A Note from DT
This week before we took communion at HoF I was praying for our crew and I felt this phrase from scripture come into my mind:
1 Corinthians 16:9 … a great and effectual door has been opened to me and there are many adversaries.
This verse written by the Apostle Paul was telling the Corinthian church that he was intending to visit them in order to strengthen them and minister to them. He seems to be really looking forward to it but he writes that he has to delay for a bit because he had found himself in a window of time where there was an amazing door of opportunity.(TPT) The funny thing is that he wrote that the opening of this amazing door coincided with the opposition of many who stood against him. It’s almost as if he took the opposition as a sign that he was right where God wanted him to be.
I felt that the word was: Don’t let what feels like opposition around you make you feel like you aren’t on the path of the Lord. Sometimes great doors of opportunity are surrounded by opposition.
We live in a culture where many people dictate their course by what seems to be the path of least resistance but seldom is this ever the path of the Lord. God has called us to this walk of faith in order to manifest His Kingdom in the earth. The walk of faith can sometimes feel quite contentious but warfare is actually a part of this life. Jesus spoke of His church as a people from whom the gates of Hell wouldn’t be able to prevail. From this perspective it seems that resistance is actually something we are supposed to lean into…as long as we are following His lead. Of course there are some people who over-spiritualize things and usually do so in order to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions. These people always think they are experiencing warfare from the enemy when really they just need to own their stuff, repent, and get back on the path of the Lord. That’s an entirely different situation and that is not what I’m talking about here.
2 Timothy 2:4 states, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier”
When we choose to submit our life and will to the Lord to follow Him it is not just so that we will live a cush life. It actually means that we are siding with Him and enlisting to follow Him into this ancient war between Light and darkness. This is where we truly come alive. In following Him we will learn that peace and comfort aren’t things that we have when conditions are perfect. They come from abiding in Him. If you’ve felt an unusual amount of pressure in your life lately, maybe even to the point of actual opposition, it could be a sign that you have come to a great and effectual door and God is opening something absolutely wonderful right where you’re at. Sometimes the greatest doors of opportunity are surrounded by opposition, the key is simply to recognize it and follow the strategy of the Lord…
-DT
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