In
Rev 3:7 The Lord describes Himself as the One who can open or shut any
door. ("And to the angel of the
church in Philadelphia
write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no
one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens…)
If
we are overcomers, we need never stand before a
closed door at any time, when it is the will of God that we should go through.
But
the Lord also shuts certain doors before us, so that we don't go into paths
that He has not ordained for us - paths that He knows will not be profitable
for us.
It
is really an exciting life to be an overcomer. The
Lord Himself decides which doors we should go through, and which doors we
should stop knocking at.
In
the book of Jonah, we see how the Lord shut one door (of a ship, by getting
Jonah thrown overboard) and opened another (of a fish's mouth, by getting it to
swallow Jonah). When the fish came to the coast of Israel, the Lord opened the fish's
mouth once again to place His servant ashore. Thus God brought Jonah back to
"Square One". Then He told him once again to go to Nineveh, where He wanted him to preach. Then
Jonah went.
If
God wants us in any place for any purpose, He has ways and means of closing the
wrong doors before us (getting us thrown out of somewhere perhaps!) and of
opening the right doors in front of us. He even has means of transporting us
back to "Square One" in our lives, so that we don't miss His best!
What He did for Jonah, He will do for us too. He will do even more.
The key to every door is in His hand. If you are a wholehearted
disciple of the Lord, with no ambition in life but to glorify God, you can be
certain of one thing - that nothing can stand in your way. Like automatic doors
that open as soon as a person comes near them, every closed door that hinders
you from moving forward in the fulfillment of God's will, will open up before
you - as soon as you come near it. He opens each door at the right time - not
too soon and not too late. He will also close those doors that would make you
miss His perfect will for your life.