Stop Storming the Gates: You Already Live in Zion

Sermon outline

The city Abraham was looking for is Zion, the church of born-again believers, and you already live there: valued, protected, enthroned, free from the law and with gates that stand open, so you pray from that place and not as someone struggling to be heard.

1. Abraham found a city and was still looking for another

   By faith Abraham went to the promised land, found it and pitched his tent there, yet Hebrews says he was still looking for a city whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 12 names it: the believer has not come to Sinai, with its darkness, gloom and fear, but to Mount Zion, the city of the living God and the church of the firstborn. Abraham was a prophet, so he could see the church and the new creation man in the spirit, but he could not take hold of it.

   Illustration: People who are touched in the meetings ask whether they may leave their own church and come to this one. He answers with Abraham, who obeyed and went: 'Who brought you here? Who prompted you to come here?'

   “He found a city but still looking for another city. What was that city? You. The new creation man.”

   • Hebrews 11:8-10
   • Hebrews 12:18-24

2. Very valuable, do not touch

   When Abimelech took Sarah, God warned him in a dream that he was as good as dead, 'for he is a prophet'. God was watching over what He had called and ordained, and He does the same for you: the devil sees the blood of Jesus and a sign that says keep away. When you resist him he runs from you in haste, so a child of God has no reason to fear curses or charms. You are a product of love, not of fear, with a new citizenship in Zion.

   Illustration: People worry about powder or muti left at their door. He answers with diplomatic immunity: an ambassador in South Africa cannot be arrested by the police, only reported to his own embassy. Your old passport read 'child of the devil'; the new one reads 'born again, child of the Most High'. Those who were overcome 'forgot their passports' and did not tell the devil to go.

   “You have complete diplomatic immunity from the devil.”

   • Genesis 20:1-7
   • James 4:7
   • Genesis 12:3
   • 2 Timothy 1:7
   • Proverbs 28:1
   • John 8:44

3. Your set time has come

   Psalm 102:13 says the time to favour Zion, the set time, has come. It is not a time that is coming or a time that has passed but now, so the believer stops hoping for the future and starts decreeing and prophesying. Whether it is a baby, a job, a promotion, a house, land or a buyer for something you need to sell, you say 'it's mine'. Pressure does not cancel it, because it is in the fire that you see the fourth man.

   Illustration: If you have something to sell, there is a buyer for it: 'You just need an angel to grab a hold of his hair and drag him to you.' He says that while preparing that day he was jumping on his chair over this verse.

   “I'm not waiting for the set time, my set time has come.”

   • Psalm 102:13
   • Hosea 4:6
   • Daniel 3:25

4. Installed as a king in a secure city

   God says, 'I have installed my king on Zion', and Revelation calls believers kings and priests. To be installed means a higher authority has conferred on you the right to sit and has delegated its power to you, and where the word of a king is there is power. Salvation and restored fortunes come out of Zion, and Psalm 48 shows a fortress where God makes His people secure for ever and the kings who advance against it flee in terror. Many struggle to take this in because they have been taught a slave mentality for so long.

   Illustration: You are not a VIP in the sense of a 'very important peanut'. You are a VIK, a very important king.

   “You've been installed as a king in Zion.”

   • Psalm 2:6-7
   • Revelation 1:6
   • Ecclesiastes 8:4
   • Psalm 9:11-12
   • Psalm 14:7
   • Psalm 48:1-14

5. God lives in Zion, and Zion is you

   Psalms 146 and 147 show the Lord feeding the hungry, freeing prisoners and strengthening the bars of Zion's gates, and he says the psalmist was seeing the new creation man with God in his midst. So 'I'm trusting in God' is too far off: the Father and the Son have made their home in you, your body is His tabernacle and you are a carrier of God. Because God has put His approval on His people, you keep loving them even when they behave badly, and you feel sorry for those who speak against you, because they do not know what they are touching.

   Illustration: In some religions you carry the idol, polish it and set it in the temple; the believer's body is the temple. Many were taught to picture God as a far-off, grey-bearded old man, a 'madala' on pension with a walking stick and a hearing aid, but God is a spirit who does not age and who hears at once. Driving that day he had said to his wife, about a woman who had been speaking against them behind their backs, 'I feel sorry for this woman.'

   “Who art in heaven? God is in you now. Heaven is in you now.”

   • Psalm 146:1-10
   • Psalm 147:12-14
   • John 14:23
   • Matthew 6:9
   • 1 Corinthians 6:19
   • John 4:24
   • Psalm 105:15
   • Isaiah 49:16

6. The law has gone out of Zion

   Isaiah saw a city of righteousness and the mountain of the Lord's house raised above the hills, with the nations streaming to it. He reads 'the law will go out from Zion' as the law leaving Zion, because Zion's people are children of the Spirit and no longer labour under the law given to Israel. God took out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh that wants to do His will. The believer's past has been removed as far as the east is from the west, and he keeps from the works of the flesh because he loves God.

   Illustration: Asked 'Do you drink? Do you smoke?', the believer answers no, and when people say 'we all do that', he says, 'No, I don't want to. I'm a child of the Spirit.' Someone may remember that you once went to prison, but according to God's books you were never there.

   “You know why you are choosing not to do the works of the flesh? Simply because you love God.”

   • Isaiah 1:26-27
   • Isaiah 2:1-3
   • Joel 2:28
   • Ezekiel 36:26
   • 2 Corinthians 7:2
   • Psalm 103:12

7. Your gates will always stand open

   Isaiah 60 promises Zion light, glory, sons and daughters coming from afar and the wealth of the nations, and he prophesies spiritual sons and daughters, churches, contracts and promotion coming in. Verse 11 says Zion's gates are never shut, day or night. Teaching about 'shut gates' belongs to someone serving under the law; a child of Zion does not storm gates or pray under a brass heaven but walks in and out, already in the anointing and already approved. Those who despise you will bow at your feet, so walk away from your fight.

   Illustration: He had once heard someone teach that people have shut gates over their lives. He pictures the usual answer, 'we're praying, we're fasting, we're speaking in tongues, we're jumping, we're storming the gates', and replies that his gates are open.

   “I'm not storming no gate. I walk in, gates are open. I walk out, the gates are open.”

   • Isaiah 60:1-14
   • Luke 4:18