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Have you ever pondered or meditated upon how physical doors can be used as a metaphor for spiritual doors? Doors are symbolic for opportunities that are set before us.
We all have doors within our houses, sheds/garages, caravans, cars, trucks, and motor homes unless of course we live in a tent or a cave — and just so as you know, I am not referring to man caves here. Doors are good for closing to keep us safe, provide privacy, to block out noise, and to prevent the escape of wanted effects from air conditioning within the enclosed space concerned. I am thankful for doors on our car as driving on the busy roads, let alone the super highways, is truly a necessity. It is our front line of defence against road rage and anyone just deciding to get into our vehicle at any time. Living without physical doors seems so dangerous to me and that is precisely why we continue to lock our cars and homes to protect our property from thieves and the elements.
When closed, unfamiliar doors prevent us from knowing what is on the other side of them. There was a TV programme from decades ago that gave the quiz show contestant a choice on whether they would choose Door A, B or C to win the prize that was on the other side. Memory prevents me from recalling every detail including the title of the show, but the one thing that stuck out in my developing mind was the fact that there was only one premium choice, one in-between choice, and one very poor choice. I found myself always wanting the person to pick the best option from behind the right door, even if it was by chance.
Imagine, if you will, always opening the correct door in relation to every major decision you will have throughout your life. With big, important decisions this would be life changing. With small decisions it may not seem so important but it would still affect one’s life to varying degrees. The consequences and effects may take much longer to catch up with the individual but nonetheless, they would still occur.
Recently I had cause to remember the principle of having our Father open the right door and closing the wrong doors for me whilst in prayer. Spiritual doors relate to God’s will for us. Jesus Christ uses these very words which are found in John 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture”. We of course have chosen this door from which we have entered on the start of our journey. God opened His door to us so that we can have a close and remarkable relationship with both the Father and His Son along the way of traversing the journey into the Promised Land where eternal life will be given.
In the meantime we still get to make all our choices as we have free will, however experience has proved that there is no better way than to present these choices before our Father in prayer, and have Him guide and advise us. Our prayers may go something like this: “Father, as You know, I have a dilemma — two employment opportunities before me. Both sound like they would be good jobs and both have similar conditions. It is difficult for me to choose which job would be best as both do not require any work on the Sabbath. You know all. You know best for me. Please can you advise me and direct me in my choice?” Invariably I close with “please widely open the door which is best and close the other door firmly shut so I do not make the wrong choice”. God has never let me down, no not even once. His direction and will for us is always perfect.
I mean...how can we know what is best? We would probably choose the job closest to home as less distance to travel and that would seem like the best choice. Right?! But on the other hand, maybe the job another 15-20 minutes away has employees that are stable, kinder, better to work with, and the sustainability of this position works for the long term. Without being in the posting we simply cannot know all the pros and cons. But God does. So it is always best to take our petitions to God, lay them before Him, talk to Him respectfully in awesome wonder, but also as our best friend and confidant, in order to reason together to come to the final conclusion (Isaiah 1:18). How God closes all the doors that are not the best choice is up to Him. He may do this in such an unlikely way that we could never imagine, and often does, the incongruity of which gives much laughter or amusement and joy at His perfect timing and sense of humour. We just need to trust Him and not take matters into our own hands.
Opening The Door Of Faith
There are many wonderful examples in the Bible which readily come to mind about individuals who took their petitions to God in order for our Father to advise and direct their steps. However, within this piece of writing, we will look at the example of the apostle Paul. Let us begin in Colossians 4:2-3 where Paul is beseeching the church to “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains”. Do we ask for open doors for the gospel to be preached? I think we do when we consider all that the church does with Beyond Today magazines, the TV programme of the same name, online sermons, articles, and in many other ways for seeds to be spread through letterbox drops for example.
Following on from Paul asking those in the early Church to pray for open doors to preach the gospel, the next account highlighting the marvellous opportunity provided from God we will go to is in 1 Corinthians 16:9 where scripture states “because a great door for effective work has opened to me, even though many oppose me”. These are the words of Paul when speaking about preaching in Ephesus and staying there until Pentecost because the opportunity was so great he needed more time with the people to effectively preach the message and continue to work with them. Paul directly gives God the credit for opening this great door and acknowledged that he could do absolutely nothing without God providing this opportunity, this open door. Is this how we think and feel too? I think it is. We know we are truly nothing without Him.
Next, we can go to Acts 14:27-28 where there was another occasion to stay a while or linger due to much work that could be done because God opened that door in order for the disciples to strengthen the converts. Luke writes for us “And when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. So they stayed there a long time with the disciples”. This would have been such an exciting occasion to have witnessed first hand realising that the Gentiles were given the good news of the coming Kingdom of God because God had opened their minds to this knowledge. Is this how we feel when people are added to our congregation after God has opened their minds for the first time? It is incredibly exciting welcoming new converts.
Again, Paul speaks or writes about God opening a door to preach, this time in 2 Corinthians 2:12 “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, …”. This is the same account where Paul gives “thanks to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place”. How beautiful to know that we are the fragrance of Christ to those who are being saved because God opened those doors.
There were many doors opened for Paul and the apostles to preach the gospel of the coming Kingdom of God just like God has opened those same doors to us all these years later. We just need to be willing to do so. We must tune in to our Father by listening earnestly and removing all those distractions in order to hear what He says when we pray to Him. We must be doers rather than just hearers of the word as the Bible points out in James 1:22.
I was interested to learn of an occasion where a seemingly open door was closed firmly shut by God for His purpose. Such is the case in the example found in Acts 16:6-7 which is very interesting to read. It states “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them”. Why so? If you read on in Acts 16:9-10 Paul was given a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading with him to come and help them. Paul concluded that this vision was from God and immediately went to preach the gospel in Macedonia. Paul was not only willing to do God’s work, he did so straight away.
How do we know without a shadow of a doubt that God has shut one door and opened the other? Through our close, intimate connection in prayer. At the conclusion of my prayers regarding the dilemma over which position I should choose, God made it much easier for me by showing me an even better way. Both positions were not for me. He provided me with other work which came by way of being approached to do country and remote work of which I had not even considered. Open doors from God are waiting for us to walk through. Closed doors need more effort and yes we can push them or pry them open by trying to force them open but it is always best to go with God’s plan for us.