There’s a moment.....right before you step into something God intends to use.....where the battle often intensifies.
And it's not because you’re weak, unstable, or because you're doing something wrong.
It's because the enemy recognizes the gate you’re about to walk through.
And, to be real here....gates matter in the Kingdom.
Gates are entry points to assignments, revelation, ministry, worship, and divine moments.
They’re thresholds...they're the “almost there” places where God is about to move.
But......gates are also places where spiritual pressure can show up unexpectedly.
And if we don’t understand this and aren't prepared for it, we may internalize things that aren’t ours… assume the worst… believe lies about ourselves or others… react emotionally instead of spiritually… withdraw instead of stepping forward… misinterpret confusion as calling… or even miss the assignment entirely. See how many different ways it can go sour?
And let me be clear here for a second though, this applies to EVERY believer, not just intercessors or prophetic people. If you’ve ever felt blindsided emotionally or mentally right at the moment you were stepping into something God had prepared, then this blog is for you.
Because the enemy really DOES attempt to hijack the assignments of God!
But almost ALWAYS....it's at the gate.
What I didn’t understand at first was that this kind of “gate pressure” can feel strangely personal. It can show up as thoughts or emotions that seem to come out of nowhere. And because they often hit so suddenly, they feel believable in the moment...yes, even when you know better.
That’s what happened to me on Sunday.
That morning, everything was completely normal. I woke up joyful, excited to be in the house of God after not having church on Thanksgiving. There was no heaviness. No warning. Nothing felt off.
But the moment I stepped into our prayer room, it was like something shifted. Uninvited thoughts began pouring into my mind. Thoughts that didn’t match truth, and didn’t belong to the God I know.
Even as I thought them, I knew they weren’t true. I identified them as lies right away. I knew they weren’t God. I knew they weren’t even reasonable. But they hit fast, hard, and heavy that in that moment, I even pulled my husband aside and confided in him, “What is wrong with me? Why am I feeling this? I don't like feeling like this.”
And honestly… I didn’t have answers yet.
I carried it all through church. Sitting in Sunday school was even worse. I tried so hard to pay attention and focus, but the weight just crushed me and spoke things into me that, if carried through, would've altered many that I love dearly. Afterwards, I remember getting up on the platform with the worship team, thinking, “I'm going to praise my way through this....surely it'll break.”
MAN, was that a task!
Now, I don’t mean to discourage anyone with what I just said. I’m just saying that when you’re faced with an oppression so very extreme, sometimes even the things you know should lift you....feel like they’re barely scratching the surface.
And it's not because God isn’t moving… but because your spirit is fighting through a fog you didn’t see coming. It’s a strange kind of heaviness....one that tries to convince you that you’re alone in it, even while you’re standing in the middle of worship, surrounded by people who love you, and a God that wants to intervene.
It wasn’t until we were home and I was talking with my husband, explaining the weight of what I felt...... that something finally broke open.
I was telling him about the swirl, the lies, the heaviness, the tears I couldn’t stop fighting back, and how none of it made sense. I didn't really have to tell him though, because he could see it, he could feel it and he was concerned. In the most gentle way, he said something that God used like a key in a locked door.
And friend… the second he said it, truth started pouring in like a light.
Everything started coming together and making sense, not because I was looking for something dramatic, but because the timing, the confusion, and the suddenness all pointed to a distraction meant to derail me before I stepped into what God had planned.
It wasn’t weakness or instability on my part. It wasn't even unrepentant sin or failure.
Once that clicked, clarity started flooding every part of the night and well into morning. I couldn't wait to get up and dig in and run it past Bro. J to make sure I was on the right track!
One of the greatest lessons I learned through all of this was that not every sudden feeling or thought deserves the authority we hand it.
I mean, I already knew that, but I wasn’t guarded the way I should’ve been.
Sometimes we get so comfortable, or so confident because we recognized it the last time, that we assume we’ll easily detect it again the next time it shows up. What we don’t realize is that the next time may come wrapped in a different intensity, a different disguise, or a different emotional tone altogether. When we aren’t paying attention, it can slip right past our defenses simply because we weren’t expecting it to hit that way.
Just because something comes to mind doesn’t mean it comes from your identity or your calling. Sometimes, it’s nothing more than emotional overload or stress you’ve carried quietly. Sometimes it’s even fatigue, hunger, or a moment of vulnerability.
But sometimes, ESPECIALLY in moments of spiritual significance.......it’s just simply interference... the kind that is meant to confuse your perspective long enough to make you shrink back instead of stepping forward. It weakens your capacity!
If the enemy can shake your footing at the gate, he doesn’t have to fight you later!
THAT'S why the thoughts didn’t match truth.
THAT'S why they didn’t align with God’s character.
THAT'S why they didn’t reflect reality.
Those thoughts weren’t revealing something about me....they were revealing something about the timing.
The enemy wasn’t attacking my purpose - he was attacking my confidence and my authority in the few seconds before I stepped into it.
It happens to so many of us!
Right before the breakthrough…
Right before the obedience…
Right before the prayer…
Right before the conversation God will use…
Right before the moment that matters…
…the pressure hits.
And because it hits fast and hits hard, we assume it must be a truth about our identity.
But it’s not truth.
It’s tension.
Tension at the threshold.
Tension at the gate.
God’s burdens (even when they are weighty) never strip away hope. They never accuse you. They never isolate you. They never drive you into emotional collapse. When God burdens your heart for something or someone, you feel compassion, not condemnation. You feel pulled to pray, not to panic and isolate.
God’s burdens pull you closer to Him.
Interference tries to push you away.
God’s burdens feel like clarity.
Interference feels like a fog.
God’s burdens make you aware.
Interference makes you afraid and confused.
Start asking, “Lord, is this You? Is this me? Or is this just noise at the gate?”
That one question has saved me from falling into unnecessary spirals, because that heaviness honestly could've lasted days!
Please know that....
You do not have to react to every emotion that rises up inside you!
You are allowed to pause!
You are allowed to breathe!
You are allowed to question the thought before you accept it as truth!
You are allowed to separate what you feel from who you are!
If you’re someone who feels deeply…who catches spiritual shifts quickly…who finds yourself unexpectedly overwhelmed or blindsided…
you’re not broken and you’re not unstable.
You’re just someone standing at gates more often than you realize.
And God walks with you!
EVERY time.
EVERY step.
EVERY threshold.
And once you learn how to pause and discern instead of react, those moments that once felt like attacks become moments of incredible clarity and breakthrough.
Because the gate may be where the battle shows up…
but it’s also where God begins to move.
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