, so it was a totally different social group, but we knew God wanted us there, and I learnt things because I received them. Some of the greatest people I've met in my life, that helped me change and be who I am, I met there, and because they loved me, and I received them, I was able to receive an impartation of what they had. You see pride is a terrible thing, causes us to judge, find fault, see the worst, and build a wall that stops you receiving.