RESUME FOR GATEKEEPERS
Part 2

“Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.”
(Isaiah 52:11).

Today we continue looking at the criteria required for gatekeepers of the home.

2. We must be clean

King Jehoiada of Judah “stationed the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the LORD so that no one should enter who was in any way unclean” (2 Chronicles 23:19 ESV). Gatekeepers were responsible to guard the temple from any unclean person entering in. They had to make sure that nothing unholy or impure got past the gates as they guarded the holy temple. They were meticulous gatekeepers. They could not allow a little bit of uncleanness into the house of the Lord, not even one tiny bit. A little bit grows into more. “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” asks Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:6.

As you guard your house of the Lord you must allow no uncleanness to enter your home. Satan tries his best to smuggle it in, but you are the gatekeeper. Uncleanness doesn’t get past you! This morning I read a post on Facebook from a friend: “Just confiscated five phones, four laptops, and two tablets. I will bore these children into shape.”

Sometimes uncleanness creeps in unnoticed, but when we notice it, we have to get rid of it. In King Josiah’s time he ordered the priests and the gatekeepers to bring out of the temple all the vessels that were made for other gods and they burned them to ashes (2 Kings 23:4). Our first task as gatekeepers is to guard uncleanness from coming in, but if it comes in, we take action to cast it out.

When Nehemiah was restoring the gates of Jerusalem he said: “I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and that they should come and keep the gates” (Nehemiah 13:22). Gatekeepers had to be cleansed before they took on their job.

Cleansed mothers are more able to keep cleansed gates!

3. We must be alert

1 Chronicles 9:19, 20 (HCSB) tells us how the gatekeepers were “assigned to guard the threshholds.” A guard cannot go to sleep on duty. He must keep alert with his or her eyes open. Verse 20 reminds us of Phinehas who was leader of the gatekeepers in earlier times. At one time the Israelites began worshipping Baal with the Midianites. The LORD’s anger blazed and He commanded the ringleaders to be executed. As this judgment was being issued one of the Israelite men brazenly brought a Midianite woman into his tent!

But Phinehas was on the job. He didn’t just observe the treachery; he took action. He immediately jumped up, took a spear, and rushed after the man into his tent, thrusting them both through with the spear. He was an alert gatekeeper.

Because Phinehas not only looked, but took action against the evil, God said: “Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel” (Numbers 25:10-15 and Psalm 106:28-31). It was as a gatekeeper that Phinehas rose up against the evil and stopped the judgment of God upon his people. He later became a high priest in Israel.

As gatekeepers of our homes, we also have to be alert, not only watching with our physical eyes but with the eyes of our spirit. It’s no use being a gatekeeper if we don’t see what is coming in through our gates.

Jesus told the story of the man going on a journey who told his “doorkeeper to be alert” (Mark 13:34 (HCSB). The NASB says he “commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert.”

4. We must have God with us

1 Chronicles 9:20 (HCSB): “In earlier times Phinehas son of Eleazar had been their leader, and the LORD was with him.” We can’t fulfill our great task of gatekeeping our home without the enabling of God. We need His presence, power, wisdom and anointing moment by moment for this great task. We cannot effectively watch our gates without the power and presence of God with us.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:
“Oh God, please help me to be a faithful gatekeeper, always alert and watching. Help me to have courage to take action again uncleanness coming into my home or casting it out of my home. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:
I want to be an ABC gatekeeper--Anointed, Bold, and Clean through the power of the blood of Jesus.