POWER STUDY - A51

[Albert Finch]

The Gate of Heaven
(Read Revelation 3 & 1 Corinthians 2)

Genesis 28:17 17He 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.”

John 10:9 - “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

(When talking about gates, we are not talking about a new path to salvation. Jesus is the only door to salvation, there is no other way. In the bible the word ‘gate’ means a place of transition and access. In the natural you might walk through a gate to go from your front yard to the sidewalk, or from the backyard to your driveway. In the same way we talk about the church being the gate of heaven; we are referring to the place where the reality of His dominion becomes available for all mankind – His world invades ours!)

Matthew 16:18-19 18“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

(The church is the gate of heaven (another way of saying the house of God). Now Jesus introduces the idea of the gate of hell. Popular false doctrine: The church is a group of people locked inside a compound, shoulders against the gate, trying to hold the fort as the devil and his powerful cohorts beat against it. The church being in a posture of fear and weakness trying to protect what we have until God hurries up and rescues us from the devil. But Jesus gave us an opposite picture. He said “the gates of hell will not prevail”. The principalities and powers that set up dominions or ‘gates’ all over the earth will not prevail against us! We are advancing and winning i.e. We are on the offence, not the defence. And Jesus promises that in the end no gate of hell will prevail.)

Matthew 16:21-23 21From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

(Where precisely are the gates of hell?
Where does the devil sit in power?
The mind is the place of access, transmission and power. It follows that the gates of hell are setup in peoples minds. Jesus didn’t say “Peter you devil worshipper.” He didn’t say “ you are filled with all kinds of occult practices and deceit.” He said you mind is filled with the things of man. That mental posture was a gate where Satan was released to bring his destruction. To say “I’m only human” is to say “I’m only satanic”. Humanity without Christ at the center is satanic in nature.)

1 Corinthians 3:3 3for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? (When you are given the Spirit of God you lose the privilege of claiming “ I’m only human”. Paul rebukes the church at Corinth for behaving like mere men.)

2 Corinthians 10:5 5We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

(The gate of hell is in our minds, anytime we agree with the enemy. We empower him anytime we agree with a man-centered perspective or natural wisdom that does not know God. We empower demonic forces and become a gate to release the power to kill instead, and destroy our lives.)

Affirmation:

I hunger for and receive revelation as part of my everyday life – that revelation that helps me carry out my earthly assignments with increasing precision and wisdom.