Turnaround...What Good Are Closed Doors?

8-26-07 message by Pastor Rich Doebler

Have you ever heard someone say, "God spoke to me"? They make it sound as though he gave them clear, specific instructions on what to do or where to go. They make it sound simple to hear from God—as though he sent them an email or left a voice mail or called them on their cell with everything they needed to know.

Video clip: Can You Hear Me Now?

It's one thing to pray—to know God hears us—but how do we hear God? How do you hear the voice of God? How does he lead and direct our lives? How does God speak to us?

Do you hear an audible voice? What does God's voice sound like? Is it a deep, bass voice? Does he speak in English? Does he speak in Hebrew? If it's not his audible voice that we hear, what then? Does God give us a strong, inner impression—sort of a gut feeling? Does he speak in dreams or visions or a prophetic word? And, if so, how do you sort out supernatural dreams from the dreams you get from drinking Starbucks too late at night? How do you know which dreams are from God and which are just plain weird?

Discovering God's will can be difficult—even mysterious. And if we're honest, we'd have to admit that knowing God's will for a specific situation is not always easy.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." (Acts 13:2)

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6-10)

Look at the ways the Spirit of God was involved in leading them: he said...he prevented...he would not allow...he gave a vision (maybe in a dream)...

Hearing from God is very seldom as clear and direct. Hearing God's voice is NOT like getting a phone call from your wife telling you to pick up some milk, bread, dish detergent, and dog food on your way home.

Have you ever asked questions like: How do I know what God's will is for me? What does God want me to do with my life? Where should I live? Who should I marry? Should I even get married?

Such questions often come at a crossroads in life. Maybe during major crises or changes, which require a decision. Is it possible to hear specifically what God is saying to you? Just exactly how does the Holy Spirit guide and direct us?

I believe God does lead us—if we're willing to be led. But just exactly how? How does he show us what our choice of career should be—or our choice of college or spouse? Does God tell us how to spend our money? Or where to go on vacation? Or what kind of car to buy?

God's Word has many practical instructions and examples that can teach us principles of discovering God's will for our lives. People far smarter than I have written entire books on the subject—detailed books. So this message will be an introduction.

I like to think of several steps we can take to discovering God's will. These steps are not necessarily sequential—you may do them in different order or even take more than one step at a time. But these are some of the biblical principles to knowing that you're hearing from God.

I won't say too much about each step, but I will spend a little more time on one of those steps.

Steps to Discover God's Will

Step One. Accept Jesus. Ask him to be your Savior and Lord. Invite him to take over your life. Confess your sins and surrender your old life to him. Give him control so he can change your thinking and your behavior.
...offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ...we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:12,16)
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalms 139:23-24)
Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. (Luke 22:42)

Step Two. Pray. Ask the Lord to lead you. Before reacting prematurely to your own hunch or opinion, ask God to guide your steps—to show you specifically what you need to do.
4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalms 25:4-5)
Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. (Psalms 119:133)
Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path... (Psalms 27:11)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7)
...He [Epaphras] is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. (Col 4:12)

Step Three. Know God's Word. Read the Bible regularly so God's ways will become more and more familiar to you. God will never lead you to do something that contradicts his written Word.

Shortly after I got my driver's license I was heading home with my brother. Impulsively, I said, "Do you think I turn at the corner without slowing down? Can I make the corner doing 30?" He said, "I dunno." So I went for it—and as I was skidding around the corner I saw my father sitting at the intersection in his car. He followed me home and in my defense I said, "But you never told me I couldn't take a corner at 30 mph." My father's response? "There are some things I shouldn't have to tell you." In the same way, our heavenly Father teaches us overarching truths through his Word so there are some details he shouldn't have to tell us.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalms 119:11)
Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Psalms 119:35)
Lead me in the path of your commands, because that makes me happy. (Psalms 119:35, NCV)
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalms 119:105)
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality. (1 Thess 4:3)

Step Four. Ask for advice. Seek out the wisdom of godly counselors—mature believers who are filled with God's Spirit and have a depth of spiritual insight.

Just as a coach doesn't play the game but offers advice (how to grip the bat, how to stand in the box, how to swing a level stroke) to improve the athlete's game, spiritual counselors don't live your life for you but offer advice so you can improve your game.

Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success. (Prov 15:22, NLT)
Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. (Jer 3:15)

Step Five. Seek spiritual gifts. God uses gifts of spiritual insight, wisdom, and revelation to reveal his ways. God may supernaturally show his leading—through the church or directly to your heart.
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. Psalms 143:10 (NLT)
I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. (1 Cor 14:15)
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit... (1 Cor 12:7-8)
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8:26-27)

Step Six. Obey. If you deliberately choose to disobey what is clearly God's will, then do not expect God to give you further instructions. You must walk in the light you have in order to receive more light.

When I'm camping and need to walk down a forest trail at night in the dark, I take a flashlight along. It helps me see the rocks and holes and tree roots I could trip over. It doesn't help me see all the way to the end of the trail. I have to take one step at a time. I have to walk in the light I have in order to have light further on down the road. In the same way, God will reveal his will and purpose more fully as we walk in what we already know.

The steps of the godly are directed by the LORD. He delights in every detail of their lives. (Psalms 37:23, NLT)
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. (Psalms 119:32)
If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD... (Num 14:8-9)

Step Seven. Test for open doors. Circumstances will often reveal God's opportunities. An open door—assuming you've confirmed it by other steps—may indicate God's plans for you...but not always. A closed door, on the other hand, may be God's way of leading you in another direction.
8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. (1 Cor 16:8-9)
Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me... (2 Cor 2:12)
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ... (Col 4:3)
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matt 7:7)

Some of the verses we began with are about closed doors. Paul and his traveling companions were ready to go preach the gospel in Asia—but God shut the door on their plans. So they switched course and tried to take the Good News into Bithynia—but again God shut the door and prevented them from going their.

Maybe you've tried to do something good only to have the door slammed in your face. Maybe you've desired to do something significant for God, and it didn't work out. Maybe you've wanted to do something worthwhile only to have your dreams crash and burn.

If so, then please notice that even the Apostle Paul didn't always meet his goals or succeed in his plans. Sometimes God shut the door in Paul's face.

It's hard to have the door slammed on an opportunity. It's hard to feel limited or restricted in what you want to do.

But—and here's the lesson for us—a closed door does not mean that God is not leading. In fact, a closed door may mean that God is leading in a very specific way. We may not understand why he redirects somewhere else. We may never know why an opportunity is closed to us, but if it does we can know God is leading us to something better.

It's been said: God never closes one door without opening another.

God shut the door to Asia and Bithynia, but he opened the door to Macedonia. He moved them to go beyond what they would have chosen.

When God closes a door in your life, he's leading you toward a different door—a different opportunity.

Steve Jobs: "I was lucky I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz (Steve Wozniak) and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation—the Macintosh—a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating....

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. [Steve Jobs, in a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University.]

Step Eight. Be willing to accept hardship. Following God's will is not always easy. You may be in the center of his will and find yourself in great difficulty or distress. Still, if you trust God and persevere, you will find his will confirmed.
It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:17)
So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. (1 Peter 4:19)
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Heb 10:36)

Step Nine. Step out in faith. Even after steps one through six, you may still not be entirely certain about God's will. There comes a time when you have to make a life decision based on faith—taking a prayerful risk without knowing for sure but trusting God to guide you as you go.
If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the right way. You should go this way." (Isaiah 30:21, NCV)
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. (Psalms 37:5-6)
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. (Prov 16:3)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. (Prov 3:5-6, NLT)
We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7)

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. (Heb 11:7)

How did God speak to Noah? He warned him about a coming flood. He gave him a specific call. And then he gave him a detailed blueprint of how to respond. As this video shows, Noah heard from God—but ultimately, he had to act in faith and obey God. When he began building the ark, the flood was more than 100 years away.

Video: Stepping Out in Faith

God speaks in many different ways. Sometimes he speaks very specifically—like he did to Noah. Other times he leaves the mystery and the wonder so we can learn to venture out in faith.

In Noah's case, it was both. The sheer audacity of what God said required great faith from Noah if he was going to obey.

What about you? What is God saying to you? Where is God leading you?

Pray...read the Bible...ask for godly advice...seek to be filled with the Spirit and to have spiritual gifts...be quick to obey...test for open doors...be willing to accept hardship...step out in faith.