Choose the Path Less Traveled | Guard Your Gates as You Go Through the Straits

We are in the Hebrew month of Tammuz, when we must guard the gates of our heart, choosing focus, faith, and discipline as we prepare to enter the Dire Straits.  

Yeshua’s words in Matthew 7:13-14 speak divine instruction on how to enter this month—with perseverance, self-control, patience, and choosing wisely. He warns us to stand guard and position ourselves to fix our eyes on Him, magnifying Him, not fixing our eyes on the distractions or getting lost in the problems. 

• “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Testing and Refinement for Vision Alignment

You’ve heard it said, “Your perception is your reality.” Vision and perception go hand-in-hand. Your vision—where you fix your eyes—determines where you will go. It determines your reality. This month, your vision must be laser-focused on the Lord (Hebrews 12:2) because you have a divine assignment to pass through the narrow straits. 

Your vision is connected to your thoughts, which flow through your mouth. What you focus on, you think about. What you think about, you speak out (Proverbs 4:23). 

It starts with vision. This is why it is critical to guard your eye gate this month. 

The accuser will do all he can to grab your focus and move it to the problem. Refuse to magnify fear, lack, obstacles, and circumstances; instead, magnify the Lord (Psalm 34:3). 

These vision misalignment assignments from the enemy are intended to steal your joy and peace, and ultimately the abundance the Lord has for you on the other side of the narrow gate. 

God’s Purpose This Month

This time of testing and refinement in Tammuz is meant to release vision alignment. It’s intended to ascend your thoughts from seeing in the natural to focusing upward on the Father in Heaven. Higher thoughts. Higher perspective. Higher levels.

Action Steps to Keep You Aligned 

Guard Your Eyes and Mouth

You know to guard your eyes, but if something penetrates the eye gate, repent and guard your heart too, so that you don’t speak after the negative report “seen” in the physical. 

• Speak life; reject negative reports or gossip (Proverbs 18:21).
• Declare faith-filled words and Scriptures over your circumstances.

Align Vision with Provision

See where the Lord is taking you and sow where He wants you to go. Speak and sow as if what He is doing has already come to pass in the physical realm. 

• Ask God how to steward your finances and gifts for His vision (2 Corinthians 9:8).
• Revisit what God has already entrusted to you since Passover.

Navigate the Dire Straits with Intention (17th of Tammuz–9th of Av)

Intentionally and intensely focus on the Lord during the Dire Straits. There will be many distractions. There will be choices to make. The choices can either elevate you and others or cause you and others to fall. Where you focus, your sight, becomes the entry point. 

• This is a spiritually intense time. Stay anchored in God’s promises.
• Commit to daily prayer and fasting during these three weeks if possible.

Walk Through the Narrow Gate

In Hebrew culture, this is the month the bride places her wedding band on her index finger, so when she points at something, her mind tells her this is what she is to worship. Symbolically, as the Bride, point your index finger (connected neurologically to focus) as a reminder to fix your eyes on Yeshua’s face. Declare daily that your circumstances will not control your eye gate, they will not determine if you go through the narrow gate because you’ve already decided that the path less traveled, the narrow gate, is where your abundant reward rests!