While I was ministering in Belfast, Ireland, my host took me around the city to become acquainted a bit with its history and traditions.  We, of course, made a stop at the shipyard where the ill-fated Titanic was built and made an extensive tour of sites where the bloody conflict between the city’s Protestant and Catholic populations had played out.  Finally, we found one bright spot in our expedition through the city that had suffered so much pain and agony over the years.  We came upon the community where C. S. Lewis had lived and discovered that they had erected a simple, yet impactful, memorial to his life and accomplishments.  The life-size statue of the author, philosopher, and theologian depicted him looking into the wardrobe that became so famous in his Chronicles of Narnia series.  It was by crawling into this wardrobe that the four Pevensie children were magically transported into the kingdom of Narnia where they met Aslan, the Great Lion, Lewis’ allegory for Jesus.  This magical wardrobe was depicted as actually connecting the temporal dimension of earth with the supernatural realm where the kingdom of heaven could be literally encountered as it conflicted with the demonic dominion.  To those four young siblings, that wardrobe was an interface between two worlds—between reality and the symbolic kingdom of Narnia.

 

Not long after my visit to Belfast, I began to randomly hear the word “interface.”  Sometimes, I would pick up the word in a conversation or in something I was reading.  But most often, the word would simply pop into my head for no apparent reason.  This unusual emphasis on a seemingly random thought reminded me of a similar experience many years before when the word “Africa” suddenly started popping into my head.  At that time, the closest I had ever been to Africa was Bush Garden’s Dark Continent theme park in Tampa, Florida.  As I kept encountering this single word over and over with no explanation as to what it could possibly mean to me, I began to have more and more interaction with Africans.  The college where I served as dean suddenly began to receive an influx of African students.  In fact, at one point there were more Africans than American students.  Then, I began to receive invitations to minister in Africa, a trend that continues until today with at least one or two trips to Africa every year.  So I knew that this repeated impression of the word “Africa” was a communication from God.  But what could the similar experience with the word “interface” mean?

 

An interface is the interaction point, or sometimes a collision point, between two different systems.  We use the term most often in discussing the meshing together of two different computer components—sometimes the linking of two different software systems and sometimes the linking of a software system with the computer’s hardware system.  The term is also used in meteorology to speak of the point were two different weather patterns meet, usually resulting in dramatic—or even violent—acts of nature.  “Interface” may also find its way into discussions of interpersonal relationships as we try to bring people with different cultures, political or social viewpoints, or philosophies “to the table” and get them “on the same page.”  Physically we live in a world of interfaces.  Every time we look out a window or open a door, we experience an interface.  We may be sitting in a toasty warm den next to a roaring blaze in the fireplace, while a blizzard is raging just outside our window.  That window is the interface between two radically different worlds.

 

Not long ago, I experienced a very powerful demonstration of such an interface in the country of Nigeria.  I had arrived after a very long day of travel to find that the first event on my schedule was an all-night prayer vigil.  Well, that was the first time in my life that I was glad to be experiencing jet lag; my body felt like it was still day even though it was nighttime in Africa.  After making it through the night of prayer, I went to the hotel and drew the thick curtains shut before going to bed.   When I woke up in the pitch-black room, the clock on my nightstand read three o’clock.  Because it was totally dark I assumed that it was 3 AM, but then I remembered that I had still been at the church at 3 AM.  When I opened the curtains, the brilliant African sun came blazing into my room assuring me that it was 3 PM!  That window was an interface between the artificially dark world inside my room and the reality of the sunlit world outside.

 

In the Bahamas, we learned a little song that illustrates that there are also interfaces between spiritual kingdoms:

 

Shut ’d doe; keep out ’d devil, devil!

Shut ’d doe; keep ’d devil in the night!

 

So, it was with all these thoughts racing through my mind that I set out on a scriptural quest to understand the spiritual significance of interfaces.  From this quest was born this series of short studies.

 

This book should be viewed as an anthology because each of the seven studies was written at a different time with no deliberate connection to the other six.  However, there is a thread running through these independent studies that ties them all together as they communicate different aspects of one unified message—being strategic in our spirituality.  The first study deals directly with the interfaces discussed in the Bible where we connect with the world around us, the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of darkness.  The second study in the series discusses finding the sensitive balance between two necessary interfaces—our need to spend time with God and our mandate to rise up and interact with the world.  The third and fourth studies have to do with the biblical truths that we need to understand in order to accurately interface with our God, our world, and ourselves.  In the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor recorded in Revelation chapters two and there, only one of the churches is specifically mentioned as being at an interface; the church at Philadelphia is said to have a open door set before it.  Interestingly, this is also the only church that is specifically mentioned as having a relationship with the Word of God. (Revelation 3:8, 10)  Therefore, it is significant that we take some time to explore some foundational biblical truths that we must stand upon as we approach the various interfaces set before us.  The fifth study takes us through the life of one of our most beloved biblical heroes—David, the shepherd boy who killed a giant and wrote beautiful psalms.  Although his life was riddled with one failure after another, he somehow attained the report that he was a man after God’s own heart, which is the key to opening the doors of interface with the world that we learn about in the letter to the Philadelphian church. (Revelation 3:7)  Next, we look at what it really means to have heart after the very heart of God—one that Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, described as being broken with the same things that break the heart of God.  Finally, the book concludes with a challenge to never fall short of the opportunities and blessing that God has provided for us as we interface with the One who sent us and those with whom we are to interface.

 

 

Doors, Windows, and Gates

 

When I began my study of interfaces in the Bible, I saw immediately that throughout the Bible doors where depicted as the interface point between two spiritual dimensions.  As early as the fourth chapter of the Bible, God spoke of a door that determined the spiritual destiny of one of the first members of human family.  When Cain killed Abel, the Lord warned him that sin was crouching at his very door. (Genesis 4:7)  Just a bit further into the saga of the household of mankind, God made a decision to destroy the human race because of their rebelliousness.  At that point, He commanded the one remaining righteous representative of the family to build an ark so that life could be preserved on the planet.  Explicitly delineated in the plan for this vessel was the provision for a door (Genesis 6:16), which was later shut once all the animals and people that were to be saved were inside (Genesis 7:16).  That door was an interface between salvation and judgment.  Later on, two cities came to God’s attention because of their extreme wickedness.  When He sent two angels to rescue the one righteous family within these doomed municipalities, the perverted men of the region attacked the celestial visitors, desiring to have homosexual relationships with them.  When Lot tried to convince the vile men to abandon their horrific plan, the mob grew even more incensed, until one of the angels had to reach outside and jerk his host to safety inside the house.  When he shut the door, it became an interface between the seething hotbed of perversion outside and the heavenly presence of the peace of God inside. (Genesis 19:10)  When God delivered the Israelites after four hundred years of bondage in Egypt, He sent one last plague upon the captors to convince them that the chosen people must be freed—a death angel that was to enter every home and claim the firstborn of the family.  However, a provision was made for the people of God; the blood of the Passover lamb was to be spread on the door as an indication that the household was dedicated to God.  The bloodstained door was an interface between life and death, keeping out the death angel and giving life to those inside. (Exodus 12:22)

 

As I continued to study the doors in the Bible, I soon discovered that many significant acts in the Old Testament were often done at the door.  The priests were sanctified at the door of the tabernacle. (Exodus 29:4)  Sacrifices were made at the door of the tabernacle. (Exodus 29:11)  The people worshiped at the doors of their own tents. (Exodus 33:10)  Bond slaves had their ears pierced at the doorway to indicate that they had decided to remain in servitude to their kind masters even though they were technically able to go free. (Deuteronomy 15:17)  Immoral daughters were stoned at the doors of their father’s homes. (Deuteronomy 22:21)  The apparent reason for all such activities being held at the doorway was that these portals were seen as interfaces between the physical and spiritual realms.  Therefore, acts done there symbolized to the spiritual world what was being done in the physical and, at the same time, notified the physical realm about what had transpired in the spiritual dimension.  Probably, the ultimate expression of this concept of the spiritual-physical interface is seen in the door that was opened in heaven that allowed John the Revelator to see the very throne of God and gain a vision of the end time. (Revelation 4:1)

 

Jesus personalized the message of the interface when He said, “I am the door for the sheep.” (John 10:7, also verse 9)  When He made this statement, He was referring to the practice of the shepherds of His time who would gather their sheep in the sheepfold for the night.  Since there was no gate to close the opening through which the sheep entered, the shepherd would actually lie on the ground in the opening as a defense against predators that would try to attack the sheep during the night.  In the morning, he would get up and take the sheep out of the enclosure to find food and water.  He personally became the interface between the sheep and their enemies at night and the interface between the sheep and their provisions during the day.  Jesus also taught us parables that helped us understand that we are all living at the interface between the realities of heaven and our ordinary lives when He said that the heavenly kingdom was at the door (Matthew 24:33); however, He explained in the very next chapter that some would fail to enter the kingdom of heaven before the door—the interface—was closed. (Matthew 25:10)

 

But the most timely message about doors in the Bible seems to be the fact that God has given us open doors into the world around us.  He wants us to understand that He has provided opportunities for us to interface with the world we live in in order to bring men and women into His kingdom and to bring His kingdom into their lives.  In the letter addressed to the church at Philadelphia in the book of Revelation, He wrote, “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” (verse 3:8)  Paul also spoke of the fact that God had set before him open doors through which he could take the gospel to the world:

 

For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. (I Corinthians 16:9)

Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord. (II Corinthians 2:12)

Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. (Colossians 4:3)

 

There is no such thing as a closed door for the church.  Jesus would not have told us to go to all the nations if we weren’t going to be able to get in. (Matthew 28:19)  He would not have told us to preach the gospel to every creature in all the world if we were not going to be able to get to all of them. (Mark 16:15)  Even though we often speak of specific people and even whole nations as being closed to the gospel, the scriptural truth is that there is no such thing as a closed door.

 

A very dear friend of mine in the country of Nepal had a desire to present the gospel to his countrymen; however, the country was considered “closed” because the Hindu government had outlawed any form of Christian evangelism under the country’s anti-proselytizing laws.  However, knowing that God would not have given him the desire unless He would also give him the means (Philippians 2:13), he prayed until he came up with a creative idea (Proverbs 8:12).  Since many people in the country were dying from diseases that were being spread by poor hygiene and ignorance of some very simple sanitation practices, he knew that the government would approve of a privately funded health initiative to assist the people.  So he produced a brochure that gave some very simple steps to better hygiene and proper sanitation; however, he added one unexpected chapter.  Since sin is the worst pollutant of all (Numbers 18:32), he included a chapter on the only way to eradicate this contaminant—salvation through Jesus Christ.  As was required by the national authorities, this piece of literature had to be approved by the government before it could be printed and distributed in the country.  Apparently, the official who reviewed the pamphlet didn’t read it through to the very end and gave it the authoritative stamp!  Soon my friend, with all necessary governmental approval, launched a campaign to canvass every house and hut in every city and village in the nation.  Before long, Nepal experienced an unprecedented move toward God and the church in this country became the fastest growing segment in the entire Body of Christ—in what was considered to be a nation whose doors were “closed to the gospel.”

 

In one Islamic nation that has been devastated by seemingly unending war, the government decided that they needed to take a census to determine the full impact of the war on their citizenry.  They felt that there needed to be an accurate accounting of the number of men who had lost their eyesight or limbs and the number of families who had lost sons, fathers, or husbands in the fighting.  To implement such a thorough study, they needed to employ an outside agency that was trained and equipped to do such a door-to-door canvass.  By divine plan, there was a group of Christians in that very nation who were praying for an “open door” to share their faith in this “closed” Muslim environment.  They answered the government’s call for a third-party census organization with the response that they were part of an organization that did extensive door-to-door visitation around the world and that they were uniquely trained and equipped for just such a task.  Before long, they were given governmental approval and backing to begin visiting every home in the country to take the government-sanctioned survey.  Once the interviewees complete the questionnaire, the census takers suggest that they would like to thank the family for their time by leaving behind a small gift as a token of their appreciation for providing the necessary information.  That gift, of course, is a copy of the Arabic New Testament, the Jesus Film in the local language, or another simple gospel message.  All this in a “closed” nation!  Why?  Because there is no such thing as a closed door when God has said that He has set before us an open door!

 

I was recently in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago as part of a team helping train the local Christians in door-to-door evangelism.  As we rode the bus to our designated canvass site, we prayed that God would grant us open doors to spread the gospel according to Colossians 4:2-3, (Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. [NIV]), open minds to hear the gospel according to Acts 26:17-18 (I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. [NIV]), open hearts to embrace the gospel according to II Corinthians 4:6 (For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. [NIV]), and open heavens to reveal the gospel according to Isaiah 45:8 (Open up, O heavens, and pour out your righteousness.
 Let the earth open wide
so salvation and righteousness can sprout up together.
 I, the Lord, created them. [NLT]).  After the prayers, we found the people to be very receptive to the gospel.  On two specific days of our outreach, every individual we visited—and even whole families—responded to the salvation message.  In one street corner, I came upon a group of young men standing with money in their hands, apparently waiting for a drug deal.  As I shared the gospel with them, they all responded positively and prayed the sinner’s prayer while still holding their drug money in their hands.  At one home, a young man received the Lord after the presentation of the gospel using a bracelet made of colored beads that illustrate the plan of salvation.  As an afterthought while the team was walking away from the young man’s home, one of the ladies in the team turned back and asked if he would like to have a couple bracelets to share with his friends.  After crossing the street to share with a family there, the team crossed back to visit the gentleman’s next-door neighbor.  When the man in the house came to the door, he was already wearing one of the beaded bracelets.  The new convert had already been to his home and shared the gospel with him!  All this happened in a predominately Hindu region where closed doors had been opened by faith, prayer, and courage to go share the gospel!

         

Another significant interface in the Bible is the window.  Throughout the Bible, we see windows as the interface with heaven that allows the supernatural to invade the natural realm.  The flood during Noah’s day came as result of the windows of heaven being open. (Genesis 7:11)  Rahab and her family were saved because she hung a cord out her window. (Joshua 2:15)  That window was her key to avoiding the destruction that everyone else in Jericho experienced as well as the key to the deliverance that awaited only the one family with an interface to salvation.  When Samaria was under siege and the blockade had cut them off from all sources of supplies to the point that they were suffering famine so severe that women were eating their own babies, the prophet declared that bread would sell for pennies within twenty-four hours.  The king’s chief advisor retorted with the exclamation that such a thing could not happen even if God opened heaven’s windows. God did miraculously provide, and the people had all the food and supplies that they could ever have asked for when the windows of heaven did open. (II Kings 7:2)  Although it is not specifically said that there were windows open, Psalm 78:24 tells us that it was the raining down of manna from heaven that sustained the children of Israel for forty years as they wandered through the barren desert—their interface between starvation and provision.  Daniel prayed at an open window, and God saved him from the mouths of the lions. (Daniel 6:10)  Elisha directed King Joash to open a window and shoot arrows through that open portal as symbols of the Lord’s deliverance from their enemy Syria. (II Kings 13:17)

 

But God doesn’t stop with these historic events; He goes on to make a perpetual promise to His people that He will provide them with open windows—an interface with His blessing.

 

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10)

 

A number of years ago, my wife and I arrived in the island nation of Sri Lanka to minister in a youth camp that had been arranged for the Christian high school and college students in that Buddhist country.  When our host picked us up at the airport, he announced that we were going to have to cancel the retreat.  He then went on to explain that the country was encountering severe drought and that there was no water in the cisterns at the retreat center.  Without water for cooking, cleaning, and washing, it would be impossible to house the group at the camp.  I explained that we had spent a lot of money in advance to cover the camp expenses and had flown all the way from America for the event.  In my mind, it was impossible to cancel the retreat.  There had to be a way to make it work.  I asked for just twenty-four hours before he made his final decision.  That night we asked the Lord for the windows of heaven to be opened in some miraculous way, and God answered our prayer in an even more dramatic way than I had anticipated. (Ephesians 3:20)  We had the most horrendous rainstorm I have ever experienced.  It didn’t just “rain cats and dogs”; it was more like lions and wolves.  I had never seen anything like it; the rain came down by the buckets full—no, barrels full.  Not only did the cisterns fill to overflowing, the draught that was crippling the nation’s agriculture was immediately alleviated.  As a result, we were able to go forward with our plans for the retreat where we saw many young lives changed and destinies set.  It wasn’t until I revisited the nation almost thirty years later and was asked by one of the prominent pastors of the country to preach in his church that I saw proof of the remaining effect of the night that the windows of heaven were opened.  That pastor who is now a significant leader in the country was called into the ministry as a high school student in that camp that would have been canceled had God not opened the windows of heaven.

 

Open windows can come in many different shapes and sizes.  The challenge to increase our faith to the next level came during one of our annual church conventions when I felt directed to make a five-hundred-dollar donation to help our church’s humanitarian program.  Not having that much cash in the bank account at the moment, I made the gift on a credit card that would give me about a month to believe for the extra finances to come in.  When I took that step of faith, God proved to me that money does indeed grow on trees.  In our backyard we had a giant walnut tree whose upper limbs brushed the very heavens.  It was the home of a multitude of gray squirrels that scampered up and down its trunk and ducked into its hollow knotholes only to reappear on the other side of the tree ten feet further down the trunk.  This disappearance and reappearance of the furry little creatures became a little discomforting to us since it meant that the tree must be hollow for some major section of its trunk.  Since the tree leaned across the roof of our home, we began to feel that it would endanger our home and our lives if it were to ever be blown over.  Several severe storms took their toll of limbs from other trees in our yard; yet the giant walnut remained intact even though it rocked and creaked with the violent winds.  I talked to several companies about removing the tree but was constantly offered bids that were far beyond my price range.  One friend of mine who did tree removal as a sideline volunteered to take it down for us as a favor.  But, after climbing the tree and surveying how much actually reached over the house, he descended and rescinded.  We tried to postpone the removal until a later date when we might have the extra cash to pay for the service, but a violent windstorm raged through our area bringing down one of the trees in our yard.  My wife insisted that we act immediately before the next storm razed the walnut tree that, in turn, would crush our home.  Since the next week was the annual convention and I knew that I would be busy morning, noon, and night, I promised that without fail I would call in a tree company immediately after the conference.  One day during the conference, I came home at lunchtime and found a stranger standing in my backyard.  I went to find out what he wanted and was greeted with a proposal that I sell him the walnut lumber from the tree.  He had been in the area for some other wood procurement and had spotted this tree towering on the skyline.  It seemed ideal for his veneer business and he was willing to pay five hundred dollars for it!  Of course, I quickly settled the deal and paid off the charge for our faith gift.  Not only did God honor our faith, He gave us free removal of the tree that would have cost us several hundred dollars otherwise.  God opened a window with that walnut tree that allowed me to help the poor around the world and to also take care of a personal need.

 

When I was a “poor college student,” I had to carefully ration my funds.  One Friday night, I was at a special missionary meeting at church when I felt the Lord’s prompting to give all the money I had in the missions offering.  Doing so meant that I would be totally “broke” for the next two weeks.  It was a real step of faith to do so, but I decided to give the money and believe God that He would honor His promise to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon me.  When I got back to the dorm that night, there was a note on my door that I needed to call one of the professors that night, no matter how late it was.  It was really strange that there was such urgency in the message, so I made the call even though it was pushing midnight.  It turned out that the professor had received a business opportunity for the following day and needed an assistant to go with him.  He wanted me to work with him on the project and promised to pay me on the spot.  Wow, within hours of “putting the Lord to the test with my giving,” He had indeed opened the windows of heaven.  Not only did I work that following day and not only did I get back more than I had given to the missionary, the job turned into an ongoing opportunity that gave me pocket money for many months to come.  There was a door of opportunity to bless the work of the Lord through the missionary, but it also took the window of heaven to make it possible for me to do so.

 

When our church was planning a mission trip to the Philippines, I felt a real desire to part of the team, but there was no way I could afford it.  We had no extra cash and what extra money I could collect needed to go to pay back a loan that I had taken from my father-in-law.  One of the elders at the church knew of my desire to be part of the team and volunteered to pray with me about it.  His prayer was that God would open the windows of heaven and make a way for me to go through the door of opportunity that stood before me.  To be honest, I didn’t anticipate much and went on with my life, with one of my primary objective being to settle my debts.  When I collected enough money to pay back the loan my father-in-law had extended to me I took the cash to my mother-in-law because my father-in-law had recently died.  To my amazement, she responded, “That was between you and him, not between us.  You don’t need to pay me.”  The debt was canceled, and I was left with the exact amount of cash necessary to pay for my ticket for the mission.  Where there are open doors, there are also open windows!

 

Can you bear just one more story?  Early one year, I began to have a deep sensation that I should plan to join our ministry’s Holy Land tour that year.  Since the trip wasn’t until November, I knew that I had plenty of time to make the arrangements, but there was one major hurdle in my path—the money.  At that particular time in my life, our family budget was stretched to the max, and there was no way I could ever expect to add in the cost of a trip to Israel.  As each day went by, I was more and more stirred in my spirit that I was supposed to be on that trip.  I somehow felt that it was a divine appointment.  But as each day passed, it was also more and more evident that I could not afford to go.  I couldn’t see any way to squeeze any more outgo into the budget without a new source of income.  Then came the call from a pastor friend of mine asking me if I could fill his pulpit one Sunday while he was going to be out of town.  Immediately, I thought of my need for some extra income and thought that this must be God’s way of providing it.  If I went out as a guest speaker in a few churches during the year, I could likely get enough honorariums to cover the cost of the trip to Israel.  Since I had my own responsibilities at my home church, I told my friend that I’d call him back once I checked with my pastor.  To my chagrin, my pastor’s answer was, “No, I need you here!”  All I was scheduled to do was to make announcements—a job that certainly didn’t seem to warrant preempting my opportunity to go out to preach.  However, I submissively called my friend and told him that I would have to decline his offer.  Well, the weeks passed; and as time for the tour drew closer, I was sure that the plane would be taking off without me.  That is until the day I was called into the office of the tour director.  The lady who was scheduled to host the tour was pregnant, and her doctor had insisted that she not fly due to some complications that were developing.  An alternative host had to be selected, and my name was on the short list.  Since I was a Bible college teacher, I was certainly qualified to answer any questions the tour members would have.  Plus, I had been to Israel as part of my seminary training, so I was at least a bit familiar with the sites that we would be visiting.  As you might well guess, it only took a nanosecond for me to accept the offer.  Apparently, I did a pretty good job because I was invited back as the tour host for the next several years and given opportunities to visit Rome and Egypt, as well as make numerous trips to the Holy Land.  Open windows make for open doors!

 

So far I’ve been talking about the financial aspect of open windows, but there is one more incident of the interface between heaven and earth that I’d like to consider.  It is recorded in Matthew 3:16 where Jesus was anointed when heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove.  Even though the passage does not specifically mention a window, we can visualize that the portal through which the dove descended must have been a window, or at least a window-like opening.  This story introduced a new significance to the interface between heaven and earth.  It is not only physical things such as food and financial blessing that we can anticipate when we interface with heaven at its open windows.  There are also spiritual empowerments awaiting us at this interface.  In order for us to be able to go through all the open doors that are set before us, we need the open windows of spiritual anointing as well as the open windows of finances.

 

After hearing all the excuses of the Old Testament characters (Gideon said that he couldn’t really be a mighty man of valor because of his family background; Jeremiah countered that he couldn’t be a prophet to the nations because he was too young; Isaiah objected that he couldn’t speak for the Lord because his lips were unclean; Moses retorted that there was no way he could present himself before Pharaoh because he stuttered; ten of the spies that Moses sent into the Promise Land said that it would be impossible to possess the land because they were “grasshoppers,” and the list goes on), God must have been fed up with flimsy human excuses by the time that the New Testament rolled around.  Therefore, when Jesus gave His Great Commission, He didn’t pause long enough for the disciples to interject their objections.  When He told the disciples in Matthew that they were to go disciple all nations, He didn’t take a breath before adding, “and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (verse 28:20)  In Mark’s version, He told them to preach the gospel to every creature, but didn’t give them a second to interrupt before He also promised that miraculous signs would follow them as they went out to do so. (verse 16:17-18)  When Luke recorded His directive that the disciples were to be witnesses among all nations, he reported that Jesus kept right on talking as He told them to go to Jerusalem where they were to wait until they received supernatural power from on high. (verse 24:49)  John’s rendition of the Great Commission records that Jesus punctuated His statement to the disciples that He was sending them out the same way His Father had sent Him by breathing on them and commanding them to receive the Holy Spirit. (verse 20:22)  Acts reports the final words of Jesus as yet another giving of the Great Commission.  Again, Jesus doesn’t leave an “out” for the disciples in that He insisted that they would receive power when the Holy Ghost came upon them so that they would be able to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

 

I’d like to illustrate this principle with a couple stories from the subcontinent of India.  The first comes from the central part of the country near the city of Nagpur where there are many temples dedicated to the worship of the cobra deity.  One of the graduates of the Bible college where I taught was preaching in the villages in that area but was experiencing serious opposition from the local people.  That is until one particular night after a fairly strong downpour.  Since the ground was muddy, he didn’t think much about the fact that it seemed that the ground was moving under his feet.  It was probably just the mud shifting under his weight.  That is until he saw how all the villagers suddenly seemed spellbound by his message and were clinging to every word he was saying.  Since it seemed that their eyes were fixed on his feet, he looked down to find out what had captivated them so.  It was then that he realized that the movement was not just mud; it was a giant king cobra!  He was standing square on the back of one of the most venomous snakes in the world, and it was not even attempting to strike him.  He continued preaching and gave the altar call at which the entire village responded and received salvation.  Once he stepped off the serpent’s back, it calmly slithered into the bush.  The news about this preacher who had authority over their cobra god (Luke 10:19) quickly spread to every village in the area, and the villagers welcomed him, his message, and his Savior!  The second illustration is set in a remote village in Tamil Nadu State in southern India.  A little white-haired Indian man had been trying year after year to evangelize his Hindu village for Christ.  Yet, the people’s hearts and ears were closed.  Finally, one day at an evangelism training conference in the city of Madras (now known as Chennai), he learned the principle that the Great Commission is accompanied with an open heaven of spiritual anointing that makes it possible to fulfill it.  Returning to his village with a new power from his new relationship with the Holy Spirit, he found that an old lady in the village had been gored by a water buffalo.  Laying his hands on her, he commanded that she be totally healed.  Instantly, her crippled legs received strength and her mangled body was straightened.  Since the whole village had seen the woman’s condition after the attack and then saw her miraculous recovery, everyone suddenly believed that the old man’s message was real.  The village that had rejected his testimony year after year was converted overnight.

 

The flow of supernatural anointing through the open windows of heaven makes it possible for doors of ministry to open before us.

         

There is one other arena of interface that we must investigate to make our biblical study complete—gates.  In the Bible, the gates of a city are symbolic of authority because that is where the elders and decision makers of the city gathered to hold their court and council. (Genesis 19:1; Deuteronomy 16:18, 22:15, 25:7; Ruth 4:11; II Samuel 19:8; Esther 2:21; Proverbs 24:7, 31:23)  Gates were also a place of strength, fortification, and defense. (I Chronicles 22:3; Nehemiah 2:17)  Although the gates were interfaces between the city and the society outside of the city, they were specifically designed as a barrier to keep the outside influence outside and to protect what was inside.  Yes, the gates were open so that commerce and trade could occur, but the positioning of the elders and city leaders at the gate put them in the position to filter out any influence that they did not want to enter their society.  Additionally, the fortification of the gate protected the city from the physical intrusion of wild beasts, bandits, and invading armies.  Because of the significance of the loss of this protection, it is easy for us to understand why Nehemiah records that the king’s cupbearer’s countenance looked downcast when he heard the report of the fallen gates of his beloved Jerusalem (verse 2:3) and that he considered that his people were living in reproach.

 

Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. (verse 2:17)

 

It is with this exact idea of the reproach of fallen gates that I’d like to further our study of gates.  My focus will be drawn from Jesus’ words to His disciples, and Peter in specific, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against His church. (Matthew 16:18)  To understand this statement, we need to consider exactly what Jesus must have intended when He referred to the gates of hell.  The first suggestion I would like to make is that since there are twelve gates to heaven, or at least the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:13), perhaps there are also twelve gates of hell.  My second thought is that if there really are twelve gates to hell, perhaps these spiritual gates are paralleled by the natural gates that existed in the physical realm of the historical city of Jerusalem.  If these thoughts do indeed carry any significance, then it is likely that we can find the specific areas of interface between the church and the strongholds that the devil has set up in human society.  When Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem to rid the city of its reproach, he found exactly twelve gates.  To me, at least, this is a message of twelve areas where the church needs to aggressively attack strongholds of the enemy and rebuild our positions of authority while tearing down the demonic powers that have set themselves in position there.

 

The first gate that Nehemiah set out to repair was the gate of the fountain. (verse 2:14)  This gate took its name from the fact that it was located next to the Pool of Siloam.  Of course, we know this body of water from the story in John chapter nine of the blind man whom Jesus sent to this pool to wash his eyes so that he could receive his sight.  The association of this pool, and therefore the accompanying gate, with healing suggests that one area of demonic authority in our society is in the arena of healthcare.  It is no secret that the devil wants people sick and that God is in the business of making people well.  Jesus healed the sick and sent His disciples out to do the same. (Matthew 4:24; Mark 1:34; Luke 4:40; Acts 10:38; Matthew 10:8; Mark 16:18; Luke 10:9; Acts 5:15-16, 19:12)  Unfortunately, many in the church today have surrendered this gate through denying that God wants to heal people supernaturally, and some have even gone so far as to advocate that ministers who practice “faith healing” are instruments of the devil.  In addition, the struggle at the gate of health has extended beyond the arena of supernatural healing into the medical profession.  The enemy has taken hold of medical science and the government funds that support it to implement his own diabolical plans.  During the days of the conquest of the New World, vast populations of the native inhabitants were decimated because the settlers brought with them diseases that the people isolated on the far side of the earth had no immunities to.  Even though these pandemics were totally unplanned and not orchestrated, evil governments today have plans for similar scenarios through planned biological warfare.  In addition, our own healthcare system is poised so that the intrusion of some evil power could turn our immunization program into a time bomb that could wipe out our whole population and the future generations.  But, leaving aside this futuristic diabolical mass extermination scenario, let’s take a look at what is actually happening in the American healthcare system right now.  Our present national healthcare system forces students and workers in certain areas to participate in immunization programs, even when there is substantial evidence that the vaccines used may be detrimental to the patient’s overall health.  Employers are forced to provide birth control benefits (even the morning after pill, which is essentially a form of abortion) to their employees even when such practices violate the employer’s religious convictions.  Our pro-abortion healthcare system has terminated the lives of more than three hundred times the number of deaths caused by the atomic blast on Hiroshima, ten times the number of deaths in the Nazi death camps, and equal to the total population of the seventy-two largest cities in our country.  Stem cell research and the advocacy of euthanasia add to the fortification that the enemy has placed at this gate.  Historically the church has recognized the necessity of confronting the stronghold of disease by establishing church-sponsored hospitals at home and mission hospitals and clinics around the world; however, there is a new need today for the church to aggressively take back the policymaking position in the current healthcare system in our country.

 

Nehemiah’s second gate was the sheep gate. (verse 3:1)  This gate was the entrance through which the sheep that were to be sacrificed in the temple were brought into the city.  Therefore, it represents religion.  I guess the very idea that the church needs to take charge of religion will bring a puzzled grin to most of our faces, but it is true.  The enemy has taken advantage of the broken-down gate of religion and turned it into one of his own strongholds.  On a recent train ride inside the country of Peru I had the privilege of sharing a berth with a bishop in one of the nation’s major denominations.  As we talked about the state of the church in America, the topic of same-sex marriage came up.  This particular man was a strong believer in the gospel and stood for biblical principles, yet he described to me the tremendous battles he has had to fight in order to keep his denomination from sanctioning gay marriage and ordination of homosexuals.  He confirmed that these issues were reoccurring items on the agenda every year at the national convention.  He shared with me how vocal the advocates for gay rights are within his denomination and how close they have actually come to making the denomination change its position.  When he began to mention names of specific church leaders who were in favor of the gay agenda, I’m sure that he could see my mouth drop.  Simply pulling out of the denominational church because of their liberal stance is not the answer.  In doing so, we allow the whole system to be fully taken over and give the enemy a place to establish a gate of authority in society.  True believers must bombard the stronghold of religion and reestablish it as a gate of heaven rather than a gate of hell.

 

The third gate in disrepair was the fish gate (verse 3:3), so called because it faced the Sea of Galilee and Jordan River where fishing, one of the most lucrative of Israel’s industries, flourished.  This gate represents commerce.  We often hear references to Jesus and the poor fishermen who traveled with Him.  Actually, this is probably the farthest thing from the truth.  The fish that were harvested from the Sea of Galilee were considered a delicacy throughout the Roman Empire, and those men employed in the businesses of catching and marketing them became extremely wealthy.  In fact, archeologists have excavated the homes of Galilean fishermen in which caches of thousands of gold coins were buried.  Peter actually had a fishing company with partners and more than one ship; therefore, he was likely a prosperous businessman. (Luke 5:7)  His mother-in-law had a home with a tiled roof (Mark 2:4, Weymouth Translation), indicating that she was from an upper class family.  Christians today are called to take positions of authority in the world of commerce.  Without an expression of Christian ethic in the business world, the poor will continually be slaves to the rich and powerful, the desires and wishes of the rich will be imposed upon the total populace, and a few wealthy businessmen will buy the votes of our politicians.  The gates of commerce must be taken back from hell and returned to the church.

 

The next gate for reconstruction was the old gate. (verse 3:6)  To me, this gate speaks of the media, entertainment, and sports.  I would love to see the grimaces on the faces of most of my readers right now, but let me give just a few lines to explain.  The scriptures repeatedly speak of the old man and the old mentality. (II Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:9)  The old mentality is communicated and established through what we see and hear (Luke 8:18), and we are most vulnerable to outside influences through the media, entertainment, and sports.  Therefore, the old way of thinking can readily be associated with these three areas of communication.  How do we make a decision about what politician to vote for?  The messages we get through the media.  What hairstyle do we decide to adopt?  The one we see on our favorite entertainer.  What deodorant do we use?  The one promoted by our favorite sports figure.  After all, there is a reason we call these people “idols.”  In addition, this gate was repaired by Joiada whose name means “Jehovah known.”  The knowledge of God is our key to overcoming the false ideas of the old man. (Ephesians 1:17; Colossians 3:10; James 3:13; II Peter 1:3, 3:18)  When we turn from the lies and misrepresentations of the world and start listening to God’s truth, we are able to repair the old mentality. (Romans 12:2, II Corinthians 10:4)  A recent cartoon showed God speaking to Adam and Eve as they stood in front of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  His message was, “Eat all the apples you like, but stay away from the Tree of Idiocy.”  His finger was pointing to a tree filled with television screens and computer monitors.  Even though the comic strip “pushes the envelope,” it does communicate a real truth.  Many years before computers became household items and the Internet was even birthed, Dr. Lester Sumrall had a vision in which the devil appeared to him and said that he had a plan to destroy the minds of America.   The next thing that Dr. Sumrall saw in that revelation was the image of a television screen (of course, we later understood that it could also have been a computer monitor).  Satan is using the arenas of media, entertainment, and sports to take over the minds of our generation; however, believers can and must rise up and take responsible places of authority in these areas of interface to proclaim God’s truth and present godly and moral role models.

 

Next came the valley gate. (verse 3:13)  This gate overlooked the Kidron Valley—a massive cemetery filled with monuments to remind the people of their past kings and other significant elements of their history.  Since such memorials symbolize “teaching moments,” opportunities to teach a new generation about the truths a former generation had learned (Joshua 4:6, 21), this gate must represent education.  Today, the gate of education has been taken over by those who represent anything but the truth that has been passed down from our fathers.  The homosexual agenda, Islamic culture and theology, evolution, and humanism fill our textbooks while even the slightest mention of God, a quote from the Bible, a list of the Ten Commandments, or prayer in Jesus’ name can end in a legal suit and suspension of students and termination of teachers.  Christians must aggressively retake this gate and turn it back into an interface for God rather than a portal for the devil’s lies.

 

In spite of its repulsive name, the dung gate is a very important interface. (verse 3:14)  It was from this gate that the residents of the city hauled their refuse to be burned in the Valley of Hinnom; therefore, this gate represents infrastructure.  The public works system implemented here speaks of a society that works together for the common good.  However, simple sanitation, working utilities, safe roads, and other civil services are lacking in most countries.  When these basic elements of infrastructure are lacking, people suffer tremendously.  The lack of proper sanitation results in tremendous suffering and death from such diseases as malaria, cholera, and dysentery—all of which are easily prevented, yet difficult to treat.  Many times, it is Christian missionaries who make the first breakthroughs in these areas.  Their work breaks the bondage of poverty, disease, and death.  Until simple infrastructure is in place, advancement is impossible.  William Carey, the father of modern missions, took five months by steamer to get to Calcutta, but today’s advanced technology and the infrastructure of modern airports in India makes it possible for a missionary to reach the same destination within one day.  If you can’t get there, you can’t minister; but if you can get there, you can do a world of good.  I have personally known of several occasions when the missionaries and local pastors in mission areas have sent messages back to mission groups in America asking them to stop sending food, medicine, and literature because there simply was no way to store, transport, or distribute the aid.  The devil had established gates of hell in these countries through the infrastructure—or actually the lack thereof—and was, therefore, able to keep the people poor, sick, and lost.

 

The water gate (verse 3:26) marked the entrance of Hezekiah’s Tunnel that brought fresh water into the city from outside the wall.  This tunnel was an engineering breakthrough that allowed the people inside to weather extended assaults and blockades from invading armies.  I see this gate as representing enterprise and ingenuity.  Many countries and masses of individuals are held in poverty because of the lack of enterprise and ingenuity.  Africa is the poorest continent on earth, but it is also the richest in natural resources, including uranium, titanium, manganese, potash, cobalt, platinum, oil, gas, gold, and diamonds.  I discovered that many people in Hungary are hungry even though they have enough land to raise their own food.  The simple problem is that they don’t see the potential of turning their little plots of ground into subsistence farms.  I learned that this problem is especially bad among the gypsy population—even after they are born-again.  Because Satan has turned ingenuity and enterprise into a gate of hell, these believers fall back into the old lifestyle of cheating, stealing, and illegal activity to feed themselves and their families.  People around the world are held in the slavery of poverty because they lack the insight into how to claim God’s free gifts.  But godly men and women can take hold of the gate of enterprise and ingenuity through God-given creativity and divine inspiration and turn these strongholds of poverty into interfaces of God’s supernatural prosperity.  Let me share just one simple example of how easy it can be.  My uncle, who worked for a sheet metal company, noticed that every day the company was throwing away a number of the large sheers used to cut the metal because the handles were broken.  When he asked the owner of the company if he could have the broken tools, the gentleman gladly gave them to him but asked why he wanted the broken implements.  My uncle answered that only one handle was broken on each tool.  His plan was to take the good handle of each set of sheers and put a right-hand handle together with a left-hand handle to make a new working instrument.  The lack of ingenuity was costing the company hundreds of dollars each month.

 

Nehemiah’s eighth gate was the horse gate (verse 3:28), so called because it led to the stables where the nation’s warhorses were housed.  This gate represents military and government.  Governments and military powers have effectively crushed evangelism and stopped open ministry in many parts of the world.  I remember the time when a pastor in one restricted country got up in the middle of my sermon and began closing all the curtains because he sensed that we were being watched even though we had a permit to hold the Christian meeting—a permit which, by the way, was only granted at the last minute in what seemed like the government’s attempt to keep us from being able to gather a full congregation even though we technically had the constitutional right to meet.  This same pastor was always careful to never meet me in public because he knew that being seen with a Westerner was all that was needed to precipitate a government sanction.  And it did happen that shortly after my visit, his house was searched in an attempt to find illegal Christian “contraband.”  But the truth is that we don’t have to let the devil turn governments and armies into his strongholds.  Just like the Iron Curtain came down, country after country has surrendered to the prayers and faith of God’s people.  In Acts 12:10, we read the story of how the army arrested Peter but God opened the iron gate for him to walk out a free man.  We, too, can prove that no government or army is more powerful than the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20:7)

 

Next to the horse gate was the east gate. (verse 3:29)  This gate was considered the avenue through which the messiah would enter the city.  With this in mind, we can assume that its very presence inspired patriotism and hope; therefore, I see it as representing national spirit.  While all other nations count their wealth by the financial GNP (Gross National Product) index, the country of Bhutan uses an emotional indicator—the GNH (Gross National Happiness) index.  Such an indicator shows the significance of the emotional or “spirit” factor.  History is full of examples of little nations that conquered much larger nations against impossible odds—David and Goliath, for example—simply because of the emotional element of “national spirit.”   The spirit of jihad is a prime example of the demonic use of this factor.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN a few days after Iran’s president made a scathing speech to the same body.  The Jewish leader’s speech was intended to reiterate that the most dangerous country on the planet must not be allowed to arm itself with nuclear weapons, especially in light of Iran’s recent threat to make a pre-emptive strike against the Jewish state.  Showing a diagram of a bomb, the Israeli Prime Minister pointed out that Iran was nearing the ninety-percent mark on their uranium enrichment project and moving into the final stage of their armament program.  He warned that the world had until the following spring, or the next summer at the most, before the bomb would be ready.  Prime Minister Netanyahu then pointed out that deterrence would not work with Iran as it did with the Soviets because the Soviets chose existence over ideology and stated, “The militant jihadists behave very differently from secular Marxists.  There were no Soviet suicide bombers.  Yet Iran produces hordes of them.”  Call it patriotism, national spirit, or jihad—this emotional factor can be more prominent than government and military.  All we need to do is look at the coupes from within the populace that have changed the course of history—the American Revolution, the French Revolution, Tenimun Square, the Arab Spring, and the list goes on to include smaller resistance movements such as ones I’ve personally witnessed in Nepal and Burma.  It’s time that believers begin to influence our national spirit and turn the spirits of the people into a groundswell of grassroots revival. (II Chronicles 7:14)

 

The last gate that Nehemiah repaired was the gate Miphkad. (verse 3:31)  The name of this gate is translated in various ways including, “inspection,” “judgment,” and “census.”  If we follow the last translation, it becomes clear that the gate signifies the numbering of the people, which addresses directly the significance of family; therefore, I opt to view this gate as representing the significance of family in society.  A census is not simply a headcount; rather, it is an analysis of how many people fall into various categories such as socio-economic and ethnic divisions.  The book of Numbers is an excellent display of how the entire population census of Israel was categorized by tribes, clans, and families.  To emphasize the importance of family in society, let me present one startling fact: we actually use the number of fatherless homes in an area to determine the number and size of jails to build in that jurisdiction!  The simple act of gathering the family around the dinner table makes a significant difference in the overall wellbeing of society.  Children from families that practice regular meals together are much less likely to be overweight, are six times less likely to smoke marijuana, are two thirds less likely to use laxatives, diet pills, and purging to control weight, and have lower rates of smoking, alcohol use, and depression.  Plus they almost invariably earn better grades.  Christians can, and must, take back the gate of family and turn it into an interface for heaven rather than an open door for Satan.

 

It is in the home that we learn the restraints that keep us from falling into the traps that the enemy has set to ensnare us.  For example, immorality is specifically defined as a path (gate) that leads directly to hell. (Proverbs 7:27)  Jesus told us that the gate that goes to destruction is wide, meaning that it has nor restrictions, barriers, or hindrances. (Matthew 7:13-14)  Where else than in the home do we find the instruction that helps deter us from those seeming easy paths to destruction (hell)?

 

Two more gates are mentioned in the book of Nehemiah.   Even though it is not mentioned that these were specifically on Nehemiah’s list of repairs, it is unthinkable that he would have left them vulnerable.  The first is the gate of Ephraim. (verse 8:16)  Ephraim’s name means “fruitfulness,” signifying the abundant material and financial blessings of God.  Hence, I see this gate as referring to finance.  First Timothy 6:10 tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil, and it only takes a simple look around us to see how greed in the financial world has fostered all sorts of evil, including child labor, sweat shops, slave labor, human trafficking, labor camps in Africa where women and children use mercury to extract metal with their bare hands, precious metal reclamation processes in India where the workers breathe harmful fumes while melting down old computers and cell phones, and the list of such atrocities seems endless.  It is time that godly men and women step into the world of finance to stop such injustices.  As Tunde Bakare, a prominent African church leader says, “God is ready to raise up a new breed without greed!”

 

Nehemiah’s final gate was the prison gate (verse 12:39), which obviously speaks of law enforcement and justice systems.  The fact that this gate was in close proximity to the local jail speaks to us of the significance of penal and correctional institutions and practices in any society.  Without a godly influence in our courts and prisons, guilty men who can afford powerful lawyers walk the streets while innocent men and petty criminals are sent to facilities that are essentially crime colleges where they are educated in advanced lessons of evil so that society suffers even more when they are released.  Instead, we should make our criminal justice system a major area for evangelism where men and women can find a way out of the real prison they are living in—the bondage of sin.  Remember that Deuteronomy 16:18-20 specifically mentions that judges are to be seated at the city gates—gates that should be the entrance of heaven, not the stronghold of hell.

 

We are directed to attack the gates of our enemies and take possession.

That in blessing I will bless thee [Abraham], and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. (Genesis 22:17)

And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. (Genesis 24:60)

 

The church is called to fill all—all the gates of society—so that we can determine culture. (Ephesians 4:10)  To illustrate the reality of our ability to actually turn the gates of hell into gates of heaven, I’d like to share just two stories of how demonic strongholds were transformed into entranceways into heaven.  The first story will come from the Bible and second from contemporary history.

 

In Mark chapter five, we read the thrilling story of how Jesus cast the legion of demons out of a man who was fully possessed by the devil.  Before Jesus arrived, the demoniac broke all the ropes the people used to try to restrain him, ran naked in the graveyards, and cut himself with stones.  But when Jesus showed up, the wild man was set free and the demons ran into the sea and drown themselves.  Even though the people of the region were amazed to see this wild man now clothed and in his right mind, they demanded that Jesus leave town immediately.  The young man’s final request as Jesus departed was that he be allowed to go with Him.  Jesus refused and insisted that the man return to his family and friends and tell them of the great things that had happened to him. (verse 19)  The next verse confirms that he did exactly that and tells us specifically that the place he went to was Decapolis.  The next time we see mention of Decapolis is in Mark 7:31 when Jesus returned to the area.  This time, He was received readily and even drew a crowd of over four thousand to listen to His message. (verse 8:9)  What made the difference between the time He was run out of town and the time He was accepted with open arms?  My guess is that it was the testimony of the freed demoniac.  His witness had turned the stronghold of Satan into a gateway to heaven.

 

My second story comes from the life of Dr. Lester Sumrall, one of the great authorities on dealing with demonic power.  When the Lord spoke to him to go to the Philippines to raise up a ministry there, He promised, “I will do more for you there than I have done for you anywhere else in your ministry.”  Knowing that there had never been any major Protestant revival in the Philippines in the history of the country and that there were very few Christians in the city, Bro. Sumrall went to Manila with great anticipation of what God was going to do.  For the first several months, there were only a handful of people in his church.  About the time congregation had grown to fifty people, the Lord began impressing him that he was to build a barn to hold the coming harvest.  So, he started building a church that would seat twenty-five hundred people.  He reasoned that he needed a building of at least that size since he had left a church in the US with over a thousand adults and a thousand children in Sunday school each week, and the Lord had promised something bigger in the Philippines.  Everybody begged him not to do it.  His denomination thought he would make them the laughingstock of the entire world—building a church to seat over two thousand when he only had fifty members.  Protestant missionaries and prominent church leaders came to Manila to stop him because they were afraid he would take their members to fill his church.  But he refused to be swayed by their arguments because he knew that God would bring a revival such as the Philippines had never seen.

 

One night while he was getting ready for bed, Bro. Sumrall and his wife listened to the evening news.  Suddenly, bloodcurdling screaming and horrifying howls come across the airwaves.  The news feature was the story of a young girl incarcerated in the Bilibid Prison in Manila who had been mysteriously bitten by unseen teeth.  Medical doctors and prison wardens observed as tooth marks and blood mysteriously appeared on her body.  From his previous missionary work, Bro. Sumrall recognized that this was demon power tormenting her so he got out of bed and lay on the floor praying and travailing, asking God to send somebody to deliver her from the demon power.  But the Lord answered him, “If you don’t do it, it won’t happen.  You are the only one in this city who knows how to cast the devil out of her.”  At that point, Bro. Sumrall had no way of knowing that this was the key that would unlock the gate of hell in the Philippines.

 

He spent that night in prayer and fasting.  The next morning he called the contractor who was building the church.  Since he was a personal friend of the mayor, the contractor got Bro. Sumrall an appointment to see the mayor of the city who granted permission for Bro. Sumrall to go into Bilibid Prison and pray for the girl.  The story of the girl had already hit the international news, and the city had sent out appeals for church leaders, psychiatrists, or somebody to come and help her—but no one was able to deliver her.  Bro. Sumrall went to pray for her, but he did not get a total victory the first day; so he went back again the second and third days.  After three days of fasting and prayer he spoke to the spirit, and it left.   But not only was the girl set free, a remarkable thing happened in the city.  Unbeknownst to Bro. Sumrall, the demon spirit that was controlling that young girl was the principality spirit that ruled the entire Philippines.  And as soon as his power was broken, the entire spirit realm of the Philippines became defenseless against the attack of the gospel.

 

When Bro. Sumrall was ushered back into the mayor’s office with the good news that the girl had been freed, the mayor was so pleased that he asked what Bro. Sumrall wanted in return.  His request was for permission to have large open-air revival meetings every night on the main plaza of the city.  Within a six-week period, one hundred fifty thousand people were converted to Christ.  When construction of the church was complete and the dedication service was held, the church was so jammed that a large mass of people could not get inside.

 

How can we make this same kind of impact when we determine to attack the gates of hell in our society?  I believe that there are three simple steps: pray, act, be.

 

Paul gave us a concise and clear mandate to pray:

 

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. (I Timothy 2:1-3)

 

The life of Queen Esther gives us a stunning example of how we can step up to the plate and take aggressive action:

 

Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.  For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?  Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:13-16)

 

Even though the verse I am going to offer next is generally used to refer to prayer and intercession, its context does not suggest that interpretation at all.  Rather, its clear message is that we need to actually physically step into the places where God’s presence is not being felt and be God’s man or woman literally standing there, making His presence known.  If this means that we need to run for office, then we must do so.  If it means that we be educated in order to qualify for a position, then we must do so.  If it means that we must change careers to be at the place God wants us, then we must do so.  Whatever it takes is what we must do!

 

And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. (Ezekiel 22:30)

 

God never sends us to a door, window, or gate unless He makes sure that we have the necessary key or keys to get through those interfaces.  In the passage in Revelation 3:7 that promises us an open door to the world, the key that opened that interface is described as David’s key.  Even though Matthew 16:19 does not specifically mention windows, Jesus declared in that verse that He was passing along the keys to heaven to us.  In Revelation 1:18, Jesus blatantly affirmed that He was holding the keys of hell.  Although He doesn’t actually mention that those keys fit into the lock on hell’s gates, it isn’t a major leap of logic to make that assumption.

 

When I think of the key of David mentioned in the letter to the church at Philadelphia, I immediately realize that it is unlike any key that I have ever seen because it opens doors that can never be shut and closes doors so that no one will ever be able to open them.  I can remember picking many locks to get into cars that had been locked with the keys inside.  I can easily recall the trip from South Korea when our entire group had their suitcase locks picked or broken open.   I also remember failing to get into doors even though I had the keys that unlocked the main lock because there was a safety or dead bolt on the door.

 

The reference to the key of David, is apparently drawn from Isaiah 22:22, “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.”  In this verse, the prophet is making reference to Eliakim the son of Hilkiah as the one who will receive this supernatural key.  This biblical character’s historic role is recounted twice—in II Kings chapters eighteen and nineteen and again in Isaiah chapters thirty-six and thirty-seven.  In both records, the specific reason given for the deliverance of the city was that it was for the sake of David. (II Kings 19:34 and Isaiah 37:35)  In some way, Eliakim stood in the stead of David and held his key.  Eliakim’s significant contribution was the stance he took against the Assyrian messenger who tried to intimidate the people of Jerusalem into surrendering to his army.  Eliakim stood up to him with faith and confidence in God until the Lord caused the invading army to miraculously retreat.

 

Though the scriptures do not specifically identify what this key was, it is easy for us to look into the life of David and find one characteristic that seems to stand out that could have made the difference between him and any others who lacked this quality.  It is likely that we need not go any further than the criteria set for his selection for the throne of Israel.  After Samuel had surveyed the seven older sons of Jesse without finding a worthy candidate, the Lord revealed to him that he was looking at the wrong score card when evaluating his options.  God made His point that the heart of the matter is actually the matter of the heart.

 

But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. (I Samuel 16:7)

 

David obviously understood that this was his key to success and determined to keep his heart in a perfect relationship with his God.  “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.  O when wilt thou come unto me?  I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” (Psalm 101:2)  Even after he sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, the king’s prayer was that God would re-establish his heart before Him. (Psalm 51:10)  Consequently, the New Testament characterizes David as being a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22)  He desired to pass this spiritual key on to his son Solomon who was to succeed him on the throne.  First Chronicles 28:9 records David’s instructions to Solomon that he should serve the Lord with a perfect heart.  In verse nineteen of the following chapter, we find David in prayer for his son, interceding that the Lord would give him a perfect heart.  Unfortunately, the biblical summation of Solomon’s life is that “his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” (I Kings 11:4)

 

In the testimony of one of the subsequent kings, II Chronicles 25:2 records that Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a perfect heart.  He was passionate in his campaign to stamp out idolatry, yet he failed to passionately pursue the Lord Himself.  Asa before him received what is likely the greatest promise in the scripture: “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” (II Chronicles 16:9)  This is the universal blessing and promise of intervention by God that can only be unlocked with the key of David—a perfect heart before the Lord.  It was the promise extended to the church at Philadelphia.

 

When Jesus told the parable of the dividing of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46, He emphasized that our response to the hurting and hungry of the world is the yardstick by which He measures those who claim to be believers.  In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-25), He further illustrated the tragedy of lacking the heart to help the poor.  There is a lesson about heart attitudes to be learned from these parables.  When David had to “face the music” concerning committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband killed, his repentance prayer was that he had sinned against God and God alone. (Psalm 51:4)  David had violated a virtuous woman and killed an innocent man; yet, he saw only God as his victim.  The point that Jesus made in the parable is that when we do evil or good to even the least human, we have actually acted either for or against Him.  The same lesson is expressed in the encounter between Jesus and Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus when the Lord introduced Himself as “Jesus whom thou persecutes.” (Acts 9:5)  Saul’s hostilities had been against humans, but Jesus “took them personally.”  What seems to be the point?  The final analysis of the matter seems to be that, in order to have the perfect heart as our key to open the doors before us, we must have a heart that is continually seeing our each and every action as if it were for or against God Himself.  In recent years, much has been said and written about living life by the motto, “WWJD—What Would Jesus Do?”  A more biblical maxim for life might be “WWIDFJ—What Would I Do For Jesus?”  Just doing what Jesus would do might land us in the same spot as some of the people described in I Corinthians chapter thirteen—those who gave their food to feed the poor and even gave their bodies to be burned as martyrs.  Unfortunately, even these noblest of deeds didn’t count for anything in God’s sight because they were done out of the wrong motive.  However, if we fall so desperately in love with Jesus that we see Him in every situation and in every human condition, we will hear the Master’s approving words, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

 

There is one other unique quality that we need to notice about the church at Philadelphia: of all seven churches, they are the only one indicated as having any relationship to the Word of God.  Not only that, they are twice commended for their faithfulness to God’s Word. (verses 3:8, 10)  Though all seven churches are admonished to hear what the Spirit is saying, apparently only this one listened and heeded.  Like David, they recognized that the key to having a perfect heart was to hide God’s Word in their hearts. (Psalm 119:11)  A heart renewed through interfacing with the Word of God will make us a success at every other interface we meet.

 

Jesus described the keys that open the windows of heaven in Matthew 16:19, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  But before we jump to any conclusions as to what He was intending to say here, let’s take a minute to look at some more modern translations of this passage:

 

I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens; and whatever you bind on earth shall remain bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall remain loosed in Heaven.” (Weymouth’s New Testament)

And I will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven to you.  And whatever you may bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in Heaven. (Modern King James Version)

And I will give to thee the keys of the reign of the heavens, and whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever thou mayest loose upon the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens. (Young’s Literal Translation)

 

Notice that the wording in each of these renditions of the passage suggests that what happens in heaven is not the result of what is done on earth; rather, it is actually a pre-existing condition.  Weymouth’s Translation uses the word “remain,” implying that the determination is already made and that our use of the key to heaven’s window is essentially a spoken affirmation in agreement with what is already predetermined.  The Modern King James and Young’s Literal Translation both use the wording “having been,” which again reflect the idea that the outcome is already determined prior to the prayers or proclamations of believers.  All these translations are making an attempt to convey the actual message of the Greek text, which implies that the key Jesus was giving us was not so much the ability to self-determine destinies and outcomes.  Rather it is the ability to know the mind of God well enough that we are actually speaking out His mind on the matter whenever we pray or proclaim anything. (I Corinthians 2:16)  To get a clear vision of what Jesus was trying to tell us, let’s look at a very familiar—yet often misunderstood—passage on intercession:

 

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. (Ephesians 6:17-18)

 

In these verses, Paul seems to be making an intentional connection between prayer and the Word of God in that he lists both of them as being connected with the Spirit.  The Word of God is defined as the sword of the Spirit, and prayer is specified as being in the Spirit.  Remembering a few other biblical truths, we can begin to see the message behind this connection.  According to Psalm 119:89, God’s Word is forever settled in heaven.  Even though His ways are much higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9) and His judgments beyond finding out (Romans 11:33), He has made a way through the work of the Holy Spirit for us to know all the benefits He has prepared for us (I Corinthians 2:9-10, John 14:26).  When the Holy Spirit reveals to us the specific promises from the Word of God that we need to use as the sword of the Spirit when He is directing our prayers, then we develop a confidence in our prayers (I John 5:14-15) and an assurance that everything is going to work out just right (Romans 8:26-28).  God already has our success determined in heaven, but we must use a special key to open the windows so that those heavenly blessings can be released upon us.  That key is the ability to pray under the direction of the Holy Spirit so that our prayers are not off base, but in total alignment with what God has already bound and loosed in heaven.  Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when He said that the Jewish leaders had taken away the key of knowledge and refused to enter into the kingdom of God themselves and had also blocked others from entering in. (Luke 11:52)  They had turned revelation into religion and were no longer hearing from the Spirit of God.  Certainly this is why Jesus made the prayer that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven a major point in His model prayer. (Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2)

 

When Jesus proclaimed that He was holding the key to hell, He specifically said that the reason He was in possession of this key was because He had been dead but was now alive, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Revelation 1:18)  By going into the very throne room of the kingdom of darkness through death, Jesus was able to retrieve the keys that unlock the gates of death and hell.  And as He exited from Satan’s dark domain on Resurrection morn, He left those gateways vulnerable and defenseless—vulnerable and defenseless because He intended to deliver the keys of those demonic strongholds to His bride, the church.  But we must go through the same process as Jesus did to qualify to use those keys—we must die and be resurrected to new life.  In our case, the death and resurrection we are to experience is a spiritual reality, not the physical cross, tomb, and Sheol of the first Easter.

 

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11)

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:14)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1)

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. (Ephesians 4:22)

Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. (Colossians 2:12-13)

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. (Colossians 3:9)

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. (I Peter 4:1-2)

 

It is only through such a death to the old sinful nature and a resurrection to the life of Christ within us that we have the power and authority to attack and take control of the gates of hell.  Many people are afraid to take a place of power and influence in politics or any position in society because they believe that power and money will corrupt them.  The truth is that position and money cannot corrupt honest men; all that power and money can do is expose the corruption that is already lying beneath the surface in sinful men who have been masquerading as honest ones.

 

When John wrote to the young men in his first epistle, he said something very interesting.  He told them, “You are the young men.  You are the conquerors.  I write to you because you have overcome the wicked one.” (I John 2:13-14)  But then he goes on to say something that almost startles us, “Love not the world, neither the things of the world.” (verse 15)  It amazes me that we can be overcomers and conquerors, yet still love the enemy.  We can be the ones who have overcome the wicked one and have defeated the devil, but still have a love in our hearts for the things that belong to the enemy’s camp.  Joshua faced this same problem when he went in to possess the gates of the enemy. (Joshua chapter seven)  When he marched around the city of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down, one of his men named Achan went into the enemy’s camp and loved the things he saw inside the city.  Achan’s mind raced as he made his recognizance mission into the city to determine how to destroy it, “I must have some of this gold and some of these Babylonian garments.”  He still loved the things of Jericho, even though he had marched around its walls thirteen times and he had screamed to the top of his voice to see the walls come tumbling down.  He overcame the city of Jericho, but he still loved the things of Jericho; therefore, he took them and hid them in his tent.  A few days later, the armies of Joshua were defeated at the battle of Ai—all because of this man who, even though he was an overcomer, still loved the things in the enemy’s camp.

 

We also know the story of King Saul who had the same problem because he went off and conquered the Amalakites but brought back some of the prize sheep and cattle and kept the king alive. (I Samuel chapter fifteen)  His alibi to the prophet was that he had saved them for a sacrifice, and maybe he had—we don’t know.  But still there was something inside him that loved those things of the enemy even though he had conquered the enemy.  Even though he had overcome the external enemy, he had not overcome the enemy within himself!  There was still love in his heart for the enemy and the things of the enemy.

 

We can overcome the wicked one, but we can still love the world and the things that are in it.   John goes on to tell us that the things that are in the world are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. (I John 2: 16)

 

We usually associate the lust of the flesh with sexual sin.  The lust of the eyes has to do with the things that we can look at, that we can have, that we can possess—the things that make your eyes bulge out when you go to the shopping mall.  The pride of life has to do with our promotions, our desire to be somebody, and our need to have a title.  The lust of the flesh (sexual sin); the lust of the eyes (our salary and the things that it can get); the pride of life (our status and the position that it can buy).  We must not love the “S”s: sex, salary, and status.  We can still make the mistake of loving those things even though we are conquerors, even though we are overcomers.

 

Dr. Lester Sumrall always said that there are three things that capture ministers: the gold, the gals, and the glory.  What are those?  The gold is our salary, the lust of the eyes.  The gals is sexual sin, the lust of the flesh.  The glory is our status, the pride of life.  It is not enough to be an overcomer of the wicked one; we also have to be those people who are overcomers of our own human nature that still loves the world and the things that are in it.

 

It is interesting to me how John shifts from “love” to “lust.”  Notice that he said that we love the world and the things of the world; then he immediately described the things in the world, calling them the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.  We try to think of lust and love as two separate entities.  But when it comes to anything other than the undiluted love of God, our love or our attachment will immediately turn to lust.  We have to be so very careful.

 

Unless we are truly dead to sin and the lust thereof and alive to Christ and Christ alone, we run a very dangerous risk of not only failing to be able to take the gates of hell but of actually being ensnared by them.  But Jesus told us that those gates would not be able to prevail against our aggressive attack.  Why?  Because He gave us the key of becoming new creatures in Him.

 

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (II Corinthians 5:17)

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (II Corinthians 5:21)

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Ephesians 1:4)

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. (Philippians 3:9)

 

I’d like to close this discussion with the dynamic apostolic prayer that Paul prayed over the Ephesian church when he was trying to encourage them to understand these same truths.  Although he didn’t refer to these truths specifically as keys to the doors of the world around us, the windows of heaven, and the gates of hell, he made powerful intercession, invoking each principle as part of the full key ring of a godly heart of love, the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and the new life through association with the death and resurrection of Christ.

 

[I] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all…For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. (Ephesians 1:16-23, 3:14-21)