# NEW MERCIES DAILY!
THEME for This 5-Day Series:
“Before the Crown Appears, the Battle at the Gate Must Be Won”
DAY 2 MESSAGE
MESSAGE TITLE:
“The Gate Is the Graveyard of Those Who Quit Too Early”
SCRIPTURE TEXT:
“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.”- Proverbs 24:10 (KJV)
DATE: April 30, 2025
BY: EFFIONG ETOK
Carrier of God’s Word
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
The crown belongs not to the strong, but to those who refuse to quit when strength has failed.
MAIN MESSAGE:
Beloved,
If gates could speak, they would weep.
They would tell you of the thousands who came this far… but gave up when the oil was just about to pour.
I have seen it.
Men with dreams greater than mountains.
Women anointed for nations.
But at the edge -at the thin line between prophecy and manifestation -they fainted.
Not because they lacked a calling.
Not because they were not prayed for.
They fainted because the battle at the gate made their hearts bleed until hope dried up.
Have you ever stood so close to promise that you could smell it -yet feel it slipping through your fingers?
Child of destiny, the enemy doesn’t fight you at the beginning.
He fights you when the gates are swinging open.
He fights when your name is about to be announced in places your feet have not yet entered.
The pressure you feel is not a sign that God left.
It is proof that you are too close to be allowed through casually.
Ask Jesus at Gethsemane.
He wept blood, alone, abandoned by those He called friends -yet He endured the silence of heaven because beyond the cross, there was a crown.
Ask David at Ziklag.
He lost family, home, honor- yet he encouraged himself when there was nothing left to hold onto but the Word spoken over him.
Beloved,
There are no awards for those who almost wore the crown.
History does not remember the strong who quit.
Heaven only crowns those who bled at the gate and still crawled through.
The question today is simple:
Will you die at the gate with greatness locked inside you, or will you groan, cry, bleed, and still press through until the crown rests on your head?
TAKEAWAY STATEMENT:
The sound of battle is not a sign you’ve failed- it’s a sign you’re almost there.
PRAYER POINTS:
1. Father, don’t let me faint when I’m closest to what I’ve prayed for -hold me up when I can’t stand on my own, in the Name of Jesus.
2. Oh God, I’m tired, but I still believe -let my strength not die at the gate of destiny, in the Name of Jesus.
3. Jesus, I have cried, waited, and bled – let this pain not be in vain. After this gate, let my crown appear, in the Name of Jesus.
