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A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status. Gatekeepers assess who is “in or out”.

There are many forms of “gate keeping” in the spiritual realms. Just as in the physical realm where gates are put in place for controlling or limiting access to animals or lands owned by others, so in the spiritual realms it seems there are territorial limits put in place by God the Creator.

Genesis begins with God putting everything in a place and “in order”.  The Heavens were established for His purposes and it began with “cause and effect” that God put in motion from the beginning. It all started in a garden that I imagine had physical limits and barriers. Within that garden God made man and woman to be in control of all He had made…within limits. Those limits were gates between the spiritual domain and the flesh or physical realm. God put “limits” or gates between the spirit and the flesh. I believe the spirit of man was meant to be a guardian or controller of the flesh. In the physical world God places a barrier between the flesh and the spirit…which is representing in the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”. He told Adam and Eve that the fruit of that tree was NOT to be eaten by them but they could consume everything else that was there in abundance. I believe He was putting up a gate between His domain of spirit and their level of knowledge in the flesh. Man was not to aspire to be at the same level as their Creator.

Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and ate of that fruit, the fallen nature of mankind has been evident in the barrier that sin caused throughout all time. From that first bite, mankind has experienced the fate of evil based on the father of evil that for His own reasons God has allowed to survive and fight against good. Since the beginning, the “Gatekeeper” has had a plan to reconcile His creation and restore the intent of mankind in full fellowship with Him. There will be a day when the gates of Heaven will be opened for those whose names are written in the “Lambs Book of Life” (Revelation 21:27). We are told in the scriptures that those who are called and accept God’s plan of redemption through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus the Christ, have their names written in that book and the gates of heaven will be open to them on that day of Jesus’ second coming. The “wages of sin” will no longer have any grip on mankind on that day and I don’t think we will require a “gate keeper” any longer as we will be in the eternal kingdom Christ has prepared for His own. The only gate at that time will be the gates of Hell that will for eternity lock in those souls who rejected the Gospel of Christ…and their father which is Satan, the god of THIS world.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9). Jesus established Himself as the gateway to redemption, leading “whosoever will” (Revelations 22:17) to be transformed from wickedness and death to a life of righteousness and life. Once we are born again into newness of life by His call, He has committed to keeping us, His sheep, from the wages of sin and the wolves of this world. As the “Great Shepherd”, He is the gatekeeper that leaves the 99 to go after the one who was lost (Matthew 18:12, Luke 15:4). On our own we cannot find our way home spiritually, but for His chosen He goes all out to bring us back through the gate to spiritual and eternal safety in His realm…the spirit. John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand”.

While most people in Christian circles have heard these scriptures maybe a thousand times, I’m not sure we completely understand what Jesus was saying while in the flesh on earth. I think it is clear that HE is the gatekeeper for those who would live eternally with him in Heaven. He decides, not us, who will enter into that eternal spiritual realm where there will be no more sorrow, pain, or separation from Him. God has put up barriers or gates to separate the spirit from the flesh. Flesh on one side will die an eternal death and burn forever and their spirits will exist outside the gates of eternal salvation and the Kingdom that is coming. Those born of the Holy Spirit will have NEW bodies that will never decay or die. “We shall be like Him” (Genesis 1:27, 1 John 3:2) .

The gates of Heaven are the gates of thanksgiving, praise, and rejoicing in the spirit (Psalms 100:4-5). The gates of Hell are about the punishment of death for sin and separation from the Holy God who made us originally in His image.  We could simply say that THIS life is about the battle and choice we have regarding which gates we are pursuing and determining where we will spend our eternities. Which side of the “gate” will we end up on? It is up to His call and YOUR response. HE is the gatekeeper.

Biblical extra credit:

Revelation 22:14-15

2 Peter 1:10-11

Revelation 21 (Gates of the New Jerusalem)

Matthew 16:18

Hebrew 2:14, 1 Corinthians 15:26,54 (Gates of Hell are destroyed)

Revelation 1:18 (Jesus holds the keys to the gate of death and Hades)