Possess the Gate

In ancient kingdoms, cities and towns, walls and gates were built to keep people safe. A city without a wall was a city exposed and waiting for invasion. Those who controlled the gates, however, are said to control the whole city. If you could hold off your enemy at the gate, you could protect the entire city, if the gate fell, so too the city and its people. Hence it became a blessing of victory to say, ‘May you possess the gates of your enemy’.

Genesis 22:17 – I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,

Genesis 24:60 – And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!”

Matthew 16:18-19 – And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

He who possess the gate plunders the city and triumphs over his enemy.

Gates for Control

The gates in the ancient world are similar to security doors and boom gates in the modern era; they control who is allowed in and out. Much like getting your I.D checked to access secure areas, or passport checkpoints in an airport, gatekeepers stood at the entrance of the city watching those coming in and out of the city. The gatekeepers controlled the access and managed the coming and going.

Gatekeepers controlled the trade.

Gatekeepers controlled provision coming into the city.

Gatekeepers made decisions to refuse entry to those who posed a threat to the safety of the city. They were guardians and protectors; watchmen on the walls.

So to say to someone, ‘may you posses the gates of your enemy’ was the same as saying, may you gain complete victory over your enemy, may you control their gates and their walls, their coming and going, their buying and selling – may you conquer and rule over those who seek to conquer and rule over you’.

This is why Jesus did not need to spell out in great detail what he wants his Kingdom to be doing on the earth in regards to the devil’s domain of darkness, he simply states the gates of hell will not prevail. Why? Because the Kingdom of Jesus will advance and conquer completely the devil and his pseudo kingdom; we are to posses the gate of our enemy.

Controlling your own gates

Gates are the places of incoming and outgoing and we know that the one who controls the gates controls the whole. The ‘whole’ doesn’t have to just be a city though, it could simply be a house, or a village. It could even be yourself because, you see, you have ‘gates’, places of incoming and outgoing traffic, and controlling these defines who, or what, rules your life. Just as a man ought to guard the gate of his home and protect his family, so too we ought to govern and watch over the gates of our own lives. What are these gates?

Incoming Gates: Eyes & Ears. Your heart is filled with what comes in through the eyes and ears of your life, what you see and hear, what you believe, and what you meditate on slowly takes up residence in your heart which in turn directs the very course of your life.

Outgoing Gates: Mouth. Out of the mouth, the heart speaks. All that has come into your heart will eventually be seen through the way you speak. Hence James writes, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body (Ja 3:2).

So let’s talk about these ‘gates’ and how we can, empowered by the Holy Spirit, control our gates and resist the ‘gate-crashing’ attempts of the enemy to kill, steal, and destroy our lives.

Eyes & Ears

More than ever before, the enemy is at the gate of our lives, of our very souls, with the battering ram of media, culture and politics. Temptation and sin are a constant knock continuously, and the constant digital barrage we face all day is designed, engineered even, to assault the gates of peace that guard our hearts.

In the past, and not so long ago, we might have discussed these two gates separately, what you hear and what you see. Slowly, over the past 100 years these have begun to merge with technology making audio-visual content more and more mainstream. Now it is rare to engage with the world only through one or the other, we are constantly consuming movies, tv, Netflix, social media, YouTube, scrolling, news, music, and so on. Printed newspapers are dying, physical book sales are declining, while physical music (records, tapes, CDs) are now something only for collectors since the introduction of streaming services like Spotify. The point? We are surrounded non-stop by sounds and sights trying to access our hearts; do you have a gatekeeper?

Do you have a watchman filtering the traffic?

The more severe and extreme examples, or more perhaps more obvious examples, would include things like horror movies, pornography and romantic fantasy novels that are all obviously destructive to your heart. Don’t let them past the gate.

Gossip however, is being distributed 24/7. With a click, tap and scroll you can know all kinds of things about all kinds of people; something generations prior never had to deal with. The enemy at the gate is more aggressive now than ever before. For all the so-called ‘benefits’ of social media, is it worth using when you consider how many undercover operatives of darkness are getting through the gate each time you scroll, like, post and comment?

Research from Nicholas G. Carr, in his book The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains, clearly shows that the continuing use of the internet as a regular part of our daily lives is actually changing the very structure of our brains, how we think and how we function, and it’s not for the better. Carr argues that the way we use the internet is having a destructive effect on humanity. I would argue too much of the world is getting through our gates and into our hearts as we attach ourselves to our devices like a junkie getting his next hit. Our addiction to devices is an addiction to what the internet can feed us, and the tree of knowledge continues to spread out across the planet through the online world.

A simple question to help filter what comes through the gate and what should not: Is this content going to lead me closer to Jesus, or will it help me to become more like Jesus? Paul puts it this way in Philippians 4:8-9:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things…

This is why horror films are bad for your soul. This is why pornography is so destructive to your heart – it’s not lovely, pure or just!

Another way to ask such a question, for those who want to be like Jesus and follow his Way: Could I watch this with Jesus? Could I read this book aloud with Jesus? Could I scroll or binge this with Jesus? The Fear of God is the true remedy and strength we need to shut the gate.

Shut the Gate!

When you drive in rural areas the rule is that you ought to leave every farm gate as you find it. If it’s open, leave it open. If it was closed, close it behind you. Simple.

Before we came to Christ, all our gates were wide open and the spirit of the world could come and go as it pleased, corrupting us, tempting us and luring away to follow our own sinful desires. When we come to Jesus, he forgives us, cleanses us, sets us free and gives us a new heart!

The goal of the Christian life is not to clean out the old heart, but to kill it; to die to self and to live from the new heart God has given us, which is pure and blameless in his sight.

Jesus found the gate of our hearts open and our ‘city’ overrun. So he shut the gate and redeemed the city of our lives through dying on the cross. We don’t need to ‘try hard’ to get a clean heart, we need to simply strive with his grace to keep the gate shut to the spirit of the world, for friendship with the world is enmity towards God (James 4:4).

What music do you listen to? What themes and language do the artists use? What kind of books do you read? Do you listen to the news? There is an old saying I heard actor Denzel Washington use in an interview, those who do not read the news are uninformed, those who do are misinformed.

Staying up to date with the news that the media company wants you to know about perhaps isn’t the best thing for your soul. Is the news filling you with peace, hope and a sense of rest? Or is it making you angry, fearful, anxious and worried? What is really coming through the gate? Just listen to what comes out of your mouth, is it peaceful, pure, full of hope and joy?

What media do you consume? Note that we consume it. We don’t just listen or watch, we digest media with our soul, we consume it and it then consumes us.

So what streaming services do you use? Are they blessing your heart and filling you thoughts with all things lovely, just, pure and praiseworthy?

Are you being motivated towards chastity and purity with your body, or is lust and passion being stirred in you?

Are you being filled with gratitude and contentment, or jealously and envy?

Are you being compelled with mercy towards the poor, or the desire to accumulate and purchase more things for yourself?

What is the effect of what comes through the gates of your heart?

Jesus used to get away regularly to spend time in prayer with the Father. He needed time in solitude and silence, away from the clamour of people, the noise of the town, the needs and opinions the people and his disciples. He needed to shut the gate to the world around him for a moment so he could open up to the Father. If Jesus needed silence and solitude in a world without digital media and internet connectivity, how much more should we be seeking out silence and solitude so we can learn to not just shut the gate on the world, but to open up to the Father just as Jesus did? How often do you practice silence and solitude?

Open the gate!

While we do need to put a filter on what is flowing into our hearts through the sounds and sights we consume, there is another gate we actually need to open.

As a creature with agency, you have the ability to rule your own life, make decisions and choose what you will and will not do. This is free-will. The ability to think and decide for yourself. Obviously life throws limitations on us, we cannot simply choose to own a Ferrari if we do not have the means to pay for it, but we can choose to work towards such goals if we so desire. This realm of choice, free will and control is our own little kingdom. The place within ourselves where we get to decide. Others can try to influence us, the world can tempt us or persuade us, but ultimately we make our own choices, for better or worse. You are a King and your Heart is your Kingdom. This is what makes yielding to Christ as King so powerful, we choose to become vassal kings under him for he is both our Conqueror and Saviour.

In John’s book of Revelation, Jesus is depicted standing at the door of a church knocking, asking to come it (Rev 3:20). Interesting isn’t it, that Jesus would be outside his own church. But it happens. Sometimes we climb back onto the throne of our hearts and we start ruling our own lives again instead of being yielded and submitted to Christ. We want to do it our way, not his way. Hence every day we ought ask forgiveness, as he taught us to, and submit to God in humble obedience and worship.

If Jesus has been put off the throne in your heart, and is outside, it’s time to open the gate so the king may come in once more, as the Psalmist writes in 24:7

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

As king (small k) of your kingdom, you have the authority to command the gates of your heart to open up so the King of Glory may come in.

You might want to pray something like this each day:

King Jesus, please sit in the seat of authority in my heart, forgive me for trying to sit on that throne; it is yours alone. Rule and reign in my life and let your grace flow in and through my heart, making me more like you. Strengthen me to be a gatekeeper in this, your house, my heart, to fix my attention on what is good, pure, lovely, just and praiseworthy and to reject all that is of the world’s schemes to pollute me. Help me in this, according to your great love and faithfulness, Amen.

Control your anger & rule your spirit

Proverbs 16:32 tells us, Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

As we just discussed, the best way to rule your spirit is to submit to Christ’s rule of your spirit. To do this is a great challenge, more so than taking a city. However, we now know how to take a city don’t we? To take the city you must possess the gates. If you want to be mighty, mightier than he who takes a city, firstly learn to possess and defend the gates of your heart through submission to King Jesus.

Secondly; control your tongue. We’ll come back to this in more detail soon.

The other half of the above proverb is about anger. In the Avengers movie, when Bruce Banner was asked what his secret was concerning his ability to turn into the Hulk, it was assumed he needed to get angry. ‘Now would be a good time to get angry’ one of the other hero’s said to Banner as they saw their enemy approaching, but Banner’s response was telling, ‘my secret…. I’m always angry’.

How are you with anger? How often do your kids seem to press your buttons and you crack? How often do you lose it? How often to you clench your fists or raise your voice? Can you argue peacefully or do debates always become heated and intense, or loud? Is anger rarely a feature, or is it always bubbling away just beneath the surface like Banner?

I heard a great line recently, although I don’t recall who said it, but it was to this effect: Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument. If you have to get loud and aggressive, you have abandoned your argument and you are now trying to use force and intimidation to get your way. This is anger. It leaves logic and nuance in the dust and turns to force and false power. The alternative is gentleness, and to remain calm requires a commitment to improving our arguments, not raising our voices.

Anger, like jealously, isn’t inherently evil, after all, God describes himself as a jealous God and is often angry throughout the Old Testament. However, both his anger and his jealousy are untainted by sin, incapable of corruption nor able to operate outside of his love, holiness, justice and righteousness. Me? Not so much. If you’re like me, and I suspect you are, we can’t claim such perfection when it comes to the motivation and expression of our anger. Hence the writer of proverbs talks about the one resisting anger as being virtuous (Pro 22:24, 29:8), and why the Lord is often described as being slow to anger, abounding in love (Exodus 34:6; Num 14:18; Ne 9:17, Psalms, Joel, Jonah…).

The person who is slow to anger is not one who flies off the handle, or loses it without warning. He who is slow to anger is able to control and calibrate their emotional response and walk in the way of peace. How do I know?

Paul write in Ephesians 4:26, Be angry, yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

If you are slow to anger, and you refuse to go to bed angry, chances are the anger will not ever build to the point of explosion. You are able control it as it builds, much like a pressure cooker, then find a slow release valve in prayer and thanksgiving before you go to bed, then restart the next day at a base level.

Those who do not rule their spirit will instead be ruled, not only by anger, but by their emotions in general. Saying, ‘I can’t help that I’m emotional, God made me this way!’ is poor excuse excuse and fails to embrace the truth that God remade you when you were born again and gave you the Spirit, not of fear, but of love, power and self control. In the case of uncontrolled anger, such a person allows anger to build and build until they crack, exploding upon others in bursts of rage and aggression, or even in passive-aggressive ways (my personal struggle is with passive-aggressive forms of anger, not with open outbursts), and the result is much like a toddler who ate too much spaghetti; its messy.

What’s coming out of your flood gate?

A sure way to measure the amount of control you have over the gates of your heart is to listen to, and evaluate, what is coming out of it; how do you speak? Consider the insight given by the Apostle James;

“So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.” ‭‭James‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭12‬ ‭

The challenge and encouragements here are slightly ironic. On one hand we’re told that no human being can or has ever tamed the tongue, which is fire of unrighteousness, yet we’re also instructed to have only fresh water, not salty, flowing out of hearts. What James presents us with is the high water mark of perfection and the anchoring reality impossibility. We ought not have salty water and fresh, yet we do. So the question then is not, have I got perfect control of my tongue, but, is the salinity of my speech getting lower and is the water flowing out of me becoming increasingly fresh and pure? In which direction am I moving intentionally?

In Ephesians 4:29 Paul writes, ‘Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear’.

No corrupting talk, what does that mean?

In the Greek, the word translated ‘corrupting’ is sapros. Elsewhere in scripture it is translated as bad or diseased, as in the bad tree that bears bad fruit (Matthew 12:33), or the diseased tree that bears diseased fruit (Matthew 7:17-18), or the bad/rotten fish that are thrown away (Matthew 13:48). You get the idea. On each such occasion, the quality of the item in question, be it fruit, trees, or fish, etc, is so poor it ought not be consumed but should be discarded. To eat rotten fish, or fruit, is likely to make you sick. Your digestive system would become sapros.

But notice in Ephesians, Paul uses sapros as an adjective, describing a kind of speech whose impact causes corruption, rot, and disease. In a sense, the speech becomes a verb, it’s doing something to those who hear it.

The Amplified Bible says Do not let any unwholesome [foul, profane, worthless, vulgar] words ever come out of your mouth… whereas the NLT says Don’t use foul or abusive language… Most literal translations prefer to use the word ‘corrupt’ or ‘corrupting’ and I think the second part of the verse shows that this is a better understanding. Paul uses contrast here to make his point. If we are unsure what is classified as ‘corrupting’, he goes on further instructing us to speak ‘only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear’.

One concept that comes to mind while reading that verse is the opposing forces of that which builds up, versus that which tears down.

We know we ought to do the former, not the latter. The difference, however, between words that tear down and words that are corrupting, is in the more subtle aspects of speech. Words that tear down are obvious, they are mean, unkind, impatient, short-tempered, belittling, judgemental, angry, condescending, and so on. Words that tear down are easy to spot, and would be the saltiest of water and that which we should first seek to purge from our hearts.

Words that corrupt are different and not as straight forward as the Amplified would have us imagine (although it certainly includes foul, profane, worthless and vulgar language). Words that tear down are like an axe to a tree; obviously destructive and painful. Words that corrupt are more like seeds. They are smaller, less noticeable, planting ideas, opinions, and perspectives into peoples hearts and minds that, if they take root and bear fruit, the fruit will be sapros. The media is a master of this kind of craft, sowing sapros seeds throughout the world.

Corrupting talk does not help people foster love, goodness, kindness, gentleness, peace, patience, or self control (Gal 5:22-23). Can a bunch of guys tell jokes and have a laugh? Yes of course! Should they tell, or laugh at, vulgar jokes… well, no. Are swear words inherently corrupting? Usually, but it depends largely on the context. Paul technically swore when he described all his worldly achievements as ‘garbage’ or ‘dung’ (Phil 3:8) but most English translations would blush if they translated Paul’s words with the full force of what he meant. A less politically correct translation would use stronger words than ‘garbage’ or ‘dung’, but culturally, such words are not accepted as “part of scripture”.

Paul was using strong language for effect, and the effect was to build others up and not to tear them down or corrupt them. Casual swearing is probably not befitting for the Christian seeking to build up and impart grace to those who hear him, but condemning all forms of swearing is dancing with legalism where measuring words means more than measuring hearts. I bet a lot of religious people would be offended if they were to get a more accurate translation of what Paul really said about his worldly achievements!

The short version? Motive is what matters, which means having concern for the fruit your words will produce in others.

We ought ask ourselves: Is what I am saying going to ‘give grace to those who hear’ or am I planting seeds of sapros? And, as Paul notes, how we speak will need to change as fits the occasion, often in relation to who’s in the room and what level of maturity they have.

So, what are your words planting and watering in others? Are you spewing salt water into the garden of another person’s heart, or are you, with the help of the Spirt of Grace, filtering out the corrupting speech and pouring out fresh water that will nourish and build up those who hear you?

Control the inflow; Posses your Gates

Circling back around, we can see how what we listen to, what we read, what we watch and allow in through the gate of our hearts is ultimately what will eventually flow out of our lives. If the water coming out is salty, it’s because too much of the world is flowing into us, and not enough of Jesus.

Considering some of the movies, books, music, conversations, media, news, social media, streaming, podcasts we consume, some of us are dumping bags of salt into our hearts and wondering why the river isn’t fresh and why the fruit is sapros. We listen to people gossip online and then wonder why we gossip. We read romantic fiction and wonder why we struggle with lust. We listen to music full of anger, or lust, or greed, be it break up songs by Taylor or lewd lyrics by Drake or Eminem, and wonder why we sound just like them; Salty!

Young kids are like parrots, they simply copy what they hear. Adults are no different, we are influenced by the voices, ideas and opinions we give our ears and eye to.

A suggestion: listen to who you want to sound like, speak in the way you want your kids to sound like.

Read what you want to write like, sing like, think like.

Watch what and who you want to become like.

Focus on what you want to include in your heart and the result will be that you will begin filtering out what you do not.

Control what you choose to flow in through the gates and you will inevitably gain greater control of the outflow, and ultimately, you will become the kind of person who possesses his or her own gate, able to rule the city of your heart as one submitted to the Kingship of Christ.

Finally, and importantly, be merciful towards yourself and others. This is a lifelong journey upward, and arrival means stepping into eternity, for until that day comes we have not yet arrived. Recognise you are on the way, and so are the others around you. Be humble, repent often, forgive more often, and use your words to spur each other on towards love and good deeds. And now for a benediction:

May you possess the gates of your enemies, and may your enemy no longer hold influence over the gates of your heart. May you use the strength you do have to guard the gates of those around you, and may you open up your gates to the King of Glory that He may enter in and sit on the throne of your heart. May the washing of the Word and the refreshing water of the Spirit cleanse you each morning, and may you speak, create and live in such a way as to build others up as we press on towards the heavenly call of maturity, in Jesus name, Amen.