Topic: Battles at the Gate
Text:    Matt. 16:18-19
Preacher: Rev. Prof. Mosy Madugba
Second Service

Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He went on to say in the next verse, that I will give you the keys to the kingdom and you will be able to open any door.

The intention of Jesus building the church was to build men and women who will be prominent at the gates. Last night, we talked about the Vice President been a Christian, we talked about the secretary general of the Federal government been a Christian, and as well the deputy Governor of Rivers state. We said it is important for believers to be at the gates.

What is a Gate?

At the time that Abraham offered Isaac, God said to him, your children shall possess the gate of their enemies. When they went to marry for Isaac, the family said you children shall possess the gates of their enemies. Gates are places of influence. Recently, a young man wrote a book and called them mountains of Influence and he mentioned seven of them. The mountains of influence are actually more than seven, including your family, work place, yourself, the church, etc.

Gates is any place of influence. Daniel 2:49, Proverbs 31 “The husband of the virtuous woman are known at the gates”, Job 29 “when God Restored Job, He restored him at the gate”. What is it about the gates Isaiah 28:6 “I will give strength to those who take the battles to the gate”. Meanwhile, church folks are not prominent at the Gates. They are not prominent at the Court of Justice where justice is perverted, they are not there in the house of assembly where good laws should be made, they are not in the house of Rep, senate, supreme court where they give judgement without explanation. I explained to the men – that fathers sit down with their children and plan it, and program them to be at the gates. That is where the battles are fought. Think about it; what if Esther and Mordecai were not there. What if Mordecai did not raise an Esther inside? Haman wanted to annihilate the Jews and all the millions of Jews could do was to wail; but that didn’t matter at that time. What matter is having people at the Gates, people who have a voice, people who have the guts to stop the invading armies of darkness.

I pray that the Lord strengthens those of us going into politics, that we would know why we are going there and be focus as well. I pray for fathers, that you will sit down and plan where your children will be, not letting them to be influenced wrongly. A coach designs how the team will play, the father is the chief coach. You can raise winning team, and it is the responsibility of the coach and his wife which is the technical adviser to do that. Prov. 11:22 “Train up your child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. It’s not the children that should tell the parents how they should grow, why because they don’t have experience, although they may have inclination to some of these things, but it is of the father to interpret those things and then give them direction. To do this you need the power of God. Matt. 3:11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire”. You see three baptisms in this scripture, John the Baptist baptise with water and the other two were to be done by God himself. This promise was fulfilled in Acts chapter 2.

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When God is anywhere, there will be fire. Even till today, when God is in the house, you may not see the fire on anybody’s head but you can sense it in the tone of the Pastor, in the body language of the worship team, and in the environment. When God introduced himself to Moses, he came as fire, when he introduced himself to Israel, he came as fire. Daniel 7 says – He dwells in the midst of a blazing furnace. Mal. 3:2 “for he is like a refiner’s fire”. When that fire is in you it refines you on daily basis, it gives you strength. It is the will of God for us to carry fire Psalm 104:4 “Who maketh his Angels spirits, and his ministers flaming fire”.

What Fire does to a man

• Anytime anything carries fire, whether it is the 300 men of Gideon, they will fight. 120 men in the upper room caught the fire and turned the evil world upside down.
• The fire is God’s presence inside you.
• Fire makes you passionate
• Fire brings you into the realm of the supernatural
• Fire brings you to a point where you will not tell stories but walk in the power of God.

Prayer Point:
Ask God for fresh fire and power