Open the door

God works in the lives of Christians to orchestrate and carry out His objectives. It never ceases to amaze me when God is working in my life to accomplish something. It is really cool and raises the hair on my neck. Usually it starts as an idea of something I want to accomplish, but not always. Sometimes things start happening before even I’ know what the plan is. It is simply amazing to sit back and watch as God opens doors of opportunity. To a secular person this would be written off as “coincidence” after “coincidence” or simply “luck”, but I know that it is far from it.

I will give but one example, (but rest assured that I could go on for hours with real life examples of how God has worked in my life to assist me). I decided several years ago that I wanted to expand Horizon’s food service technology offerings into the military market. I really did not know how to even begin the project. I had visited my United States senator. I got the feeling that he was not close to the Lord. All he wanted was campaign donations, to tell filthy jokes, and to tell me how important he was and was of no help. I was floundering around looking for direction and as usual praying for guidance about this along with a myriad of other matters.

I was on a plane returning from a presentation with a large school district and sat next to a distinguished looking gentleman. I struck up a conversation with him and asked what he did for a living, and as “luck” would have it, he was a three star general in the Army. He asked what I did and when I told him, he mentioned that he was commander of an Army base and was over logistics. Logistics handles food service and he actually was keenly interested in our food service technology as this subject, feeding soldiers, was near and dear to his heart. (My what a “coincidence”)

As “luck” would have it our flight got diverted to Memphis and delayed nine hours because of bad weather in Atlanta. As a result, we spent the entire day together and became very good friends. We remain friends to this very day; he and his wife are sincere in their love for the Lord and finer Christians I do not know. He introduced me to a four star general friend of his who took me into the bowels of the pentagon and introduced me to the Assistant Secretary of Defense. Later we went to the military logistics center for food service in Philadelphia, where I met an entire covey of generals and admirals and Horizon became visible to the top leaders of the military almost instantly. What a “coincidence”, or was it? I believe God put us together on that plane and “luck” had nothing to do with it, nor was it merely a coincidence.

Now do not think God is going to do all of the work and remember there is another side of the equation, satan. God will help provide our opportunity’ but importantly we have to do our part. Horizon did not win the Department of Defense contract simply because I met this general on a plane. The general opened plenty of doors for me, but many people on our team worked long and hard to bring about our success.

I went through the door of opportunity opened by the Lord and took my team of hard-working smart people with me. Because of the team effort with the Lord and our hard work we won the contract. My point is do not think just because God opens a door for you and puts you together with another fine Christian or group of Christians that you can sit back and wait for the project to successfully complete itself, especially if the end result of the project will bring glory and honor to the Lord.

Satan will work hard to defeat you and your project. I have heard people say, “Well if the Lord wants it to happen, it will happen, but if He does not then it will not”. Usually they want to sit back and watch God unfold His work to bring about their success and they become discouraged when it does not happen without a bump. We must remember that while it is true that success is impossible if the Lord is diametrically opposed to something, just because the Lord has opened a door does not mean success is guaranteed. We must do our part and satan will put up land mines and obstacles at every turn. True things seem to just fall in place when the Lord is solidly behind something, but still we must work’ hard ourselves. A vivid example of this is the Bible’s promise that God does not want even one’ person to perish and end up in Hell, and yet they do in massive numbers. Why? Because they will not open the door of opportunity, (Jesus Christ), that the Lord has provided for them and invite Him into their lives.

Just remember when an opportunity presents itself we must do our part too in order to succeed. Our Lord is standing at the door and knocking, but anyone who hears must OPEN that door. Do your’ part to make it happen!!!

Rev. 3:20
Behold I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears My voice
and opens the door, I will come in
to him and dine with him and he
with Me.