“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;” (Genesis 22:17)
Today I would like to speak to you of possessing. Not cars, not houses, not money – but the gate of your enemies.
We get so caught up in the action of the battles in our lives we often forget we are the guaranteed winners. We are bombarded, often, by the negative reports from doctors and bill collectors, we have a constant barrage of information being thrown at us from television, radio, the internet, and our phones don’t help any. It seems every conversation we get into turns negative within minutes – most of the time it is unintentional. Our negative bent as humans is to lean toward the dark side, the negative side. Soon (often before noon) we feel like a dump truck has backed up and unloaded on us. So how do we handle this? What is God’s take on this whole situation?
In this entire passage (this verse specifically) God is speaking to Abraham about his seed. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:7 that all who are of the household of faith are the seed of Abraham. He is called the father of the faith. We trace our spiritual lineage back through Jesus Christ to Abraham. He exhibited faith repeatedly in his life, receiving back life for life and victory for defeat. He remained faithful when all seemed dark, leaving an example and a legacy for us. Let’s look briefly at this word to us today: possess.
At the end of this exciting promise of God to Abraham, He leaves for us this promise – that we will possess the gate of our enemies. First of all, the word enemies. Not one enemy, but many. Hmm. Well, that’s not anything to get too excited about. I don’t know about you, but I seem to be an expert at turning ordinary people, otherwise nice people, into enemies. I once was told that loving me was similar to trying to hug a porcupine. Nice. So God is already warning us that we will have enemies.
We back up to the idea of the gate of our enemies. The idea of a gate in the Old Testament refers to entry into a city (obviously), but it goes deeper than that. It further relates to the entry of strangers into a city – their ability to pass through our security (our defensive walls) and get to the inner part of our lives. Ah, but it goes another step beyond that. The gate of the city is where the elders of the city would sit. Here they would grant liberty to pass in and out of the city. Here they would observe the surrounding areas for potential threats to the city. Here they would receive complaints from both the city residents and those living in the surrounding countryside. They would hear arguments from both sides and pass judgment. But I see a problem here: these are all passive or defensive stances. These address the enemy having possession of our gate, or threatening to penetrate our inner lives, trying to overthrow those who sit in our gates. That’s not what God said here in this verse.
In this verse God promised Abraham that his seed would possess the gate of their enemies. We are the ones going in to spoil the enemy. We are the aggressive ones. We are on the attack to dispossess our enemies and loot their lands. The children of God are to be on the move and Satan is the one who should be putting up his defense! The Bible speaks of those who lead someone to the Lord as being likened to one rescuing that person from the fires of hell. We are the ones who are taking the land, we are the ones who are taking back what the enemy stole from us. I’m not sure where we went wrong on this, but somehow we have gotten it turned around.
My friend, I don’t know what the enemy is threatening you with today. Let’s say it’s your health. Perhaps the enemy has hijacked your health for right now. It is your responsibility, it is your right, it is within your authority to charge the gate of your enemy – his judgment against you, his assumed authority over you (to keep you out of health), his threats against you – and penetrate his territory to reclaim what is rightfully yours. In the church world we have a fairly recent (last 20-30 years) song we love to sing: “I went to the enemy’s camp, and I took back what he stole from me…he’s under my feet, … Satan is under my feet.” I encourage you to look that up on YouTube (it’s called Enemy’s Camp) and make it your battle cry. Another good one is This Means War by Charles Jenkins and Fellowship Chicago. Get these down into your spirit and let God’s Holy Spirit within you rise! Go forth, mighty warrior, and possess the land!
Be blessed.
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