Does An Open Door Mean God Approves?

Have you ever prayed for God to open doors for you so it’s clear which way you should go, which decision you should make? I know I have.

When I first went “all in” when Love Does That, I was paying attention to a lot of things, including how God was moving providentially to guide my decision to step down from children’s ministries and focus on my work here as a spiritual director.

And even as the years continue to go on, I’m regularly checking in with Him to see, “Okay, God, where does my attention need to be right now? Am I still going the right way? What doors are open for me right now?”

But, my friend, take a minute and think about the sayings we Christians have:

• If God shuts the door, He always opens the window.
• God doesn’t close one door without getting ready to open another with bigger and greater things.
• He will open the doors of opportunity as He sees fit and close doors that He doesn’t want us going through.

Are these true? Are they the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Is there anything we’re missing?

I believe that circumstances, like what we call open doors and closed doors, can definitely be a way for God to lead us through major decisions. But I think we need to be really, really discerning about how we go about this. Because the truth is, some open doors aren’t from God, and some closed doors aren’t from Him, either.

So how should circumstances play a role in our decision-making process? Today, I want to explore what the Bible says about open and closed doors and how we can use them to discern which path to take.

Open Door Vs. Closed Door

Let’s start by defining what I mean by open door and closed door.

Imagine you’re looking to buy a house. You visit a home that’s for sale, it meets your basic requirements, it’s in the right school district or neighborhood, and you have enough money to buy it, and you know your offer would be accepted. All the circumstances are what we call “open doors.” You can walk right through.

But let’s say you make the offer and it’s not accepted. Consider that a closed door. You cannot go that way anymore, but have to go somewhere else.

Or let’s say you don’t actually have enough money to buy it. That’s also a closed door.

Or your offer gets accepted and then something big shows up on the inspection. Is that a closed door? You see how this can get a little fuzzy, right?

So what does the Bible teach us about opened doors and closed doors?

God Can Open Any Door

The first truth I want us to see here is that God can open any door He wants to and prevent it from being closed.

In Revelation 3:8, God says to the church in Philadelphia, “I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close.”

In Colossians 4:3, Paul asks the church to pray for open doors. “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.”

If God can divide the Red Sea, if He can calm a terrible storm, if He can free Peter from a locked jail cell, then He can certainly open doors that no one else can open. Amen? God makes a way for His people.

When has He opened a door for you? When has He made the way ridiculously easy to pass through? Write it down.

God Can Close Any Door

The second truth I want us to see is that God can close doors and prevent us from going a particular way.

So God can open doors and God can close doors.

I want to share with you an interesting passage from Acts 16:6-8 from one of Paul’s missionary journeys. This story has always intrigued me, and I wish I had more details.

It says, “Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas.”

Now, I don’t know how the Spirit prevented them from doing these things. I’d love to know how! But I don’t.

What I do know is that God can prevent us from going through a particular door or down a particular path.

Again, think about when God has done that for you. How did you know? What did it look like? Were you ever able to see the reason why this happened, or is it still unclear?

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Need for Discernment

But here’s where we need to be discerning. Just because a door is open doesn’t mean that God is the one who opened it.

I’m going to say that again. Just because a door is open doesn’t mean that God is the one who opened it. And the opposite is also true: just because a door is closed doesn’t mean that God is the one who closed it.

“Easy” doesn’t always mean it’s an open door from God. And “hard” or “challenging” doesn’t always mean it’s a closed door from God. And “closed” doesn’t always mean “locked.”

I mean, parenting is hard, am I right? But it’s something that God calls many of us to, isn’t it? Taking care of a sick family member is hard, but it’s something God calls some of us to.

So where do we see this in the Bible?

Consider when the Gibeonites approached Joshua and the Israelites in the wilderness. Joshua had been commanded to completely destroy the cities where the Promised Land was.

But then a group of travelers come from a faraway town, with their moldy bread and old wineskins and patched sandals, and they ask Joshua to make a peace treaty with them. How exciting! They didn’t have to hurt these people, they could make peace with them instead. And they did. The Israelites guaranteed their safety, promising not to hurt them. What a great open door from God!

But it wasn’t from God.

The Gibeonites intentionally deceived Joshua. They weren’t from far away; they were from a nearby town. They wore costumes, of sorts, to trick him into thinking they were from some far away place. They brought moldy bread instead of fresh. It was cruel and misleading.

And listen to what happened:

“So the Israelites examined their food [their moldy bread], but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety, and the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath. Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually lived nearby!… But the Israelites did not attack the towns, for the Israelite leaders had made a vow to them in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.”

That’s in Joshua chapter 9.

You see, Joshua didn’t consult God. And so they messed up. They walked through an open door that wasn’t opened by God. And then they had to live with their choice.

Not every opportunity is going to be a good fit for you. A new job. A new partnership. A chance to serve at your child’s school. A leadership role at church. The chance to make some extra money for the holidays. Those can all be good things.

But an open door doesn’t automatically mean that God’s behind it. Nor is a closed door automatically a sign that God is saying No.

Just think about Moses going to Pharoah and telling him to let the Israelites go. Was it easy? No. Pharoah refused, not once, not twice, but nine times. And at first, he made the work even harder for the Israelites, forcing them to collect the straw in addition to making the bricks. That would seem like a closed door to many of us. We would walk away. But it was simply the way that God decided to work in that situation to demonstrate His power and glory.

How Do We Know If An Open or Closed Door Is From God?

So here’s the question we’re left with: How do we know if an open or closed door is from God?

We have to hold that door up along with some other criteria to see if God is the one behind it or not.

First, we have to look at Scripture. What does God’s Word say about the situation you find yourself in? What are some guiding principles you need to keep in mind here? You have to know His Word.

Second, we have to listen for guidance from God, those promptings from Him to take one course of action or another. This might come as an inner knowing or a thought that you know didn’t come from you, but sounds like God.

And we hold our circumstances in light of these things, all together. Scripture, prayer, and circumstances. As a whole, what is God guiding you to do?

God will let you know. He will. James 1:5 says, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”

And, as Dallas Willard taught, if we want to know God’s will and we are willing to do it, He will tell us.

Are you willing to do whatever He asks, my friend? If not, start there. Ask for that heart that is surrendered to His will, His pleasure, and not just your own. You can listen to episode 77 for more about prayers for discernment.

But for now, read His Word. Listen for His guidance. Check for those opened and closed doors, yes, but also seek wisdom to understand what they mean. God will let you know if you are truly seeking Him.

Journal Prompts

Before we go, I want to offer you some journal prompts to help you start thinking about how God uses circumstances to guide you. You are welcome to go through each of them or focus on the 1 or 2 that really resonate with you.

1. How has God used open doors and closed doors to speak to you in the past?
2. When have you thought an open or closed door was from God, but later discovered it was not? What were the consequences of that decision?
3. What have you been taught about the role circumstances play in making decisions? Think not just about church, but about family situations and transitions and those seasons when you were making big life decisions. What did people tell you?
4. What scares you about being able to discern if an open or closed door is from God?
5. What do you need to know about God and His character as you seek to make decisions with His help?

Prayer

God, we thank You even now that You are a God who cares about us, who wants to be involved in our lives and our decision making. We pray that as we seek Your will in some of these big life decisions, and even in some of our smaller ones, that we would be able to discern Your voice and Your movement. Teach us to recognize when an open or closed door is from You and when it might be from someone or something else. Give us that wisdom, we ask, and help us to walk in obedience to what we hear from You. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

RELATED EPISODES:

• Episode 77: Three Prayers for Discernment: Making Difficult Choices in Difficult Seasons
• Episode 108: Just Because Something’s Hard Doesn’t Mean It’s Wrong
• Episode 158: Burdens vs. Loads: Discerning When to Help Someone

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