I’m sure I did the same thing to my parents when I was growing up. With their door closed, I would either knock or just go right in at times. My guess is they would have appreciated less interference and more politeness to always knock and not just walk right in.
Working in the marketing and public relations business for over 20 years, I can also tell you there is nothing more irritating than people coming and going in and out of your office door when you have a huge deadline. I have locked my door at work, only to have someone with a master key unlock it to grab my attention. PR takes a lot of patience and flexibility, which I have had garner over the years with so many projects and work due at once! That is an area God had to indeed teach me.
Lock it up tight!
The exterior doors to our homes have at least one lock if not a deadbolt, chain, or slide lock. Perhaps all three! This day and time, our society seems to be more careful about leaving their residence or work locations unlocked. In my hometown, many years ago, some of our neighbors never locked their houses. Instead left the keys in their cars whether at home or at work or while parked to go shopping. Locked doors were not an issue!
Now it seems we all have to be more cautious using wisdom as we pray for protection in the natural. When answering our doors at home to strangers, or traveling in a larger city it can be a good thing to lock your car doors even while sitting at red lights. It seems door locking has become a major priority in the past 30 years or less. We no longer live in a part of the world where you can simply leave your doors unlocked. At least if not locked, then it seems doors have to be shut for various reasons.
Doors being shut in the natural are a way of life. Doors shut in the spiritual are just the opposite. Jesus knocked on your door before you accepted Him by faith. When you said… “I want Jesus in my heart,” your spiritual door opened wide. As it is written…
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelations 3:20 (NASB)
Listen for His knock. Listen for His voice through others.
When praying for opportunities to reach others, I ask the Father to please open up a doorway or a passage way so I may be a vessel for Him. I pray for barriers to be moved so pathways can be cleared for His work to be done for God’s glory.
Before I stepped out on faith, I would never have thought to pray specifically in such a way or have a strong desire to be a vessel or instrument for God in this lifetime.
My spiritual door was shut! And shut tight! The sign hanging read “DO NOT DISTURB!” In fine print below, I am guessing it read something like… “I like my life like it is… thank you Jesus for saving me, and I look forward to seeing you in Heaven.”
That was the extent of my spiritual knowledge of God! I did not want my spiritual door to be open to whatever God wanted me to do! I wanted to do what I wanted to do but be saved. What I did was say… “Jesus, I can handle life. Thanks for watching over me, but I have it in control.” That is probably like asking a welcomed guest or friend to leave because you don’t want them around any longer! As Gomer Pyle use to say “For shame, For shame, For shame!”
I had to seek GOD before He entered my life again in a very intimate way to know Him personally. I had strayed away and my spiritual door was DEAD bolted!
You may be thinking… “But if you accepted Jesus Christ earlier in your life does that mean you are no longer saved?” I can’t give a definitive answer to the question on the subject of “once saved, always saved.” I do know we are expected and commanded as Christians to grow in God’s grace. Live by HIS rules as HE rules our life. Scriptures tells of this in the Bible.
God will never force Himself on anyway. He will leave you alone if that is your desire. But what a life you think you’re living only to learn that you shut Jesus out when it’s all said and done! You may have an angel walking around behind you in the spiritual world calling out “Dead one walking! Dead bolted and locked down.”
For those who believe when accept Jesus in your heart that’s it the end of God’s expectations for your life… It’s just the beginning! Your spiritual door should have a sign that reads “Come on in! Open to my Lord and Savior 24/7. How may I serve you?”
“…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:13-14 (NIV)
Give it a “think”…
How much is your door open to His way of living which begins with you… within you?
Have you just gone through the motions of asking Jesus to come into your heart by opening your door, only to have a spring attached to automatically close on Him as He stands there?
Have you accepted the call of acting like Jesus is in your heart by ripping off your spiritual door at the hinges???
From my personal experience; when I was touched by Jesus Christ, there was and continues to be, a devoted passion which wells up inside as the Holy Spirit comes alive! The desire to return to my old self and old ways diminished with discipline.
You will be tempted. Oh, yes! The enemy wants to board up your spiritual door, give you all the locks you want, and some you don’t want. ANY thing to keep you from opening your door to Jesus every day you’re granted a breath to do something for Him... or for others as He directs you... or in knowing God as you have never known Him!
So, I ask…
What sign do you have hanging on your spiritual door? Or is the passion of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so entrenched in your soul that you no longer have a door but are open to Him all the time?
I challenge you to grow to know Him so you don’t even want a door between God and you any longer. Trust God on the inside of you so that on the outside of your body, house, car and work… you may have doors with keys to lock up things in the natural, but you naturally pray for God to motivate your spiritual doors to open up to Him.
He protects you. He loves you. He keeps you safe. Don’t slam your door on the Creator of the Universe locking Him out of your life. He is the reason you have a life... with all kinds of possibilities... in the natural and the spiritual. He can open doorways for you that you'd never imagined! But there is one door that has to be fully opened first... the one to your heart!
What if He never knocked again?
Dear Father,
I pray you will remove the hinges to know you, love you, and do your work as I give you the key to my heart and the door to go with it!
May everyone reading this prayer start by placing a welcome mat at their door in the natural and spiritual doors of their lives. May each one become more Christ-like, if they are not already in the place with you they need to be.
In Jesus Christ’s Name,
Amen!
Christa
+ + +
