"Sharing the 27 minutes to midnight prayers with my church changed everything"
Hi elisha,
God is good. Just wanted to share with you what happened when l obeyed the voice of God and shared the concept of praying at the gates of the new year with my church leadership.
First l wrote out the concept very well using the wisdom shared from 27 minutes to midnight bulletin and some additions from scripture . Here is what l sent out on Saturday 29th of last year.
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"Hi friends, I felt I should share this with y’all. I don’t know how y’all enter the new year, but this is something that my family and l have done for a couple of years and it's such an awesome experience. Before l share more, just a little background..
We all get excited about crossing into the New Year. You can liken the New Year to a well-fortified city with a strong gate. And the strong gate is supposed to swing open in the physical (and most of all IN THE SPIRIT) at 12 midnight on January 1st, right?
In the physical, we see a lot of people preparing: parties, fireworks etc. And we see the hype of all this at midnight. What I mean by hype is those who have fireworks will wait till 11:55 - 12:00am just to do their thing. I imagine in their minds they are like “we have crossed; we are in the New Year, huge celebrations yay!!! Not bad though ...
How about in the Spiritual? Well, in the spiritual realm things are happening too. Two things l want to talk about here: the gate and the midnight hour (please hang on)
Why the gate?
The New Year is like a beautiful gate waiting to be opened. Envision very many people standing outside this gate, just waiting for the time (midnight), when this gate will swing open so they can run in. As we study the Bible we see a lot of activity happening at the gate. We see lots of references to the gate. At the gates of the city, important decisions and verdicts were handed down. (Here's a couple of scriptures: 1king 17, Acts 3, Acts 12 and much more)
Midnight
We also see a lot of activity happening at the midnight hour in the Bible. Most shocking thing is that the activity at the midnight hour can be both good and evil.
Some of the midnight instances:
1 Kings 3:20
So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom (evil spiritual exchange)
Judges 16:3
And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
Matthew 25:6
(Story of the 12 virgins) “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’
Acts 16:25
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.... here we see foundations shake , chains break and doors loosen.
I would love to invite you friends on the most amazing adventure as we enter the gate of the New Year.
The Bible says that we shall declare a thing and it shall be established for us (Job 22:28).
I want us to take off time as we enter the New Year to speak, decree, create and command our year. We have been given all authority in Jesus name.
Let’s use that authority to command the gates and doors of the New Year to open unto us, that the gates will not only be open but also release all our divine blessings.
That the heavens will declare the glory of God over our church , community etc.
That everything we will be faced with in the New Year will bow down to the name above all names ( Philippians 2: 10-11), that the Holy Spirit will activate our spiritual being to see signs and wonders, to see the glory of God be manifest in a powerful new way ..... you can go on and on as led by the Holy Spirit.
See this one (last time l am quoting I promise)
"Lift up your head, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory." Psalm 24: 7-10
Let us invite the King of glory to come into our lives, children , marriages, church, community as we take on the New Year. We are inviting the king of glory to come into all that concerns us.
I want you to take this opportunity to meet with me at the gate of the New Year (in the spiritual) wherever you will be.
Thank y’all for taking time to read this. Let me know if you have any questions or if you need pointers on how to pray at the gate. Stay blessed."
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The response
The leaders wanted to know more about the praying at the gates concept.
They went ahead and redid the church bulletin last minute to include the information l had shared so all the church members may get to learn and prepare for the new year.
Our Church emails to the congregation usually go out mid week but this time round the church sent out a special email on Monday 31st, to the entire congregation with this title:
Special New Year Edition: Spiritual Gate of the New Year.
The email included all the details l sent out in the text message.
In addition to this, close to midnight one of church members sent me a text message saying she was so excited and ready be apart of the midnight prayers at the gate.
I am so excited about what God is doing. Most people want to explore and learn more about praying at the gate and midnight prayers.
Thank God for Firesprings Ministries for ministering, this is changing lives.
Thank you,
Eagle Lily
P.S. Watch your inbox for the Prayer Schedule At The Gates - to be released in a few days.
P.P.S. While waiting please click on the icon below to share on WhatsApp or Facebook
