DOORS

Doors

Revelation 3:7b-8 “What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”

Life is full of seasons. What season are you in right now? Are you in a busy season or a quiet one? Are you in a productive season or maybe a desert one? Whatever your season today, there will come a day when the Lord will change things for you. In the Bible’s own words,  God opens and closes doors in your life. As the text today suggests, once the Lord opens or closes a door, it cannot be reversed unless God does it. So it is that when a door starts to close, God usually lets us know. Similarly when another door is opening, He lets us know one way or another. The period in between one door closing and the next one opening, if it’s a long time, is often referred to as a desert season.

I can only illustrate this from my own experiences. After I retired, I got the opportunity to travel with a prophetic ministry and for four years we did so, making well over 100 trips all over the place. Then I met Linda and the Lord started to close the ministry door and open one in our present home town. The actual move was  quite miraculous for several reasons and as we settles the Lord closed the ministry door. We wondered and prayed about why He had moved us so far to our new home and church  - it was a desert season really as we had not too many clues about what our ministry was to be. Gradually we noticed a change in our hearts and a new ministry seemed to be birthing in us until, very recently the Lord opened a door beyond our previous imagining. It is so far outside our previous comfort zone yet we feel secure in it and we are really looking forward to our new ministry among the hurt, lonely, and disenfranchised of our town.

You see, God closed old doors and opened the new ones for us. He even left us in a desert place for a while where we had no idea what was going to happen. Who knows what He has next for us? But I do know it will all be OK as the Lord is leading us and we trust Him totally. SO it will be for you as He encourages you to follow Him. Perhaps the doors He opens and closes for us are the hallmark of following Him. I know we are to carry our cross and follow Him but surely He leads us gently, always sowing us the way forward via new doors opening and old ones closing. We can never re-open old doors that He has closed. Oh, we can try of course but if He has really closed the door then we cannot open it again.

Are you coming to the end of an old season? Is the Lord closing an old door to you? Maybe He is simply getting you to a desert place where all you can do is sit at His feet and listen to Him? Maybe, like us, He will be preparing you for that next new door and whatever lies beyond it. I know it is a matter of trust in Him and it can be a little bit nerve wracking at times, but He doesn’t; He will not let you down. He is always there for you, looking after you and supplying your needs.

Never be afraid of pushing on a new door. If it opens, then it is the Lord who has opened it. If it stays shut then, equally, it is the Lord who is simply saying, “No – not this way. I have a better way for you.”

Trust Him. Trust Jesus. Follow Him wherever He leads you. “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6