Guard Your Gates! (Inspired by Pastor Tamarra Bennett)

What do you do when the conversations that used to entertain you now irritates you? What do you do when the things that used to capture your attention and give you butterflies, now makes your stomach turn? What do you do when the people you were once so anxious to see or hear from are the same people you no longer even want to associate with? What do you do when you feel yourself growing apart from your tightest clique? What do you do when you're no longer impressed with the things going on around you? Everything at some point seems to get old, but in the meantime how do you protect yourself from the pressure of "just dealing with it anyway"?

See, that's the place I'm in.

And for a while now I have been trying to figure out exactly what it is that's making me want to steer away from the things that would normally entertain my flesh. But I guess that's spiritual growth. Right? It's like you begin to realize its just too much of an unnecessary distraction and you notice how much of a hinderance it is to your growth and your walk.

I'm always saying, "I'm trying to get myself together!" ... But what exactly does that even mean? And am I doing all that it takes to get to that place? These are the things I have been asking myself lately. I needed an answer from God as to what this irritated place was that I seemed to be in. The truth is I'll never be completely together because that would mean that my work here on this earth is done. However, I am in control of what I allow in my life - good or bad. I think that it is very simple. I'm growing. That's all there is to it. Growth. And when you're in a place of transition or growth, you become irritated when the things around you don't match up with your growth or the place that you are trying to get to. That's why it is so important to protect what is important to God and what is important to you. To protect it, we must guard our gates.

Now, this is a bit long, but stick with me. Please. Recently I watched one of my favorite people in the whole wide world (Pastor Tamara Bennett) teach a series on Guarding Your Gates and it inspired me to do my own! But I will be including notes from her teaching as well. LOL She is the best! So here we go...

What are our gates? How many gates are there? How do we guard our gates?

Just like our 5 natural senses, we have 5 spiritual gates. The ears (hearing/sound), the eyes (sight), the mouth (taste), the nose (smell), and the hands (touch). It makes up who we are and it is attached to our souls. In the book of Nehemiah, we learn about the significance of our spiritual gates and how our relationship with God must always be protected. Our relationship with Him is extremely important to Him and should be very important to us as well. In this particular chapter of the bible, we learn that the temple represents our heart where God speaks to us and the city of Jerusalem represents our minds in which we must always keep focused on God. The city gates of Jerusalem represents our eyes, ears, and our mouth gates. Those gates were built to keep the bad things out of Jerusalem. They were built to protect the temple. Unfortunately, those gates still let bad things in because they were not always being guarded. Spritually, we don't always protect our gates.

When the enemy enters our gates, he enters through our soul. There are three components to our soul: our hearts, our minds, and our emotions. The enemy is always trying to find a way to get into our soul because he knows that if he can get in then he can use that to manipulate and destroy every good plan that God has for our lives. So, let's talk about those gates.

Eye Gates - Luke 11:34. 1 John 2:16.

Our eye gate is the most crucial gate that we have. This is because we use our eyes to observe and to take in things. Our eyes are the windows to our soul. Everything that we see with our eyes controls what we do with the rest of our body parts. Think about it. How are we able to recognize people by their faces instead of their names? How do you think we are able to keep certain images embedded in our minds long after we have seen them? How do you think thieves remember exactly what their next targeted item and victim looks like? This is because we took it in with our eyes and the eyes carry the ability to help our minds (memory) function. We must be careful of what we take in with our eyes. The above scriptures directly speaks about the power our eyes have.What is it that you are seeing? Are you watching things on t.v. or from other people that makes you want to do things you know you shouldn't be doing?

I know the bible says that our eyes can be lustful, but let's take it further. What are your eyes allowing you to see about your circumstance? What perspective lenses are your eyes allowing you to look through? We all face difficult and unfortunate situations and struggles in this life, but are your eyes telling you to find the positive in what you are facing or are they telling you to give up because things won't change? We see at the level we operate on and if we are not careful, some of things we see can manifest into our hearts and minds in bad ways. Train your eyes to only look at your situation through a faith perspective. We must guard how much we take in. How much do you want to take in your spirit when it starts distracting your purpose with God?

Ear Gates: Job 34:3. Revelations 3:22.

How are you responding to sound? It's very important that we surround ourselves with those who have the same or similar mindset. We should always want to be around positive people. People who are focused and always willing and ready to grow. Not people who choose to always be "Negative Nancy". Because just like our eye gates can have us meditating and manifesting bad things, our ear gates can do the same thing. What are you listening to? Is it lifting you up or is it tearing you down? What type of advice are you listening to from other people? What we hear affects our mood. If you are listening to positive music, you feel good. If you are listening to positive talk, you feel good. But listening to negativity can dampen our spirits and drain us.

Have you ever felt so pumped up to begin something new in your life? Maybe it was a new job, a new business, new ideas for your current business, or maybe it was even going back to school or having a baby. Doesn't it suck when you share those ideas with someone and they respond with the most ignorant and negative feedback? Before sharing it with them you were all set and ready to go, but then you shared it with the wrong person. Now you're second guessing yourself. You're not excited anymore. Some of the things that hadn't even crossed your mind to begin with, now have you thinking negatively about it (whatever "it" is). All because of what someone else said.

This is because you didn't guard what your ears took in. Don't allow what people have to say to you or about you to detour your destiny with what happiness and peace has to offer you. Even when it comes to advice, it's easier for us to listen to people who are going to tell us what we want to hear instead of what we really need to hear. We love when our actions are justified even when we know in our hearts that it is not right. Be careful. We have to train our ears to hear the things that motivate us and push us to be better people; not "Debbie Downers".

Mouth Gates: Matthew 12:37. Matthew 15:17-18. 1 Corinthians 15:33. Proverbs 18:21

"Watch your mouth!", "Think before you speak!", "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say it at all!" ...I know you hear all of these phrases all the time. As a matter of fact, I am always getting on my bestfriend about what is coming out of her mouth! What you speak into the atmosphere, can actually happen. We speak the things that come from our heart. So what are you putting into the atmosphere? Are you speaking negative things about your life? Are you speaking negative things about others? Are you sending up love? Are you sending up hate? Are you surrounding yourself with people who speak more negative than positive? Evil communication corrupts good manners. If you surround yourself with people who speak evil about everything, it will rub off on you. You may not even feel that way, but because you have heard it with your ears, and seen it with your eyes, you are now speaking those very same things with your mouth. Our evil tongue can block our blessings. It's normally what we think is the smallest thing, yet when it came out of our mouth, it was a huge deal to God.

Again, I'll use my bestfriend as an example. She has terrible road rage! When she is driving she becomes a whole different person. (I'm so tickled just thinking about it) She gets so frustrated with the way some people drive and her mouth starts going a mile a minute when some one cuts her off, drives in front of her slow, swerves their car, makes her press on her breaks unexpectedly, and everything else! I have to remind her to be careful what she's spewing out of her mouth due to the anger and frustration she's feeling because of the road rage. She may not even mean what she is saying, but I have to remind her, that is somebody's grandmother that you just cussed out! LOL. God is listening to what you are saying and I truly believe He writes it down in a little book and judges us by that. Funny right?

I've seen first hand where people have been so close to something good, but because they spoke negatively or as the older generation would say, "they spoke too soon", that good thing was taken away from them or never came to pass. We must guard our mouth from speaking negative things. We must guard our mouth from speaking things that are full of unbelief. I could go on and on about the mouth gate, alone! But I'll have to save that for another time. Maybe soon I''ll begin a series of videos expanding more on each gate.

Now, these next two gates will be interesting to you to say the least, but I hope you're still sticking with me. I'm almost done!

Hand Gates: Psalm 115:3-8. Proverbs 31:31. Job 17:9. Mark 9:43. Hebrews 12:12

Our spiritual touch requires the same amount of guidance and guarding as our other spiritual senses. Try finding the difference between contacts that you find positive and contacts that we find negative. What do I mean by contacts? I mean the things and situations that we put ourselves in. The things and the situations that we allow others to involve us in. The groups that we hang around. In other words...stay out of affairs that don't concern you. Can you see by now how all of our senses and spiritual gates work together?

Don't allow your hands to be stumbling blocks in your life. I keep using this as an example, but who are you hanging around? I don't have favorites. I don't do cliques. (I used to!) I keep my circle small (now!). And you know why? I have learned what it does for my life. It's because all that "extra" stuff does is leave too much time to be idol. Too much time for extra conversation that don't concern anyone who is actually discussing it. Too much time to NOT mind your own business! Too much time to have your hands in matters that don't mean us any good. Too much time to come up with deceptive thoughts and plans. Too much time to plan to be in places that we shouldn't be in. Too much carnality! And carnality is one of God's biggest enemies. To be carnal minded is death, but to be spirtually minded is life and peace.

Instead, use your hands for good works. What are some of the positive things that you could be doing during your spare time? Are you allowing your life/hands to be a vessel to bless others?

Eve had her hands somewhere it shouldn't have been while in the garden of Eden. She allowed the enemy to use her gates to entice her to sin. So, where have your hands been?

Nose Gates: Ephesians 5:2. Ecclesiastes 10:1. Song of Solomon 1:3. 2 Corithians 2:15.

Are you an odor or are you a scent? I know you're probably questioning if there is a difference, but there is. When you look up the word odor, the dictionary will tell you in so many words that it is especially an unpleasent smell. When you look up the word scent, it will tell you that it is especially a pleasent smell. Have you rode past an area that smells bad and the unpleasent smell just shifts your mood? Have you ever had a conversation with a person that had bad breath? Didn't that shift your mood?! Whew! That is what odors do to us and for us. It makes us smell bad or if we are smelling it from others, it makes our moods shift to an unpleasent one! The worse something smells, the less you want it around you and the less you want to be near it.

I said all of that to say, God desires a certain aroma to come from us. You can smell the favorable or negative environment of someone. Have you ever been around someone with a "stank" attitude? That's what we say about people who always have an attitude or are being rude! We call them "stank!". Well, is that us? Is that who we are allowing to rub off on us? People should want us around them because our name should smell good. Our wisdom should smell good. The aroma of folly doesn't smell good. When people hear your name, do they want you around them? Do they think pleasantly about you or are they turned off? What do you smell like to God and to others? Think about it.

If you're reading this then you made it to the end and I appreciate you. I'll close with these final thoughts about myself, my life, and my walk with God...

"My only focus at this point in my life is my walk with God. My only focus and concern is getting where I need to be so He can get the glory. My only focus is fullfillling the assignment He has given me. If there was a better way to explain it, I see it as a light at the end of a tunnel and all I'm trying to do is get to that light. No matter what it takes. All the other extra stuff that has the possibility to detour my mission of getting to the light...you can miss me with it. I don't care about it. I just wanna get to the light. So I'm making it my priority, my promise to God to protect what's important to me and to Him."

Proverbs 27:19 "As water reflects a man’s face, so does the heart reflect the man."

Are you guarding your spiritual gates?

Blessings & Grace!