Grace Williams "Open Up the Gates" (with Rick Pino)

OPEN UP THE GATES!

  “GATES”  OF   HELL 

 

Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”   Let’s take an in-depth look at the word

“gates” in Scripture.  Gates in ancient times were focal points of power.

l.  Business was conducted at the city gates.  Boaz took off his shoe and gave it to the city officials at the gate, officially indicating that he was redeeming Ruth’s possession. - Ruth 4:1-11

2.   Military strategy was planned at the gates.  It was said that a city

     would be open and vulnerable if the gates could be taken.-  Obadiah l:11

3.   Judgments and punishment were delivered at the gates. - Deuteronomy 17:5

4.  The husband of a virtuous woman was known in the gates.    - Proverbs 31:23

5.   Abraham’s nephew, Lot, sat at the gates of Sodom as an elder. -  Genesis 19;1

6.   The safety of a city was determined by the strength of its gates.

7.   When the gates came down, the city was conquered. Nehemiah 1:3

   So the gates of hell in the spirit realm, there are evil magistrates, rulers, and elders “sitting at the gates” all over the world plotting, scheming, strategising, and planning to prevent our churches and our homes from achieving any kind of breakthrough.

  Gates of hell contaminate businesses and social structures to destruction.  They contaminate society, social, education, political and economic of a nation.

  Jesus says “the gates of hell” would not prevail against His church.

They will not prevent, overpower, block, overwhelm, outlast or win against His Church.

What Is a Gate?  A gate is “an opening in a wall or fence; a city or castle entrance often with defensive structures, an area for departure or arrival, a door or controlling passage.”

What Are Hell’s Gates?

The Scriptures describe hell in at least three contexts:

   l. Hell is a literal place or region in the underworld where God will ultimately cast satan, the fallen angels and the souls of humans who chose to reject God’s Son as Saviour and Lord.

2.   Hell can describe a condition. - James 3:6   This  picture of a tongue that is ignited by the fire of hell also gives us a vivid picture of hell itself.

3.   Hell’s gates refers to satan’s earthly seat of power as manifested in the brassy heavens he creates over the heads of men who consistently disobey God willfully live in sin.  Satan is not in hell yet.

     He is the “prince of this world” and the “prince of the power

    of   the air,  the spirit that now worketh in the children of 

    disobedience.”

4.  Jesus was not talking about gates in the underworld.  He was speaking of devilish gates in the heavens over our heads, where satan the adversary actively works to obstruct the dealings of men with God.

 

5.   The gates of hell are where the architects and intelligent principalities of satan devise their schemes, plans, and strategies to stop Christians.  Their chief goals is to isolate our churches and homes, a task they accomplished by seducing us, tricking us, or persuading us to fall into various sins and acts of disobedience.  Wise principalities know the right moves that are needed to distract, discourage, and dishearten us.

6.   Promises of God the power to prevail - Isaiah 45:1-3

 God would break up the gates of brass and cut apart

 the bars

       of iron.

 God said that He would give Cyrus the treasures of darkness

       and the hidden riches of secret places.

Where Are All My Blessings?? Satan steal our blessings and

he doesn’t destroy them because he doesn’t have the power or authority to do so.  He locks away these “treasures in darkness, and hidden riches of secret places.”

What are these treasures and riches?

              James says: “every good gift and every perfect gift is from  

               above ….. James 1:17

God’s Plan concerning gates.

  Genesis 22:17 _”they seed shall possess the gate of his   

     enemies.”

            Isaiah 28:5,6 - “ for strength to them that turn the battle to

               the gate.”

 

Psalms 24:7-10

7 Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. 8 Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, invincible in battle. 9 Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. 10 Who is the King of glory? The LORD Almighty -- he is the King of glory. Interlude

 “Lift up your heads, O gates!” who is the psalmist talking to here? Gates don’t have heads. Are we the gates? The gates of God, the gates for God. Are we the ‘ancient doors’? Do we need to lift ourselves up to God fully? Well, yes, of course we do.

           “If we will turn the battle to hell’s gate, He will supply the strength for the battle.  The devil is busy hindering Christians by getting to live in sin and disobedience.  Then he stole our most precious treasures and locks them away.   But the Seed of Jesus shall possess the gate of the enemies.  “Lift up O ancient gates” – these are gates of grace and gates of glory – that is where King Jesus will enter. 

When we allow the gates of glory to come into our life gates – all other gates of hell will be broken and God’s glory shall come and dwell.  Then treasure in darkness shall be expose and hidden riches of blessings in secret places will be manifest.  That is where the miracles and blessings of God is.  SO OPEN UP AND LET THE KING OF GLORY ENTER IN!  INVITE KING JESUS INTO OUR LIVES AND WE SHALL POSSESS THE GATES OF THE ENEMIES.

ANONYMOUS WRITER

THANKSGIVING CAN RAISE THE DEAD!

John 11:41–42
41… And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me…

After Jesus had said these words, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And the man who had been dead for four days came out of his tomb!

This is one of the greatest miracles that Jesus performed. Lazarus had been dead for four days when Jesus raised him to life. Wouldn’t you agree that death is indeed an extreme problem? Having no money in the bank, being sick and losing your job, bad as they are, are not as bad as being dead!

But what I want you to see is this: If Jesus, in the most extreme of problems, shows us that the solution is still, “Father, I thank You,” then how much more we should thank God when we face problems that are less serious. If thanksgiving can raise the dead, then let’s give thanks in the midst of our problems and see victory.

Unfortunately, we tend to do the opposite — murmur and complain. And murmuring and complaining only magnify the problem. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is the language of faith, which pleases God. Now, I am not saying that we give thanks for the problems we have. No, we thank God that He is our answer and that He has already given every blessing to us. (Ephesians 1:3)

“But Pastor Prince, what I have is so little.” 

My friend, thank God for the little that you have and it will multiply. Jesus thanked His Father for the five barley loaves and two small fish, a little boy’s lunch, and they were multiplied to feed more than 5,000 people with 12 baskets full of leftovers! (John 6:8–13) And notice that when the Holy Spirit talked about this event again, He specifically mentioned the Lord giving thanks — “... the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks…” (John 6:23) The Holy Spirit seemed to be more pleased with the act of giving thanks than the miracle of multiplication or the 12 baskets full of leftovers.

Beloved, the more you thank God, the more you please Him. What little you have will be multiplied, and whatever is dead in your life will be raised to life!

Shared by Pastor Joseph Prince

A FRESH REVELATION OF JESUS LOVE

I John. 4:19 says “We love Him because He first loved us.” Do you know how the Word of God defines love?   I John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (mercy seat) for our sins.  This is Bible definition of love.  It is not our love for God -  it is His perfect love for us all. 

You Are God’s Beloved

When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  This is recorded in the Bible for your benefit. (shows Jesus as example) Right now God is well pleased with the head and with the body the church.

The book of Ephesians tells us that we are His beloved ones and Paul addressed his epistle “Beloved saints”

God had announced that Jesus was His “beloved Son” but the devil left the word “beloved” Notice the devil dropped one vital word he said “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”  Why the devil left the word “beloved” He wants you to know that God is not so loving or doesn’t love you as you think?

 

Mt. 3:17 says “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The devil dropped the word “beloved”

Once you know that you are God’s beloved, you defeated all his plans, evil plots to tempt you.

He will tell you are the son of the dustbin. He says you are useless good for nothing and unwanted.

Why people give their lives to sin, when they feel rejected and unwanted.  But when you know that you are God’s beloved, no temptation can succeed against them. (you can escape)

The first temptation of Jesus was to turn the stone into bread.  Is there any law in the OT that says that you cannot turn stones into bread? No. So what was the devil saying?

When the devil said, “Command these STONES to become bread” he was in fact, telling Jesus to get His nourishment from the LAW that was written on STONES.  The law cannot provides, it kills you instead only the Spirit gives life. How true today many receive sermons and messages from pulpit and has become gradually dry and lack of nourishment from it.

Jesus reply in the spirit: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”   But written before this chapter “This is My beloved Son – in whom I am well pleased.”  Every word  of God is the now word “rhema” to us.   

This is the word that we are to live by today as well.  And we must hear God say to us daily. You are God’s beloved through Jesus Christ the head and you the body.  WE are not to live by the Ten Commandments written and engraved on stones.  There is no nourishment in the ministry of death and condemnation.  But God wants us to feed or nourish on the flesh of the Lamb. Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life.”  Fresh Bread from Heaven! Bread of Heaven feed me till I want no more.

 ROLL AWAY THE STONE!

Do you want a life and a breakthrough in 2013?  Roll away the stones in our lives!

The Lord told many preachers today, “Son, your ministry is to roll away the stone.” So that my church will come out - which I have given them resurrected life already. 

Lazarus (the church) has been resurrected with Him – Jesus is coming that way. You see the resurrection life could not flow as long as Lazarus was bound behind the stone.  Today many believers who have resurrection life because they have been saved, but they are not experiencing breakthroughs in their bodies, finances, family lives and careers because they are bound hand and foot, and trapped behind the stone.  (Stone here represent the LAW). Before the spirit of life, GRACE can flow, the stone must be rolled away first. Grace miracles will manifest and breakthrough after breakthrough will come because Jesus has come to give us life.  The "zoe" life.

The Greek word for "life" is zoe. This is the root of the English words "zoo" and "zoology."  Zoe is used of the state of existing and being animate which is common to all mankind, whether saved or unsaved. For example, Paul says to the idol worshipping Greeks at Athens, "The God who made the world and all things in it...He Himself gives to all life (zoe) and breath and all things...for in Him we live (zao--the verb form) and move and have our being" (Acts 17:25-28 NASV 

Tell me more about the law – the law brings death.  The law was written on stone. When the law was given to Moses at Mt. Sinai 2,000 people died 1^st Pentecost 50 days from the Passover, when the Holy Spirit of Grace was given day of Pentecost in Acts 3,000 were saved. God gave life to 3,000 people when they are dead in sin. Peter stood up and preached the gospel of grace that day- the ministry of the Spirit.

2 Cor. 3:7-9 – But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones…. how will the minis try of the Spirit not be more glorious?  The ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.