Remove the guard, rebuild the gates

Steve Lyston, Contributor

When the moral and social fabrics of a nation are being worn away by crime, lack of good governance, lack of solutions, a battered economy, and the poor state of our youth, we don't need one more survey or feasibility study at all!

The fact of the matter is that the gates have been torn down and that has opened the way for all kinds of ... to afflict the nation.

Imagine you have a building and there are walls around the building but neither the entrance nor exit have any gates! It means that there is free access to the building and there is no sentry or security! It's a free for all and anything can come and go! So anything you have in the building - goods, people, assets of any kind, can be stolen at will.

Now a 'gate' is an opening or entrance to something, such as a building, grounds or city. In biblical days, business, bargaining, negotiations, politics and justice were conducted at the gates.

When a gate is torn down, regardless of new investments, new infrastructure, new systems put in place, no change will come! Regardless of what different parties talk about new reforms - it's the same old thing unless the gates are put in place.

The people of the nation, and those in position - including the Church that has become lukewarm, and have also found themselves in bed with the politicians - are now reaping the 'rewards' and foreigners are now ruling over them!

Action To Be Taken By Leaders

The first thing Nehemiah did to rebuild the gates was to weep. He wept over the problem and the poor condition of the nation; in the same way that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. This weeping was a repentance on behalf of the nation's people for the condition in which they had put themselves. They each had a deep concern for the state of the people.

The Church needs to weep and cry out in repentance for the spiritual condition of the nation and for the epidemic of crime sweeping through it. It must have a deep concern for the state of the nation and not attempt to distance itself in silence!

The next thing Nehemiah did was fast! Our people and our leaders as well as the people of the nation believe that our deliverance lies between a nation and witchcraft and prefer to go after those things than to fast. So by their actions, they are replacing God with witchcraft. Today, almost everybody is wearing a 'guard'. A guard is a tool of witchcraft that people acquire to protect themselves. Taxi men have their guards, gunmen have guards, politicians have guards, businessmen have their guards. Some in the refrigerator, some in their brassiere, some on the finger, some around the neck! Witchcraft is not a tool that God uses or encourages us to employ, so He is certainly not in that. So then, who are they being guarded from? Who are they guarded by? And because we know that saying - 'two wrongs don't make a right' - evil + evil = more evil!

Biblical Gates

There are many gates recorded in the Bible - the sheep gate, fish gate, old gate, valley gate, dungs gate, fountain gate, water gate, horse gate and east gate.

The old gate, for example, represents truth. This is one of the gates that needs to be rebuilt in the nation. People have become such liars that it has become a part of their personalities.

We need to revisit the sheep gate, which represents the teaching of the people. Those in the relevant positions within the nation have neglected to teach the people over the years and edify them, simply because they want to manipulate and control them in order to make huge profits from them!

Change will only come when everyone starts to identify with the problems that exist. (Nehemiah 1: 6- 11) Everybody is pointing fingers.

Because the gates have been torn down, there have been significant increases in gambling, alcohol drinking, pornography - especially child pornography, perversion, paedophilia and so much more. Many talk about giving children tablets while many of the teachers don't even have them or know how to use them, and they are not even considering giving them to the teachers. Why not give it to the teachers and equip them to teach the children?

Once upon a time it was an entire community that would grow a child and the only fear was the infamous 'black heart man'! Today, the family doesn't even sit together around the table to eat nor consider the weekend special - everyday is the same, and it is the dons and extortionists raising the children.

We need to rebuild the gates!

Steve Lyston is a biblical economics consultant and author of several books, including 'End Time Finance' and 'The New Millionaire'.