The goal of Nehemiah was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and reestablish the gates.  As a type of Christ, he gives us insight into what Jesus came to do in our lives.  Jesus wants to rebuild our spiritual walls and make the gates that let in and let out the things of the spirit strong and impenetrable from demonic spirits and evil influence.

As I shared Sunday, this begins with faith.  To be a champion means to have the spiritual walls of your life rebuilt in Jesus Christ.  To live like a champion, you have to believe you are a champion.  We are more than conquerors in Christ.

When we come to Jesus in repentance and faith, we become a new person.  We become champions.  This is a theme throughout the Bible.  When David faced Goliath, the Bible says Goliath was a champion.  He was the champion of the Philistines or of the world, of the devil.  David was God's champion sent by the king into battle.  In ancient days the king always had a champion who fought for the king.  When David defeated the giant, he demonstrated the power of God in His champion to overcome all the giants of this world and of the spirit realm.

This starts with our faith in Jesus Christ.  In Him I can do all things.  With God all things are possible.  In Christ I already have the victory.  My strength comes from Him, which is the Holy Spirit in us and around us.  The very power of the Resurrection is ours in Jesus Christ.  The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the Holy Spirit in us.  We are baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit.

The gates represent the doors that lead into our minds and lives and also lead out into the world.  Satan and our flesh tempt us to open these portals to sin.  The world and its evil influences seek to come into us.  All of these three desire to capture our minds and those destroy our lives by leading us into captivity.

We need gates that are strong and able to resist the Devil, the flesh, and the world.  These gates guard our inner stronghold of faith and life in Jesus Christ.  They are our eyes, our smell, our touch, our taste, our ears, which are the physical gates.  Then the spiritual gates are our soul, which our mind is part of, and our spirit that is alive by the breath of God, the Holy Spirit.

Impenetrable gates in our lives comes from the gift of the Holy Spirit.  We learn to yield to God on a daily basis.  We need to be continuously filled with the Spirit.  The Spirit gives us victory over our flesh and keeps Satan and his demons and the world out of our mind and resists the formation of evil strongholds in us through false teaching and sinful habits.

Gates are kept strong by meditating and taking in the holy aspects of God, His truth, His love, the things that are eternal in the Word, in prayer, in worship, in fellowship... all that glorifies God and teaches us how to live in Christ and for Jesus.

Then the gates let out what is good.  Our witness to the world comes out of us in our character, in Christ like attitudes, in the mind and heart of Christ, in our good works.  His Light and Glory shine forth from us to penetrate the darkness that seeks to cloud out the face of God.

One more important aspect of the gates is it lets out what is corrupt in us as a means of cleansing.  God's forgiveness of our sins, washing us clean by the blood and by the Spirit causes our spiritual gates and walls to be renewed in our confession, repentance, and brokenness before God.  The filth and garage of our lives is removed so to speak in the spirit through the gate of forgiveness.

This is key to rebuilding the walls and gates of our lives in Christ.  The Bible calls this sanctification.  This word today gives us a general insight into the many facets of discipleship in which we become mighty men and women of God, able to fulfill God's purposes in and through our lives.  It is a metaphor of what Jesus desires to do in us.

Oh Lord, rebuild the spiritual walls  and gates of our lives to be like Jesus in our mind and heart.  Cleanse and purify us from the filth of the flesh and renew us in the spirit of our minds to resist the devil and the world.  May we follow Jesus and do all to the glory of God, so we live in the prophetic stream of God's history and plan to redeem the whole world.  Love, Pastor Blake, evangelist and horse soldier for Jesus.