1. The Mortal Door that God Would not Open
No matter the angels that accompany you, they won’t open every door. Some doors, weaker as they might seem, may only be opened my mortal will rather than by divine might. When Peter was imprisoned by bloody Herod, to be killed after Passover, the angel of God effortlessly opened the very fortified consecutive iron gates that that wicked king in alliance with Hell had raised against Apostle Peter. However, when the same Peter got to the much weaker door shut by church folks doing their prayer ritual, Peter had to knock and knock and plead softly from without, before it was opened; opened by mortal will rather than by divine intervention (Acts 12:1-17).
2. Prepare to Meet the Next Door
As we make progress in life; as we go from one point in time and space to the next, there will always be doors to meet. Be not dismayed at meeting the next shut door after so freely going through a previous open gate. Do not say, “But Lord, why another shut door in my way? Didn’t You just open to me the iron gates?” No gate freely accessed today will be the last of passages to pass through; no gate crossed today is a guarantee for every next door. Angels may open some; at others, you may have to knock and knock, like Peter who “continued knocking” (v.16) – never giving up at one attempt. It may even be your people within, yet the door may not open automatically at your presence.
3. The Paradox of Doors
God won’t open every door, especially when shut by the Church. To the Church in Laodacea, Jesus pleaded from without, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door …” (Revelation 3:20). Ironically, that was the same Resurrected Master against whom the gates of Hell could not stand; that was the “LORD strong and mighty” before whom the heralds of Heaven screamed, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in” (Psalm 24:7).
If He be “King of glory”; if He be “The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle,” as that voice announced at the eternal gates (Psalm 24:8), why does He seem so powerless against mere doors set up by His own Church? If plural gates of iron and brass would bow without controversy before Him, how could He seem so stranded at a common door? How could an angel open the much stronger iron gates of wicked Herod, yet be apparently absent while Peter knocked and knocked at the weaker doors set up my mortal folks of God?
Some doors will open to you effortlessly by angelic presence; other doors will open to you by repeated manual knocks and the persistence of voice (Mattthew 7:7). Angels don’t open every door.
4. A Prayer
O Lord my God, may no door in my life ever prevent You. I open unto You now and ever my life, my all. Come in, dear King and Master. Abide with me, Lord, fast falls the evening tide. Abide with me, Lord, and never leave, for the days are evil. I see the darkening clouds gather in the near horizon. I need you Lord. O doors, OPEN, in Jesus name! Amen.
From The Preacher’s diary,
August 10, 2021.
