Opened Doors

Opened Doors 

August 8, 2016

Isaiah 30:21  "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'"

Opened doors, they are easier to walk through than ones that are closed and locked.  Sometimes you'd like to walk through a door, a path in your life, but the door is closed, nailed shut even.  Common sense gives you discernment about doors that are closed.  Closed doors never get walked though, you just can't.  Conversely, common sense says when a door is opened wide you should walk through it.  Open, closed, it all seems so easy, as if the answer has been made for us.  We don't always like it, but closed doors give us little opportunity for discussion.  We even post platitudes about when God closes a door He opens another or maybe there is an open window.  This, by the way, is not found anywhere in scripture.  But how about those open doors.  Obviously they should get utilized?  The Lord has much to say about the path you travel in life and it has nothing to do with a door being opened or closed.

Scripture says you will hear a voice, the Lord's voice, whispering in your ear, about the direction you should head.  It is a still, small voice and you must listen carefully for it, drowning out your own voice, you mother's voice, the voice of fear, and the voice of common sense.  The only voice that matters in an entryway of life is the Lord's.  Sometimes Satan opens a door for you, tempting you away; that door should never get utilized.  You can probably think of some things in your past, paths you took that seemed easy and exciting because the opportunity was there, the door was opened, but it was NOT from the Lord.  What you want and common sense will not always be sage advice.  You've got to listen for that voice, the right one telling you which way to go.

In the verses surrounding the discussion of the Lord's voice tell you which direction you should head, there is some expressed caution with reasoning behind it.  The Israelites wanted what they wanted and when enticed they walked toward it no matter how unhealthy.  Conversely, they also ran the opposite direction when it was difficult.  The Bible says they got nervous about the path they were to take and looked for a way to flee, so they jumped on horses and  fled.  There is huge significance to that.  The Israelites didn't have horses.  They didn't keep horses, nor were they experienced riders.  But apparently in their fear to flee a difficult situation, they found horses.  The horses represent a common sense method to escape difficulty since the horses were provided for them.  The horses represented an opened door.  They reasoned the horses were there for the appropriate action.  This was false and the Lord said the enemy would simply overtake them.  Their common sense of walking through an opened door was flawed.  It wasn't the voice of the Lord telling them to go.  They made what seemed like the right decision to them.  The Lord's voice told them to turn around and fight, not walk through the open door to escape His plan.  I encourage you to read the entire chapter of Isaiah 30.

You have options in life, opportunities to head this way or that.  Doors get opened and closed all the time.  Your job is to figure out how and when and why you should walk through those doors, only you don't even have to figure that out.  All you have to do is listen to the voice.  It's not the voice of reason, it is the voice of the Lord.  Sometimes the voice of the Lord will ask you to walk through a scary looking door, only to realize your blessing is awaiting not too far away.  But you have to trust that voice.  Likewise, the door may be very attractive, but the voice is tell you not to walk through it.  I would, again, advise listening to the correct voice, the voice of the Lord telling you which way to go.  If you listened only to the voice of human reason, you'll either end up paralyzed from moving forward or you'll walk through the completely wrong door altogether.  In the rest of Isaiah 30 the Lord offers a recommendation.  He says to wait on Him.  Waiting on Him is not the physical act of waiting but the spiritual act of pausing until the voice is clear, crystal clear.  Then you can move forward with boldness and confidence.  Go ahead and walk through that opened door, but only if the voice of the Lord told you to walk through it.

Don't take my word for it; look it up:  1 Kings 19, Pr 14:12, Pr 16:25, Is 30, John 16:13