This is the first summit for the year and is necessary to prepare us for the year’s voyage. This year has started powerfully and this summit is to thrust us into that which the Lord will be doing this year. It is not only the singles that this summit is for, as we must also be single at heart. Jehovah is our strength not our efforts, muscles, chariots etc. The Lord is our everlasting strength.

Psalms 46:1-3

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 

Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. 

Anytime we wake up in the morning, we start the day not bothering ourselves on how strong we are except if there is a demand placed on the strength in us. Anytime there is the mention of strength then there is a demand or challenge. Whenever God is mentioned as the mighty or the Lord of host this indicates that there is battle or war.

Psalms 90:2.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 

Mountains are ancient in nature. Mountains have the character of being immovable and unshakeable. Any power that can shake mountains is not mere. A time will come when these mountains (everything in the physical that man has put his trust in) will be shaken. The traditions, culture, civilization and everything that man has will be shaken. These times are perilous and dangerous times. God spaced out time for these perilous times to be and they would surely come. This a very dangerous time for the seed of Faith or seed of God because it is a trying time that will test and prove everything that can be seen. In such a time, we would only desire strength if we are interested in the battle. Strength is not kept within to be dormant. It is gathered for it to be used.

Isaiah 28:6

And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 

You cannot have the spirit of judgment if you do not desire the seat of judgment. Praise was the major thing in the hearts of the disciples when the Holy Ghost came upon them at Pentecost. This made Peter stand to address the people and he interpreted the experience which would have been lost if he had not done so because the interpretation gave them direction. This however is different from the spirit of judgment which is required for sitting.  Psalm 1. If you have not walked you cannot sit. For the spirit of judgment to rest you must have journeyed from walking to standing and then sitting in judgment.

Strength is needed by a people who are taking a position because they know and have sighted the enemy. To unmask the enemy is important. The strength of the enemy is his concealed nature. Diseases that are deadliest have the ability to hide themselves and are not easy to diagnose nor cured. The strength of sin is in its capacity to hide. Sin or iniquity is mysterious.

Before a man can desire strength he must have come to the gates. Men who are ready to withstand the gates of hell are the ones that will receive strength. The gates of hell are an advancing one that has overpowered many. Whatever keeps men from advancing is a gate or prison house. One can be in there and not know. When one is in a prison, such life consists only within the confines of the prison. The prison becomes one’s world. Such is what the earth has become for man. Man doesn’t know anything outside the earth.

For the enemy has done this wicked work to torture man. The habitation I have made for praise is made to be from torture and death because man is so used to dying. But I have come with light to bring liberty to them that are kept by grave and death. It is time for praise to be in the earth. Finally, before the earth will be taken away, I will cause praise to be fulfilled in the earth.

This conflict is about humanity. Our eyes should be open to the conflict and the real issues on ground. It is possible to think that sin is not the only issue of man but the problems of man are a product of the imprisonment man has found himself. Our freedom is in destroying what has kept us bound.

Strength is designed for men at the gates because there is a battle meant to be fought at the gates. Strength also means judgment. In the season we are in, men will do the Will of God and there will be peace in the land. What the enemy does is to make the problem a mirage such that we are confused at how to tackle them. We will first need to locate the head. Isaiah 8:7-15.

Isaiah 7:8-9

For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. 

The head of the gate of hell is sin and that is why Jesus died for sin. Psalm 110:1-2. We must know the enemies we need to put underfoot. The problem of the Jews is that the enemies that were prophesied about seemed to be not what Jesus came for. The job of the gates of iron was to hold children down. Jesus would have needed to build men with physical strength if he had come solely to bring down the kingdom of Rome; but Rome was under the control of a spirit who left them when he was through with them. Strength is needed when men are in captivity. What makes men or nations to remain the way they are is strength.

The first thing Jesus did was to understand the battle. Money or poverty is not our problem. Jesus lived in a time when poverty was more prominent than it is now in our days. To an Israelite to show that you love Israel you must be against the Rome. But what Jesus came to do was to bring freedom to the gates in the soul. If we are liberated this way, even the Roman Government cannot bind us. Daniel 9:23. The problem on ground for Israel was a matter and a vision. What caused the problem of the nation is a whole big picture. Problems in the spirit are not easily solved. They must be solved holistically but man can’t wait for the process of solving these problems. He ends up seeking power to solve his problems.

Patience is strength. God is not just strong; he is an everlasting strength which means he can wear you out. Though the devil can last for long, he will be expired. The system that runs the demons is Satan. Casting demons out will continue until we change their system. It is not easy to remove them because their feet are in man. What happens at the gate is not the demons but the systems that control them and to change the systems the world will fight you. Strongholds are ideologies.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 

An average Nigerian has been circumvented with the ideology of money as the reward for every effort. The Gospel is a divine ideology or God’s ideology. The Lord is strong and has inexhaustible strength. Everlasting speaks of the test of strength. In the days of David and Saul there has a long battle. We know strong men by long battles. David’s house was growing stronger, depicting the nature of God. You experience strength in Zion because it is a place of battle and it is a place of God. Nothing else strengthens them in Zion except God.

We are required to know what exactly the problem is for the season ahead of us. Salvation is strength. Hebrews 9:28. Without the appearance of strength we can’t come to salvation. Sin and death are two entities that have the power to reign. The grave is also strong and the devil gave these entities power to express his nature. We can’t have victory without strength.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 

What makes people do without God is strength. It is the Gospel that can reveal our state of lack. For the Lord to become our everlasting strength means that the warfare against the gates or the forces of death won’t be given up. Isaiah 26:4.

By the Spirit and the saving of the soul many problems that we know and don’t know about fall off. As we grow we are being strengthened to fight. To grow is to fight. The first place of show of strength is in growing. The first place to express strength is in walking. We need enough strength to get to the gates. Gates are powers and will require more than anointing to subdue. The first miracle of the apostles was a demonstration of the activity of the Christ. The lame was kept there to display the power of the Gospel. One of the show of the presence of strength in the Church is that the love for money will no longer be.

The Gospel is the power to save us. our strength is to do God.  Daniel 11:32. We are to do the covenant and not exploits.

In this days scale will fall and it will apperar the away it should be. You will be known as you are known that you may pursure that which you should. I have sent my angel to guve understanding that will free from what has plagured man. To make you see that which is right and how do right. As we see we are made free. You will see well. And that which has thrilled men will no longer thrill you. You will see better.

Acts 3:1-6

Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 

And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 

Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 

And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 

And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 

Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 

The sign of the Gospel of Christ is that you will have strength to rise up and walk. To stand is stronger than walking. We would first have to stagger while standing. There are things to do to stand. Picking that lame man by his right hand depicts righteousness revelation or righteousness. The first standing of righteousness at new birth is by Faith. But to stand as depicted in Psalm 1, we would require to have first walked. The first place of strength is for those who will walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is walking by the dictates of Christ. Christ is Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is walking in the form or pattern of doctrine that is after Christ. God is restoring to the Church walking in obedience and Faith that is by the knowledge of God being shared to us.

Isaiah 28:7-8

But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. 

For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. 

What causes erring is a function of how we feed after being filled with the Holy Ghost. The milk and the breast are the initial doctrines that would prepare us for a higher doctrine. The higher doctrine comes as lines upon lines and precepts upon precepts.

The war in this season is that of peace. We would be at peace because we have gathered strength. We would be unmovable if we enter into rest, strength and peace. Halleluyah!