CLOSED DOORS THEOLOGY
Are you paralyzed or confused deciding your next big step?
We’ve all stood before several doors trying to choose the right one. There’s a better way.
Learning to embrace closed doors could change your life’s direction — literally.
MAPS WITHOUT STRAIGHT LINES
The itinerary of Paul’s second missionary journey is convoluted.
Paul and Silas leave Antioch, travel through Syria and Cilicia, and arrive in Derbe and Lystra. Paul decides to take the Gospel into Asia, the obvious strategic target.
Without details, Luke says, "And they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." (Acts 16:6)
Door one closed. Then:
"And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." (Acts 16:7)
Door two closed. Imagine writing the prayer letter to Antioch.
A map shows Paul's team is essentially moving in circles, redirected each time they move.
Cheryl and I set off for Nicaragua, sojourned in Costa Rica, and eventually ended up in El Salvador, only to be led back to our birth nation after a decade. At the time, those redirections felt more like detours than guidance. Looking back, they were divine navigation beyond our ability to comprehend.
I’ve never met a highly successful person whose life trajectory is a straight line upwards.
CLOSED DOORS AND OPEN HEARTS
We don't know the details of how the Spirit shut the door to Asia and Bithynia.
How can you be certain you're at the right door, or that God really closed it? Normally, you can’t. Wrong questions.
The mechanism is less important than the principle: God guides people who are moving. The door cannot close on a direction you never attempted.
We do know that God guides us through circumstances, wise counsel, scripture, or that still small voice.
But wanting certainty before we commit is what we get backward. Paul's certainty wasn't in the destination, but in the Person doing the guiding.
So, make the best decision with the information you have. Move with an open heart, and ready to pivot. If God closes the door, He’ll open another.
Don’t trust your ability to devise the perfect plan. Trust God to perfectly lead you in ways you’ve never imagined to places you’ve never heard of.
Two closed doors led to Troas, Paul’s practical next option. There, not where he intended to go, he received the “Macedonian vision” – altering the course of history by taking the gospel into Europe. (Acts 16:9-10)
STOP FEARING CLOSED DOORS
If you take a step and God closes the door, it’s not evidence you misheard Him, but how He gets you to Troas.
What door have you been afraid to open? Just make the best choice you can. God will guide to another if needed.
Don’t see a closed door as failure, but as the path to the door you’ve not considered.