I’ve been thinking a good deal lately about the concept of open doors.
In 1 Corinthians 16:9 Paul speaks of a wide door of opportunity for effective work being opened for him. Additionally Revelation 3:7 says that He has the key… “He opens and no one will shut, He shuts and no one opens.” Like many leaders I’m always asking God to clearly open doors or clearly close them. I don’t want to miss open doors, nor do I want to try to push and bulldoze my way through doors He is clearly closing.
We have a specific example of open and closed doors in Acts 16 where we see the Lord closing one door for Paul and Timothy and opening another one. In a vision God spoke to Paul and he obediently traveled West instead of East to take the gospel to other countries.
I love a quote by Leonard Ravenhill:
“The opportunity of a life-time must be seized during the life-time of the opportunity.”
It seems to me that some opportunities have an expiration date, a shelf-life and should be seized without delay; moving out and not procrastinating when He clearly speaks and opens a door. As I pray about this, I realize that I need lots of wisdom to know the difference—If the door is permanently shut or temporarily shut. I also need courage to step out in faith, seize the opportunity and trust Him for what He wants to do.
I play the piano and love music as I mentioned recently in another post. I have written a few worship songs for myself (not thinking there would be a broad interest in the short choruses I compose). A few weeks ago I had the music and lyrics for a song come to me all at once. Here are the words. If you’d like to hear the music, you can email me—davekraft763@gmail.com and I will send it along.
You who opens and no one shuts
You who shuts and no one opens
Give me eyes to see the open doors
Courage to walk through the open doors
Jesus you are sovereign over everything
To you daily my requests I bring
I worship Him often through this song. It gives me strong convictions and confidence that He will guide me and make me aware of the open doors He places before me and also give me the courage (sometime it can cost to go through that open door) to press ahead without fear or hesitancy. The Idea of daily bringing my requests to Him is based on Psalm 5:3 (NL)
“Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.”
Let me close with yet another quote by Pastor Andy Stanley:
“What God initiates God will orchestrate.”
If He has clearly opened a door of opportunity for me or you, we can trust Him to orchestrate all the details and bring it to fruition. We don’t have to lose sleep over how it will happen or when it will happen. We just need to walk forward with confidence in His leading, His character and His promises.
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