Closed doors! Is there anything harder to deal with than a closed door? Well, for the believer, there are many test and many trials; however, nothing seems to overwhelm us like a "closed door." I mean after all, closed doors yields no answers to our questions; they reveal no hints of what lies beyond them; they are just there, blocking and standing between our request and our desired answer.
Have you ever asked God for something or desired something that seemed to never reveal itself, in any shape, form, or fashion? Ever feel like someone has closed the door on your dreams and threw away the key? Well, you are not alone! Many of us have cried ourselves to sleep, exercised our faith until we had no more strength, held on to hope until hope seemed to let go! and did exactly what Donnie McClurkin told us to do when there was nothing left to do, and that is to "stand", ...yet, the doors remained closed!
What is God trying to tell you, while in this season of "closed doors?" ....Is it the closed door that is the problem or is it your inability to do anything about the closed door that annoys you so? (The fact that you are so limited and powerless as you stand before that closed door). What if I told you that you can begin to live beyond those closed doors? or should I at least say, gain a new way to look at those closed doors!
Every single door that has been shut, has been shut, intentionally and strategically, by God. I hear someone asking, "why would God purposely close doors that I cannot open? (I asked that exact same question!), well, it is because he wants to increase your vision. Give you a new level of seeing! I believe that God is even ministering to me right now, as he says, "You have come too far to still see a closed door, as a closed door!" God wants to increase not only our vision, but our perception, so that we can begin to see "beyond" those closed doors, and to see him, who is able to move freely amidst our greatest obstacles (and yes! that includes doors). He wants us to realize that a door represents restraints and boundries and that he is not bound by neither. God works best when doors are closed (and I mean closed!) ...some of you know exactly what I am talking about! He gets to reveal himself, when doors are closed! Just ask the disciples, about the day when they sat in a room, behind a "closed/locked door", afraid of what the Jews were going to do to them. As they sat there afraid, Jesus suddenly appeared in the room, having come through that same closed/locked door! Jesus never even touched the door! Why? Because it was swallowed up by his power! What was he revealing to them by doing that? Jesus wanted them to know, and He wants us to know that he is able to become all that we need, in the midst of shut doors. He does not need an open door in order for him to prove himself.
Listen, He walked through a closed door and called for "peace" in the midst of their fear (John 20:19). That closed door represented a barrier for them, but Jesus wanted them to "see" that he controls barriers...he moves through barriers. He wanted them to know that even though you may see a door separating you from what's on the other side of it, there is nothing that can separate you from what it is that I have for you. In John 20:26, Jesus walked through that same locked door on a second occasion, commanding peace in the midst of a doubter named Thomas, who although seeing Jesus walk right through that same locked door, still needed proof that he had victory over the impossible!! God wants you to see Him, beyond the door, beyond the impossible!....the door that you see is a necessary distraction, to test your spiritual vision!
God is asking, "do you see a door or do you see me! He wants to bless you, beyond the closed doors in your life. Every closed door that you experience is God teaching you to increase your vision! Praise God! He wants you to know, that you will never look at a closed door the same way again! When the Closed doors represent impossibilities, Jesus is saying, Do you see a door or do you see me?" When they represent failure, dead ends, and defeat, Jesus is saying, "Do you see a closed door or do you see me?"
It's time to increase your vision! It's time to begin to see God beyond that closed door; keep praying and fasting, beyond that closed door; keep dancing and singing, beyond that closed door; keep pressing your way to church, beyond that closed door, give God praise, beyond that closed door, and worship him with your life, beyond that closed door! And, the next time a closed door threatens to dismantle your hope, you call on the name of Jesus, and ask him to increase your vision, so that you can look beyond that closed door, and experience HE, who knows no impossibilities!! HE, who has started a good work in you; HE who will finish it; and HE, who is still revealing himself, beyond closed doors!
