READ: Acts 11:18-24
“…behold, I have set before thee an open door…” – Revelation 3:8
An open door is a God-given opportunity in the midst of impossibilities. An open door is a chance to escape or to achieve something for the Lord. An open door is a time-related breakthrough that gives you a needed option.
The first way to recognize a door is to see an opportunity that comes in the midst of other unworkable options. In the natural, a door is flanked on the left and right by impenetrable walls. When you are flanked by impossibilities and one niche opens up, it is often God opening a door for you.
The second way to recognize a door is to discern that it is an opportunity that will not always be there. In the natural, a door does not have a fixed position; it is either open or closed. Any opportunity that appears for a season and disappears again is a door.
The third way to recognize a door is to realize that God engineered the opportunity and that it had nothing to do with your efforts (Acts 14:27). An open door is not of your own making, it is just something that you benefit from.
When Paul and Barnabas gave the report of their first missionary journey, everyone was overjoyed at what the Lord had done. They came to one conclusion: God had opened a door to the Gentiles! They knew that only God could do it! That is how to recognize a door. Recognize that it is only God who could have made that opportunity possible.