Hallelujah. Precious father in heaven, we love you. We praise you. And yes, your arms are wide open for us, Father God. And we need to come into the bosom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father God, bring all of our cares and all of our pain and all of our sorrow, our fears, our hurts, everything that hinders our walk. Let us come into the precious arm of our loving father that have been extended through Jesus Christ our savior. And father as we come in. We thank you father god for touching us with your precious love that is able to cleanse that he's able to drive away all fear and all doubt and all unbelief. That is able to give the comfort and the peace that we know that we are loved. Hallelujah. that that that that that we have been accepted in the beloved that we are part of the family of God. Hallelujah. We are of your kingdom and of your power and of your glory. We're your family, Lord. And father, in the name of Jesus, as we come to partake of the bread of your word tonight, we ask that you provide the wine, the Holy Spirit would come in and provide the the the divine wine that we are able to partake your word as the Holy Spirit gives us the revelation to partake, Father God. For it is the word of God that makes us free. In Jesus name, we come in agreement and we thank you, Father. Amen. Praise God. There's an anointing here tonight. I'm loving it. Praise God. So, if I start weeping, that's fine. Right. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I want to talk about uh the city gates and I'm talking about spiritual things tonight. And basically um the notes uh that I made are just like a guiding point. You can probably make 10 15 lessons out of this, but I want to give you the framework tonight of of uh something that perhaps most of us uh really have no understanding of. And we want to begin in Genesis chapter 28

and then we're going to go verse 16 through 19.

And it's a story about Jacob who is fleeing his brother after he stole the uh the firstborn blessing and it reads and it says uh then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Then Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put at his head. He set it up as a pillar and pour oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethl. But the name of that city had been loose previously. Now I want you uh just to uh paraphrase things here a minute. We live in a physical realm. Okay. But next to this physical realm, there are two more dimensions of time and space that go together with this with this reality that we're living in. Uh is the second and the third heaven. Paul says that he was taken to the third heaven. When Jesus prayed, he says uh our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus was speaking about the third heaven where God is. See, where God is, Satan cannot be. No demons can be. Where God is, there's perfect rule, perfect harmony. And that is the heaven that we have access to Jesus Christ. The Bible says that we're now seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. That's our address. I like when Fred preaches that. That's our address. You want somebody to mail you something uh next to Christ Jesus. That's our address. We're seated right now. That's where we dwell. That's where our spirit dwells. And so we need to understand that uh between our physical realm uh there's a second heaven which is the where the prince of the power of the air is Satan and the demonic forces are. And the third heaven is where God is and his angels are. Okay. Between our physical dimension and the spiritual dimension, there are gates. In the scripture that we just read, Jacob was fleeing. And as he was fleeing, he came to this place and and he went to sleep for the night. He took a a a rock and and put it on a place and he leaned his head in it. And as he fell asleep, the uh curtains, if it were, of this physical realm was removed. And he saw what that place looked like in the spiritual realm. And he saw a ladder. And the ladder went straight up to the third heaven. And he saw angels coming up and down this ladder. And he saw it just as plain more real than the physical is. And then he said, "Wow, I could have been walking by right here and missed the whole thing. I didn't know that there was a a gate to heaven in this place. And so we need to understand, and this is what the lesson is going to be about tonight, that wherever man is, wherever man has settled, where wherever men civilization abides, there are doors into the spiritual realm. God has placed gates or doors into the spiritual realm. So the man h of God can have access to him. And this is what we need to understand. Now remember that when before Jacob was even born, God called Abraham and he says, "I'm going to bring you into a place and this place that I'm going to bring you is a place that I'm going to give it to your descendants forever." And as Abraham sojourned, one of the things that he did, he came into contact with the different places where the doors were open. Isaac, the same way Isaac and Abraham, they dug wells. Wells was a type of a gate. You uh broke through the desert and you dug deep enough and you hit water and then water would come in. That's a type of when we connect with the spiritual door, the water from heaven comes in. This is why you see revivals in Toronto and you see revival over there in Pensacola, Florida. All of those places where there's the spirit of God is flowing. There's a man or a group of people of God who have found the key to the gate. And as they found the key to the gate and begin to pray and begin to worship and begin to do the right things that need to be done when we come to the gate, we're able to tap into the spiritual well. Hallelujah. To where there's an anointing. I remember when we went to uh uh uh Pensacola to the Brownsville over there. You know, I I'm very skeptical when it comes to going out of my zone. You know, I already know my church and I already know the thing, but I'm going over there. I'm says, "Okay, I'm here as a eyewitness. I'm just here not to get excited about anything. I want to see what's going on." And then we we flew it. Uh we had a flight to Houston and then take another plate from Houston to Pensacola. And it was the worst trip. I was in the back the last seat. It was right by they had the the jet had those engines. I was right next to the engine. My seat since it was back against the restroom. Didn't lean back and everybody was coming to the restroom all night long and it was red eye. We left at remember 12:30 that night. We left after a Wednesday night after a service. And I tell you by the time and then we got over there to Pensacola after fly. We couldn't get into the hotel until after 5. and we had to go back in there because the lines were like forever and forever. So, I mean, I was so tired and I said, "Man, you know, this is no way to travel to come to a place where you want to get excited with God, right?" Anyway, when we got in line, we're so far back that here was the main sanctuary. Here's the other the old sanctuary full of people and and the people over here saw it on TV. That is really Well, you know where we went up? We went up on a choir room where people went from the choir to get dressed. We were in a little like like like this and they had a screen on the wall. That's where we saw this revival. Might as well being at home and watching it in TV because we're like three buildings over in a little room without windows. And then they had this uh the chairs so close that my feet didn't even fit in there. And I said, "You know what, Lord? This is not going to work for me." You know, I've been up all night. I haven't slept. I'm tired. And you know, and the screen is there. The minute that the guy went up in there and hit the keys on the keyboard to begin the worship, I felt a heaviness just come in. And as he touched the top of my head began to go through me and I just began to weep uncontrollably. Here I'm in the middle of a room back in there someplace. I'm not even where the people are at. I'm back in there. But I sense the presence of God. And see what happened is they found the gate. They found the door. They were able to access this river of water. And I don't care how tired you are, how how how troubled you are, how confused you are. This is why people would travel there from miles from all over the world. Why? Because they're able to sense the spirit of God, a presence that you never sense before. And then, you know, next day we were able to get to the building next to it. And the next day we got to the other one. So, we work our way up in there. But the anointing of God was there. The same thing happened in 1906 in in a stable over there in Asusa street. The same thing they came into a gate into an opening to where the spirit of God began to come. And back then people had to get on ships and travel for months across and they would come from all over the world to experience that. You see, this is what we need to do a as believers. Whatever area we're in, we need to find that gate. Okay. So that we can access this river of living water. Hallelujah. Which is the spirit of the living God. Because once you experience that, oh man, I'm telling you, it changes your life forever. Once you taste that, you don't want nothing else. Now, staying with the same scripture, I want to bring out seven things that Jacob, seven keys. And like I said, if you want to do a Bible study with this, take this and and go through each one. You can get all kinds of different scriptures. I was checking it today to to to deal with the different areas that it's talking about. Jacob says that he awoke from his sleep. And it says, "Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it." The first thing we need to understand that the gate cannot be found through physical means. The gate is a spiritual gate and it has to be revealed to you by God. It wasn't an accident or a coincidence that Jacob stopped in that place from his traveling to sleep that night. But you see, he was in a journey. He was in a journey on a pilgrimage. He was heir of the promises of God because God made a covenant with Abraham. And God confirmed the covenant to Isaac. And now on Jacob, the covenant is going to be confirmed that night. As a matter of fact, you read the scripture, you'll see, I am the God of Abraham and Isaac. And I'm confirming with you tonight the covenant that I made with him. This is what God is telling him. So you have to understand that first of all, Jacob was in a pilgrimage. And as he was traveling through, he happened to come right to where the place was. And he says, "I did not know it." And this is the key. We need to understand that because a lot of time we complain because there's a situation that we find ourselves in and we say, "If God is God and if God loves me and if he cares so much for me, why am I going to what I'm going? Why is it that I'm having to deal with all of this stuff with the spiritual gates? In order for us to see him, certain circumstances, certain condition had to take place. Jacob wasn't going out on a picnic. He was fleeing for his life. Esau was after him with a big sword. We need to understand that he was going away from everything that was promised to him. He was being rejected from the family. He was being kicked out. He was going to go to the other side of the world of where the promises were. But you see, a lot of time we as believers get to hang up on the circumstances around us and miss that God has put us into that place and that position and that circumstance so that we can seek for the gate. Doesn't he said that with whatever temptation, God always makes a way of escape? But you see, if you're not running from anything, you're not going to find the way out. You see, as long as you're in the mall and you're having fun, you you don't care to get out of there. It's when somebody scream fire, fire, and you begin to run and you want to find an exit real quick. And a lot of times, the Lord has to bring us into that place. So the first thing we have to understand if we want to find that gate and this applies by the way it applies for a church it applies for a community but it also a personal it applies personally too because see all of us are going through a certain thing to where we need to find that door of escape. So he says I did not know it. So the first thing is we need to be aware. The very first thing we need to know is when things are not going like they need to go. You know, I I tried to develop this through the year. I don't make mistakes in the sense that if I'm driving and I took the wrong turn and it was something really stupid, I I say, "Well, maybe God wanted me to come this way. Is there anything here that you I mean I done that one time I was way out in in in Topanga Canyon Calabasas way up in there and I just kept taking wrong turn I say okay Lord you drive I wound up all the way Ventura all the way by the beach all over the place you know but hey I was I was being trained I was being trained if there's something you want me to do finally I wound up in Wilmington out of all places a couple that needed prayer and just when I was about to give up and get on my car leave somebody just wave at me. Oh, we need prayer. We need So I went into their apartment and and just pray. Took me three hours to get there. I said, "Okay, Lord, I definitely need work on this." You know, but but but we need to understand that that whatever circumstance you're going through may be the Lord leading you to the place that you don't know that it's there. The second thing he says, "And he was afraid." We need to understand that spiritual doors or when the Lord opens the gate cannot be taken lightly. We need to understand that you have to have respect for the spirit of the living God. You know when you come to a church you expect that that church that you go to is is the altar is a place where the presence of the Lord is. And we need to come expecting. We need to come expecting. We need to respect the glory of God. We need to respect the presence of God. The very first thing that happens to a human when he's confronted with the divinity of Christ is how nothing we are, how inadequate we are, how base we are, how much we fall short of it. And we need to have that humble heart that says, "Lord, it's only by your grace that I have found this place." Because you see, some people, they want to get their spirituality and put it here as well, I'm captain now or I'm a general now because I'm spiritual, you know, and it's the opposite. When you find that door where God's presence is at, it's going to humble you. It's going to get you so close to the floor. sometimes to put my face on on the carpet and and the carpet doesn't go down enough for the face to go in when you're in that prison. The third thing is he said, and I love this, how awesome is this place? Amen. How awesome is this place? I've been into this this other side a couple of times in my life, and it is so real than this is. As a matter of fact, when you have an experience where you step through that door and when you come back, everything here looks so dark and dingy compared to the clarity and the reality of this spiritual dimension. And and so Jacob did not know that there was such a big door there and uh he was definitely scared seeing these things that would happen, but he said, "Man, this place is awesome. I'd like to come here more often. He He I I I like to abide in this place. It would be really nice to get into this place. So, we need to understand that when we step through that door, it's going to have an effect on us. And you know what that effect is? It'll change you. and it'll change you into. Do you know why the Bible says that gay was the most humblest or the meakest man on earth? Did you know that Moses traveled through all of those days? He was 40 years in Egypt where the biggest demonic gate was open. Egypt is where they had the worship of Osiris and and and all of this, the god of the dead. And they were into big demonic stuff over there. God took him out of there and he took him out to a pasture and one day boom there's a door. It's a bush and it's burning but it's not consumed. This is always spiritual when when something defies nature. When the reason why you get scared when you go into the place is because the principles of our physical reality do not apply. Everything is where people don't walk, they float and and different things that uh uh that that you know that that shake your psyche, shake shakes your soul because you're not used to seeing this. But in in in in in Moses's travel during that wilderness there, God was preparing him because 40 years later, he would have to bring millions and millions of people with him. Don't you know that Moses already knew which rock to strike and he already knew which place to go and which not to go? See, he he w he was in in Saudi Arabia. That that is really where they crossed to the Mount Sion. Uh Sinai was in on on the part of Israel was they they crossed way down there. I think it's called the Gulf of Akabach and they cross into Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has this mountain which is still burned on the top to this day all fenced in and they won't let anybody in there. But anyway, Moses had already been in that wilderness. Moses had already experienced in his spirit where the gates were up. And so when Moses came and led those people, it wasn't by chance that he was there. The cloud was leading them, but Moses knew what God was up to because he was already being aware of these things. So you see in our journeys we need to understand that a lot of time the journey where life takes us is places to where you have experienced certain things that there's a gate open there for you that you may have to have need to have access to it in a future time. And then he says this is the gate of heaven. This is the gate. In other words, here's an opening between my physical reality and the spiritual reality. So, so far we see that the gate was revealed to him. He didn't know that it was there. He had respect for the gate because he feared what he had uh uh come into. He knew that it was an awesome place to be. He knew that it was the gate to heaven or the gate to a spiritual realm. Now, what is the first thing that he did when he woke up? See, his head was on this rock. That's where he was sleeping on. He takes that rock, which symbolizes this is where my head was laying when I was sleep. He puts it right where the gate was at. Remember, the gate is not there. That he only saw that in a dream. He's on a physical place now. But right there where he was, he takes that rock and what does he do? He gets his horn of oil and he pours oil on that gate. You know what that anointing does? It assigns an angelic good angelic gatekeeper to that gate. You see, when God opens the gate for you, since both of those places you have the second and the third heaven or or the demonic and the heavenly, when God opens that gate, you have to guard that gate. You have to protect that gate. You that gate has to be anointed because it is the anointing that breaks the yoke. It is the anointing that forbids the enemy to step through. You see, the gate is a door that has a length and it has a the the two posts to the right and to the left. Once that gate is open, spiritual things can come in. The anointing is the blood. Remember what Moses did? He took the blood, he put it on the top, he put on the side. When the angel of death came that night, the angel went there, step through the open door because there was blood there. Blood speaks of death. He was killing the firstborn. They were already dead. You see the first the blood symbolize Jesus the firstborn. He is the firstborn who gave his life for us. And so that's what the gay symbolize. That's what the anointing symbolizes. When God opens a spiritual door for you, the very thing first thing that we have to do, we have to take the oil because it represents the anointing. It represents the blood of Jesus. And when we place that anointing in there, only good angels can come through because they don't fear the blood. As a matter of fact, they worship the Messiah who gave the blood. They're on his presence. They say, "Holy, holy, holy, hallelujah. Worthy is the lamb." They're saying continuously. So, they don't fear his blood. Satan does. That's like poison. It burns them to the crisp. our very first experience that my wife and I had, we we uh got saved and we was living in Carson at the time at Avalon Village and uh and then we were u uh

found out that we were arguing a lot and I came from work and and I said, "You know what? we we are being infiltrated or there's an influence that is causing us to do these things. So we got our kids that were four, five, and six. We sat in our living room. We form a circle and we held hands and then we asked the Lord to to protect us and to put his covering and his anointing over us. And we put the kids to bed and I'm sitting on the couch and and she's sitting on the other chair. And then all of a sudden this spirit contention I guess it was a spirit. I don't know what it is. It was coming in. Our door was closed but he didn't know what we had pray and put an anointing. And as he was coming in he bang his head into that door. I mean it's like somebody took a big break. He'll tell you. Boom. Our door just shook. And man I got up on the couch. I'm ready to go fight somebody. I'm thinking somebody coming in here. I open the door and nothing. Even my door is completely the pain is perfect. There's no nicks. I said, "Man, I just heard this brutal heavy thing just hit the wall and and and shake it." No, the spirit couldn't come in. Couldn't pass through the anointing. The dummy should have slowed down before he came to the door. It was going too fast. It must have been blonde. Blonde demon. We just saw something about a blonde thing that ran into a tree. Anyway, that's why I was saying that a gazelle blonde gassel to run into the tree and knock herself out. So, but it reminded me of that. But see, it is the anointing through that gate, through that open door that prevents the enemy from stepping through that door. And so, the very first thing that he does is he pours oil on top of it. And then what's the next thing that he did? He named the gate. He named the game. You see, if you are dealing with spirit of infirmity in your house, in your family, and this spirit of infirmity keeps coming in, and there's always sicknesses, and every time a flu comes by, you're the first one that gets it and the last one that gets it. And every time things are going, you need to look for that gate. The gate is named healing. And the Lord has it for you. Jesus is the gate. He has provided the gate. But as we find that spiritual connection and we find it and and we follow what what what what Jacob was teaching us there and then you pour your anointing on that gate and then you call it peace. We call our gate peace that night. You know, we know we're keep fighting and we shouldn't be fighting. We're Christians. There's a spirit that is causing us to condemn and to fight. The spirit of contention couldn't go through the door of peace once the anointing is there. So that's what he does. He takes this door and he names it Bethl, House of God. You know what that means? There's no demons that could step through that door from there on. There isn't one single unclean spirit that could step through the door. Why? Because it's called the house of God. And devil do not dare to tread where where God's angels are, where his presence is at. So I mean, think of it. Find the gate. You know, if you need healing, find the gate of healing. If you need peace, find the gate of peace, seek it. God will open it for you. Heal. You may not know even where this place is at, but we're talking about spiritual connection with the spirit of God. And then I want you to see here that in in um and a lot of you here probably understand Spanish. It says but the name of that city had been loose previously. If you speak Spanish you know that loose means light. Loose is where we get in Spanish we and in Latin the word for loose the word for light is loose. So this place was named before this had the name of loose or lie. Actually that doesn't mean that in Hebrew you know what it means in Hebrew almond. Now guess what in the manora

you have almond blossoms through there all through there. What is this light? It gives light. The almond blossom symbolize the the the oil or the spirit. So that place that he ran into was a door that's been there for a long time. And the people that used to live there, he said, "That place, there's light in that place. There's a blossoming, an almond type of blossoming, some kind of a oil that gives light and it's in that place." So what it means is once God because light means revelation once God gives you the revelation that you're able to step through that door you will have victory because you see if you walk in darkness you're stumbling in the darkness but if you have light you know the word of God the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters 22 is a number for light everything in the Bible. Just take the scriptures, any scripture where the numbers two two appear and you will see this talks about light light containers. So as a matter of fact on this picture you can see the almond blossoms I think maybe down here I think but it means light or illumination or understanding. What the gate will do for you is give you the knowledge for it is through knowledge that the righteous is delivered. It is through knowledge that you are kept from perishing. My people perish for lack of knowledge, Hosea said. So, we need to have spiritual revelation. And we need to understand that we're not going to be able to see where the gate is at. So, it has to be sick. It has to be respected. We need to tr when the Lord brings you into a place, we have to be uh uh reverent of that place. We have to know that this is an awesome place where you can get all of the victories that you need. That this is a a an opening to the spiritual realm. So you need to anointed to protect it and then you need to name it so that Satan cannot take it. And then we need to understand the last one that these gates are a place of spiritual enlightenment. Now let's go to our next scripture which is in Acts 17 26- 28. Now the book of act tells us that it says and he God has made from one blood every nation of men. This is Acts 17:26 27-28. God has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling. Why? So that they should seek the Lord. Look at this. Listen listen to this. in the hope in the hope that they might grope for him and find him. You have to see this. Says God before he created mankind, he created the earth and he put gates all over the world. Wherever man was going to go in to live, he put gates there. And he says he put the gates there. Then he gave men their appointed. In other words, there's a gate for this, there's a gate for that, there's a gate for that. He proportioned the gates. He put them all through the time because they're spiritual. And he did it for this one reason. Hoping that men when they got to the place where God brought it would seek him. How do you seek him? Through the gay. You got to find the gate. You got to find the spiritual door lord. That's why Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." That's what Jesus said. He has the gate. So, and look what he says. Since remember Jacob said, "Man, I could not see this door." And what is he saying? That they may grope for it. You see, when you're in darkness, there's a light switch somewhere in the walls and it's pitch dark. And what do you do? You're groping. What are you looking for? You're looking for the switch. And what is that switch is going to do when you turn it on? The light's going to come on. And hallelujah. You're going to be able to run between the furniture. you're going to be able to jump. But as long as it's dark, you can you you you you see what what this means. The gate is the place of enlightenment. The gate is a place where the switch is turned on. Hallelujah. And it's all over the earth. That's what it says here. Look at the very first thing he says. All the face of the earth. That means that there's gates everywhere that God had placed. And it says for their pre-appointed times. Did you know that at that time Jacob was fleeing? In other words, it wasn't his time to come back yet. As a matter of fact, if you read about Jacob, he says, "Well, God, if you're God and if you feed me and close me to this place where I am going and make me that I'm able to come back to my family in peace, I'm going to serve you, God, because in the mess I am right now, nothing can come out of it. But if you do that for me, God, oh, you can't count me. I'm g and not only that, I'm going to give you a tenth of everything that I have." That's a covenant. He He said, "God, I mean, he he wasn't a a mushy, what do you call it? Emotional type. Oh, God, I'm in a bad spot here if you help." No, he's saying, "Hey, I'm a reasonable man. I just stumbled into something that I didn't even know it was here, but God, if you do this for me." What did Jacob said? I have a need. I'm fleeing. I don't have a penny on on me. I don't even have no clothes. If you if if you take me to where I need to be, because right now my brother is angry, he's trying to kill me. If you take me and you feed me and you take care of me and then when I come back, I find peace and restoration with my family, then I'll know that you're God. What did the gate do for him? It gave him the encouragement to come back. He was 14 years later, I think, and two wives and and some kids when he came back. and he came back through the same place through the gate that God had opened. So, we need to understand that your gate has a pre-appointed time. Maybe you've been seeking and and and you kind of get discouraged, but no, knowing where the gate is at, even though if it's not the time for it to open, you know, if you know where the safe is at with all of the money, that's that's the biggest part of the battle. You can know that that that the safe opens automatically at 9:00 or or June 2nd or or whatever. But if you don't know where it's at, doesn't do you no good. Oh, but once you find the gate now, all you need to know is the time. In due season, the Lord will visit you. You see, you will stand by that door. It says, "I know that this is my door. I know." You know, this is why people take sabaticals and this is why people step off. Why? Why you do that? Because sometimes we get so caught up in life that we miss the boat. A lot of times we need to just back off and just find that gate and said, "Okay, Lord, whenever you're ready, I'll move." Isn't that the way that the the Israelites were led, the cloud would settle over them, and as long as the cloud was there, they're there. You know what? God didn't tell them, "Hey, we're going to be here in 10 days." So, or we're going to be here a year, we're going to be here six months, or we're moving to more money. God never tell them. You know what God would do? The cloud would lift up. And as soon as lift up, back up, honey. We got to move. Hurry up. We don't want to get behind and then you would go. And that's what it is. God has a time and he has a purpose. And he's not going to tell you when the time is. He's looking for faithfulness. And and so we need to know that number one, we have a gate for us because they're all over the earth. That they're open at a pre-appointed time. And he says the gates exist within the boundaries of our dwellings. You know what that means? That means that whatever situation you're in right now, I don't care how bad things are or how good or how indifferent may seem, there's a gate right where you're at.

There's a door right now that God has for you, right where you're at. You don't have to go. You That's one of the mistakes I make when I knew that the Lord was calling me. I We went all over the place. We went all the way to Washington. We went to uh we drove in Wilmington, North Carolina. He said, "Here, Lord, no. Okay, get off on the next exit." We had been in in the middle of New Mexico. Got off on a place called Cross Mountain Road. you get off and it's dirt that way and it's dirt that way and we pour oil and anointed there and said here Lord.

Hey, at least we're looking, right? That's half of the battle. At least we're looking. I don't I don't mind making a fool of myself. Before I got saved, I made a fool of myself any time for the devil. You know, I'm a believer now. I'll make myself a fool for God anytime. But I'm looking because I know God has a call. He has a plan. He has a purpose for my life. But the thing that I found out is I don't have to go to North Carolina or New Mexico or or all the way to Washington State. It's right here. It is I I can get up at 3:00 in the morning. I remember one time went to a men's retreat and I got up at 3:00 in the morning and climbed the mountain in the dark and there was a rock. I used to go to play uh pray to in this place and there was a rock there and I was able to find it in the dark and I sit there all night from 3:00 until about 6:00. The moon was on this side of the trees and by the time it was over the moon had crossed all the way over. The whole time I'm sitting over there, man, there could be a wild dog or a a coyote or a bear or something come up. I'm in the middle of the wood. I was way up there in the middle of the woods, you know, and I'm sitting there. I'm looking for my door. I'm not going to find it. If I'm in there in the bunk, nice and warm and covered with my blanket. I want to find God. I better go looking for him. And I'm going to look right here. I didn't have to drive anywhere. I was there. So, I'm going to do it. I'm going to look for him. And we need to understand that the Bible says the spiritual gift, you have to be selling those spiritual gifts. God is not going to drop it on you while you're sitting Starbucks enjoying your coffee and having a nice cheat chat with your neighbors. Okay? Usually going to be on your face and your knees with your back against the wall when you have no other one to turn but to God. That is usually uh uh when he will do it. And then he says that the gates are hidden in order for us to seek the Lord. He says so that they this amazed me. I read this so many times and I never saw it until I saw it like this. He says uh so the the Lord opened these things over the face of the earth. He determined the pre-appointed time. He said at the boundary for the dwelling and then he says so that they should seek the Lord. So that they should seek the Lord. That is exactly what it's talking about. God wants men to look for him. You know, it's just like you you and your dad and your dad is playing hide and seek with you and your dad is is hiding and you can't find him and you go and look under the bed and you go look in the closet and you go look in the garage and you're going all over the house and you're seeking for him and then you begin to get scared when you're a kid. Oh my god, where's my dad? I can't find him. Where is he? And you begin to go, "Dad, dad, I'm scared now. Where are you?" And dad is not answering. and you're playing this. Why? He wants us to get really desperate for him. He said to the point of groping. I I mean, this hit me so much when when I saw it. In the hope that they might grope for him and find him. Groping. That means you're in a dark place. That means you can't see. That means God, I'm going to find you. I'm going to stick my hands. I'm going to put my I'm going to look all over the place. I'm going to find you, Lord. And and the gates are here. How many times have I driven or walked right by my gate where every blessing that I ever needed is there and I did not know that it was there. Amazing, huh? That all of us have done the same thing.

Next page. Isaiah 28:6. Why do we need the gate? Like I said, this is just an outline because you can go through all of those areas and find all kinds of scriptures that would have to do with every single one of those case that we spoke about. I'm just giving you the points. Isaiah 286, for a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment and for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. Now notice what it says in Isaiah there in order for us to understand that. Let me give you a little rundown how it is. Back in Bible days, they would come in and they would build the city whether it was on top of the hill or in the valley. And then this city, they would build the wall around and then all of the houses were inside. All of their storage place for their grain was inside the walls. And then this city, depending to how big it was, would have gates that were open during the day and then they would close at night. And then around the city, it would be where their fields were. And so they go out every morning to tend the fields and everything. There will always be people, watchmen, who stood at the gates. The gates will have a tower. And if they saw an enemy coming, they would blow a trumpet or make some kind of a sound to warn the people, and they would all come in and close the gates. You said, "Well, they couldn't put a ladder, of course, but they would have an army. They would defend themselves. They had rocks. They had boiling oil, boiling water. So, if anybody tried to scale the walls, they would fight him off." Okay? So, the gates were the most important part of the city. So, the gates where the elders of the city sat. You see, back in those days, patriarchs, the the father or the elder one, they became the judges. They were the ones uh uh they they're called today the city elders. They made the decision. So the elder who didn't work anymore, they had already achieved the point to where they were the judges of the city. The first thing they would do in the morning, they got up and they went and they sat by the gate. And so if I had a problem with my neighbor because I plowed his field and then he went in and took it and I said, "No, I did that." He said, "No, I did it." And and there was an argument. We would go to the gate to look for justice. Justice would be found at the gate because that's where the judges or the rulers sat. And then the ruler would decide. He says, "Okay, that the field belongs to you or not to you." And that was it. That's the law. He's like a judge today ruling against you. You have to pay and that's it. So notice what it says here. The number one thing is that in the gate there is a spirit of justice for the person who sits there to pass judgment. Now do you have decisions to make that will impact the rest of your life? All of us do, don't we? Well, you see, did you know that Jesus before he chose the 12 disciples, the ones that was going to be his inner circle, he went out and spent all night out, he went out to the mountains that evening. He didn't go in to uh to um uh to rest or to sleep. He went up and he was in the mountain all night all by himself. Do you know what Jesus did? He found himself a spiritual gate someplace. He spend the night there crying and weeping before God for God to give him the spirit of making the right decision. That's all it is. See, he had to pick up a devil. He didn't just have to pick up 11 good guys. He had to pick up a devil. He had to pick up the one that's going to betray him. This is important. If nobody betrays Jesus, we wouldn't be here right now. There had to be a devil. They had to be a betrayer. Okay? He went and he spent the night praying. The next day he made the choice. Why? Because the gate when you grow up for it, you're going to find the spirit of judgment. The ability to make the right decisions. You see, once you find that gate, once you find that connection with God, you're going to make the decision that you know what the worst part is of making a wrong decision is regret. We can spend the whole life looking back in regret. When you know that the decision that you made is what the Lord wanted to do no matter what happens. You say, you know, whatever comes, this is what the Lord wanted and this is where I am and I'll go through it. I have that confidence to go through it because I know this is what God wanted to do. But look at the second thing that happens on the gate. Not only are you given the spirit of justice so that you can make the right decision, but he says, "I'm for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate." See, Jesus says, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." What are the gates of hell? the spiritual uh uh realm, the the spiritual of darkness. The anointing is what you battle with at the door. Remember I said the anointing symbolizes the blood on the doors. That's what you battle with. You got to turn back the battle at the gate. You see, as a father, I am called to be a covering to my wife. In in in Corinthians, he tells you that God is the father. Jesus is the head and then the man and then the woman and then the children. Satan cannot touch my wife or any of my children unless he first goes through me. See in this gate I stand then she stands behind me and then our kids stand behind. As a matter of fact on the ministry of deliverance we saw that many times when we had a child that was really uh bad and instead of trying to force the child to do anything we deal with the mother. She's the one in authority over the child. Okay, let's take authority over that. We had this kid. Remember Fred? The first time this happened, we're upstairs on an upper room and there's all kinds of furniture and everything and we're trying to get a hold of this kid on this kid. Man, he could run. He is going all over the place. He's hiding behind chairs behind the thing. We all we try to do is put a little oil on the kids, you know, to to get this demonic thing that's attacking him all the time and we can get a hold of him. And I said, "Okay, Lord, what do I do now?" These people drove all the way from LA road Fred a pastor from the the Fred knew in LA brought the mother and the child and the pastor all came over and we're up there and I said, "Okay, Lord, what do I do now?" Then he says, "Use your head." I said, "Okay, Lord, I got to hear. What do I do?" He said, "Well, you know how authority flows? It's not the kid you're having the problem with. It's the mother. You got to pray for the mother first." Well, I said, "Okay, that that sounds good." So, the kid was way up in there. We couldn't even see him hiding in all of these things up in there. And so we anointed uh the mother and says, "Okay, let's let's let's deal with you. Why is it that Satan somehow has gotten by you and got to your child?" And just as we anointed the woman and we're to begin to pray for her, I feel something grabbed my leg and I jump. And it was a kid. He just crawled right out. Crawl up on my leg. He says, "Do that to me. Do that to me." He wanted me to anoint. We couldn't find him for 15 minutes looking for him. The minute we touch the mother immediately he comes up. So see we need to understand that the battle is at the gate and you stand at the gate and whether you win the battle or fail the battle will have consequences for a lot of people behind you that are behind you. So we need to understand that the battle has to be turned at the gate and at the gate it is turned by the sword which is the word of God. You know that whenever you go into any spiritual realm, the word of God is absolute. I don't care if there's a million demons there. The Holy Spirit tells you speak this and you speak this which is the word of God and they all have to bow immediately because in the spirit realm, God's laws only in the human realm is God's laws not kept because we're created in the image of God and we can do whatever we want. But spirits are not created in the image of God. Spirits have to obey God perfectly and immediately. And this is why we need to understand when when a demon goes into a person and you want to get him out, you need to understand what legal right he has there because as long as he has a legal right like in that case the mother had have not won the battle at the gate. And so the spirit had the right to torment that kid. But as soon as we brought the attention to the mother and said now you have authority over this situation and we anoint her immediately the spirit was broken. And then thank God for that because then after that every time they would bring us a child. Okay, let him be. One night we had a kid was sound asleep. Every time we tried to pray she leans on her table. Remember pray there and she snore and snore the whole thing while we were coming against things on the mother and the grandmother at that time. I think the mother and the grandmother were there. The child was was sleep and think were coming out of what she was sleeping and we're just praying for for the people that had authority over her. And this child was being tormented grievously too. So we need to understand that the battle is at the gate and you stand at the gate and you need to understand about the anointing and about the word of God and about the power that God has so you can turn that devil back. You see you say to the devil in the name of Jesus, you cannot have my kid. You cannot have my marriage. you cannot have my my my nephew or whoever it is you're interceding with because you are part of the house of God and you stand at that gate and you stand in front of the devil and you tell him in the name of Jesus you cannot cross his bloodline. Hallelujah. Would you do that? Remember to threat put a line there. The demon cannot cross him. That's the blood of Jesus. That's the gate and that's where the battle is at. But you know what? We're so earthly minded that we get no spiritual concept at all of what the battles are. Okay, the next one, Isaiah 29:21. Now listen to this because this will tell you the weapons that we use at the gate. He says, "Who make a man an offender by a word and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate and turn aside the just by empty words." You know what that scripture is talking about? It's talking about Satan is going to go after the gatekeeper. Satan is going to go after the gatekeeper because if he can get to the gatekeeper, he's going to get to everybody else. If he can get to the shepherd, he'll get to the sheep. And how does he do it? Offending words. An offender by a word. The word offense will lay a snare for him. Matthew 24:11 Jesus said that in the last days many people would fall away because of offenses. Offenses. See, Satan get you offended and he can move you from your gate. I had this book when I was a kid and I was reading it and it's about stories you know and anyway in this story there was a stare and you know they it had illustrated there was a there and at the top there was this sword or something that you had to get and these kids were he had two boys and a girl that were princess and she was a princess and their father was a king and he tried to go up the stair to get the sword or whatever was in in the story and um all the way to the step there were all kinds of stones and what it was is as you were going up to there if you turn around and look you became a stone and then the the the king said hey I'll be able to do this so as he was going up this word came up that said a word that was very offensive to him either challenge him to something he turned around who in there who in the world there said that to Boom. He became a stone. Now, whoever got to the top, all of the stones will be come back to the people. So, the older stone went up in there. He says, "I'm going to fight this thing." And he went up and almost getting to the top. A word came that was so vile and so offensive to him, he turned and he dropped. And the same thing with his brother. So, the girl was left to the girl, the princess. She went up. She goes up the stair. And man, this voice was really laying it on her big time. all kinds of nasty words and she got all the way to the top and got it and everybody was free. Everybody looked at her, "How did you do it? How did you do it?" She said, "What? What?" Then she took cotton out of her ears. What were you saying? And see, the principle is that if you cannot hear the offensive words, they cannot have an effect in you. This is why the Bible says that we're supposed to be intent to the world because Satan says and and he says this vile word to offend you and you're Have you ever stood in front of a casket with a dead person there and and said, "Man, they did a bad job on you fixing you up, man. Look how ugly they You can call them all kinds of things. Not going to matter. Why? They're dead. They can't hear. They can't see." That's what the Bible says we need to be. We have to be dead to the things of the world. Why? Because Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He's a slanderer. He's going to try to throw you out of your game by getting to you. He knows which buttons to push. But if you're going to win the battle of the gay, you can't turn back and listen to that dirty liar. Why? Because if you do that, look what the end says. And turn aside the just by empty words. See, those empty words are going to turn back the just or the righteous. Whatever victory God has for you, you may be praying for somebody that doesn't deserve to be praying for. Maybe you work for him or for her and God really put it in your heart that this person needs prayer. And then you go to work next day and the spirit of that person knows it. And man, they going to treat you mean. I ain't gonna pray for that person no more. What do you do? You just turn that person's salvation or that person deliverance. You lost it with what? With empty words. That's all Satan has empty words. Now what happens after that in Amos 7:13?

Look what it says there. But never again prophesy at Bethl for it is the king's sanctuary and it is a the royal residency. I want you to see this. Bethl is the place that Jacob discovered. Bethl is the place where the house of God is. Bethl is the place where every righteous king of Israel, every righteous judge, every righteous prophet could go to and get a word from the Lord and prophesy. Why? Because you need to tell the devil where to go. That's what prophecy is all about. Just simple. You want to prophesy, tell the devil where to go. You're prophesying. Tell him what Hannah said. I am not worthless. You devil, get out of my life. God has a plan and purpose for my life. You're prophesying. You're prophesying the word of God. Okay. Now, what happened on this situation? Let's read the scripture. I got it at the bottom. It's Amos 7 12-17. And I'll close here. Says, "Then a Messiah said to Amos." Amos was a prophet by the way, and Aessiah was a king at that time. So, Amosiah said to Amos, he said, "Go you seer." In other words, get out you prophet or you see her. Flee to the land of Judah. Now, he was in Bethl, which is in Israel. He said, "Get away to the land of Judah. Go over there and eat bread and and prophesy all you want to over there, but don't you dare ever again prophesy here at Bethl."

Now, what is he talking about? Amos is just telling him that since he's a wicked king, he is going to lose his reign. And he tells them, "Get away from my territory. Get away from my area. Get out." And look what what he says, "For it is the king's sanctuary and it is the royal residence." That's the spirit in the king saying, "This is my territory. I taken over the gate of Bethl and you have no right to prophesy here no more. You understand that? This is my place. This is my stronghold. Get out. Go to Judah. Go wherever you want to prophesy all you want to, but leave this area alone. The king of Israel who supposed to be the anointed man, the men who got to the gate have been taken over by the prince of darkness. And that spirit is now saying, "I own this place, so get away from here." But look what Amos does. I I I love this part. Amos is a cool guy. Then Amos answer and said to our Messiah. Hey, listen. I I never dreamed of ever being a prophet. I am no prophet. Neither was I the son of a prophet. You know what I am? I'm a sheep herder. I'm one of the little guys that that follows the sheep up there and attend there are the sycamore fruit. I'm you know I pick up the fruit when it ripens. But then he said, "Then the Lord took me as I follow the flock." In other words, he found the gate and the Lord said to me, "Go prophesying to my people Israel," which is where Bethl is at. He says, "Hey man, I have no aspirations. I have no idea that God was going to do this, but he got a hold of me. I found the gate. He called me and he told me to prophesy. And guess what? I'm going to prophesy. And watch what he told him. Oh man, you don't like this. He said, "Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the house of Isaac. Therefore, thus sayith the Lord, your wife is going to be a harlot in the city." Whoa. He said, "Your wife is going to be harlot in the city. Your sons and your daughters are going to fall by the sword and your land shall be divided by a survey line. You are going to die in a defiled land and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land." You know what he was saying? Israel had committed sin. God is calling prophets to prophesy and warn Israel of their sin. The highest guy is the king says, "Don't tell me what God says. I don't want to hear what God says. I made up my man. I own the gate." Now, you understand that. Oh, you think you do? You think you own the gate? Huh? You think you can sit on that door? I'm telling you, I'm nothing but a cheap herder and and a fruit picker. But God got a hold of me and he says, "I want you to go tell that big old high king there. I want you to tell him something because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord. This is what's going to happen to you. This is what's going to happen to your wife. This is what's going to happen to your family." You see, when God calls you in, I think it says in Isaiah, "Wherever dream, let him have dream." He said, "But whoever has my word, let him speak it and let him speak faithfully." That's one thing you're going to find in the gate. When you get to that gate to the place where where God has placed you, you're going to be authorized to speak. And you know, uh, when I see that, I don't see him speaking as necessarily as much as to the king, as to the king's wife, and as to the king's children, but to the spirit. Because that was the spirit speaking to him. That was the spirit speaking to him through Amos. The spirit was saying, "Hey, get away from here. I'm at the gate right now. Who do you think you are? You're nobody. Get out. I own this city now. I own the gate." And this little shepherd boy said to him, "Not so fast. Not so fast. I got a word from God and I'm going to prophesy it. And I'm going to prophesy it over you." And when he spoke to that spirit, all hell broke loose because his door was closed forever. And so we the model of the lesson tonight is find out. Grop for the gate. Find it. And if there's a a big old bad wolf standing at the gate saying, "I ain't moving from here. I've been in your family for 50 generations." Or he could tell you, "I own this city. I've been here." We had a lot of the demons speak through the people. says, "I own her." Psalms 24:1 says, "The earth is the Lord and everything in it belongs to him." You don't own nothing, Jack. Just shut up and get out. You know, you ain't got you ain't got no ownership of nothing. God owns the whole thing. He owns every human, every cattle, everything. You know, that's the word. And when you speak the word, you're prophesying the word. And when you prophesy the word, you're bringing the right judgment. You are taking the authority that God has given you. Do you know that God promises in in Exodus 20 I think is verse four and five where he says that uh those who disobey the word of the Lord uh bring a generational curse to the third and fourth children but he says I will bless the generation of those who obey me and who do my work to a thousand generations. Did you know that when you take a stand on that gate and you use the sword, which is the word of God, and you prophesy it and you speak it and you say, "God did not bring me into this world to produce children and grandchildren that's going to be uh meat for uh uh jailbaits and who going to be prostitutes and who's going to be all of these things." Just the same way he told that spirit, you can reverse that. You can speak it. You can say God did not bring me into this world to give out cannon fod for the devil. God brought me into this world to raise up for his sons and daughters, princesses and princes and that's what I'm going to raise. And you stand at that gate and you take a s I don't care how bad it looks up in there. You prophesy. You look at the spirit right on the eye. He said you have no part here. This gate is anointed. I I put the blood of Jesus is on this gate. You know, every night my wife and I will hold hands and we pray and we pray for every single one of our family, nieces, nephew, aunts, uncles, and c. I believe that God is a God of a house. That's why my ministry is called a house of faith ministry because I am a house. I am part of a house. My house, you know, my grandfather and my great-grandfather and my father, they used to drink and womanize and get drunk and have all of the things. When God saved me, he says none of that stuff will ever come. You know, the very first person that got saved was my dad because when you take a stand on the gate, it goes back and it goes forward. You break all the power of the enemy. Hallelujah. My dad look at me and then he knew there was something different about me. And then we're going to work and I turn the radio on. I turn it in Spanish because he didn't speak English. And I find a place where they were preaching the gospel. He would take his hat off as the word of God was being preached. Hallelujah. Then one day he got saved and then he would tell everybody. He bugged my brother and my mom so much he wouldn't leave him alone. He went in the morning. He called him at 3:00 in the morning. I just had a dream. The Lord showed me this. When I had the experience with Jesus, I called my mom at quarter to 5 in the morning. Mom, I was crying. You got to get saved. You got to get saved. Jesus is coming. They don't get no rest. here and he called his mother. He was not I know but the idea is that we need to find that gate. We need to take a stand on that gate. We need to anoint him. We need to prophesy. And you once you stand on that gate that's the see that's the door to your family. Did you know that there there's generational curses have been at work in that family? You can stand on that gate and defeat that. Amen. Amen. Father in heaven in Jesus name we thank you and we praise you father God that your word is so good. Oh hallelujah. Your word father God is like water to a thirsty traveler. Father God your word is like a shade a an oas an oasis in the middle of the desert. Father God, as we have partaken of your word tonight, Father God, I pray that you will nourish it. Father God, in the name of Jesus, I bind all of the fowl of the air that they will not be able to steal the word that has been a a seed spread on the hearts of those who are listening here tonight. I pray, Father God, that you will water it, that you will cause it to grow, that we may stand up, Father God, in the power and anointing that you have given us because you said, "I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all of the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm you." That that prophecy that you prophesy may be fulfilled in us, Father God, that we may tread down the enemy. That's what dominium means. to tread down, to take control, that we may possess our gates, Father God, that we may bring life to our families and to our community and to our church. In Jesus name we thank you, Father, for your blessing. Amen.