Closing Gates and Seeking Spiritual Gifts

As we enter into prayer tonight, get into a good setting — on the sofa, in a chair, on your knees, whatever God leads you to. This isn't really a teaching where you need to watch me. Let's focus on the Lord and get into an intimate place with him.

This is also a time to open up your spiritual gifts. Don't be afraid of the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. They edify us — whether prophecy, tongues, dreams, or visions. These are beautiful things. Petition the Lord for your spiritual gifts during the prayer. When I first started praying through the courts of Heaven, the very first night I began having dreams unlike anything I'd had before — vivid and strong from that point on. That was my experience. Yours may be different. It's up to the Holy Spirit.

This is also a time to break off bondage and close gates. If you have a problem with alcohol, close that gate. Drugs, pornography, whatever it may be — close it. You cannot be purified while the gate is still open. As Messiah said, they will come back to you. We have to close the gates that hinder purification. Once the gate is closed, you ask for repentance, you receive forgiveness, and then you receive your righteous rendered verdict.

I've walked through situations with people where the gate wasn't closed, and you could tell by the level of revelation and anointing that it had not been shut. This is the moment of truth — coming before the Lord without fig leaves, asking him to evaluate and examine us. And he is examining you right now during these ten days. As we've discussed, it is the Libra constellation — the scales, the balance — and we are all being weighed. The nations are being weighed. We need to understand this as we go into it.

This is not just for tonight. It's for tomorrow, for Yom Kippur, and three months down the road. This is a prayer I hope you continue. He will lead you with instructions and strategies. We'll be petitioning him as a group — asking him to give us instructions, give us strategies, show us what we need to repent of. This is not butterflies and rainbows. This is: "Lord, examine me, show me what I need to repent of, I will repent, I will close the gate, and I will be purified." That is the whole scenario of the courts of Heaven.

You can also intercede for others during this time. We're going to go through the prayer together. When we reach the petition section, I'll be quiet for ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes, and then I'll come back and begin closing the courts of Heaven. We each need to petition our own cases individually, because we're each going on a personal purification journey. I can pray for you, and I will, but I can't receive all the revelation for everyone. He's going to speak directly to you through your spiritual gifts — if you're quiet, if you cut out the noise, if you spend time with him. He will communicate with you, show you things intimately through his creation, through dreams, visions, words from other believers, however he chooses to work.

That's why I tell people: yes, I'll pray for you, but this is really your personal journey with the Lord. You're not really going on a journey with me — I'm just the one speaking. You're going on this journey with him.

This template, this prayer, this word of God has genuinely moved my prayer life. I wouldn't be here talking about it if it hadn't. The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, and of course it will cut things off. But we have to quote the word. That's why we see so many people living in bondage — it's like going to rehab for drugs or alcohol. You might get off the substance, but are you delivered from the spirit behind it? Those are two different things: getting off something, and being delivered from it.