Devotionals

Open Doors To

Open doors To

What does it mean when we say someone has opened a door to something? Open doors can refer to places in our lives which we haven't guarded or kept in check that can allow the enemy to come through and plant seeds of destruction. There are good open doors and bad ones. I'll focus on the bad ones for this post

Backsliding often happens because of open doors.

1) Doors to the enemy often happen because of sin.

If someone lies, they open doors. The enemy will send demons to plant seeds of striving, pride, division etc. You'll find that one deception you shared became like a snowball effect and grew worse and worse now being a stronghold in your life.

Perversion can also be a result of an open door, if someone is committing sexual immorality, watching pornographic images, thinking and meditating on lustful and sexual thoughts, where even their dreams are filled this way they open doors that allow the enemy to plant more seeds of perversion in their lives. They'll find it difficult to overcome and can feel like it's a stronghold over their lives.

This can be with spirits of envy, pride, jealousy, comparison/competition, greed, lust etc. You'll see someone who had greed for something small could in future become someone who can kill someone just for something they desire or how someone who gossips can slander someone's entire reputation.

2) By being asleep

We open doors when we backside but also fall asleep on our faith. Our prayer life is low, we barely read the word, worship is barely done and during this lukewarm half stage, the enemy begins to go through the neglect of our walk with God.

He'll begin to spread lies and misdirect you to compromise in your faith, doubt, overthink, worry, stumble or even decide to go back to what God delivered you from. You'll find yourself back to certain addictions and compromising more and more. Making excuses, your priorities aren't properly aligned anymore, spending time with God is not that important anymore and is often pushed last.

So what do we do?

We don't just watch all this passively. We don't hang on to guilt either. We don't condemn ourselves either (Romans 8:1).

We shut every door that isn't of God. Is there unforgiveness, pride, envy, lust, gossip, stealing, or deception in your heart? Is idolatry taking over? Is neglect? Are your thoughts gravitating more towards purity or sinfulness? This is the time to armour up with the full armour of God. We should hold every thought captive in obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18). We should hold every thought captive in Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

We shut these doors by remaining abiding in the word and prayer. The enemy is like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). The enemy just needs a little, a place in our lives where we neglect and it's open, ready for him to say come through and begin to plant lies and misdirect us away from God. We need to remain awake.

Our Christian lives are a battle, so we should continuously remain connected to the vine (John 15:5) resist the devil (James 4:7) and declare the word of God. The word of God is truth and God will always fulfil His word. When we pray with scripture we pray with truth and revelation.

We should hold every thought captive and ask God to strengthen our spirits and remain in Him. We pray that God will shut every door that is not of Him, whether intentionally or unintentionally we allowed the enemy to pass by a place of neglect, we should now take authority and remain guided and led by the Spirit.

But we can trust as we resist the enemy will flee from us.

-etty