Recognizing Doors of Opportunity - Introduction
Outline:
0:00 How do you know that God is truly working on your behalf?
2:46 You have to be very conscious to the devices of the enemy.
5:24 Don’t fall into the prey of the enemy by allowing ourselves to fall in contradiction to God.
7:18 How do you know that God is opening up doors for you?
9:25 Nothing is impossible for God, and we must recognize that.
11:14 You are going to gain wisdom when you are around people and men of God that have been seeking His face.
13:17 You want people around you who are going to be honest with you.
15:18 Godly counsel is the kind of counsel that will improve a nation.
17:14 Sometimes you feel like you’re in a place of discomfort, but that doesn’t mean you are.
Highlights:
Time mark: 2:14
Doors opened by God are in alignment with His Kingdom!
A major aspect of discerning whether or not a door is being opened for you and if that particular venue or avenue of opportunity is for you is to simply make sure that you are lining yourself up with the Word of God. Quite simply, the Lord is not going to bless you by giving you the opportunity to sin or contradict his word.
If it's going to be something that's going to be carnal, if it's going to be something that's going to discredit the things of God, that is not a door of opportunity for you. You have to be very conscious to the devices of the enemy. The enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy. He will try to put things in front of you that look good, but they are not a godly thing for you to really participate in. So you really have to have that discernment, and you really have to make sure that you're lining yourself up with the Word of God.
Chances are if a door opens and it causes you to act according to the flesh, it's going to cause for sin to come in. It's going to cause your character to be in question. We can see this in Galatians 5.
Time mark: 3:18
Galatians 5:19-21
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Time mark 7:19
A second sign that God is opening a door is answered prayer.
We've got to have a prayer life. You have to have conversation with God, talking to God. You calm yourself down and have an ear to hear Him speak back to you. That's what a prayer life is all about. When you begin to pray as a practice of your life, you will specifically see things starting to happen.
Time mark: 9:25
Nothing is impossible for God. And we as his children must recognize that because when we recognize that, once again, our spirit man will strengthen up, and our spiritual eyes open up wide enough where we can start seeing those doors that have our name on it. When we start seeing those windows of blessings that have our name on it.
1 John 5:14-16
And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.
Time mark: 10:31
A third sign that God is opening a door is confirmation from wise counsel.
Proverbs 11:14
For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.
Time mark: 17:14
A forth sign is discomfort in your current situation.
There are so many places before you really get to that place where God says, "This is for you."
Sometimes God puts us in places of discomfort. Remember Jonah? He was put in the belly of a whale. God had to put him in a place of discomfort for him to get his mind to turn around, be obedient to the assignment, and go speak to the Ninevites as God told him to do.
Sometimes God places us in places of discomfort and a situation so that God can release us from peril. He's got to show you, "Look, I am your deliverer. I am your shield and your buckler. I am the one that's going to protect you. I'm going to hide you."
Sometimes you may be seeing all the mess going on, and you feel like "Oh, I don't like being in this." God allows for you to see things so that you don't repeat that type of behavior when He places you im your position in your high place, so that you don't repeat those sins.
So sometimes you're going to feel like you are in a place of discomfort. This does not mean that this discomfort is a sign that you're in the wrong place. God uses struggling and suffering to sharpen and refine us, and to birth something new.
Jesus said, "Oh God, you could just take this cup of indignation, and you can take this cup for Me." Jesus, he was in a place of discomfort. He knew He had to get to Calvary, and as He was thinking about all of what He had to go through, that was not comfortable.
But what did He do? Jesus making His way to Calvary, going through that struggle, the struggle of being crucified, thorns on His head, pierced in His side, nails in His hands and His feet, all of that struggle.
What did He do? Because He adored the cross, what did he birth out? He birthed out the gift of salvation where whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have life everlasting. What a great feat! What a great struggle to go through, and know that he was a person like unto us though He is the son of God, made available such a great opportunity for all of humanity.