YeKengalé

A fitting sequel to Hell No!, my previous blogpost, is a rerun of a post about GATES from about 7 years ago. Be inspired. The time is come. A portal is open.

“The kingdoms of this world they have become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign for ever and ever”

The milk

As with many moments of inspiration, it was in an unguarded moment that the lucid image flashed in my mind’s eye, along with the accompanying insight. Until that moment, I had not been able to make sense of certain biblical references to gates. “Lift up your heads O ye gates….etc”

In the vision, I saw a castle with an iron gate – the kind you pull upwards by means of winding up an attached chain on a spool. The kind I would have seen in old Robin Hood movies depicting Medieval England. Till then, it had not struck me, the lifting up of the gates was not coded metaphor, it was quite literally how gates were open in another era.

The point was entirely missed by me because of my modern association with hinges and the assumption that opening a door or gate has always been a lateral, not vertical motion. I should have been smarter – the external shutters at supermarkets and shops ought to have given me a hint. So often do we need the inner vision to make sense of what we see externally.

After that, the meaning of those verses ‘opened’ up to me. Today again I sang those lyrics at another funeral – “Jerusalem, Lift up your gates and sing”. Again, it would have been gobbledygook to me if I was not given the keys of understanding so graciously by the Spirit.

Jerusalem can only sing when her gates are open. The closeted silence of closed gates is never the first choice of the human spirit apparently designed for and addicted to liberty. No, we learn to close our doors only after encountering the trauma of trespass.

When hospitality encounters hostility, we react….by shuttering down. But when we do, our golden streets become asphalted and our peaceful, transparent sea becomes polluted and rough. Whoever has imagined that duplicity, sarcasm, cynicism and pride are normative to urban culture has never been to the city of God.

The line that stood out to me while attempting earlier today a rendition of what some have dubbed the national anthem of heaven – “The Holy City” was “And all who would might enter and no one was denied” This amazing depiction of the heart of God could be trivialized to support the doctrine of Universalism but is so much more transcendent than a mere soteriological position.

This is radical openness. An openness beyond threat. The earthly Jerusalem, with the shut gates, trodden under foot by the sword of Muslim, Christian and Jew in the past is such a paradox, it becomes the perfect metaphor for the religious blindness that rules the present age. The threshold of death is often the only space we allow ourselves to glimpse into the possibilities of the alternate ways of being opened up by the revelationary sword of the Spirit.

The kingdom, the millennial reign, the golden streets, the sea of glass and every other divine possibility postponed by the faithless for an Age to Come is very much a reality in the here and now … and accessible through the door of decision. The radical divine welcome stands. The Spirit and the Bride still say “come”. Whosoever wills. Amen.

The Meat

Yes, we sanctify ourselves but our victory does not depend on our sanctification (not of works lest any should boast) but on HIS. He has been enthroned in the sanctuary. He is our Peace. Our Righteousness. Our advocate. Our strength, confidence (faith) and victory. The gates of hell will not prevail against the relentless onslaught of the army of Yahweh Sabaoth – the Glorious Church.

For those oriented to a defeatist view of Christianity, let me put it graphically. In warfare, the armies of one city would attack another city and bring the fight to that city’s gates demanding surrender. Powerful cities would have enormously strong iron gates. The aggressors would use a ramming log to batter the gates in and invade and conquer. If the gates prevailed, invasion was impossible. The attacking army would eventually disperse or try to starve the surrounded city into surrender.

Even more graphically – Gates are the sexual equivalent to the vagina. (The veil of flesh is a hymen) I hope the analogy is obvious. The word of God is always given phallic properties. ‘Seed’, ‘sword’, ‘light’ etc. It is the kingdom of darkness that is always being penetrated / impregnated.  

The penis expands in orgasm, The vagina contracts. The kingdom of God is an expansive principle. The leaven which leavens the whole lump (the entire earth). The rock that grows to become the mountain of the Lord’s house that smashes the idols of the kings of the earth to itsy bitsy pieces..

Most graphically – the gates of hell are its wall of defense. They cannot withstand (prevail against) the relentless battering of the onslaught of God’s word. Get scriptural – the aggressor in spiritual warfare, the dangerous one, the violent and forceful one, is always the Christian (Christ follower)….but naturally. Have you not read the story of the Christ fellow? Dangerous guy yu nuh.

Therefore let us labor to enter into the Sabbath (Rest/Victory) of Lord Sabaoth (The Lord of Armies – The General of the Army)

We still need to get a more accurate picture though….. of our Lord and of ourselves. Even Martin Luther with his victory-laced images did not properly imagine the victory of the Glorious church. The army of God.

Yes. The Lord God is a shield (female principle), but first a sun (male principle) with arrows of light penetrating the darkness and ravaging it. A mighty warrior. The aggressor in battle. The one pursuing regime change in a pre-emptive attack. In Jamaican language, God not Satan is the real ‘bad-boy’.

Change your image of the devil. Change your self-image. Align it with the truth of God’s Word. That is taking the fight to the gates. They won’t / can’t prevail. The hordes of hell are reduced to but refugees fleeing the wrath of a vastly, superior, tormenting power – over which they have no effective defense. The Christ in you and I. Amen!!