Open doors

Text: Isaiah 43:18-20; Isaiah 45:1-4; Revelation 3:6-8

Key Verse: Revelation 3:8, “… See, I have opened a door in front of you that no one can shut … .” (God’s Word Translation)

Everyday we walk through different doors. Just today alone, you may have walked through about five or six different doors. When you woke up, you walked through your bedroom door. You probably passed through another door, when you went to the bathroom to have your bath. You walked through another door when you left your house for the office. On getting to your office, you may have walked through the reception door, probably passed another two doors before you got to your seat. In fact, if you try counting the number of doors a person walks through in one’s lifetime, it may be countless doors.

Importance of Doors
You need a door to get into a place and come out of a place. Doors help you to get in and out of a room, car, bus, train, or airplane. This means that where there is no door, a person could be confined or locked up in a particular place. Being confined or tied down to a particular place speaks of stagnation. For example, if you are locked up inside a building elevator, you may suffocate and die. This reveals to us how miserable our lives may be, if doors are shut against us.

We all desire growth and progress in every area of our lives. Without open doors, a person can be confined to a particular level or spot. Open doors enhance movement. We need open doors to move from one place to another, from one level to another. Open doors give us access to some blessings, places, people and opportunities.

Revelation 3:7 described Jesus as the One that opens a door, which no one can shut, and the One that shuts a door, which no one can open. For the Bible to describe Jesus in this way, it means in this life, everyone needs Christ to open certain doors and to close certain doors. In case you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Personal Saviour, you may quickly surrender your life to Him now so that it may be well with your soul.

Revelation 3:7 list out the qualifications of Jesus as the Door Opener as he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth. Jesus introduced Himself in John 14:6 saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

How Does God Open Doors:
• God Open Doors that are Closed: In Acts 16, while Paul and Silas were in the prison, God came down in His power and shook the prison to its foundations. The Bible says in Acts 16:25, “All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!”

• God Can Create Doors that do not Exist: In Exodus 14, as Moses struck the water under divine instruction, God caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind and created a dry land in the sea, so that children of Israel can pass and their enemies, the Egyptians were all swallowed up in the sea.

• God Can Reveal Unseen Doors: As Abraham went in obedience to Mount Moriah to offer Isaac as Burnt Offering to God, God revealed to him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns to be used for the sacrifice instead of Isaac (Genesis 22).

• When He Chooses not to Open a Door, He becomes the Way Himself: In Luke 4, Jesus, after teaching in the Synagogue, the people in the Synagogue were provoked by His teaching because everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from His lips. They planned to kill Him, but He passed right through the crowd and went on His way without them seeing Him.

• God Opens Perpetual Doors: God does not just open the door but opens it permanently. In Isaiah 45:1, the Bible says, “
Dr. Chidi Okoroafor, General Superintendent, Assemblies of God Nigeria
E-mail: evangelgospel@yahoo.com