Behold I Set Before You an Open Door 1986

We'll start by reading from Revelation chapter 3, starting in verse 7. For the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, The words of the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. One of the pictures which Jesus uses again and again and again to describe what's going on in the world of ultimate reality is the picture of a door. There is the door which opens, reading from John 10, 7. So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

Then, of course, there is a door which closes, reading from Luke 13, 24. Strive to enter at the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us.

And he will answer you, I do not know where you come from. Now the door which opens and which closes controls our passage from one room to another, from one world to another. And we're thinking particularly of doors that we have no power to open or shut, like the door of birth or the door of death.

Sometimes we find ourselves imprisoned in circumstances which seem to have no door at all. Sometimes we feel that we're just absolutely a prisoner to a depression or to an anger that is with us all the time, or to an addiction, or to loneliness. We wake up in the morning in this prison of anger.

We go through the whole day, it's there. Nighttime comes, we lie down, we're still in this prison, we're still trapped. Then perhaps one day we hear scratching and motion in one of the walls.

The wall cracks, a door opens, and now if we will, we can go through that door into freedom. Every prison has a door, every circumstance has a door. There is a door to heaven, and there is a door to hell.

When the Lord said to this church in Philadelphia centuries and centuries ago, over there in what's now Turkey, Behold, I have set before you an open door. He was speaking to a church which seemed to be in one of those prisons that had no door at all. A church which was in a situation which from the human point of view was absolutely hopeless and impossible.

This church was located in a hostile environment, bad location. This church had many detractors, people who were forever slandering it, criticizing it, condemning it, sneering at it. This church had internal problems.

It had little power from the human point of view it would seem this church is never going to make it. It has no future at all. How can it possibly survive with all these pressures from outside and all these struggles on the inside, and yet this church at Philadelphia was destined to live and thrive long after the biggies with all the money and all the talent and all the real estate had turned to dust.

Because this church at Philadelphia had the one necessary thing, the only thing that's needed. Behold, I have set before you an open door. That's all it needs.

Now there are assemblies of believers scattered across the earth in specific places which are now receiving this exact same word from God, this prophecy. They're located in the Soviet Union, England, China, Africa, Latin America. People who gather together somehow but are laboring and living under circumstances which seem to be utterly hopeless.

Churches that have nothing to keep them going, nothing to hold them together, nothing to drive them on except this clear word from God. And it's this prophecy. Behold, I have set before you an open door which keeps them going.

A door which no one is able to shut. I know your works. I know that you have but little power.

Yet you have kept my word. You have not denied my name. Now our circumstances here can certainly not be compared with those of our brothers and sisters overseas that are living their lives in circumstances that would bother our minds if we could see it, if we had to spend one day living the way they have to live.

And it's hardly right for us to even compare ourselves. And yet, we are located in a place. We're put in a mission field, you could say, where very, very, very few American Christians want to mess around at all.

We're in a place where, from the human point of view, things don't look too good. From the human point of view, this doesn't have much future, this place here. From the human point of view.

But we have one thing which wonderfully blesses us, gives us unspeakable hope, marvelous joy, makes us winners in this battle every single day. We have been given that same word that's given to our sisters and brothers overseas. This prophecy applies as well to us.

Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Now, if you will walk through that door and keep walking through that door, you will thrive. If we continue to walk through the door which he has opened and no one can shut against us, then we will have his anointing upon us, we will fulfill his purpose in our lives, in our corporate life, and we will bring heaven right down into this earth everywhere we go.

Behold, I have set before you an open door. First, into the presence of God. Second, into unity with each other.

And third, into a world which is ripe for the harvest. Behold, I have set before you an open door into the presence of God. Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

We know the doctrine. The doctrine is that the blood of the lamb gives us access to the presence of God. In a mystery, when Jesus of Nazareth died on that cross, at that instant, the veil in the temple separating the holy place from the holy of holies was ripped from top to bottom as the earth trembled and shook, as a sign that the lamb was now moving with his own blood into the presence of a living God.

And now it's possible, if we will, to come in behind him, covered by that same blood, and enter the presence of God. I've opened the door, says the Spirit. You can come in, if you will, but you have to choose to enter.

Now, that church in Philadelphia enjoyed the power of God and the presence of God because those people kept going through the door all the time. They were entering the door. They were practicing his presence.

Individually and corporately, they were seeking his face. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. I choose to do this.

I will do it. And the word of the Lord to this church, to this moment, is Seek my face. Draw near to me.

Come to me. Get under my yoke. When the Lord opens the door to his presence, to his people, and they fail to go through that door, when church people and church leaders try to exercise ministries and make decisions with dry spirits that have not entered the door, make no effort to go through into the presence of God, they think they can get away without that.

No humbling of the life before God. No discipline of prayer. No seeking of his face.

Then we have disaster. Behold, I have set before you an open door, and I will use those who will pass through that door into my presence. They are the ones that I will use.

And for those, says the Lord, who seek to make decisions and exercise ministries from outside that door, be warned. The door will close. And once it closes, it will not open again.

Behold, I have set before you an open door into unity with each other. From Ephesians chapter 2, verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, Jew and Gentile, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. Jesus opens the door of unity among us by breaking down the wall of hostility between us. The wall comes down.

There's a big hole in the wall. Now we can come into unity. But we have to go through that hole.

He has broken down the wall of hostility, reconciling Jew and Gentile to God and in so doing to each other. Jew and Gentile. Black and white.

Young and old. Male and female. But to experience that one new man, we have to go through the hole in the wall.

If you don't cross that hole in the wall and go through the door which he opened, nothing happens. Behold, I've set before you an open door. You've got to enter that door.

It's up to you to pass through. Ephesians 4, 1. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called in all lowliness and meekness with patience forbearing one another in love. He's talking about reconciliation, being one with each other, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

Unity. There is one body, one spirit. Unity.

Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. Unity. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all who is above all and through all and in all.

He opened the door, doesn't do us a bit of good until we come through the door. And that's something we do not just once and for all, but all the time. Example, when a man and a woman are married, they are declared by God to be one flesh.

But they have to make that truth actual by going through the door. The wall of partition between male and female has been broken down, but now they have to come together with their bodies, also with their hearts and with their minds. Constantly.

Forgiving, asking forgiveness, walking in reconciliation, being at one with each other. They have to do this. Then they experience the one new man.

This is much more true in the body. And lowliness and meekness forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. He makes us one.

He opens the door, but we have to walk it. We have to practice it. We have to live it.

What a wonderful opportunity the Lord has given us here to have that. Here we are together, and He's opened the door. He's broken down the wall, but we have to walk through.

And it's not my responsibility to make you walk through it. It's my responsibility to walk through it myself. And I can stand back and say, what's the matter with Ken? Why doesn't he walk through the door? That ain't helping me, and that's not helping the body.

You know, my responsibility is to walk through the door and go over to Ken and shake his hand. My responsibility is to go to my brother and my sister and be at one. And should there be in this gathering here between brothers and sisters or even between people and families any kind of wall, know this, that today the Lord has broken down that wall, but you walk through the door now.

And before you leave this building, go to that person and shake their hand. Ask forgiveness. Give them a hug.

Whatever you have to do, but be at one. We are called to be reconciled to God, and that can only be true if we're also reconciled to each other. Behold, I have said before you, behold, I have said before you an open door into a world which is ripe for the harvest.

Reading from John chapter 4, starting at verse 35. Do you not say there again, four months, then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white for the harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

Look through that door. There's the harvest field. A world just ready and waiting.

It's ripe. It's ready. Go in and take it.

But with a natural eye, it doesn't look like much. It looks like a banquet prepared for people who are too busy to come. And when we think of the people out there where we live, where we work, we say to ourselves, they won't be interested.

They don't care. But when the Lord opens the door, our responsibility is to walk through the door. Go and do it.

Don't you figure out whether they will or won't. You go to them. That's what the Lord is saying to us to do.

Walk through the door and touch them with my grace. Visit them with my healing. Offer them my kingdom.

Bring them my forgiveness. Invite them to my banquet. And I guarantee you, says the Lord, you will see results.

One out of ten? Praise God for that. One out of a hundred? Praise God for that. But we will absolutely see living souls brought from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God in numbers or with enthusiasm and joy beyond anything we've ever seen before.

We will see this. Just walk through that door. For the angel of the church in Detroit, right? The words of the Holy One, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.

I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. And if you will come through that door into my presence, into unity with each other, into a world which is thirsting and ready and ripe for the harvest, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth.

I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. Let's wait upon the Lord in silence.