Overview
These gates outline a spiritual journey from personal bondage to a life of influence and collective revival within the church and the community.
- First Gate: Liberation from Personal Bondage to Fear of Death
- This represents the need to be freed from internal chains and darkness, such as fear, anxiety, and spiritual frustration that keep one in a state of personal imprisonment.
- Second Gate: Overcoming the Expectations of Others
- This gate involves breaking free from the fear of what others think and the pressure to conform to societal or peer expectations, which often hinder spiritual growth.
- Third Gate: Access to the City (Influence in the Culture)
- Once personal freedom and societal expectations are overcome, this gate represents gaining the ability to have an impact on the larger community or culture, leading to revival and transformation.
- Fourth Gate: The Church’s Expectation
- This final gate symbolizes the church’s role in embracing and supporting those who have been set free, fostering an environment of expectation and faith where answered prayers and divine interventions are welcomed.
Introduction
I want to minister on the subject of freedom and fullness: The Four Gates to Freedom and Fullness. Let’s start by reading from Acts 12:1:
“Now, about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, ‘Arise quickly!’ And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, ‘Gird yourself and tie on your sandals’; and so he did. And he said to him, ‘Put on your garment and follow me.’ So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter had come to himself, he said, ‘Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.’ So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. But they said to her, ‘You are beside yourself!’ Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, ‘It is his angel.’ Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.”
The Ultimate Fear
Now, the Bible speaks of the ultimate fear. You know, there are many fears and phobias out there. Some people are afraid of heights, others have phobias of spiders or snakes (including me). But Hebrews 2:14-15 says something interesting:
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He [Christ] Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
Fear is a liar. The ultimate fear is the fear of death, and it equates living in fear with living in slavery. Let me make a couple of statements that I think will resonate with you:
- The degree to which you fear death is the degree to which you are in slavery, bound to something.
- The degree to which you fear death is the degree of resurrection power that you are currently lacking.
Resurrection power, thank God for it! Aren’t you glad Jesus is alive today? Resurrection power is provided by Jesus’ victory over death. Remember, it says that through His death, He overcame the power of death and the devil, the one who has power over death. Resurrection power gives us victory over the sin nature, sickness, and disease.
The Fearless Apostles
The apostles in the book of Acts changed the world because they were fearless of death or dying. If you get delivered from the fear of death, which is the root of all fears, what else can you fear? If you’re not afraid to die, no other fear can hold you. The lack of resurrection power in a believer will often be seen and heard in their theology, actions, words, thinking patterns, and behavior. The gospel message, of course, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
By the way, in the mind of God, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ—His person and what He did for us at Calvary—in the mind of God, we were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and our whole past was buried with Him. We are resurrected with Him and seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, far above all principalities, powers, and might.
Faith and Resurrection Power
The Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our faith in that—faith being the opposite of fear. That’s why faith is connected to resurrection power, and fear is connected to death. Fear is connected to death, as I just read to you: “Lifelong slavery to those who have the fear of death.” That’s why Jesus overcame death through the resurrection—to eliminate the root of all fears.
The more fear you have, the more fear of death you’ll have, and it will make you a slave, a slave to something. I believe God wants to liberate some people today from chains, struggles, and habits you’ve been dealing with for a long time. You need that resurrection power infused in you today, replacing fear with faith.
Faith in Christ Alone
You see, the more real faith you have in Christ, the more evidence of resurrection power will be found in your words and actions. Fear will always blind you; it will cause you to act impulsively, to make bad decisions. They often say that any person, even a leader, can only make so many good decisions in a day. They refer to something as “decision fatigue,” meaning that you start making poor decisions after a certain point. I believe God wants to give grace, help, and hope to someone today who, through decision fatigue, has gotten themselves into a mess, a bad situation. But if you put your faith back in Christ and make the cross—what Jesus did at the cross—the object of your faith, it gives latitude for the Holy Spirit to go to work on your behalf.
Grace is released, divine help through the Holy Spirit. It is the greatest divine exchange. You put your faith in Christ and what He did at the cross, and His overcoming of death. By keeping your faith there, He releases the Holy Spirit to work on your behalf. In fact, God does not recognize other faiths than those in Christ. People have faith in a lot of things, but if it’s not the right object of their faith, the grace of God and the Holy Spirit can’t work for them. They say, “Oh, but I have faith.” But you have to keep your faith unmoved, because often we get our faith off Christ and what He did at the cross. We put it there when we first got saved, but over time, we start putting our faith in our works, in what we do, in what we wear or don’t wear, or in a man, a church, or a denomination.
Faith Unmoved by Circumstances
Listen, all those things are good and important, but ultimately, the same faith that placed you in Christ—by putting your faith in Jesus and what He did at the cross—in the mind of God, God placed you, your identity, and your past in Christ. At Calvary, you died with Him, were buried with Him, and are resurrected with Him. In the spirit, you’re seated with Him in heavenly places.
We must not give over the things that God is birthing in our lives to the keeping of Herod. We’ve got to take care of it; we’ve got to nurture it. The apostle Paul said this: “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” You see, I’ve already been born again, but he was writing to people who were already saved. He says, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” That’s the ultimate purpose of the Spirit-filled life—for Christ to be formed in you, for you to act, think, talk, live, do, and be like Jesus.
We’ve been made partakers of His divine nature. At any stage of development in your Christian walk, the devil wants to use the Antichrist spirit and the opposition you’re facing in the world to stop it before it can get to that place of 30 years old when the heavens will open, the Spirit of God will descend like a dove, and the whole world will get changed in 3 1/2 years of ministry.
The Travail of Creation
So, there’s a travail happening in the Earth right now. It’s in creation with these bizarre weather patterns. The whole creation travails and groans for the sons of God to be made manifest. Ultimately, God’s greatest desire is for Christ to be fully birthed in you. Sometimes we’ve got to be born again—again. Paul wrote that to the church: “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” Till you come to a place of fullness, readiness, and preparedness, until you come to a place of maturity where people see Jesus in you. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There’s something about that renewing of your mind that takes place. You can be under a load of guilt, a spirit of heaviness, and you can be in a place of real angst and frustration, but reading the Word and praying every week—week after week—we can’t get away from those basic foundational things. It’s just being disciplined, really. You’ve got to make up your mind: before I get up, before I go to work, before I do my chores, I’m going to spend some time—I’m going to read two or three chapters in the Bible at least, and I’m going to pray. You know what prayer does? It conditions your spirit to face the rest of the day. Some of your worst days are days that you’ve lived without a prayer-conditioned mind. You respond differently; you think differently; you react differently.
The Transformation of the Mind
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Renew the mind, and the body will follow its lead. The truth is, God is just trying to get a majority in your being—your body, soul, and spirit. If you’re not a believer, your spirit is dead, and so your soul is the predominant part of your being, and then the body just obeys that soulish nature. But if you’re born again and you’ve put your faith in Christ and turned away from the world, your spirit comes alive. Your spirit man is in the pilot seat. You’re not a soulish person—no, you’re a spiritual person. You’re not living from your soul; you’re living from your spirit.
You see, in the spirit, you’re seated with Christ in heavenly places. You may not feel that in your soul or body, but in the spirit, if you start living from the spirit, here’s what happens: God gets that majority in your being. It’s where the spirit—the renewed spirit that was renewed by the indwelling, saving power of the Holy Spirit when you were dead in sin—comes to life in you. Your soul comes into submission to your spirit, and God gets a majority in your being. Your spirit controls your soul, and therefore your body is subdued.
But you know what? Both God and the devil want a majority in your being. If the devil could get his way, you would be soulish, with your spirit dead, predominantly soulish, and your flesh would obey whatever your soul’s impulses were. But if God gets a majority in your being, He resurrects your dead spirit from sin and trespasses. You renew your mind, and your soul is taken over by your spirit, so you begin to walk the Christian life—walking in the spirit, not walking in the flesh. Renew the mind, and the body will follow its lead.
The Spirit of Herod
If allowed full reign, the spirit of Herod—now remember, in this scripture, it’s a man in one generation, but that spirit is alive and well today—can kill what God is birthing in the Earth in its infancy stages. But it doesn’t just go after that; it also goes for the John the Baptists. Herod had John the Baptist arrested and had him beheaded because John the Baptist represents the ministry of repentance.
In so much of Christianity and Churchianity, we have a gospel that no longer requires repentance from dead works. God wants saints, not permanent visitors, and you’re what He’s looking for—you fit the bill. That John the Baptist forerunner-type ministry that brings change and purity, preparing the way for the Kingdom of God—that’s what John the Baptist said: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” That Antichrist spirit, just like it went after what God was trying to birth in its infancy stages, will also try to eliminate those voices who are crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Kingdom of God to come fully in the earth.
Herod killed John the Baptist, representing that ministry of repentance, that forerunner anointing, the spirit of Herod coming after the forerunner ministry—those who are preparing the way for the Kingdom of God to come in its fullness. And I’m telling you right now, I believe we should do everything we can to disciple nations, preach the Kingdom of God. But I’m waiting—it’s not a Kingdom Now thing. What a lot of the charismatic world, frankly, no longer believes in the resurrection, the rapture, or the transfiguration. But I want to tell you something right now: I believe that the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness when we hear a trumpet sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Hallelujah!
Though we may not know the moment when our Blessed Lord shall come to receive us to mansions over there, yet we know it will not be long before He takes His loved ones home, and we’re caught up to meet Him in the air. Caught up to meet Him in the air, caught up—His blessedness to share. Very soon, He will come to take His people home, caught up to meet Him in the air.
The Spirit of Antichrist
In Acts chapter 12, Peter, the chief apostle, had been arrested. They had just watched the Antichrist spirit—the same one that tried to take out Christ in His infancy, the same one that killed John the Baptist. It’s just a new character, you know. Isn’t it interesting? Same spirit, 30-plus years prior, that tried to kill the Christ Child in its infancy—it’s a new political actor on the stage, but the same spirit. Let that sink in just a minute. They change the faces and the names, but the beliefs and core values remain. I want to tell you something: Socialism and Communism are spirits, and they all have the same talking points, and it always leads to the same ultimate end. If there’s not an awakening right now in the silent majority, we will become the resistant minority.
A new Herod, same spirit. They killed James, the Apostle James, the pastor of the Jerusalem church, leaving the church in a state of shock and hopelessness because they had lost their pastor, their important spiritual leadership. And I’m going to tell you, in this hour, we need spiritual leaders, and you have one.
So, they killed James, and now they’re about to do the same thing to Simon Peter, the one who preached on the Day of Pentecost. It was clear that it was the time of Passover, the annual remembrance of when Jesus died as the Passover Lamb. All those animals, lambs, and bullocks, and turtle doves that for hundreds of years had been offered every year under the law and the Old Covenant—all those were types and shadows pointing to Christ. He was the true, full fulfillment. He wasn’t the shadow; He was the substance. So, at the worst time of the year, when they were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, they killed James and, intending after the Passover, wanted to kill Simon Peter too. Talk about trying to affect and discourage the church’s morale. All these subtle, subliminal messages on social media and the news—all that is to discourage your faith.
Simon Peter, the one who preached on the Day of Pentecost, the one to whom Jesus gave the keys of the Kingdom—now Simon Peter is locked up in the inner prison. Let’s just call it the inner sanctum, the innermost chamber, the innermost jail. There he is, trapped, chained to four soldiers, keeping him locked up. I can’t imagine what was going through his mind—realizing certain death. They did it to James; I’m next. That’s probably what he was thinking. I don’t know his state of mind, but I can only imagine he was feeling what maybe you’ve felt after a bad set of circumstances that you got the raw end of, that was out of your control. Can anybody relate? He just lost Brother James, and now he feels a sense of impending doom. Has anybody ever struggled with that sense of impending doom, that cloud that tries to hang over your life to discourage you, that spirit of heaviness? I believe God is going to free some people of that today.
Peter’s Imprisonment and Deliverance
Now, we don’t really know at this point when he’s sitting in the jail cell if he’s surrendered or just succumbed to the situation, or maybe he was just asleep—I don’t know. But he’s sitting there in a dark dungeon, in the inner chamber, the inner cell—not just the general jail, but solitary confinement, the innermost chamber. What we know is that he was trapped in an inner dungeon. Has anybody ever been trapped, imprisoned by your own thoughts, imprisoned by your own mental chatter, brain chatter, becoming a prisoner of your mind and your innermost being, locked up, chained up, alone? He doesn’t have support around him. He’s got a church praying for him on the other side of town, but he can’t hear it. He’s alone.
And suddenly—oh, I like that word—suddenly. Just like in Acts 2: “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” We serve a God of suddenlies! Everything can just be going bad, going wrong, and all of a sudden, divine intervention—boom—comes in. An angel walks into your jail cell. He’s sitting there, probably thinking, “Man, I’m next. I guess this is the end.” Maybe you’ve been there. “This is the end. It’s dark. I can’t even get up because these four soldiers have me chained on every side.” Talk about divine intervention! A light shines in the inner sanctum, and the angel smacks Peter on the side. How many of you would like an angel to smack you on the side? You know, sometimes when you get stuck in an inner prison, God will uncomfortably wake you up to tell you it’s not the end. It may look like the end; they may be telling you it’s the end. It may have been the end for James. But then Peter remembered the words of Jesus.
After Jesus was resurrected in John 21, Jesus told Peter, “When you are old, another will gird you and take you where you would not want to go,” signifying the way Peter would die—crucified upside down. But Jesus told him, “When you are old.” So, whether Peter realized it or not—I think he did—he’s like, “Well, I know it looks bad, it looks like things are over, it looks like I’m a goner, but I’m either going to trust my feelings, my current circumstances, and my current condition, or I’m going to trust the words of Jesus. And I’m not old yet. I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this mess, but I’m going to get out of it some way.” I wish somebody would say that in your spirit: “I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this mess, but I’m going to get out of it some way.” God has a way of intervening. The warfare is used against God-ordained and God-called people whose time is not up yet.
It’s Not Over Until God Says It’s Over
It’s not over until God says it’s over. Turn to your neighbor and tell them, “God’s not done with you yet.” It’s not over. It’s not over. It’s not over until God says it’s over. I believe those chains fell off for Peter, and they will for you too, because he obeyed the angel. He was delirious; he didn’t know if he was in a vision or what. The angel smacked him on the side. He stood up, and the angel said, “Put your shoes on. Put your garment on.” You know what? It was just like what God told the Israelites when He delivered them from the first Passover and brought them out of Egypt: “Put your staff in your hand, bind your sandals to your feet, when you eat the Passover meal.” God was saying, “I want you to be prepared, and even though right now nothing’s happened yet, by you eating the Passover meal, putting your sandals on your feet, binding your sandals, and putting on your robe, you’re making a statement by your actions, saying, ‘I’m expecting God to help me pass over this anytime now.'”
And now, fast forward hundreds of years later, we’re at another time of Passover—the time of Unleavened Bread. Isn’t that something? And just like the Lord told the Israelites, “Get your staff in your hand, bind your sandals on your feet,” because when God moves, you’ve got to react, you’ve got to respond. You can’t wait. When the power of the blood breaks the stubborn back of Pharaoh, you’ve got to let that pillar of fire and pillar of cloud lead you out and part your Red Sea.
Peter’s Divine Intervention
The angel tells Simon Peter, “Put your shoes on, put your garment on.” Can you imagine Peter’s reaction? “What? Put my shoes on? Put my garment on?” But it was when he stood up that the chains fell off. He could have had all the angels in the world in his room, but I believe if he hadn’t stood up, he would have died in that cell, even though it wasn’t God’s will. The gate opened for him to be released from that inner prison.
That same inner prison—it’s your spirit, man. Jesus said, “Out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” This spoke He of the Spirit that they which believe should receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7). Peter wasn’t just laying there in defeat, expecting impending doom in that inner prison. No! Remember, he passed the first gate and the second gate. By the time they got to the third gate—the iron gate, which led to the city—it opened of its own accord. I love the way it says that. The Holy Spirit, when He inspired that writing, said it “opened of its own accord.” That means if you can get through the first gate and get through the second gate, when you get to the third gate, it will open automatically. Meaning, the door opened up for him naturally, without him having to kick, claw, push, or try to force it. No, it opened for him. The gate to the city opened naturally so that he would have influence in the city, influence in the culture, and not stay stuck, chained up in an inner dungeon, chained up in despair, darkness, and loneliness. When he got to that iron gate to the city, it opened up to him naturally.
The Third Gate: Access to the City
But before God gives you keys to your city, let me say this one more time: before God gives you the keys to your city, the ability to access the culture and see revival, to see a move of God and bring change in your community—before you ever get to that third gate, which opens to the city, you’ve got to get through the first and second gates first. That first gate represents bondage in the inner sanctum of our being—bondage in your innermost being. And I think it’s fair to say that all of us at some time or another have fallen into situations and circumstances, just like Simon Peter, that are beyond our control. We can’t get out of them ourselves. Has anybody ever been in a situation that you could not get out of yourself? You know, I think Peter understood that. Paul understood it when he and Silas praised God in the midnight hour. They learned: if you can’t get out, get God in.
In circumstances you can’t get out of yourself, we tell ourselves it’s okay. We almost get comfortable sometimes in our inner prisons. We live in deep darkness on the inside, filled with anxiety, fear, desperation, frustration, and angst. In other words, it’s not just an occasional thing—we get stuck there. Am I preaching to anybody here today? We get locked away in our own little cubbyhole, in our own prison, our inner prison, the inner man. And it doesn’t matter so much how we got there. What matters is that we can’t get out of these places by ourselves. It takes divine intervention and an angelic visitation. We get trapped in these inner cells of hopelessness and despair, with that constant feeling of torment within our inner sanctum, our inner soul, surrounded by four soldiers and four chains. Isn’t it interesting how the number four repeats itself several times in Acts 12? Four soldiers, four squads of soldiers taking shifts watching Peter, four gates or doors that he had to pass through—the fourth one being the door of the church opening up to him. Four soldiers, four squads of four soldiers, and four gates or doors that we have to pass through to get total freedom, so that we can be used by God, fulfill our purpose, and become a living testimony of the power and freedom that the Holy Ghost can bring.
The Inner Sanctum: A Place of Torment
That inner sanctum is a place of torment. Has anybody ever been there? Locked up in the cell of the own frustration of being overwhelmed—a place of torment, feeling chained, alone, with darkness all around you, feeling rejected, feeling almost like God has abandoned you in a place of darkness and despair. But listen, if you’re still breathing, then there’s hope for divine intervention, for God to deliver you of all those weights and the sins that so easily beset you. There’s nothing worse than for a Spirit-filled believer to be locked and chained up on the inside. I hope you heard that. It seems like you can’t get free on the inside, in your inner man—free in your emotions, free in your mind. It’s your own inner prison.
Those four soldiers and those four chains represent four types of demonic powers that Paul later wrote about in Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Four. No more—that’s enough. Those are the four chains; those are the four soldiers that are guarding you, trying to keep you stuck in your darkness and despair. And you know, you can lie there for so long that you actually get used to the darkness, accept it as a way of life instead of just a downturn that’s temporary, when in truth, there’s so much more freedom you can experience as a believer. But the first gate of freedom is freedom from the liberation of your own personal self.
Yes, you may have experienced times of glory in the past. You may have had Holy Ghost chill bumps before, but even chief apostles can get stuck in chains of darkness in the innermost chamber. You can be filled with frustration—I hope you heard that—even chief apostles, like Simon Peter, can get stuck and need an angelic visitation. You can be filled with frustration, stuck in the darkness so long, in the inner chains, in the inner cell, that you learn to put up with it and live with it. But I want you to set your sights higher today—to go beyond your present church experience and expect an angelic visitation, a divine intervention to break you free of whatever you may need.
Divine Intervention and Personal Freedom
Maybe it’s frustration in that inner cell, with addiction, finances, trouble in your domestic life, a reoccurring problem with a child you love who keeps going wayward, making poor decisions, marriage problems where you desperately need God to send an angel, where you feel the touch of God on your side to get you out of that inner prison. They say worry is like rocking in a rocking chair—it’ll keep you busy, but it won’t take you anywhere. It does not take away from the fact that you’ve had great experiences with God in the past, that you’ve been anointed. I’m not detracting or taking away from that. You’ve experienced the glory of God before, but you need something now beyond just Holy Ghost chills. You need divine intervention, and sometimes you reach a place in life where you need divine intervention.
For years, I’ve heard people use the analogy that the church is supposed to be like a hospital. In many ways, I get what they’re saying, and I respect that. I believe that’s the case. But I also believe there’s a place in God where we, as believers, can go from glory to glory, from faith to faith, from level to level, where we’re not just coming to church to be Kingdom consumers in the economy of God. What do I mean? Anytime you import more goods than you export, you get an upside-down economy. You don’t come to church just to get something, to get our blessing, to get our spiritual fix for the week. There’s a place in God that you can reach where you come to church and you give more than you take. You give and contribute to the atmosphere; you give and contribute to the morale. You be a blessing to those around you. You give a word of encouragement to the person you’re sitting next to.
Becoming a Kingdom Exporter
Here’s what—listen to this—you can become a Kingdom exporter, where from you, God can export goods and services, instead of just importing. Because if all you do is import, that means there’s no work taking place in your economy. It’s kind of like what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:26: “How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” When you come together, what did you bring with you? Remember, we’re told in Psalms 100:4 to “enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.” The question is, did you bring it with you? Sometimes we wait for the choir to sing the right song, for the right testimony to be given, for the music to be just right, and after the third song, we get cheer-led into it. I know that doesn’t happen here, but it does in some churches. They don’t bring it with them; they wait for the singers or the choir to drum up a praise in them or thanksgiving. But we’re told to bring it with us. That means you have it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You’re not waiting for the church service or a sermon to drum it up in you—no, you came in the door with it.
If you’re under the vexation of Herod, listen to this carefully: you don’t have to unload 10 tons of problems to generate 10 ounces of praise that can cause that river inside of you to begin to churn again. And out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water, and wherever the river goes, it touches and heals and brings life. You are a river, you are part of the river, you’re a tributary. When we come together, your stream, my stream, all of our streams come together to make a mighty gushing river. The river may feel dammed up today, if you know what I’m saying, but there’s about to be a breakthrough because all of our streams come together, and we generate enough glory together. Out of your belly, your belly, your belly—your innermost being—will flow rivers of living water.
Generating Glory Together
You know, we can generate so much glory in a service like this that only 2% of the glory we generate—the river generates—coming out of us, our praise, our worship, and our prayer. It only takes 2% of that to heal every sick person, save every person in here. You know what you can do with the other 98%? Send it. He sent His word and healed them. He wasn’t even there—oh my, are you hearing what I’m saying?
There is no time or space in the spirit.
So, maybe you’re under the vexation of Herod. Some of you have tried to start getting free, then a prison guard jerks you down on your right side—frustration or fear jerks you down on the other side. I’ve come today in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to speak a message over your life, to set your tone and fill you with an expectation that you don’t have to stay there and live in it anymore. You don’t have to crawl back up in that cell and be content. God’s going to send you an angel today to touch your side, shock you out of complacency, and get you up on your own two feet so that the chains can fall off. God wants to turn your captivity. He wants to give you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness. You’ve got to consciously take off that spirit of heaviness and consciously choose to put on that garment of praise. I believe it’s time for somebody here today to have a miraculous makeover.
Victory Over the Works of the Devil
The Bible says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and through the power of His death on the cross, He defeated all principalities, powers, and made an open shame of them. God wants to get you up out of that cell today and walk through that door instead of dying vexed at the hand of Herod, that Antichrist spirit. God wants to give you victory over that inner war. Is anybody here ready for an angel to come on your behalf? Does anybody feel the expectation that God wants to move on your behalf in a suddenly?
You know, once Simon Peter realized that his deliverance wasn’t just a vision or delusion or hope, and that it was real, he said this—look at this in verse 11: “God had set him free from Herod,” and then, in the second gate, “God was about to set him free from the expectation of the Jewish people.” Once you get delivered from your own personal self, the next gate you have to get to before you get access to the city is getting over what people think about you and not fulfilling people’s expectations or false expectations.
Overcoming People’s Expectations
All these years I’ve read that verse and never stood out to me. Peter equated the second gate with deliverance from the expectation of the people—they were waiting for him to die. The Bible said, “intending after Passover, Herod was going to bring him out and kill him like he killed James.” There’s nothing worse than trying to feel like you have to fill a void, fit a mold, or conform to peer pressure that you’re not called to conform to. God loves originals—He’s not into copycats.
Whether we want to admit it or not, one of the greatest forces and powers in this world is the expectation of people that they put on us. We feel the need to please people, to live up to certain demands or expectations. You can never truly experience the fear of God if you fear man.
Maybe you’re sitting here today needing to be freed from the first gate. You’re saying within yourself, “If I could just get up on my own two feet again, get past my present dilemma, I won’t have to worry about what people are going to say about me, what they’ll think when they look at me when I praise God. How people are going to react, what they’re going to think.” The first thing you have to do is get past the point of saying, “I’m no longer going to live and be content with just rearranging the furniture in the jail cell to get a different view.” It’s still the jail cell. Then, after you get through that, you’ve got to set your face like flint, just like Jesus did when His disciples tried to stop Him from going to Jerusalem to die on the cross. After you get free on the inside, you’ve got to get free from the expectation of the people and the unfair, false, pretentious demands of people.
Gaining Access to the City
Now, I believe God is ready to give this church access to that third gate—the gate to the city, the key to the city, the key to destiny, the key to this region, to see revival in this community, in this county, in this state. But God’s got to get enough people who can get to that city, but they’ve got to get through their own personal self and overcome the fear of man and the expectation of people. Once you get freed from your inner prison and the expectation of people, the gates of the city will open to you naturally.
We may get frustrated, feeling like we’re not soul-winning, like we’re sterile and struggling to connect people to God or win souls for the Lord. It’s because we’re asking for the keys to the third gate while we’re still stuck in the first prison cell. We’re asking for the gates of the city to open to us of their own accord—meaning it happens naturally—but the gates of the city won’t open if we’re bogged down in the first or second gates. I’m convinced that if the church can get victory in our personal lives and over what people think of us, God will release the last days’ harvest prepared for the end of the age, and that gate, which may have seemed closed to us before, will open naturally for us. It will open of its own accord once we get victory in our personal lives and over what people think of us.
Freedom from Chains and the Fear of Man
We’ve got to get free from our personal chains, free from the fear of man, and then God will grant us access to the city. I want to encourage some of you here today who are experiencing the vexation of Herod—don’t be satisfied with just rearranging the furniture on the inside of your jail cell. Don’t become content with a different view in the cell. It’s still the jail cell. Get out of that first gate, get delivered from the expectation of people, and God will open the gates to the city wide, so you can see a revival harvest of souls like you’ve never seen.
I’m simply telling you that it will naturally open for you. It will open of its own accord. Once we get victory in our personal lives and over what people think of us, we can step into the city and change the world, so it can be said of us, “These are the people who turned the world upside down.”
The Final Gate: The Church’s Expectation
Is there anyone here that needs a touch of God? Is there anyone here who needs angelic assistance or divine intervention to get free from the chains of self-imprisonment, self-pity, locked up in your soul, and you want to get free and move forward in your life? The last gate is the gate of the church, where the church sees their prayers come knocking on the door, and they don’t try to explain it away anymore, saying, “That’s just his angel.” No, it’s what you’ve been praying for. Have you ever noticed how they could believe it was Simon Peter’s angel, but they couldn’t believe it was Simon Peter himself?
The last and final gate is when God sends His people who have been set free from the chains of past personal imprisonment—people who have met God, encountered God, and have gotten over what people think of them. They’ve left the peers of the world they used to live in. They’ve changed their circle of friends. The last thing we need to do is leave them on the doorstep, only to turn back around and find comfort in the world they just left, finding more support there. We cannot leave those whom God has delivered standing outside in the cold with no comfort or care.
Conclusion: A Prayer for Freedom
So today, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I speak over you that every person in this room will be delivered from personal imprisonment, personal darkness, and set free from every sin and weight that so easily besets them. May God grant this church divine favor with God and man, like the apostles had, and may each and every person here have their own personal revival, an internal setting free, coming out of that first and second gate, delivered from personal vexation and the expectation of people, so that God can grant you access to the city, to the culture, and we can become that church where answered prayers come knocking on our door.
We’ve got to open it up to them when God sends in the lost. We can’t leave them standing there in the cold, knocking. God is calling prodigals back—hear me? He’s calling people even in this region, in this area here in South Alabama. He’s calling prodigals who are going to come back, standing at the doorstep of the church, ready for a church to disciple them, train them, and equip them. But the praying church can’t just be a praying church—they’ve got to be an expectant church. They were praying, but they weren’t expecting. That’s why they couldn’t believe it when the answer to their prayer came knocking at their door. We’ve got to receive them in.
Father, in Jesus’ name, I pray for every person to find that personal freedom here today.