An Open Door...

When I was a teenager, my family moved to a farming community in Missouri for a time. I had lived my whole life in the city in California, and I understood grapes and peaches and wheat from a distance, but had never worked in produce myself.

When we later lived on the farm, I wanted to plant a garden, vegetables not flowers, and I worked hard to till the ground and plant the seed. Did you know that the hardest thing to do is realize that it takes a lot of time for a seed to start growing? It takes a whole season for the seed to germinate, poke up through the ground and then begin to develop into a sturdy plant that can handle rain and wind, and still come to age where it produces the fruit you expected a week after you planted.

There were days I felt like tearing up one just to see what in the world was taking so long!

Eventually though, the little plants would appear and growth could be measured. You had the faith then to know you would be eating of this garden and that all the work you invested was worth it. But the first time you plant a garden, it seems almost forever before you can see it growing.

I have recently seen growth in my church that amazes me because it has seemed forever that some young person was so immature and worthless and unable to do anything, and I worried about the future of the church because that young person is part of the future church. I would be sitting in the church as an oldster while they ministered in service! Boy, how is that person going to be able to do that in the shape they are in?

I thought about this several times throughout the last few years. I thought that about my own children, too. I thought that about me; what can I do like this God? How am I supposed to work in the kingdom while I am still trying to figure things out myself?

Well, I am amazed in what I see. Strong sturdy burdened workers where before there was just a lazy or troubled kid. Leadership in the most unlikely places is popping up out of the ground. God has been developing some seeds into tough stalks that can withstand the wind and the rain and still produce fruit!

Rev 3:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

The time has come when vision is to be executed. God has given vision, and we have struggled to understand how that can come to pass. I am amazed at the workings of the Almighty to bring to pass that which He promised. Everything is popping up out of the ground ready for the task at hand; the task of the end-time; the task of the harvest.

A door is open, and we are to go through it. How? By listening and waiting for the leadership God has provided, by praying and listening to God’s voice; by study and careful watching for opportunity.

There is an open door before us, what lies beyond is the burden of your heart. For me, it is a harvest of souls white and ready. For you it may be a mission field, a calling to the ministry, or a desire to stand in the gap for those who cannot or a combination of the above. Whatever the burden of your heart, the door is open.

Changes are going to take place in your life, and you will not recognize yourself in the near future. You will change to the purpose God has for you. You will be doing things you never felt able to do, and your desire will change to the task before you.

God has opened a door and no man can shut it. It is time for work.

What if I do not want to go through the door? What if I just want to sit on the pew like I have for twenty years and be preached to and go home and fix dinner and live like I have always lived?

Let me tell you that you will not stay the same. Not going through that door causes God to re-position you. Maybe there will be another door in your future, but you have not helped yourself.

Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel, and He had the sad job of foretelling for Israel the result of not going through the door. This passage sums up the whole chapter:

Jeremiah 8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

The one positive event that took place in Jeremiah’s day was the great end-time revival. The one positive event that we anticipate is a great end-time revival and a harvest of souls.

There is a harvest, white and ready. The door in your life is opening, go through it. When God opens a door, no one will shut it; be not discouraged or afraid, but proceed with the confidence that God has grown you to this task, for such a time as this.