OPEN DOORS

1. Introduction

a)Do you know that when God opens doors for us to next level, we will taste the very goodness of God. God has good plans for us - prosperity (success), hope and a future!

i) 11For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)

b) What does the Bible says about opening doors to next level?

2. Open 1st door (crossing the Red Sea)

a) 600 Egyptian war chariots were chasing the helpless Israelites, who were trapped between the mountains and the Red Sea.

i) 5When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!" 6So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. 8The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. 9The Egyptians—all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon. (Exodus 14:5-9 NIV)

b) The Lord said to Moses to stop praying and get moving!

i) 15Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! (Exodus 14:15 NLT)

c) There was no apparent way of escape, but the Lord opened up a dry path through the Red Sea.

i) 21Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the LORD opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. 22So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side! (Exodus 14:21, 22 NLT)

d) This is the opening of 1st door from deliverance to testing in the wilderness. God wanted to see whether the Israelites believed what he had said would come to pass concerning the Promised Land.

3. Open 2nd door (crossing River Jordan)

a) The bad report of 10 spies caused a great rebellion amount the people of Israel.

i) 25After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned 26to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. 27This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! (Numbers 13:25-28 NLT)

ii) 30But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” 31But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” (Numbers 13:30-33 NLT)

b) When the chorus of despair went up, everyone joined in. Their greatest fears were being realized. They began to rebel.

i) 1Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. 3“Why is the LORD taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” (Numbers 14:1-4 NLT)

c) They refused to enter the Promised Lands and thus, God did not allow them to go in but told them to go back to the wilderness. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years - a year for each day (since the spies were in the land form40 days) bearing the burden of their sins. They had rejected God and the penalty was to wander in the desert like nomads for 40 years until the last of those 20 years and older died in the desert.

i) 25Now turn around, and don’t go on toward the land where the Amalekites and Canaanites live. Tomorrow you must set out for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.” 26Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 27"How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. 28Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. 29You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me, every one of you who is twenty years old or older and was included in the registration will die. (Numbers 14:25-29)

ii) 33And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness. 34"Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’ 35I, the LORD, have spoken! I will certainly do these things to every member of the community who has conspired against me. They will be destroyed here in this wilderness, and here they will die!” (Numbers 14:33-35 NLT)

d) Then they realised they had sinned and wanted to go in the next morning but Moses said it was too late because God would not go with them. But they went ahead into the hilly country where the Amalekites and the Canaanites came down and crushed them.

i) 40Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. “Let’s go,” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the LORD has promised us.” 41But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the LORD’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work. 42Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the LORD is not with you. 43When you face the Amalekites and Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The LORD will abandon you because you have abandoned the LORD.”44But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant left the camp. 45Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills came down and attacked them and chased them back as far as Hormah. (Numbers 14:40-45 NLT)

e) God had parted the waters of the Red Sea to let the people of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 14), and he parted the River Jordan to let them enter the Promised Land (Joshua 3:13-17).

i) 13The priests will carry the Ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.” 14So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. 15It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, 16the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho. 17Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground. (Joshua 3:13-17 NLT)

f) This is the opening of 2nd door (or ultimate door) to the next level, from testing to the Promised Land flowing with 'milk and honey'. A land where there is plentiful and God personally cares for. This is where we will taste the very goodness of God.

g) 10When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12 NIV)

h) Maybe we have been experiencing in the past some glorious moments in our lives for only a short while. Now that glory has faded away and we are in the dire (urgent) state of need for a miraculous breakthrough. God is now doing something in our lives that does not seem glorious enough in our eyes. But he is doing something we know. The glorious things he is about to do in our lives will be greater than the glory of our former. So, continue to trust and believe him 100%.

i) 6"This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the Lord Almighty. 8'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the Lord Almighty. 9'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the Lord Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the Lord Almighty." (Haggai 2:6-9 NIV)

ii) 2I will go before thee, and make the rough places smooth; I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; 3and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that it is I, Jehovah, who call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. (Isaiah 45:2, 3 ASV)

iii) All our treasures have been stolen by darkness and our riches kept in secret places. God wants to give us back our treasures and riches rightfully belong to us.

4. Prayer focus

a) Name above every name

i) 9and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11 NIV)

b) Christ's divine power

i) 3His (Christ) divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3 NIV)

c) Keys of the kingdom of heaven

i) 19I (Jesus) will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19 NIV)

d) Pray for open doors:

i) Business / project opportunity
ii) Employment / promotion opportunity
iii) Financial abundance / overflowing
iv) Debts freedom
v) Education full scholarship
vi) Enriched people relationship
vii) Enriched husband & wife relationship
viii) Enriched parent & child relationship
ix) Enlarged ministry
x) Gifts & fruit of the Holy Spirit
xi) Divine healing
xii) Clear direction / guidance
xiii) Etc... etc... etc...