Apostle Don Meares
“ Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.” –Genesis 22:17
In the Old Testament, we have been given a promise by God that as the seed of Abraham, we are to possess the gate of our enemy. And when it comes to the church, the house of God is the gate of heaven. To know how this affects us, we must look at how Jesus incorporated these two truths in the Gospel of Matthew 16:13-19:
Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ
13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
In these verses, Jesus is talking about the Church and how the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. We must understand that the gates are a legal authority taught throughout the Old and New Testaments. Whatever tries to come out of those gates cannot and will not prevail against the Church.
Jesus gives the Church the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose here on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Moving Into the Possessing Stage
The promise is that we shall possess the gates of our enemy. The Church is the gate of Heaven itself and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church. We are in a time where God is moving toward the end of sorrows. In the present, we are not yet at the end of sorrows but certainly, we are moving toward it rapidly. We are in a time when God is having to bring the Church into a more corporate understanding of what it means to have authority in the Kingdom of God. To have authority, the Church has to move beyond the survival stage and move into the possessing stage. The Church is no longer going to function out of a survival mode that just keeps people saved but it’s time to move to new places.
First, we have a promise from God that we should possess the gate of our enemy. And we won’t be able to do this if we are still being tempted. In possessing the gates, we must understand that the gates mean access. They’re the place of entrance and exit, of flow and movement, and they have to be possessed by the people of God. It is a promise God has made to us that we have not been called to survive but to possess the land. For us to do this, we must first possess the gates of our enemy.
The Agent of God’s Kingdom
The Church must understand the mandate and authority on the earth. Every local church should possess, access, and control what goes into a city. If someone tries to overthrow a city, they have to come to the gate. This is why cities had gatekeepers who watched the gates to govern what came in and went out. The gates are a legal term because this is where the authority of the city rested.
In the spiritual realm, we have to grasp that now’s the time when God’s people have the responsibility and the authority to determine what happens spiritually. We have the ability to determine the spiritual climate and the environment of our city. If we have the authority, we have control over spirits, where they have access, whether they’re bound, or whether they are loosed. We should have the authority where we can bring the power of the Holy Spirit to certain flows and certain movements within a city. This happens through the agency of the church. Everything that is going to flow in the way of blessing has to come from heaven through the Church to you.
The Church is not only God’s embassy that represents His Kingdom but it determines what is going to flow here on earth. It is the enforcer of restoration. The kingdom of darkness will not give up its prisoners easily and does not relinquish its territory lightly. So the enemy in the Scripture is pictured as a strong man guarding and protecting his territory. We live in a demarcation line that clearly portrays the kingdom of darkness versus the Kingdom of Light. We are in a war and you cannot get outside of the fact that we are getting more and more into a spiritual war.
As an agent of the Kingdom, the Church must enforce the will of God in the spirit realm and not just be limited to the building’s four walls. It must have influence and authority in the city and the community. It is not supposed to be a social club for bored Christians or a dating club. The authority of His Kingdom rests with those who are a functioning part of the Church. Only those who are established in the Church, those who are pillars in the Church have the authority to bind and loose. You cannot handle, operate, and function the Kingdom’s authority by yourself. Matthew 18:18-20 says:
18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
To become an established part of the Church and to have access to its authority, you must bring your tithe into the house of the Lord. It is written in Malachi 3:10:
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
To live under an open heaven, you must pay a tithe acceptable to God. Paying your tithes will open the windows of Heaven over your life. The Gate of Heaven cannot be opened unless you are a tither. If you don’t give to the House of God where you’ve been planted, your tithe is never acceptable.
You are out of God’s will if you are not functioning and established as part of a local church. You’re never going to have real authority because you don’t understand that worship, prayer, and many things that deal with spiritual authority have to do with the Church—the Gate of Heaven.
Going back to Matthew 16, Jesus shows us that the Church has to be built on a revelation that He is the Christ, Son of the Living God. When truth from the Word is spoken, you have to respond and agree to it. This revelation has to be received in your spirit and then your mouth has to respond for this to be established. This is why prophecy has to be spoken. It cannot happen unless it has been spoken.
The Church is not built on information but on revelation. It cannot be built on the organizational skills of man, musical talent, or programs. The Church can only be built on a revelation that Jesus is the Christ. If this truth has not gotten into your spirit, you will never come into authority. The Church is supposed to be the place of illumination and unveiling where you can see and gain things that you can catch and experience deep in your spirit so that you understand, witness, and comprehend how God thinks and moves. Jesus says in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
Changing Seasons
We are coming into the changing of seasons where God wants to elevate us and promote us. This is going to be our finest hour because this will reveal us as people who walk in faith. As a Church, we must come to maturity that we realize it takes all the ministry gifts to work on you. As followers of Jesus, we need to receive all of these gifts to become all that He wants us to be so that the gates of hell will not prevail against us. As we wait for the new season, we must give ourselves to prayer and the Word so that no one can pull us out of our calling. When we are aligned with God, we will move in extraordinary signs, wonders, and miracles. If we want to know where God is leading us, we must be ready to give all of ourselves.
