NEHEMIAH'S APOSTOLIC BUILDING PLAN BY DR. TIM EARLY

By Tim Early
NEHEMIAH'S APOSTOLIC
BUILDING PLAN

BY DR. TIM EARLY


In review of the 12 {governmental} gates of Nehemiah, we find relevant important truth for our time, and for local assemblages abroad. Unlike rigid rules of the religious system, these principles are flexible, enabling you to work out these core values into the corporate dynamics of your local assembly, becoming a radiant expression of genuine kingdom community everywhere.Each gate reveals present truth of a bold new configuration and advance towards rebuilding the habitations of God. And without delay, we shall continue further on in our discussion. Apostolic blessings!!!
 

1 - The Sheep Gate: Nehemiah 3:1}... One of the most important developments in the maturing of the local assemblage is in the Sheep Gate. One of the most important things in establishing a new local kingdom community is in the building up of the sheep. In the early Acts pattern, the most profound thing that was discovered among them was not alone in the signs and wonders, and not merely in the numerical growth of the people, but in "RELATIONSHIPS." For in one sense, you do not market tapes and books as a sign of a growing ministry, nor do you place stock upon having the largest jet in town either. Rather, you market {and I use this term lightly, so it's okay to smile}, promote, and esteem healthy structured, vibrant, loving, divinely appointed relationships, vertical and horizontal, unto the Lord {vertical} and one with another {horizontal}. Here, the local flock is edified before multiplied, and true growth is not the same as swelling. Any church can swell as a sign of an infection, but real numerical growth comes through real edification on the inside, as confirmed in Acts 6:7, "And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly..." {Again, edification before multiplication}


2 - The Fish Gate: {Nehemiah 3:3}... The Fish Gate is the principle of leadership to instill within the saints to become "Fisher's of Men," a real sense of "go ye therefore", and a preparedness to reach out beyond the intimate community of the appointed assemblage. The Fish Gate is a revelation of launching out into the deep, casting forth your nets as recorded in Luke 5:4-11. It is a confirmation of becoming followers of Christ, and fishers of men for the advancing of the kingdom. It teaches us the value of discipleship leading others into  a revelation of sonship. It is a revelation through analogy; how that God will use the very thing you are in the natural, to transfer its correlated movements into the spiritual. It also reveals that there are coins in the fish's mouth, appointed support in the advancing of HIS kingdom. It teaches us to discern whom we are to reach. Without the Fish Gate, we will confine the kingdom to the inner circle per se, meaning, us. For the church does not produce the kingdom, but the kingdom produces the church. Love is not merely love until it is shared. Therefore, the real meaning of the Fish Gate lies deeper than getting someone just to officially know Jesus, but to extend the kingdom into the lives of others. Some fish swim in ponds, others in deep blue seas. Some fish are caught in streams and others in the vast oceans. With the catching of fish, there is respect to the methodology and technology of fishing. Some ministries may only possess a little bait, a small stick, and a very thin string, while others, the full use of an elaborate reel. Regardless of your measure {metron} of rule, "Catch men, go fishing!"


3 - The Old Gate: {Nehemiah 3:6}...The Old Gate represents that which is growing old, lacking energy, becoming languid, without force and vitality. It is that which is becoming weak, and slow, with very little spirit. It could also mean that the old foundations of your walk with God, the blood, the re-birth, Holy Spirit baptism, and the first principles of Hebrews 6:1-2 have become a rather weak foundation perhaps taken for granted. Therefore, we need to empower the Old Gate, not letting it linger into weakness, nor losing its value and strength in our Third Day mentality. We must never lose the importance of what our old foundation once did for us and where we are to grow from here. Whether we think we have arrived to Faith confession or Kingdom Now, Third Day or Apostolic Reformation, The Melchisedec order, or Manifested Sonship, the Old Gate is to be repaired, and is to remain fully functional in the core and corporate dynamics of the local saints. We need to empower the values of the kingdom beyond the initial re-birth, and rejoice in the foundational things which lead to a higher revelation and ascension into the Christ. For the highest skyscraper requires the deepest foundation. The higher you go, the stronger the foundation. As in Ezra 3:11, "And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid..."


4 - The Valley Gate: {Nehemiah 3:13}...Ah, the Valley Gate! This gate is an experience of passing through a narrow gorge, a deep narrow passage with steeply rocky sides, as between mountains. But that is just it, it is in the valley, not on the mountain, but down below in between the mountains. The Valley Gate is a part of the overall process of our development. The Valley Gate is a word picture of Psalms 23, walking through the valley of the shadow of death, with no fear of evil. Without the valley, how would you ever appreciate the mountain top? The Valley Gate is not designed to do you in, but to bring you out into a lively hope, a place where we really come to know that the Lord is with us, even in the darkest and toughest of times. This is a key core kingdom value for the corporate saints. Thus, the Valley Gate is to be restored and rebuilt into the corporate anointing. Intense trials and low valleys are not purposed and designed to undermine your progression in the kingdom. They are ordained of God for a specific time, place, and purpose, and for a strategic usage. Particularly, they help aid and to steer our thinking toward total trust in the Lord. As James 1:2 says, "Count it all JOY when you go through different temptations, tests, and trials, knowing that the trying of your faith is working patience and endurance in you." For there are only two kinds of tests in the earth, the test of prosperity and the test of adversity, as confirmed in Ecclesiastes 7:14. Both serve one another.


5 - The Dung Gate: {Nehemiah 3:14}...Every local assembly is to have a dung gate, a place built within it to excuse the waste and filth that builds up in its system. Now before you slap me, just think, that the local body parallels to the human body. Each human body needs food {fuel} to live. Each human body goes through a cycle of eating from 1 - appropriation, 2 - assimilation, and 3 - elimination. Each body must define its dietary modification and intake. And, each human body needs a gate to get rid of the waste matter. Further on, the dung of the human body is not to be kept for a rainy day, or for a sunny one. It is to be excreted from the blood, tissues, and organs for a healthier body, a healthier you!!! 


The waste management is not to be a sign that something is wrong, but that something is right. A healthy local church is one that is cleansed through the Word, thus, eliminating the waste matter in the thought process, producing healthy and vibrant souls. When you eat well, your body will tell you so. And when the corporate glory of the saints are eating from greener pastures, the soul is restored through the process of elimination.


Just think, how that one of America's most revered and famous actors of the many years past, upon autopsy was discovered with about 40 pounds of fecal matter in his intestines. The weight of a little girl was found in his bowels, and what a statement, or an indictment...Some people's deliverance is not having a hand laid on their head by elders, but to simply eat properly and to be excused at the appointed time...Amen somebody...


6 - The Fountain Gate: {Nehemiah 3:15}...This gate or experience is defined in the Hebrew as "an eye, by analogy, a fountain {as the eye of the landscape}. " In Genesis 16:7, the word "Fountain" is used in connection with the Angel of the Lord finding Hagar by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. Here, we see a more expanded usage of the word, as Hagar was by the fountain, a place of refreshing in the wilderness. Further meaning, the Fountain Gate, in its wider perspective, is a source of water, a reservoir or container of water, or in other modern terms, a jet or stream of water. From present truth and practical application, the Fountain Gate is the place where the water fountain springs forth, and it teaches us to recognize the things which produces a flowing fountain or stream in our midst, as opposed to the things which do not.


Meaning...we must discern what the fountain of life is in the midst of us, in minstrel, in message, and in ministry. And if there is no fountain of life, no flowing or springing forth, then two things can possibly happen. Either we need to adjust to the rhythm and flow of the Spirit for a true fountain and source to spring forth in the corporate anointing, or get rid of the thing that is not producing the fountain of LIFE and flowing stream of the Spirit. In most of the divinely appointed meetings the Holy Spirit has given us into, we witnessed virtually every belly released into the streams of His Manifest Presence, a true overflow...It's glorious...

As a local assembly challenge anything that is not becoming a fountain in the midst of you. Put a check to anything that is a dried up brook, and go to the fountain, the source of water of life in the midst of the corporate man. Don't let things go on because it's the way your tradition {or trade} tells you. Leaders, if it is not a flowing fountain, and if it does not cause a fountain to spring forth in the local body, deal with it. If it is stagnant and stifling, and if it does not move from a fountain to a river, then it may attempt to silence the Naba and the Nabiy within you, those rivers of living water, those prophetic streams, those gushing fountains of life {John 7:38; Ezekiel 47:1-10 {compare to the Fish Gate}, Revelation 22:1...Prophet, Priest, and King...Colossians 1:27; Psalms 46:4.


Let the fountains spring forth in every one of the local assemblages, and there you will find a flowing river. When each belly is unlocked to the mysteries of the kingdom, and the rivers of living water, it will produce a flow out of you, setting others free into a fresh new liberty. This too, is a prophetic word from the Lord!!!


7 - The Water Gate: {Nehemiah 3:26}...The Water Gate has a root meaning found throughout the entire Old Testament. In the overall, it is regarded as water and its needed usage for the physical body. Water purifies, refreshes, revives, rejuvenates, cleanses, and cools the body, even useful in the automotive radiator. If not, try driving without water, and say good bye to the radiator. Still, water is synonymous to life, as in the water of life. Every human body needs water, most plants require sufficient water. Animals need water, and the corporate saints need water, too. According to Proverbs 20:5, "the Heart of man is like deep water..." {Read also Psalms 42:7}


Some saints are likened to deep wells, and require a more far reaching affect then others. Some are like dried up wells, and need a fountain of life to arise from within them. But in any case, the Fountain and Water Gate are chiefly related, as without the fountain, there is no springing forth, and without the water itself, there is no life. Revelation 21:6; Ephesians 5:26; John 4:10: Isaiah 11:9; Hab. 2:14... Water from the belly, water from the temple, and water from the throne, prophet, priest, and king, or, righteousness, peace, and joy...


8 - The Horse Gate: {Nehemiah 3:28}...This gate or experience reveals the ability of the horse to support and hold, to haul and hoist, to ride and draw through the carrying of loads. The principle here is in the carrying of the loads. Here, the Lord is speaking to us as leaders to impart and to activate this progression of the kingdom into corporate believers a core dynamic of endurance, an ability and stabilizing influence to bear great load. It is the principle of relationship preceding to commitment and to the reciprocating vision of the house.

The Horse Gate is the dimension of the Spirit that recognizes the Horse in two fold description, with the ability to support and carry the load, and the ability to carry such load the long distance, the long haul, endurance to the end. On whatever level you care to discuss this, the Horse Gate must be repaired and restored in the local church, instilling a divine commitment in everyone to share the load together, and to have patient endurance for the longest of stretches and strides of corporate ministry...Acts 6:1-6; Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Exodus 18:21; Numbers 27:18-20; Genesis 14:14; Acts 4:34-37


9 - The East Gate: {Nehemiah 3:29}...The East Gate is the dawning of a Brand New Day. It is the SON RISE in the midst of the saints, fresh new manna and revelation throughout the corporate life of the assembly. The East Gate is the beginning of a new day, fresh new vision, and new opportunities to be seized through the corporate glory and beauty of the saints. It is the SUN that arises in the East and sets in the west. It is the breaking forth of the SON. It is the radiant glory of the Lord, the mercies of God which are new every morning...Great is Thy Faithfulness...


Each visible local expression of grace is to have an East Gate, a bursting light of a new day, a glorious expression of a bold and brand new day. Not only is it the dawning and arising of a new day, but it reveals simultaneously the closure of a past time, a putting away of that from an old day as it makes room for the glory of the new! It causes a paradigm and dimensional shifting in the Spirit, and becomes a a realm of glory one is to enter into, and BECOME!!!


Is there an East Gate in your local fellowship? Is the East Gate becoming a new day to the saints of light? Is the Day Star arising in the hearts of HIS people? Is yesteryear's revelation become today's darkness? Let us return and rebuild the East Gate, a revelatory dynamic which reveals there is a bold new {Sun} rise in our midst, something fresh and new daily.


10 - The Gate of Miphkad: {Nehemiah 3:31}...The Gate of Miphkad is defined in the original as "Assignment, appointment, mandate, and designated spot." It is the appointed place, with other meanings such as "oversee, charge, and oversight." In other translations, this scripture would read "The Inspection Gate." Here, the principle of the Gates of Nehemiah reveals the important character development of being assigned to a given task, and being in the appointed place. This gate reveals in part the importance of Assignment, the Appointed Place, the Mandate, and the Designated Spot: the Gate of Miphkad, to oversee, give charge, oversight, and inspection. In such dimension everyone has a strategic and specific purpose in the corporate anointing. Nothing is vague, and there is no sloppy agape {smile} among them.


In the Gate of Miphkad or the Gate of Inspection you define the tasks and assign the tasks. Thank God for the Gate of Inspection, a key principle in faithful stewardship. It reveals in part, divine alignment producing divine assignment.

 


11 - The Gate of Ephraim: {Nehemiah 12:39}...The Gate of Ephraim is the meaning of "Doubly fruitful, and fruitfulness." It is the principle of bearing precious fruit, and is the first charge of the five-fold great commission in Genesis 1:28. Ephraim was one of the two sons of Joseph. Ephraim, in Nehemiah's progression, is to be rebuilt and repaired for each local flock to be fruitful in whatever it is strategically given for. Each local fellowship is to define the mood of the Spirit for which they have been given. Each is to recognize that Jesus is the one that desires fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. No matter how you approach this, you can not run circles around the irrevocable principle of bearing fruit, and at that being doubly fruitful.


Is your local church becoming fruitful in its assignment and divine design? Are there things in your midst that are choking out the fruit, becoming thorns and thistles, or tares among the wheat? For those that receive seed upon good ground are those that hear {30} understand {60} and bear fruit {100} some 100 fold, some 60, and some 30. {Matthew 13th chapter}. Thus, a fruitful flock is fruitful in what is has been divinely purposed for, to bear fruit after HIS kind.


12 - The Prison Gate: {Nehemiah 12:39}...The Prison Gate reveals the principle of being a guard, closely watching. I liken this to the Cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life...Genesis 3:24


Here, the Prison Gate becomes a profound experience in the maturing of the saints. By HIS manifest presence and appointed leadership the way {is guarded and garrisoned} from anyone and anything that makes boisterous attempts in eating of the tree of life, while nibbling away at the tree of independence FROM God. Here, there is a fresh new bold understanding of how the Lord protects that which is HIS own, and will not allow His preciousness to be defiled by any. The same with the Holy City, the mature bride, the New Jerusalem {which YOU ARE} coming into perfection and the fullness of His glory, as outside the gates of HIS city are depraved elements which have no sincere and genuine interest nor earnest heed to becoming HIS habitation. {Revelation. 22:14-15}


This is likened also, to the qualification of the priesthood in Leviticus 21:22-23 which says...


He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come near unto the altar, because he has a blemish; that he profanes not my sanctuaries; for I the Lord do Sanctify them."

In all of this, I see the Prison Gate, God's own protectiveness for that which is holy and undefiled. He is the KEEPER of the GATES.

Apostolic blessings! Feed the Seed and Nurture the Nature {HIS} for by Divine Enlightenment U R B-Coming what U Already R!

Dr Tim and Theresa Early
Apostle and Prophet
P.O. Box 1221
Cypress, TX 77410
832-882-4594
drtim8@aol.com
timotheushouston@sbcglobal.net
http://www.apostlesandprophets.net