Between Heaven and Earth are 10 gates, symbolised by Nehemiah repairing The 10 Gates of Jerusalem after their destruction by The Babylonian Empire. If we can clear the debris and open the gates we could be a part of an unprecedented move of God.
These are the 10 gates that Nehemiah restored:
GATE 1 – The Sheep Gate (The Redemption Gate)
It’s the gate of grace by which all that Jesus won for us upon the cross is applied to our lives. It includes forgiveness yet doesn’t stop there. It moves directly from forgiveness to empowerment. Here’s some real life application:
- You CAN grow in character
Forgiveness gives you a fresh start. Empowerment gives you fresh momentum to change. Grace enables all of this to happen via The Sheep Gate. - You CAN grow in confidence
Grace makes you a custodian of an unusual set of divine circumstances. No one has been given your mandate. So stop eroding your confidence by comparing mandates. Intimidation has the power to paralyse you, yet celebration has the power to mobilise. When you celebrate other mandates and other people making great headway in the things you want for your life, you’ll protect your own confidence in your mandate. You’ll also be able to concentrate better in all God has called YOU to do.
GATE 2 – The Fish Gate (The Salvation Gate)
Behind your function is a calling – it’s a calling to lead people both to salvation and into discipleship. We need to clear The Fish Gate of all distraction and realise that we’re born for mission. You CAN grow in your calling by focussing on praying over your real purpose.
GATE 3 – The Old Gate (The Identity Gate)
Ephesians 4 tells us to ‘put off your old self’ and to ‘be made new in the attitude of your minds.’ When we identify with our New Self and not our Old Self, we clear the gate through a transfer of our security onto Christ. To deal with your insecurities will remove doubt and quicken faith and its grace-filled outcomes.
Stop saying you’re a failure even though you’ve failed and start saying you’re complete in Him. Stop saying you’re depressed, have anxiety issues or anger issues and start identifying with the deeper emotions of God’s Spirit. If you’re a believer, you’re as much filled with peace and joy as you are with these other emotions. You declaring that you have the peace of God, you are right with God and you are on a journey of faith with God starves your Old Self of oxygen and helps you to put off fears and phobias and initiates a successful relaunch of who you really are in Christ. You CAN grow in consistency through doing this.
GATES 4 & 5 – The Valley Gate & the Dung Gate (The Capacity Gates)
God wants to enlarge you. Trials are designed to strengthen you and get you out of your strength into His strength and your limits into His limitlessness. Because trials heat us up like rough gold in a furnace (1 Peter 1:7), the dross of bad attitude including jealousy, spite and unforgiveness needs to be thrown out of The Dung Gate at regular intervals!
GATES 6 & 7 – The Fountain Gate & the Water Gate (The Immersion Gates)
You CAN grow in clarity by being immersed in both the Spirit and the Word. Your tiredness, exhaustion and cloudiness needs a touch of the Holy Spirit and a covering of the Word. There’s nothing wrong with you though. All you need is more of His presence and more wisdom. Open up these two gates and you open up a whole new world of possibilities.
GATE 8 – The Horse Gate (The Fight Gate)
You CAN grow in clout! Horses weren’t used for transport in those days, but for workforce. Our battle is a spiritual one. So stop getting distracted by people and start pulling down principalities and powers by the “Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) and the “Shield of Faith” (Ephesians 6:16).
Prayers of declaration and the prayers of agreement can open up the Horse Gate to dramatic effect. The victory of Christ can come rushing into your world and put an end to the fight.
GATES 9 & 10 – The East Gate & the Inspection Gate (The Revival Gates)
The East Gate represents the second coming of Christ and the Inspection Gate represents the Judgement of Christ. Psalm 90:12 says, “teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom”. In a culture that makes us focus on the comforts of life, the East Gate reminds us that time is short. And the Inspection Gate reminds us to up the quality of our world from non-sacrificial and only partially obedient wood, hay and stubble to fully-sacrificial, totally obedient gold, silver and precious stone (1 Corinthians 3:12). Delayed gratification will create a fruitfulness that will be unappreciated if these gates remained closed. You CAN grow in creativity and build with a new sense of initiative, knowing that it will all count towards Christ and His rewards.
If we open up all 10 Gates, imagine how much God can do in our personal lives, the life of our church and the life of our cities and towns!
The Gates await. Let’s step out in faith, obedience, prayer and sacrifice and see Gates restored and open for business for a new, fresh move of the Spirit of God.
