Gates and walls are designed to bring protection against unwanted intruders and enemies. Their purpose is to discourage anyone from trying to barge in and hurt those who live behind those gates and walls. Years ago entire cities would have walls surrounding them for this purpose. I was reading in Joshua 6 that the children of Israel were facing some walled cities in The Promised Land that were difficult to overcome. God had told them to destroy those enemies and take the land for themselves. He gave them some very unique instructions as to how they were to overcome the walls of Jericho. Joshua led the people just as the Lord had instructed him to take the city. The first day they marched all the way around the city and returned to camp. They did this once a day for six days in a row. On the seventh day they marched around the walls of Jericho seven times. Then as the priests blew their trumpets, the soldiers shouted as loud as they could in unison and the walls of Jericho fell flat! Once the walls came down, the children of Israel were able to go right into the city and destroy their enemies. God teaches us in the New Testaments how to overcome the gates or walls that keep us from having victory over the spiritual enemies that try to intimidate and keep us from having victory in our lives.
“And I (Jesus) say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew 16:18 (KJV)
As we face a new year, there will be some spiritual cities that God wants us to destroy in our lives. Cities of sin named: Laziness, Apathy, Worry, Immorality, Gossip, Stubbornness, Pride, and Selfishness, Love of money, or Bitterness to name some of them. Though we can’t see them with our physical eyes, they have evil spirits that form walls around them so they can’t be destroyed easily.
As a friend Kurt recently said, “Walls & gates don’t attack people, they are just trying to protect what is behind them. We as a Church must go on the offensive and attack the walls”. That is exactly what God has instructed us as Christians to do throughout the Bible. Jesus in this passage is telling us to attack the powers of hell. He is saying those walls cannot prevail against us. He is saying that we as a Church must rise up and march boldly around the “walls of those cities” like He tells us to. We must not allow these evil forces to continually bring havoc into us and our loved ones lives.
“Every child of God can defeat the world, and our faith is what gives us this victory.
No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God.”
I John 5:4, 5 (CEV)
It’s time for us as Christians to “blow the trumpets” and “shout” what God says about these defeated enemies….”they shall not prevail!” Then we will begin seeing those walls and gates begin to fall flat all around us. Be courageous and take the offensive. God’s Word will never be proven wrong. You will prevail against these gates of hell one city at a time!
Selah…
Al Yoder
01/03/2011
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