EP 6: Guarding Your Gates

Welcome to the Thirst with Hunger podcast with Pastor Sandy Edwards, where we destroy every obstacle that hinders people from knowing God. Here you'll be challenged, encouraged, and equipped to pursue his presence, walk in truth, and live with bold faith. Let's dive in.

Hello everyone and welcome back Welcome back to the Thirst with Hunger podcast. I'm your host, Pastor Sandy Edwards, and I am so excited to be back with you again for yet another time of engaging in the word of God so that we can destroy every obstacle that hinders us from knowing God. This episode is all about guarding your gates. Guarding your gates. We often want to know why something is happening or why we personally respond to life the way that we do. And my prayer is that through this episode, that God would bring you into an understanding and personal revelation so that you may be made whole in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In the kingdom of God, positioning is not a geographical location. It's a spiritual condition. Your body in the natural and spirit have points of contact. And so look at it this way: relationships are doors, conversations thoughts, your mind, your mouth, your heart, your ears, your eyes, and your decisions. These are all points of contact. In John 7:24, Jesus says, look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly. Now, most times when we think about judging something, we think about looking at our neighbor or looking at people that we work with or people we go to church with and people online and people in our lives, our family members, all of these things. And we always use the word of God to externally judge other people. But one of the things that I am very serious about here at Thirst with Hunger Ministries is that we partake of the word first. That means that when we are reading scripture, we allow God to speak to us first. We should not be reading scripture always thinking about how much sin is in the life of another person that we know. You should allow the word of God to x-ray and survey your life first. So in John 7:24, Jesus says, look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly. And most of us know That Jesus was talking about not judging by outward appearance. And a lot of us do that where we look at our lives externally and we're just like, well, my life is great externally, so that must mean I'm good on the inside. But again, it's not what is on the outside that determines how good or how healthy or how whole or healed or delivered you are on the inside, because you can very well be corrupt. in your heart and be doing all these wonderful things for the Lord, but that does not mean that you are a servant of God, that you follow Jesus, and that your life is surrendered to the Lord consistently on a daily basis. And how do we know that this is true? Because in Matthew 23:25, Jesus says, what sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law And you Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy, full of greed and self-indulgence. Now, one has to wonder, you know, when we read that scripture, because we see Jesus using terminology like teachers of religious law and Pharisees, hypocrites, we always think that Jesus is always referring to other people that we know about. And while it is true that there are people who we do know who are teachers of religious law and they act like Pharisees and they're always pointing the finger at other people about the sin that they have in their lives and this, this, that, and the third, we— everybody knows A group of people or one person who acts like that. We get it. But notice how Jesus goes from looking at the external things that they are doing, which is being a teacher of the religious law and being a Pharisee and calling them hypocrites, to explaining what he's really saying. And he says, for you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup, And the dish, but inside you are filthy, full of greed and self-indulgence. And for some of you who are listening, in some area you may not be a teacher, you may not be a pastor, you may be a person who is just serving the Lord From day to day, you don't have a position or a title in a church, and you're a part of the body of Christ, and you're really good at cleaning yourself up on the outside, making yourself appear to be fine, appear to be joyful, appear to be full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, appear to be spiritual, appear to be all these things. You're really good at cleaning the outside of the cup and the dish. So what essentially is Jesus saying is he's warning us not to be these people who are so focused on the outside, where we're so busy looking at what other people are doing, what they're not doing, that we can't even discern what is in our own hearts. 1 Samuel 16:7 says the Lord doesn't see things the way you see them, and that people judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. John 7:24 says look beneath the surface so you So you— not your mama, not your daddy, not your brother, not your baby daddy, not any of those other people— look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly, so you can rightly divide the word of God in your own life, so that you can judge What's in you that is not like God correctly. In the kingdom of God, positioning is not a geographical location, it's a spiritual condition. Your body in the natural and the spirit have points of contact. And relationships are doors. Conversations are doors. Thoughts, your mind, your mouth, your heart, your ears, your eyes, your decisions. And these are all points of contact. Now you may be asking the question, why does every door matter? Because in the spiritual realm, nothing happens without legal access, a point of contact, whether it's through a relationship, Through a conversation, through a thought that you have in your mind, through your heart, is the place where the seen, as in your natural body, and the unseen are either exposed to God's kingdom and God's ways and the way of the Lord, the way of Jesus, or the devil's. You are either an open door to God Or territory for the plan of the enemy. There is no in between. And this destroys that argument that I'm just a good person, you know, what more do I need from, from Jesus? I'm a good person. I, I give to the poor. I do all of these things. And that's good that you do all of that. But you are either an open door to God or territory for the plan of the enemy, because good people go to hell too. You need Jesus. There is a need for salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4:27 warns us to give no opportunity to the devil. So when you leave a door open, whether it's through a conversation, whether it's through a relationship, whether it's through your eyes, whether it's through your mind, whether it's through your heart, you either have come into contact with God or you've made a point of contact with the enemy who seeks To steal, kill, and destroy your life from the inside out. This is why everything can be going well on the outside, but you will inwardly be experiencing destruction. Why? Because the enemy's not after your external stuff. He doesn't care about all of this physical stuff. What he cares about is the condition of your soul. And if he can partner with you, because he needs your partnership to do it, if he can partner with you to steal, kill, and destroy your life from the inside out, this is why your heart is constantly in cycles of bitterness, cycles of pride, cycles of fear. Because you have either come into contact With God through these open doors, which is relationships, conversations, your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your heart. You have either come into contact with God or with the devil, and it don't take a lot. The word of God warns us Not to give a foothold to the enemy, to give him no opportunity. It doesn't say give him a little bit. It doesn't say, well, I'mma play around with the devil over here and keep God in the 90%, or keep God in 50% and give the devil the other 50%. It says give no opportunity to the devil. That means don't give him an open door. Don't give him a way in. Don't give him an inch. Give Jesus your whole life. Give Jesus every opportunity. It says don't in Ephesians 4:27. It says not to give any opportunity to the devil. So that means who should you be giving opportunity to? Jesus. Because when you don't give Jesus every opportunity, somewhere in your life you're giving the devil an opportunity. And that means giving Jesus an opportunity every single day, every single moment, every waking, breathing moment of your life. Give no opportunity to the devil. Give every opportunity to Jesus. So let's break this down and talk about the different doors that are within our body. So your mind, your thoughts, and your heart— these are all internal The Bible says in Proverbs 23:7, for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. This is a verse warning about hidden agendas where your heart is closed to God, but your external door, which is your mouth, is open. That's people who Profess the name of God. You say that you love God, but your heart is far away from him. As he thinks in his heart, so is he. That's talking about that internal door where your heart is closed to God, but your mouth is open. And so you must understand this thing about your mind, that it is the foyer of your soul. And every thought that you have is a point of contact. In science, they call this neuroplasticity. Every time you allow a thought to pass through the door of your mind, you are physically rewiring your brain. You are building neural highways. And the scripture in 2 Corinthians 10:5 says we must take every thought captive. Every thought. You must arrest them. You must arrest them. You can't let them just linger. Your thoughts produce Your character. Your identity is formed by what you allow to pass through the gates of your mind and your heart. And Jesus taught us this in Mark 7. He said, it's not what goes into your body that defiles you. You are defiled by what comes From your heart. And so to stay in position to effectively guard your gates, you must also ensure that you don't have any double-mindedness, because you are what you think in your heart. And you must guard that internal gate, which is your heart, to ensure that your character reflects both the identity he created you with, that God created you with, and the authority he has given you. Taking your thoughts captive requires you to step into the place of authority. Your thoughts are not designed and were not given or shouldn't be in your life taking authority over you. You should have authority over it because the enemy does not want you to understand that you have authority. He does not want you to understand that you do not have to allow these things to rule you. Temptation to rule you. You always have a choice. If God didn't give you the authority and he did not give you the ability to have dominion and stewardship over your thoughts, he would not have told you in his word in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to take every thought captive. That means that you have the God-given authority. You have the God-given dominion. You have the God-given power to take authority over your thoughts. You do not have to live in this lower level place, this lower level thinking. The enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy the revelation of who you are in God. From you, he wants you to believe that you are pitiful and that you don't have any help. But you always have a helper who is the Holy Spirit. And I'm reminded of the scripture that says, "Thanks be unto God who gives me the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ." So you always have the authority through the Lord Jesus Christ to take authority over these thoughts. Stop allowing your mind to be territory for the devil. When the thoughts come, because they will, you always have a choice. Proverbs 4:23 says, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. So if you're not guarding your heart If you're not protecting your heart, if you're not doing the things that God has given you the ability to do, which is if you're not stewarding your heart well, that spring that is flowing from your heart will be wicked. That spring that is flowing from your heart will be broken. That spring that is flowing from your heart will be all over the place and chaotic and full of confusion. This is why Proverbs 4:23 says to keep your heart with all vigilance consistently. You have to fight for it. You have to be willing to say, I'm no longer going to live from this place of being a victim. I am victorious in Jesus Christ. Thanks be unto God who gives me the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not keeping your heart in the Lord Jesus Christ with all vigilance, that spring of life will turn into a spring of death. That spring of life will turn into a spring of bitterness. That spring of life will turn into a spring of unforgiveness. That spring of life will turn into a spring of hate. That spring of life will turn into a spring That is territory for the devil. I'm currently in school working toward my degree in behavioral health science, and what I love most is that science in its simple form, without a human touch, is evidence that God, his word, is alive and real. And I believe that God is deeply involved In our soulish experiences, in our mental and emotional experiences. What I've discovered is that your heart is a point of contact that really regulates your entire body. When the door of the heart is open to God, you experience what is called. In the science world, cardiac coherence. And cardiac coherence is a state where your heart, breathing, your brain, and your nervous system is synchronized for optimal function, meaning that it is functioning the way that God designed for it to function. How's that for the peace of God, right? Philippians 4:6-7 says, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Verse 7 says, then you, you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything We can understand. And his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. As you live in Christ Jesus. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live In Christ Jesus. Science calls this cardiac coherence, where your heart, your breathing, your brain, and your nervous system are all functioning the way that God created it to. The Bible calls this the peace of God. So the question is, are your ears, your conversations, your relationships, your heart, your mind, your thoughts, your eyes, your mouth, and your decisions— are all of these doors producing what science calls cardiac coherence, what God calls the peace of God? Are these things producing the peace of God in your life? Are your gates open to the peace of God? Are they moving and functioning the way that God always intended for them to, or are they open to the enemy? Your sensory and expressive doors are your eyes, your ears, and your mouth. Your five senses—they are your inputs, and I want you to think of them as keys. Jesus said in Matthew 6:22, "The eye is the lamp of the body." If your eye gate is open to darkness, your brain is starting to map that darkness as your normal state. What you observe will either cause your body to be open to the light. Of the Lord, who is Jesus Christ, or you will make your body territory for the enemy. Whatever you put inside of your body, through your eyes and through your ears, will either produce. What is known as the fight or flight response, or the peace that surpasses understanding. Your mouth and your conversations—you have to understand how powerful your words are. Psalm 141 and 3 says, "Set a guard, O Lord." Over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips. Keep watch over the door of my lips. David is praying this prayer. He says, set a guard, oh Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Not just put a guard around it, but keep watch over it, Lord. In simple form, you got to understand that conversations release chemicals. This explains why when you're entertaining a fool in the form of a woman Or a man romantically who is no good for you, has all the red flag fruit and everything else. You start overlooking that red flag fruit because something in you is not in position. Something in you is not guarding the gates as you've been given authority and dominion to do. And instead of fleeing, and that means running away from the temptation, you stay around for the party and you laugh at him, you laugh at her, not knowing that you just opened up a door to the enemy because something in you is not guarding the gates properly. So you end up in relationships, you end up in conversations You end up in meetings. You end up in all of these places and things that do not reflect the peace of God, the thoughts that God has commanded you to have. You end up in all of these places because you've opened up the door through your mouth and conversation to the enemy to take territory. Your mouth is the door of authority. And so we need to pray like David did in Psalm 141:3, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. And don't just put the guard there. I need you to keep watch over the door of my lips. Colossians 4:6 says, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt. Gracious speech is the doorway to what science calls oxytocin. In the science world, oxytocin is often called The bonding hormone or the place that we establish trust. And so when you engage in gracious conversations, your brain signals that you are in a safe place. And so oxytocin, it lowers your blood pressure, it reduces inflammation, and physically repairs the heart by helping to regenerate heart tissue. And so today, some of you who are listening, you struggle with high blood pressure. For some of you, your blood pressure is high because you are engaging in conversations, entertaining thoughts, and everything else of the like that is not from God. You're entertaining speech that is not gracious or seasoned with salt and light of the word. And you're listening to people constantly who are negative and always complaining. And so you got high blood pressure because you're engaging in conversations, entertaining thoughts, everything else of the like that is not from God. When you are among People who speak with gracious speech. It creates room for the fruit of the Spirit to start manifesting physically, and it starts moving your body into a state of rest and repair. Notice the flow here of how the Lord and God. And the Holy Spirit are all involved. Notice how God is so deeply involved in our mind, will, and emotions. Corrupting talk. Ephesians 4:29 says, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. So when we're engaging in gossip and slander or corrupting talk, this produces stress. And high levels of this starts to cause disruption in our immune system. It begins to rebel against the mind of Christ. And corrupting talk Is a point of contact for the thief, Satan, to come to steal, kill, and destroy. And it wears down your temple, which should be filled with the Holy Spirit. So why does God say in Ephesians 4:29 to let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth? Because you give the enemy territory. As we talk about guarding our gates, we have to look more at the teaching from Jesus. In Mark 7:14 and 23, Jesus addresses a crowd that was obsessed with external doors. And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him, for from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts. Theft, murder, adultery, coveting, pride, foolishness— all of these evil things, all of these evil things come from within and they defile a person. So it's not a matter of what you touch. It is a matter of what you release. You can be in a toxic environment, but that environment doesn't defile your spirit until it takes root in your heart and begins to flow out of you. So when you are engaging in relationships and conversations that are doors that invite these things in, they make you unclean because your heart has come into agreement with it. Because remember, your heart is a door. It is the control panel to your entire body. So pay attention to the areas in your life where you're spending all of your energy trying to clean up the outside of the door, your relational and decisional doors. These are the points of contact for transference, meaning this is how spirits transfer through relationships. And it will either be the Spirit of God that increases in your life or will be territory for the enemy. Again, there's no in-between. It's either you are an open door to God, a person who's in your life is an open door to God. Or they are territory for the enemy to take territory in your life. Proverbs 13:20 says, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. In science, they call this epigenetics. And that means the people that you walk closest with can literally switch The way that your genetics respond. Every decision that you make is a point of contact that transfers either more— an increase of Jesus in your life, or an increase of the enemy's territory. Matthew 7:13 says, enter by the narrow gate. Doesn't say enter by the wide gate. Doesn't say to just let any and everything be in your life. Doesn't say you can come any kind of way. It says enter by the narrow gate. So if your heart is defiling you, if it is a factory for envy and pride, and you're out of that position, you're not operating in the authority of God, you're not operating in the dominion that God has given you. You're not stewarding your relationships and conversations. You're just being a part of anything. You're not guarding your heart and keeping it in all the ways as you live in Christ. You're not guarding your heart. You're not stewarding it. You're not being vigilant. You're just letting any and everything into your life. This is what's defiling you. When the person of Jesus Christ comes and consumes your heart, you begin to live your life with boundaries. And you don't see boundaries as a way to keep all of the toxic people out. You see boundaries as a form And a way of honoring the kingdom of God and the way that God desires to flow in your life. Boundaries are not about keeping the wrong things out. They are about honoring the boundaries and the principles and the kingdom authority and the dominion that God has put into your life for you to steward. Boundaries are not, are not to be used for control. Boundaries are not to be set in place to protect your trauma. Boundaries are not to be put in place to be used for anything else except to honor the Lord God and his principles and his way and his move and his dominion and his authority. In your life. So when the Holy Spirit begins to occupy the house, which is your body, that is a temple of the Holy Spirit, everything else in your life begins to change. And then from there, your gates are healthy. From there, your gates are made whole. From there, your gates are delivered. But if you are just allowing any and everything, talking about any and everything, speaking so freely about any and everything, never having any boundaries around the way that you engage with people, the way that you engage in ministry, the way that you engage in relationships, you're just letting any and everything exist in your life. That is not a sign that you are full of the Holy Spirit. That means that you lack wisdom in some areas. Proverbs 13:20, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. Are you walking with wise people? Are you seeking after wise counsel that is rooted in the word of God, or are you following after your own flesh? Are you following after your own heart? Are you doing the things that please your own flesh? Are you doing things that please your own heart? Are you so set on that you know the way that you ought to go that when the Lord speaks to you through his word, you're so busy pointing at everybody else that you cannot discern your own heart? That, that God can't even speak to you about you and what you're doing and what you're saying and what you believe that is not according to his word. When Jesus is fully received as your daily bread, he occupies the house and he teaches you how to steward your life. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that there are those who are listening to this episode whose Doors of their body, of their mind, body, soul, and spirit have become points of contact as a result of this episode, God, with your spirit. And Lord, I pray for a physical and spiritual renewal of the mind, a rewiring of their neural pathways to the mind of Christ, to take on the mind of Christ. I Pray for the peace of God, that their hearts would begin to beat at the frequency of your peace. Father, teach them how to set a guard from you over the doors of their lips. Teach them what it means not to authorize defilement from the inside out. And give ground and territory to the enemy. I thank you for being the door over their lives. I thank you for being the door of their lives. I thank you for teaching them how to steward their lives, Lord. I thank you for teaching them not to allow and just accept any and everything coming in and out of their lives. God, I pray that the Holy Spirit would increase conviction. And discernment and sharpen their hearts and sharpen their minds to receive from you, Lord. May they feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit as they enter into conversations and relationships and partnerships that do not come from you. I thank you, Lord, for setting your people on solid ground. No more faulty ground, no more broken ground. No more bitter ground, no more unforgiving ground, but solid ground, a solid foundation. I thank you, Lord, for doing these things. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.

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