You Are A Gatekeeper!

This week's blog comes from a message that I believe is one of my life-messages.I pray it ignites a new fire in your spirit too.

For this past several years, God has been stirring aspects of this message in my heart and He has me writing a book on the subject. 

I hope that this article stirs revelation in your heart and enables you to see your life and your purpose from a new perspective. 

As believers, it is key that we understand who we are, not just our place in this world but also (and perhaps more importantly) in the realm of the spirit. 

You are a gatekeeper.

What does that mean?

First, let's define what a gatekeeper is.

DEFINITION

Dictionary.com defines it this way, “a person in charge of a gate, usually to identify, count, supervise, etc., the traffic or flow through it. A gatekeeper is a guardian or a monitor over a place.”

A secretary or administrative assistant acts as a gatekeeper of their boss' calendar and appointments.

A company, lawyer or therapist can act as a gatekeeper over their client's privacy rights. 

When you attend a social gathering, sometimes you may choose to bring a "wingman" who acts as a gatekeeper over your personal space when someone undesirable gets too close.

The gatekeeper can choose to allow us entry or deny it. The gatekeeper ultimately decides who and what is important.

An important distinction when it comes to you being a gatekeeper yourself is to recognize that a gatekeeper protects us against time wasters and any distraction that can delay or hinder our destiny. A gatekeeper can deny access to the enemy.

BIBLICAL INSIGHTS

All throughout the Bible we read that the gates of a city were the places of influence. 

Court was held at the gates and there were gatekeepers (or guards) assigned at the gates to watch over who was coming in and out of the city.

We still have gatekeepers today. They work in our airports and they man our border crossings.

Gatekeepers in the bible were assigned to the palace. The king had to be protected. We have secret service and other law enforcement agencies assigned to protect our governing officials today as well.

In 1 Chro. 23:5 we read that King David chose 4000 (out of 38,000 eligible Levites) and appointed them to be gatekeepers over the temple.

In 1 Chro. 26:1-14 we see that the gatekeepers were assigned to guard the gates of the temple, the storehouse and the courtyard. 

It is interesting to note that the gatekeepers were not chosen by skill level but by lot (regardless of age, experience or maturity). They were appointed as a calling.

Here are some notable mentions in the Gatekeeper Selection Pool.

The Sons of Korah:  Do you remember Korah? You can be reminded of his story in Numbers 16. Korah was one of the guys who rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. As a result of his rebellion, he and all of his family and everyone who stood with him in rebellion were swallowed up by the earth. How did the sons of Korah survive?

They would have had to publicly and deliberately distance themselves from the sin of their father and align themselves with Moses and Aaron (God's appointed leadership) in order to have survived that. The sons of Korah honoured the Lord over all tradition and over their allegiance to their own family. It is interesting to also note that the sons of Korah were very well-known worship leaders. In fact, when you read the bible you'll note that many of the psalms were attributed to them.

As believers, we too are called to distance ourselves from the sins of our fathers and align our hearts to the Lord and His plans for us.

Merari: Merari was a Levitical family in charge of carrying the structure of the tabernacle every time the Israelites moved camp in the wilderness. It was their job to protect the framing and all the structural components of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the structure that made it possible for the presence of the Lord to dwell among His people. The Merari clan were the heavy lifters. They were strong. They knew how to war to protect the tabernacle. 1 Chro. 15:17 tells us that they too were worshippers.

Like Merari, we too are called to carry the structural components of God's tabernacle as we move through life. We are living tabernacles. So our physical bodies, their structure and well-being is important to God.

Like Merari, we too are called to war and contend in prayer for the church (the body of Christ) in the earth.

Like Merari, we too are called to protect God's place of dwelling in our own personal lives.

Obed-Edom: When King David first tried to carry the ark of the covenant back from the Philistines to Jerusalem, he made some very big logistical errors. A man named Uzzah lost his life just for trying to steady the ark along the journey. David had to stop the transport and the ark of the covenant stayed in the home of Obed-Edom for 3 months while David sought the Lord and tried to figure our where he went wrong. Obed-Edom and his family dwelt in God's presence for 3 months and the bible tells us that they were extremely blessed. 

Think about this for  a second. What kind of faith did Obed-Edom have to have in order to live in God's presence for 3 months knowing that Uzzah had died just for trying to steady the ark? 

When it was time to bring the ark back to Jerusalem again, Obed-Edom went with God's presence. He created a legacy of faith and worship for his family. He trained his sons and grandsons for work IN God's presence and was chosen by David to guard the ark and specifically the storehouse of the Lord.

There is evidence in Chronicles that Obed-Edom was also a worshipper. 

Like Obed-Edom, we too are called to allow God's holy presence to dwell among us. We are called to do all of our work IN God's presence. We are called to be a people of faith who can protect God's presence for ourselves and others.

THE QUALITIES OF A GATEKEEPER

We can see from these examples that Gatekeepers:

• are worshippers
• honour the Lord above all else
• honour their leaders
• are skilled warriors (prayer warriors)
• are hard workers
• are protectors
• are presence-dwellers
• are full of faith 
• are trustworthy

GATEKEEPERS CAN ACCESS THE SUPERNATURAL REALM

Every single one of us came out of the supernatural realm through a portal (or gateway) and entered the natural world when we were born.

A woman's womb is a gateway. Therefore every woman is a gatekeeper.

Every man is a gateway and a gatekeeper too by the way. Unless a man chooses as a gatekeeper to release a seed through his gateway and a woman accepts that seen in her gateway there can be no portal opened for new life to move from the heavenly realm into the earth.

As humans, whether we are giving life to other humans, a ministry, a business or a God-Dream (by spirit), we are acting as gateways and gatekeepers. We get to choose to either participate and cooperate with heaven or not. 

YOU are a gateway!

Birthing vision from the heavenly realm into the earth is a miracle. That vision comes through a gate with cooperation of a gatekeeper.

In a book by Phil Mason called Quantum Glory, Phil teaches us that science has proven that if we can see something with the eyes of faith (even though it has not physically ever manifested in the natural realm yet), just by seeing it, we can cause it to manifest in the natural. It is a phenomenon called collapsing the quiff. It is a suspension of disbelief which makes room for faith to allow the supernatural to become manifest in the earth.

Phil also explains another phenomenon that science has discovered. That phenomenon is called The Observer Effect which states that matter, when observed, will behave in the way the observer expects it to behave. 

That is awesome! That means your faith matters! That means that your ability to see in the spiritual realm actually matters. That means that if we see it, it will manifest. 

Ps. 24:7-10 (TPT) says, 

“So wake up, you living gateways! Lift up your heads, you ageless doors of destiny! Welcome the King of Glory, for he is about to come through you. You ask, “Who is this Glory-King?” The Lord, armed and ready for battle, the Mighty One, invincible in every way! So wake up, you living gateways, and rejoice! Fling wide, you ageless doors of destiny! Here he comes; the King of Glory is ready to come in. You ask, “Who is this King of Glory?” He is the Lord of Victory, armed and ready for battle, the Mighty One, the invincible commander of heaven’s hosts! Yes, he is the King of Glory! Pause in his presence”

You are the living gateway!

You are an everlasting, never-dying and eternal living soul and YOU are the gatekeepers of what is allowed into the earth for your family, your workplace, your industry, your community and even your nation.

THE NEVER ENDING STORY

When I was a kid I watched a movie called "The Never Ending Story." If you haven't seen it, it is a story of a little boy reading a story. As he is reading it the characters in the story are aware of him. He is part of the story without realizing it. As the story progresses the land of Fantasia is falling apart all around the characters. They are trying to get the little boy to realize that He is the one who holds the power. At the very end of the story when the land has almost completely vanished and the princess is on the verge of death, the little boy, Bastian, finally uses his voice to declare the words written on the pages of the book and Fantasia is completely restored to the fullness of its former glory. 

Sometimes I think we read the word of God as if we were an outsider in someone else's story. Just like Bastian, we read it as if it is not real. I believe that as we read God's word, the characters in the story are fully aware of us and our observations of them. They, like the angels are waiting for us to speak, proclaim and decree the words on the page into the atmosphere and create with God the fullfilment of every promise.

God's word is a GATEWAY to the supernatural realm and when we proclaim it, we give the Angelic hosts the ability to move on our behalf in this earthly realm. 

The portal is open!

It is critical that we begin to own our authority as God's kids and understand who we are in the realm of the spirit and what we are capable of.

Your voice matters!

One of my favourite verses in the whole bible is Romans 8:19. In the Passion translation it says, "The entire universe stands on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God's glorious sons and daughters!"

We are the ones who can step out from under that veil of our natural existence by believing and recognizing the supernatural beings we truly are.

Prov. 9:3 tells us that Wisdom has prepared a feast for us and has sent our her maidens to invite us to come.

Will we?

In that same chapter we read that folly sits at the gates of influence preaching to all who will listen trying to seduce, entice and lead us astray. 

The gates of influence of our culture are the institutions of government, education, religion, family, media, arts and entertainment and business.

As gatekeepers we must be careful of the voices we hear and recognize the voice of wisdom in the midst of all the distractions set as traps for us by folly. Let's open the door to wisdom and deny the enemy access to this realm.

We must be vigilant to stand in our assignments within the seven mountains of influence. 

When we as the gatekeepers, are in our assigned place, functioning with our full authority in that position, there is no demon in hell who can gain illegal entry. 

WHERE DO WE GET THE AUTHORITY?

I'm so glad you asked! We already have it. Jesus gave it to us. 

In Rev. 3:20 He tells us that he is standing at the door and knocking. He wants us to let him in. It is up to us to open our hearts so that we can hear His voice and open the door for Him. 

In Matt. 28:18-20 Jesus gives us the great commission. He says these words, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." Jesus has ALL the authority and He is the one who commanded us to go. We must obey.

Let's also look at another important scripture.  This is a prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father concerning us in John 17:20-26. I'm just paraphrasing the passage but please go and read the whole thing. 

He says to the Father, "For the very glory you have given to me I have given to them so that they will be joined together as one and experience the same unity that we enjoy." He is speaking not only about his disciples, but about those of us who "will one day" believe in Him through their message. Jesus goes on to pray that He has already revealed to us who the Father is but that He will continue to do so as He dwells in us. 

We have been given authority AND because of Jesus dwelling in us we have access to all wisdom and all authority any time we need it to fulfill our purpose.

You are equipped!

Your Body and Your Soul are the Gates of Entry and Your Spirit is the Gatekeeper!

With your permission:

• glory enters here
• wisdom enters here
• faith enters here
• truth enters here
• acceptance and affirmation enter here
• the prophetic voice enters here
• love enters here
• light enters here
• life enters here
• etc.

Similarly, based on your word fear, lies, darkness, depression, abuse, addiction, doubt, rejection, hatred, sickness, death and every other fruit of the evil one must EXIT here. As gatekeepers you have the say.

Jesus told Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. I believe that is because He saw into the future and saw all His gatekeepers standing in their places manning those gates.

Our spirt lives in two realms simultaneously. We are encased in our physical bodies here in the earth realm but according to Eph. 2:6, once we are born again we are ALSO seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is why we can deny access to the enemy and all his plans and agendas just by exercising our authority...just by knowing who we are.

It is up to us to learn how to use the gifts we have been given. If you have ever watched any superhero movie, military movie, sports movie or even boxing movie, there are always the scenes where the hero is learning to master their skills. The same is true for us in the spirit realm. You can be a superhero of faith if you train for the job.

It is up to us to be the body guards, warriors, secret service agents and law enforcement which cleans up the streets from enemy spiritual influences.

You have kingdom authority for your current sphere. Don't go jumping in to someone else's lane. Grow in yours and move up the ranks as God allows. 

Remember, you can tell a mountain to get up and jump into the sea, if you believe. (Matt. 11:23).

Most of us do this thing though, where we believe the word but we think that it is not applicable to our lives right now. We believe that the truth is true for some arbitrary future time. Why? Everything about God's kingdom is now! 

We have to stop waiting for the future and start believing that the time has already come for us to be able to operate and God's glorious sons and daughters. 

News flash! the enemy isn't waiting until we "feel" ready. 

Genesis 4:7 tells us that the moment we even feel tempted sin is already crouching at the door waiting to take us out. But the Lord says that we must rule over it. It says we must.

Well, if it says we MUST that means it IS possible.

In Luke 22, Jesus told Peter that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat in order to test his faith.  

His tactics are still the same and some of us have felt that sifting. 

You know sifting tends to remove all the fibre and some key nutrients from the flour until you are left with something that looks all pretty and white and soft but has no substance or nutrition left. Satan doesn't care if we look good. He just doesn't want the fruit of our lives to provide any lasting sustenance for others. 

God wants us to be rich with fibre and goodness so that we can provide food that satisfies and purifies to those in our spheres of influence. 

That same Peter that the enemy tried to sift is the one who warns us in 1 Pet. 5:8 to be alert and of sober mind because our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

It is interesting to note that one of the first things Jesus said to Peter after he had been sifted was, "feed my sheep." 

Being sifted doesn't disqualify you. There is nothing the enemy can do to you which will de-activate your calling or derail your destiny. God always recalculates the route.

We must be willing to dust ourselves off and get back to our post. The victory is always won the same way. Open the door to Jesus and shut the door to the enemy. 

You are the gatekeeper. Both heaven and hell can access your gate. Heaven won't let itself in but if you aren't there, hell will try to gain illegal access. You matter.

This christian life is not just about getting saved and staying saved. Salvation is only phase one. It is our job as God's Ecclesia and Jesus' Bride to transform culture. 

The church needs a mindset shift.

We need a whole paradigm shift in our thinking.

Remember! We need new wineskins if we want God to pour out the new wine.

We read moments ago, Jesus is not only coming back for a whole bunch of saved souls. The great commission is for the church to disciple and transform nations. 

Yes! That starts with one at a time. However as the ones and twos get positioned in their mountain of influence, culture can also be transformed through positions of authority.

We must transform culture with the revelation of kingdom. 

It happens when we collectively take our place. We can't just be bystanders.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying we forcefully take positions that are not ours. I am not saying that we tear others down. That doesn't work. We don't take our place in arrogance or pride. We move into positions which open up to us in obedience to the Lord. We don't take our place in an attempt to gain a "position." We walk in obedience to His plan for the sake of Heaven's purpose being fulfilled in the earth.

CAN ONE PERSON MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Here are some examples:

JOSEPH was a gatekeeper who because He opened the gate to the dream world for Pharaoh, he saved two nations (and possibly more) from famine due to draught.

NEHEMIAH was a gatekeeper who because he had the ear of the king he was able to orchestrate the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. 

DANIEL was a gatekeeper whose integrity and righteousness opened the door for not only transformation of culture but also for fulfilment of prophecy.

There are prophecies yet to be fulfilled over each of our families, churches, work places, communities, cities and nations.

You are the gatekeeper who holds the key to transformation for YOUR sphere of influence. Your victory could lead to a domino effect of transformation in the earth, one family at a time, one community at a time, one business at a time and one nation at a time.

Similarly, your disobedience, fear, unbelief or self-doubt could be causing a bottle neck of prophetic release waiting to come in at a gate that just will not open.

The enemy knows all to well the intensity of purpose in a prophetic promise and the severity of its impact on culture IF we as the gatekeepers learn how to release it into the earth through our gates. 

I am not condoning the watching of the movie Harry Potter but there is a scene in one of the movies where the enemy and all his demons are doing everything in their power to destroy a specific prophecy which has a promise of devastation to his kingdom and authority.

Listen church people, the demonic realm is not ignorant to the power of individual believers opening up the portals of God's glory so the power of heaven can be released into the earth.

The church is oblivious and the enemy is simply ok with that because it buys him more time to wreak havoc on creation.

But that can change - with you!

Be the portal. 

JOSEPH (Mary's betrothed) was a gatekeeper who, when faced with an irrational and impossible situation, still opened the door of acceptance and faith to his fiancée Mary once she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. What if He didn't?

MARY was a gatekeeper who chose not to deny God or abort the plan of heaven meant to come in to the earth through her life. The choice was hers.

You never know the impact your life can make. 

A student can give a simple word of affirmation to a teacher not realizing that they set the trajectory of purpose to be ignited within that same teacher. Years later that same teacher might have risen through the ranks to become an elected school board trustee with a voice to legislate curriculum when their former student’s children are starting their education.

Your sphere of influence could feel small today but your influence on one person could have global impact. They say that we are all connected by six degrees of separation. 

No matter where you are, what you do, how old you are or your status in life, YOU are a gatekeeper and your influence is great.

I pray that God opens your awareness to this and gives you revelation of the impact one life (your life) can make on the world. 

Believe and look for opportunities to cooperate with heaven to banish the enemy from your sphere of influence.

Transformation of culture is only possible if the true sons and daughters of God arise.

That's it for this week Gatekeepers! I hope you were blessed by this. 

Comment below and let me know.

Please send me any and all prayer requests and testimonies you may have and as always remember that you are loved and deeply cherished by Jesus and by me.

Love 

V

Photo cred. My almost 5 year old niece Alexandria Rose on Oct. 8th 2018