Matthew chapter 16 unveils so much concerning the church and the way we can build up the church! Here we see Christ, the Son of the living God, and the revelation concerning Christ – being the rock on which the church is built. Also, the church is built with stones like Peter, transformed ones, those who live in their mingled spirit.
The church is intimately related to the kingdom of God, and the gates of Hades are right there to attack the church – but they do not prevail, because we are learning to use the keys of the kingdom to close the gates of Hades and release the building up of the church!
Lord, pity Yourself! This shall not happen!
After Peter received an amazing revelation from the Father concerning who the Lord Jesus is – the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:18) – he immediately reacted to the Lord’s announcing His going to die and be resurrected.
Peter took the Lord aside and he almost screamed at the Lord, May the Lord have mercy on You – Pity Yourself, Lord! This shall not happen to You! (Matt. 16:22). Out of the goodness of his heart, Peter didn’t want the Lord Jesus to die, so he expressed his good opinion to prevent Him from going to the cross.
Looking at this from the viewpoint of God’s economy, Peter in his good heart was frustrating the accomplishment of God’s economy! He was interfering with God’s economy, trying to prevent the church from coming into existence and stopping the building up of the church.
This was the same Peter who saw the revelation concerning Christ – now he was allowing Satan to come in through the gates of Hades to attack the church and prevent the building up of the church!
The subjective gates of Hades
We can now clearly see that right after the Lord unveiled His desire to build up the church, the gates of Hades came in to frustrate this! The gates of Hades are not something only objective and in the heavens, the authorities and rules in the air, but they are something as subjective to us as our self, our mind, our opinion, and our soul life!
Satan uses these subjective gates of Hades to frustrate the building up of the church. It was not Peter who tried to prevent the building through Peter’s self-expressed in his opinion.
The Lord turned to Peter and told him, Get behind Me, Satan! Peter was fully in himself, expressing himself, and the self is absolutely one with Satan!
This shows that even after seeing a revelation of God’s heart’s desire, His economy, there is a chance that we would allow the self to come out and express the gates of Hades… That’s why we need to turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit continually! The church is built up in the spirit – we need to deny our self and turn to our spirit!
The keys of the kingdom of the heavens
Matt. 16:21-26 shows us not only the subjective gates of Hades coming in to frustrate the building up of the church but also the keys of the kingdom of the heavens which lock these doors and release the building up! We need to use the keys of denying our self, losing our soul life, and taking up our cross! Denying the self mainly relates to our mind, since the self is expressed through the mind with its opinions. Taking up the cross is related to taking up the will of God and not our own will. Losing our soul life is related to the enjoyment of the soul, the pleasure – we need to seek God’s pleasure and His enjoyment!
Our self is a gate of Hades, and even its good opinion of caring for others’ well-being can frustrate the building up of the church. We need to learn to exercise our spirit and be in our spirit all the time, fully using the keys of the kingdom of the heavens to lock the gates of Hades! The self, the opinions, the mind, our will, and our soul life are gates of Hades which can be used by Satan to frustrate the building up of the church. How much we need to be on the alert and learn to be in our spirit, ready to deny our self, take up the cross, and lose our soul life, so that the church may be built up!
[sharing inspired from, The Exercise of the Kingdom for the Building of the Church (by brother Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery. You can purchase the morning revival book online, follow the articles on The Four Great Pillars on this blog]
Lord Jesus, build up the church! We want to learn to use the keys of the kingdom to lock the gates of Hades and release the building up of the church! O, Lord Jesus, gain a built up church for Your economy and for Your return. Expose the gates of Hades, Lord, and help us exercise our spirit to exercise the keys! Lord, denying our self! O, Lord, taking up our cross! Lord Jesus, losing our soul life! O, Lord, the building up of the church!
We need to use the keys of denying our self, losing our soul life, and taking up our cross! Denying the self mainly relates to our mind, since the self is expressed through the mind with its opinions. Taking up the cross is related to taking up the will of God and not our own will. Losing our soul life is related to the enjoyment of the soul, the pleasure – we need to seek God’s pleasure and His enjoyment!
We need to use the keys of denying our self, losing our soul life, and taking up our cross! Denying the self mainly relates to our mind, since the self is expressed through the mind with its opinions. Taking up the cross is related to taking up the will of God and not our own will. Losing our soul life is related to the enjoyment of the soul, the pleasure – we need to seek God’s pleasure and His enjoyment!