Gates

There is an element of prayer that I feel has been long forgotten. We are tied up with so many other things that we don't seem to be able to get free, completely. In this episode, I dive into the war that could literally make us free if we lean into Jesus for the reasons we are so held back, powerless, and afraid to be who we are.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

This is my story. The things that are deep in my heart. Places that I don't really take too many people to. And I do hope that you enjoy this podcast. I hope that God shows you some things that will take you on a new journey. From Ashes to Armor, just like He did me. So welcome to Ashes to Armor and gear up because I don't hold anything back.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Or afternoon or evening. Whatever time it is that you're listening. I'm going to keep this very short. We've got church this morning. It's Sunday. Happy Sunday. So today I want to talk about gates. And I mean, like, not just the ones at the gates of the city. I'm not talking about just the, you know, Old Testament, you know, gates of the temple and this, that, and the other, you know. I'm not talking about the gate that you build at the end of your driveway. I'm talking about the literal spiritual gates, because gates are literal and they are literal. There are seen and there are unseen. And I think that I the first thing I really want to discuss is that we as a church have gotten um, I want to say, scared maybe, of dealing with the spiritual realm. We kind of skim over the surface and say, oh yeah, the devil's defeated. There's nothing else to do. Jesus finished it all. But I want to talk about something that's a reality in my life. Now, anybody and everybody can say, well, the devil's been after me since I was born. I know that the devil has been after my husband since he was in the womb. Just as an example, before he came through the gate of his mother, he was in the womb, and a woman that was very close to the family who was prophetic had a dream that Jonathan was going to be in trouble during labor. So when she was in when John's mother was in labor, there was only one fetal monitor in the whole hospital back in 1972. And they were using it on his mother. And the reason is because every time she had a contraction, his blood pressure would drop. Come to find out, after they did a C-section, they figured out that the reason was because the umbilical cord was wrapped around the side of John's head. And when the doctor pulled him out with the forceps, he left a scar on John's head. There is this realm that we dismiss because we want to explain it away with natural things. John's womb status and his entry into the world was not that of the norm. It was a C-section, and he was pulled out instead of birthed out. You might say that it was just something that happens with babies sometimes. The cord, the umbilical cord gets wrapped and things happen. But I want to look at the spiritual realm. I'm not here to argue anything that you might want to explain away, but there is a spiritual realm and we have spiritual enemies. There is a realm around us that we don't we don't always see. About 99.9% of the time, you don't see the spiritual realm. You can see the workings of the spiritual realm if you're paying attention, or you can just pass it off as this is normal life. This is life in the natural, and that's what it is. But to discount what you think you can't handle is like denying the power that is around us and that is available to us. So recently I've been going through under getting some understanding about the spiritual realm, and it it really hit home when I was reading in Matthew 16 through 13. And we'll go there first, and I I want to read it in full to you. So Matthew 16, we'll start in verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the living, the Son of the Living God. Jesus answered and said to him, This is what I wanted to get to. Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood has not received this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. That is a mountain of revelation. If you sit and meditate on that and really read it, it he just exposed all the power that you have. Now let's go over to Second Peter chapter one verse five. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. I want to stop right there. If you go back to Matthew chapter 16, where Jesus says in eighteen in verse 18, and I also say to you that you are Peter. He was revealing his calling to him. He was telling him who he is because of revel the revelation of who Christ is to him and to the world. Are you catching this? Are you catching this? This is so this is so amazing. He changes your name, he changes your nature, and then he gives you authority and rulership to overcome yourself. Once you have overcome yourself, having added to your faith, virtue, and to your virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, these things begin to add up and you begin to have self-control. When you have self-control, fear has no place in you, and you will trample on serpents and scorpions. And where do these serpents and scorpions come from? We're not talking, Jesus was not talking about the literal bugs, the the terrible things on the earth that creep and crawl. He's not talking about trampling on serpents and scorpions in a literal, natural, physical sense. He was talking about trampling on serpents and scorpions that come through gateways that we have opened in this world. Now we're gonna go deep. So a few months ago, the Lord asked me. I was feeling so down. I was feeling like I was bound up and just couldn't get anywhere. I I wanted to pray, I couldn't. I wanted to read the word, I couldn't. I wanted to, I wanted to break out in fellowship with other believers, and I couldn't. Something was holding me back, and I couldn't figure out what it was. And I kept seeking the Lord. I wasn't hearing his voice, his word wouldn't speak to me when I opened it, so it made it impossible to read it. I I searched for him through other people, trying to find his voice in them. And it just wasn't penetrating to my spirit, my soul. But I kept seeking him and I kept saying, What is this? What is this? And what am I supposed to do with it? I don't know what to do with this. One morning I was waking up a few months ago, and he said to me, When was the last time we trampled serpents and scorpions together? And I went, What? Okay, I get it. I get it. That's awesome. And it took me back to a time when I had a dream. And I'm a big dreamer. I I went through a season in my life where the dreams were prolific. And one of them that I had was I was walking on a beach with Jesus, and I came to the shore where everybody was jumping in their boats, and they were taken off. And Jesus and I stopped and we were watching them, and I had this longing to run with my brethren. And he looked at me like a brother that had full confidence in who I was, and he was challenging me, and he looked at me and he winked and he said, he nodded his head towards the sea, and he said, get after it. And I woke up, and that's when he told me that I was going to start going back to church. And so I did. And I met an amazing group of people. And I I see so much potential and I see the love of God working through them. But there's just this one thing that has always bothered me, not about this church, but about church in general, about the body of Christ in general. We've opened up gates. And if you if you're if you're paying any attention to what's going on in the world, these things have not always been um as prolific as they are, except that men and women have worshipped what is not God. They've worshipped the creation, they've worshipped false gods, they've worshipped alien gods, that which is not of God. And they have opened portals and gateways. Every concert that you seem to go to with anyone who's popular, and I'll just put it out there. You go to a rap comp concert, you go to an RB concert, some country concerts, and some rock and roll concerts. What are you finding when you go there? There's this ethereal, amazing spiritual experience you're having. And some of it doesn't look like it's demonic, and some of it does. These people are on stage in front of you with your participation, your agreement, your contract, opening gates, and the demonic is coming through. We are opening portals, and we are volunteering our souls to be impacted by what comes through those gates. It's subtle at first, it feels good at first, but the end result is going to be you struggling with your life. You will struggle in every relationship, you will think there is something wrong with you, you will think that you have no place in this world. You will think that you everything you touch turns to crap. You will believe the lies of the enemy that you don't belong on this earth. But that's not where it starts, is it? Where it started was probably with your parents. Your parents said something about you that you you felt bad about. Maybe they didn't like your friends, maybe they didn't like your clothes, maybe they didn't like your music, maybe they didn't like your attitude, maybe they didn't like the look you gave them. Anybody relating? I swear, if you look at me like that one more time, don't look at me like that. Don't you give me that attitude? This is the kind of stuff that gets into a child's heart. The enemy will use it because there was no real explanation for why these attitudes and these looks had a were a problem. Anyway, I don't want to get off track. Look, our mouth makes agreements, we open gates. Have you ever noticed that when you're in a conversation with somebody and they say something that is off of your plane of understanding, it creates this need for you to put your opinion out there and say, well, this is what I believe. My favorite one is my Holy Spirit doesn't agree with that, or my Holy Spirit doesn't like that. We have one spirit, we have one God. And if if you're feeling separate from another person, then there's a problem. We are all Christ's children. Those who believe in him, we are one family, we are one spirit, we belong to one God. We are we are lorded over by one Christ. Jesus said, Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. That's agreement. So a couple weeks ago, I had an issue, and there was um a discomfort, and I started to realize I needed to I needed to talk to the Lord about what's going on spiritually. I was ready to tackle some some things in my life. It was the serpents and scorpions, and I told him, I said, you brought it up, and it has been a while since we trampled some serpents and scorpions. The Song of Solomon talks about the the little foxes that spoil the vine. I had foxes that spoiled the vine. I was mixing seeds and making agreements and dealing with contracts that I didn't even know that I had made. And the grace of God has been with me this entire time. He has been so delicate with my heart. But he knows how strong I am, he knows how weak I am, and it's the weak places that he wants to enter into. He's not interested in where I'm strong. He he is so proud. He's so proud of where you are strong. But he wants those dark places, those places where you made agreements, those places where you opened portals, where you made contracts. I have had relationships with narcissists, and they they didn't know that they were narcissists, but there was and and don't don't write me saying bad things. Everybody has a little bit of narcissism in them, it's called the ego. But let's let's not get out of sorts about my language. I had relationships where the narcissistic tendencies in those people had a hook in me, and I made agreements. I decided that I wasn't a good enough friend, so I needed to be a better friend. Well, what happens when you decide that you're not good enough for anything? You will try to conform to that which you want to be with. He sees your desperation and he offers you everything that comes with the package that he's offering. He says, if you want this, you do that. And so we make agreement. And he comes as an angel of light. I'm not saying that anybody is at fault. I'm not saying, oh, you're you're screwed. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that when you see that you've made a contract, it's time to renounce it because the devil is a legalist, the devil is a Pharisee, the devil wants you to pay for your sins. He wants you to be brought before the law. He goes before the Father day and night accusing the brethren. How can he accuse you of something that you're not guilty of? He's a legalist. You really think that he's gonna stand before God and lie? No. He is bound to the truth when he's in front of the Lord. So when he comes before God and he accuses you, he's got something. But guess who your advocate is? Jesus. Jesus paid the price, Jesus paid for the penalty. All you have to do is agree with Jesus. At the revelation of Jesus, you will have peace. At the revelation of the power of God that is given to you through Christ, the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say in the courtroom when the enemy has brought you before God to accuse you of something that you definitely agreed to. It's time to stop playing, church. It's time to stop playing like, oh, I'm innocent. Before God, you are, but when are you going to claim it so that you can have power in this life? This life is what matters. If you can't overcome you, how will you overcome the enemy in another person's life? How will you lead anybody to Christ? Is it just is it just you that's important? Is it you and your four and no more? Well, you sit behind your palace walls, enjoying the bl the blessings and the benefits. of God pointing your finger at everybody else for being off the kilter for being you s it's just pious it's it's pious and it's rude and it's wrong and it's unloving and it's uncaring about anybody else but yourself get free get free by your own breaking of agreements go before God and say what agreements did I make what m what contracts have I made with the devil that he would have such authority to make me depressed to make me poor to make me feel deprived to make me feel like I can't have good relationships things that isolate me. What when when am I going to when when am I going to be able to be normal and normal is peculiar normal is declaring the Lord and all his goodness there are legal actions that we must take you can't connect because you have serpents and scorpions you have little foxes that have spoiled the vine the image of Christ has been spoiled in your mind because you made agreements break them renounce them I had made agreements in relationships with other people I had very unhealthy methods in my relationships. I took on identities that were not mine because I was looking for my identity. I was looking for who I am I I can't find it in anybody else I can't even find it in what I define it. I I dabbled in new age BS because it's infiltrated the church and and all things are okay. Have positive thinking don't give the devil any praise by talking about what he's done in your life I'm trying not to be egregious. I'm trying not to be rude but I am angry at the hold that the devil has this is why nobody can get healed of cancer in your circle this is why you pull back when a cold gets near you because you don't want to get sick you hate being sick. Well guess what that person hates being sick too let's get over ourselves and lay hands on them and this this this might this might actually hurt some people's feelings but I feel it so strongly this is my understanding this is my I hate to say it I hate the word I hate it it's such a dirty word opinion this is what I feel in my heart there is a lot going on in the body of Christ where where other leaders of ministries have opened up gates in their own lives and they've had foxes creep in and spoil the vine and they got off on a tangent in some way and it it it damaged their reputation because the whole world found out about it. And here's the problem that I have with it those people will not be able to walk down the street without what you said about them to another person. I'm meddling if you are a repeater of matters you are a gossip how many people are you going to infect with your opinion about a ministry or a minister that's not even 10 miles in your radius in your 10 mile radius we don't change the world by exposing men's sins I know we're supposed to expose the works of the enemy it's the works of the enemy not the people we embrace the people we pray for the people and we pray for those who have been affected by those people if you get that information it's not for you to just spread it around it's for you to pray. If you have a conviction about it pray about it. Please pray about it because your life is not your own and their life is not their own but belong to God and there is one God and one spirit. If you want to close up portals for other people and you want to keep other people protected by the information you know you have about a minister or somebody else it's not because you went and told them you're not going to go and tell them there's something wrong with that person. This is what's wrong this, this, this, this, and this and this is what happened when they did this and this is what happened when they did that and then and the damage that they did. And you just go on and on and on and on and on. You have destroyed another person in the eyes of another you pray for their protection you pray for them to have knowledge for them to get wisdom to have understanding to not receive from that which is not of God look in your immediate radius. Look within yourself what are you struggling with and I'm not saying get your eyes on yourself. What I'm saying is the reason that you keep struggling you keep circling around to the same thing the same issue the same problem the sin that so easily besets you is because you made an agreement ask Jesus what's the agreement that's keeping me from living fully in you because that's the goal is reconciliation and relationship with him what are you doing with that are you ignoring that which keeps you from living in the fullness of Christ are you shutting those doors and closing those boxes and putting them in a dark room just so you don't have to deal with them because it hurts who cares what the repercussions are throw yourself on the rock because if the rock throws itself on you you won't survive go close some gates go close some some portals go go knock down some agreements before God to God I break my agreement that I made I belong to you and I ask that you do whatever it takes to make this right within me. I renounce my connection to it in the name of Jesus it has no hold on me anymore. Holy Spirit show me what it is to live fully in Christ through this issue that it would not be an issue anymore because I break agreement with it. I close that portal and everything that came through that portal with my agreement when it opened is to go back in the name of Jesus through that portal close that portal and never return. Now this is why and let me tell you why I believe that this is what's right because I was laying in bed I was laying in bed and I'm thinking what is it Lord what is it that just keeps holding on to me what is it that keeps keeping me bound up and he said I close doors no one can open and I open doors no one can close and this light came on and I went what yeah bet it's on now it's on now so I laid there in bed and I closed portals I said no matter what it is whatever it is that is holding on to me right now because the room felt really weird there was there was something going on in the room and I felt fear pushing on me. It wasn't coming from the inside it was coming from the outside it was pushing on me. And I said I renounce whatever agreement I made that caused this portal to open Jesus I ask you to close this door and take back everything that came through that portal because of me that it goes back in through that portal back to the other side and you close it up and I thank you that you will open the door of heaven the kingdom of heaven that I may walk in this revelation that you have just given to me I thank you that you close doors and you open doors and nothing can prevail against this revelation and just just a little thing to make you want to go study it out the gate of Haiti Hades was a god I I know what your King James thing says. I know what your strong's concordance says but when they redid the Bible and they translated it there were things that they didn't put in there that they changed because they didn't think you could handle it. You are in a spiritual war you are in a battle and you need to use your mouth to come against it.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

You have the authority of Christ when you go before him in the court of law and ask about the agreements your enemy has legal rights over you because you gave them to him go find out what they are so that you can break them I've already shown you how to pray it it's simple don't complicate it don't complicate it renounce renounce rebuke cancel agreements cancel contracts tear them apart and cover them in the blood of Jesus ask for revelation ask for understanding there's no reason why the church should be bound up like it is there's no reason why miracles should not be commonplace take up your authority and let's rock this joint She telling her story again telling about where she's been and all that she left in the ashes and the freedom she's found from her sin the gospel came and got her pulled her out of the fire slid from hell and headed for heaven and exchanged her desire to the kingdom