A Great Door and Many Adversaries: Why the Battle Intensifies at the Door
"The battle intensifies at the door. You get the hardest attacks at the door."
Paul wrote, "For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries" (1 Corinthians 16:9). God has opened a great door for me. God has made a way for me to progress. But I see opposition.
If closed doors are a mystery, open doors can baffle you too. So many believers tell me, "Every time a door opens for me, there is so much resistance." As soon as you feel your time has come, you face a warfare so intense and so relentless that you don't know why it is happening to you.
If that is you, understand this: that is everyone. You don't get a free pass to move ahead in life.
An Open Door Is a Sign of War
A gate is a portal to the next phase of your life: a ministry opportunity, a new job, a relational breakthrough, a new chapter where you access blessings you were not accessing before.
That open door is also a sign of war. It is a sign that a dramatic shift is coming in your life. It is a sign that if you cross it, you will access things you have never accessed before. And it is a sign that hell is panicking, because when your level shifts, some of the weapons they have been using against you will not work at the next level.
Your enemy knows that once you cross that gate, there is no stopping you. He can only meet you again at the next gate.
Think of football. There are 22 players on the field, but the player who gets attacked the most is the one with the ball. As soon as you get the ball, all the defenders come against you, because they know that if you keep possession, you will strike a goal.
Every Gate Has a Toll
When you drive on the highway, at every toll gate you pay the toll. Most people want to move forward, but they are not ready to pay the price. Moving forward is a decision.
God told Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee" (Genesis 12:1). That is an uncertain journey. It needed absolute trust in the leadership of the Lord. And every step revealed more of God. Abraham discovered Jehovah-jireh on that mount (Genesis 22:14). When Jacob left home, he saw the gate of heaven open and angels ascending and descending (Genesis 28:12-17). You have to leave the known to go to the unknown.
The price may be your comfort zone, certain friends or even a job. It will always require you to seek God like never before.
You Can't Change Levels Without Being Changed
You cannot say, "Lord, change my level," and not be changed with the level. I can't walk into the next phase of my life with the habits, patterns, weaknesses and incomplete obedience of this phase. So that open door is also a test: am I ready to let God do a deeper work in me?
This is why, at the edge of breakthrough, old addictions and old fears suddenly rise again. Some people even sabotage their own relationship just as it is about to go to the next level, because of old patterns of fear. Your enemy will use those old weapons against you. I pray that every old weapon he uses against you is nullified.
This walk is not an escalator. On an escalator your position changes, but your level does not. When you climb the stairs, not just your position but your depth changes. These wars transform us.
Sleeper Cells and Unreasonable Men
At every gate there are people you have to deal with. I call some of them sleeper cells: people so well positioned in your life that it is very difficult to know whether they are with you or against you. You will know them when the door opens. The gate is the place where true relationships are exposed.
I have one rule. In times of warfare, any person who can be repeatedly used against me should not be close to me. Not everyone in your life has been called to go to the next stage of life with you.
Paul asked the church to pray "that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith" (2 Thessalonians 3:2). If you want to move ahead by faith, you cannot move ahead with people who have no faith. Good people can leave your life for small reasons. For wicked people to leave your life, you need God's favor and intervention.
The Bible is full of this pattern:
Pharaoh hardened his heart when God said, "Let my people go, that they may serve me" (Exodus 8:1).
David was anointed king, but Saul hurled a javelin at him and sent men to kill him, and David ended up in caves (1 Samuel 18:11; 19:11; 22:1).
Joseph's brothers plotted against him because of his dream (Genesis 37:18-20).
Satan entered Judas, a close ally, to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3).
Even Jesus' own family said, "He is beside himself" (Mark 3:21).
Some people will plant seeds of doubt: "Has God really spoken to you? Are you not too much?" So pray it: "Lord, deliver me from unreasonable men." Most of us don't even want that prayer answered, because our emotions come in the way of the truth. Emotions can deceive you. Truth will never deceive you.
Don't Faint Before Your Due Season
Progress is not for the weak-hearted. It requires persistence. "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9). Many faint before their due season.
They overcame "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Revelation 12:11). Most people want to save themselves, but Jesus said whoever loses his life for His sake will find it (Matthew 16:25). I would rather die in God's will than live a long life outside it.
Look at Paul. Five times he received thirty-nine stripes, and three times he was beaten with rods (2 Corinthians 11:24-25). Yet he said, "Not as though I had already attained... I press toward the mark" (Philippians 3:12-14). I have not reached yet, but I am not quitting. And he finished well: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).
How to Respond When the Battle Intensifies
Come closer to God
Remove the dust from your altar. This is a time for a deeper conversation with God than you have had in a long time.
Pray and fast persistently
This is a season for persistent, prevailing prayer with fasting.
Come under His authority
Spiritual warfare is not just binding. You come under the authority of the King. You declare His word, live by faith, hold the truth and declare His promises over your life.
Make praise and worship a lifestyle
The enemy cannot stand an atmosphere of genuine worship and joyful praise. Worship is surrender to God.
Walk in love
The enemy does not know what love is, and he cannot penetrate that atmosphere. The battle belongs to the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:15). When the enemies surround me, He sets me high upon a rock (Psalm 27:5-6).
Declarations
Lord, I'm ready to pay the price.
I trust Your leadership. I'm ready to move from the predictable to the unpredictable.
I'm ready to be transformed. I will not carry old patterns into a new level.
Lord, deliver me from unreasonable and wicked men.
No weapon formed against me shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17).
I will not be weary in well doing. In due season I shall reap.
The door God has opened for me, I shall pass through it.
The Mystery of Open and Closed Doors Series
This is Part 2 of a six-part teaching on the doors God opens, the battles at the threshold, and how to walk through. Here is the full series in order:
The Stealer of Joy: Why Closed Doors Are Part of Your Warfare (and How to Walk Through Them)
A Great Door and Many Adversaries: Why the Battle Intensifies at the Door (you are here)
People Are Gates: How God Opens Doors Through the People He Sends
Open Heavens: Signs of a Closed Heaven and 8 Keys to See It Open
Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving: The Kingdom Protocol for His Presence
Saved but Not Free: When the Gates of Darkness Hold a Believer Bound
Previous: The Stealer of Joy | Next: People Are Gates
More Teaching Series
Marriage in the Lord series: Start with Part 1: Marry Only in the Lord
The Decision series: Start with Part 1: Why Decisions Matter
The Lordship series: Start with Part 1: Is Jesus Your Lord or Only Your Savior?
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Watch the full message: The Mystery Of Open And Closed Doors (Part 2) on YouTube.
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