The Gates Of Hell


Daniel is a book that details the life of one who spent much of his adult life living in an occupation. His home land of Israel had been conquered and occupied by Babylon. The poorest of the land were left behind. Certain of the princes and of the king’s descendants were carried off to Babylon to be taught the “speech and learning” of the Chaldeans. Daniel was among these. They were to eat food and wine that the king of Babylon ate. They were to undergo indoctrination and if they were found “worthy”, a place would be found for them in the king’s court. Daniel purposed in himself from the onset, not to defile himself with the king of Babylon’s table.

In the course of time Nebuchadnezzar the king is succeeded by his son Belshazzar. Belshazzar takes no instruction from his father’s life experiences regarding the God of Daniel. Belshazzar is proud and arrogant. He holds a great banquet and sends for the gold and silver vessels that had been confiscated from the Lord’s house at Jerusalem. From these vessels, he and his fellow banqueters eat and drink and toast the gods of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone.

For any who regard prophetic signification, the vessels of the Lord’s house are people, not cups and saucers. When Jesus said make clean first, the inside of cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also, He was not talking about kitchen duties. In fact, Daniel and his three friends and fellow princes of Judah were vessels that Nebuchadnezzar sought to indoctrinate and use:

[Dan 1:3-6 KJV] And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring [certain] of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Children in whom [was] no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as [had] ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:

Now children of the king’s seed in whom is no blemish, but are well favored and skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, sound at least to me like they need no improvement. They already possess everything and more, than any school of Nebuchadnezzar’s could produce. To willingly go along with what was proposed be done to them, would have come at the expense of what they already were by birth and citizenship. Herein is a great test of an occupation. How do you function in it without compromising who and what you are? Only with the help of the one who made you who and what you are. If you trust Him, he will make a way.

In the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel had dreams and visions and wrote them. They were of four beasts that came up out of humanity in their succession, all different from one another. The fourth and last thing to take form in humanity was “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns”. “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things”.

These things are significations. You will never see such a thing with eyes of flesh and blood. But if God is willing, you can see them. Presently in humanity, three great “faiths” are about to become one. (of course there is only one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one God and Father of all…only one, but humanity has collectively rejected the Lord and is defining it’s own deity, as the scriptures detail man always does). And with this fourth terrible thing to take shape in humanity, iron teeth. If you live in the world today you are seeing and experiencing it. The gate of the mouth is to be barred with iron… Absolute control and absolute censoring of all speech. The imprisonment of thought. The re-tooling of all knowledge and learning to to conform it to the service of the realm. But the last thing Daniel saw in the vision: the Ancient of Days did sit, the kingdom of the beast was thrown down, and judgment was given to the saints (sanctified/set apart) of the most high, and the saints possessed the eternal kingdom.

When Jesus was born, and word came to Herod, the puppet king of Rome, Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. This trouble lasted a few years until the ” trouble maker” was falsely accused and murdered. But according to Herod’s way of seeing things, as well as all Jerusalem with him, the “trouble” reared it’s head again when the disciples of the trouble maker continued to teach and preach repentance and the kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus, the trouble maker. One of the trouble maker’s disciples was Peter, who Jesus so named, when He would make in Peter, a living example of what Jesus would do in all of them that are the set apart (sanctified/saints…them who have set to their seal that God is true). Peter was so named for a specific reason, at a specific event. Having asked the disciples who men said He was, some told Jesus this thing, and some that. Jesus asked them, “Who do YOU say that I am?” Simon said , “you are the Christ, the Son of God”. Jesus told Simon that this knowledge did not come from man, but from the Father. Jesus said “your name is “Petros” Peter (pebble/ stone) and upon this “Petra” (Rock, large stone) will I build my church , and the gates of hell will not prevail against it”.

The foundation upon which Jesus built and builds, is not Peter. It is the revelation in Peter, from the Father, of who Christ is. The same is true for you. When the scriptures speak of building upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, it must sooner or later be understood, that the foundation of the apostles and prophets is not the apostles and prophets. It is Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. All the work of the apostles and prophets is in the foundation.

When the Word of God began to multiply and reach even unto the gentiles, “about that time” Herod stretched forth his hand to vex “certain” of the church. He killed James, the brother of John with the sword. And when he saw it pleased the Jews, he took Peter also, put him in prison with a guard of four quaternions of soldiers (sixteen men in total), intending to bring him out after Easter ( something the Jews observed) and , no doubt, put him to death. Peter was in prison for one reason, and one reason only: the words that came from his mouth. Those words had a source. The Spirit of Christ, the Foundation in him. Peter’s hands were chained and he was separated from speaking to the world by two wards of guards, and iron gates. The iron teeth that prevented Peter from his calling…to speak. He was to be silenced until dead.

These things prophetically mirror what Daniel saw. You live in these things. Putting aside religious and political tomfoolery and rabble rousing, consider the end of the matter. The angel of the Lord came to Peter where he was, and the prison was filled with light. The angel smote him in the side and told him to get up, get dressed and follow . The chains fell from his hands. He passed by both wards of soldiers undetected. He passed through the IRON GATE that led to the city, which opened to him of it’s own accord. When he came to himself, Peter recognized that the Lord had delivered him from all the expectation of Herod, the Jews and the people. The only ones put to death were the guards, not Peter and what he represented. Herod would go on to give an oration and the people hearing it said, “it is the voice of a god, and not of a man”. Herod fell dead, eaten of worms because he failed to give God the glory…”But the word of God grew and multiplied”… as Daniel also saw.

The gates of hell are meant to keep the truth in. They will not prevail. Be encouraged, fellow trouble makers. The world is bent upon one thing. Silencing the truth that is in you. It will vaunt itself to god like status, but will die in it’s own corruption, eaten of worms like the day old bread in the wilderness. The hidden manna is in you, and He is raised higher than the heavens. Herod, and all Jerusalem with him can neither comprehend nor touch it.