Walking on the other side of God’s open doors.
Last week I talked about
The distinctive call of God.
Grasping the handle on the door that God wants you to open.
I said that:- THERE ARE CERTAIN DOORWAYS THAT YOU WALK THROUGH THAT CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR EVER.
There is the doorway of your playcentre or Kindergarten where you enter the world of education and socialisation with your peers on a large scale.
God too leads us through particular doorways that can change your life.
It is one thing to receive the invitation to enter a new life - but the question comes up - having made the decision to follow God’s call in a particular direction - what happens next.
Perhaps as a result of last weeks sermon you were able to see some direction that God is calling you to go this year.
But having made that decision to go in a certain direction you may well ask - What happens next.
The first thing that happens to Moses - - is that he has doubts - actually it possibly is before he steps through the door - but he has doubts none the less.
His doubts are in the area of his ability to convince his own people and his enemies that God sent him.
God gives him the ability to do what he now cannot see himself doing.
Firstly he gives him miraculous signs -
read vverse 2-5
In Jesus ministry too God acts outside of peoples normal experience in such a way that grabs peoples attention.
In the gospels there are many examples of Jesus doing this - the feeding of the five thousand and the raising of Lazerus from the dead being two outstanding examples.
In John chapter 14 we read Jesus speaking of the holy Spirit:-
And I will ask the Father and he will give you another counsellor to be with you forever - the spirit of truth -
In verse 12 he reassures his followers I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Who will do these things:-
jesus says anyone who has faith in me -
if we are living the life of faith we can expect to see spiritual evidence.
An outstanding man of faith is the life of the 20th century preacher Smith Wigglesworth - signs of God’s presence in his life followed him.
In Acts chapter 19 verses 11 and 12 he talks of the apostle Paul praying over handkerchiefs and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
A woman came to him - and remember that this man of God had no great theological training he had been a plumber before entering into his ministry:-
The woman came and said "I would like you to pray for my husband. he comes home drunk every night,"
"To tell his story:
She opened her bag and bought out a handkerchief. I laid my hands upon it, prayed in the Name of jesusand gave it back to her. "What shall I do with it?" she asked.
"Place it upon his pillow," I answered.
"But he will be drunk."
"It makes no difference, he will have his drunken head on the promises of God."
She took the handkerchief and placed it on the pillow. he came home drunk.
he awoke in the morning and set off for the first saloon for a beer. Instantly he was convinced that there was poison in the beer. He said to the bartender, What have you done to the beer."
"I have done nothing to it," the man answered.
"I know you have. I wouldn’t take it for the world."
he went to another place, called for a glass of beer again, and was more convinced than ever that there was poison in it. He said to the man, "Why has all Liverpool agreed to poison me?"
He worked all morning and at noon, as usual, went to the saloon to get his beer for lunch. This time he was convinced that liverpool had agreed to poison him. He talked so much about it, he was asked to leave the place.
At night he was determined not to go home without the beer. This time he was so enraged at the people who served him the beer, convinced it contained poison, that they had to throw him out of that place.
He went home without a drink and his wife said, "My dear, why are you home so early?"
"You ought to pray for me," he said.
"Oh I am."
"But you know all Liverpool has agreed to poison me.
As he told her the story, she said, "Can’t you see how the grace of God has covered you today Can’t you see how you have been delivered?"
he was awakened to consciousness that night and was blessedly saved. And - says Smith wigglesworth - I am a witness - he became a wonderful worker for God.
The same Holy Spirit that was at work for Moses was at work for Smith Wigglesworth and the same holy Spirit will be at work for you when you walk through the doors that God will open for you:- In John chapter 14 we read Jesus speaking of the holy Spirit:-
And I will ask the Father and he will give you another counsellor to be with you forever - the spirit of truth - The thing you need to do is to be filled with the Holy spirit and to expect Him to be effective in your christian walk.
The second thing that happens is that God gives him what he needs to do the job.
Moses wasn’t it seems a great speaker - God here doesn’t miraculously give him the gift of public speaking - instead he sends along another of his servants with the appropriate gift - Aaron.
In Ephesians chapter 4 we get a picture of how that works in the church of God - verse 11 - It was he - God who gave some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers - God here gets the right person with the right gifting with the right attitude to do the job - his name is Aaron.
It is so crucial that all these things are in place.
it is not enough to just have the right gifts - the attitude needs to be right as well.
In Acts chapter 15 verse 36 we read an account of how paul refused to take someone with the right gifts but who had the wrong attitude with him - it reads like this.
Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, ’Let us go back and visit the brothers in the tows where we preached the word of the lord and see how they are doing."
Barnabas wanted to take john also called mark , with them, but paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. they had such a sharp agreement that they parted company.
Aaron had the right attitude and as you read his story through Exodus you can’t help but be impressed by the right attitude that he exhibited - most of the time.
When you go through God’s doors - God will put Aaron type companions with you - people with a heart for God who compliment your calling. They will have walked through their own particular doors to be there.
The reassurance here is you will not be alone - the thing to do is to be alert for the Aaron’s God will send to your way to compliment your ministry.
The third thing that we can learn here is that in Exodus chapter 4 and verse 18 Moses makes a clean break.
It says - Then Moses went back to Jethro his Father-in - law and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive."
Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well." Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead," So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
The door that God wanted Moses to walk through was in Egypt - he couldn’t minister in Egypt and live in Midian - it meant he had to uproot his family from all that was familiar and to go back to Egypt."
When God calls you through a door you have to leave something behind.
If a child is outside playing and her Mother calls her in for a maeal - the child has to abandon her play in order to eat her meal.
She can’t do both. One is in the playground the other is on the table.
When Jesus entered his ministry he had to leave his carpentars tool behind him - because he couldn’t fulfill the call God had on his life and be a carpentar.
It is a sad thing to see someone revert back to what they were before they became a Christian because they cannot abandon what was in their hands at the time of their call.
If God asks you to do something it will involve you abandoning something else.
Sometimes that thing can be little sometimes it can be large.
You might feel compelled by God to go to a particular meeting the result of which means you have to give up on some entertainment - say your favourite television program - that is a small door to have to go through and a small thing to give up.
but sometimes we need to give up significant parts of our lives in order to make the big gains that God has in store for us:-
The pain of that loss can be quite deep.
When Hudson Taylor the chinese missionary left for China he reports on the touching separation from his Mother:-
My beloved, now sainted, Mother, had come over to Liverpool to see me off. Never shall I forget that day, nor how she went with me into the cabin that was to be my home for nearly six long months. With a Mothers loving hand she smoothed the little bed. She sat by my side and joined in the last hymn we should sing together before parting. We knelt down and she prayed - the last Mother’s prayer I was to hear before leaving for China. Then notice was given that we must separate, and we had to say goodbye, never expecting to meet on earth again.
For my sake she restrained her feelings as much as possible. We parted, and she went ashore giving me her blessing. I stood alone on the deck - as we passed through the gates and the separation really commenced, never shall I forget the cry of anguish that wrung from that mother’s heart. it went through me like a knife.
Moses had to part with Jethro to be of use to God.
Hudson Taylor had to part from his Mother.
Many of us need to part from our trivial pursuits - our vanities and, for some even our occupations to be able to go continue on the way beyond the doors God has called us through.
The thing we need to do here is to identify what we need to disentangle ourselves from in order to continue on the way God is calling us.
These three points:-
be filled with the Holy Spirit and to expect Him to be effective in your christian walk.
Availing ourselves of all God has provided us with to do the job - to be alert to the Aaron’s god has put in our paths.
identify what we need to disentangle ourselves from in order to continue on the way God is calling us.
if applied to our lives will enable us to continue to walk down the paths that God has called us to walk.
Feel free to contact us with discussions or comments:-
jgullick@xtra.co.nz
