Sliding Door Opportunities
By Margaret D. Mitchell
Week of December 11, 2022
Many are finding themselves in the thick of their sweet endings, right before their new beginnings. It may look like a brief time of to and fro on the surface to outsiders, but it isn’t. It’s a tying up of loose ends to bring a solid close so they can be in position for the new life God has for them.
I’ve heard from and read about people having a tough couple of years. But there are those who have had a tough couple of decades. There are those who have been steeped in restoration like Abraham, Moses, Joseph and David behind the scenes for what has felt like a lifetime. They are the ones who marched onward in fresh hope when doors they thought would be open forever suddenly closed for higher purposes.
These beloved leaders are on the cusp of their promised breakthroughs—the big ones for which they have waited and imagined. And each person’s will be unique.
These are the promises Holy Spirit revealed to these suffering ones, just before and in the midnight hour. They are the profound purposes for which He has confirmed repeatedly and given signs daily to them directly, ever inviting them to look up as He reveals reminders forward.
These are the people who have been most on my heart.
As I prayed, I saw, in a Word-vision: "Wisdom training leads to a lifetime achievement.” And then I saw "requires time for fulfillment."
For the ones who suffered longest, this is what I believe our Lord would say to you:
I have lifetime achievements for those who will remain on track with Me. Yes, it has felt hard but you are about to see the fruit. The favor and opportunities you need are right in front of you. This is what I have been working in you all along and now you will come through as My best works through you systematically.
These lifetime achievements will require adherence of dedication, commitment, time and energy as you navigate with Me, determined and committed to make wise choices and do the work at hand throughout.
I have put sliding door opportunities before you that will require you to continue to sync with My revealed wisdom, which includes My timing. Again, these opportunities will require you to remain on track with Me, which involves making wise choices for the best outcome.
As our Lord spoke to my heart, I had a sense that He is using it all—the years of hard lessons learned and willingness of commitment to continue forward with Him in faith-obedience.
For some, it can mean to tie up assignments so His promises can be fulfilled. For others, who have just broken through, it can mean to seek Him first and continue to march forward as He fleshes out the fullness of His promises.
What we decide to do at the end and in the beginning will determine much. We can either do it God's way and be fruitful or do it our way and end up with less. The time is right now and our choices will prove pivotal.
I was curious as to why God would show me “sliding door” to describe these opportunities. So, I researched prayerfully and here’s what I found:
Sliding doors are unhinged but are supported from the top and bottom. They can be top-hung, like a barn door or bottom-rolling, like a patio door. Both systems have mechanisms in place to prevent the door from slipping off track. They typically slide horizontally, but there are motorized ones that can lift and slide to create a better seal. So, not only do these doors slide, they can also glide, which means there is an ease to their movement.
There is even a feature film, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, titled Sliding Doors that released in 1998. I don’t recall knowing of this movie earlier. But the premise of the picture is about making choices amid chaos and how those choices impact the life we experience.
I believe God is about to push aside some horizontal doors for His beloved ones, who have known Him vertically and pressed through the narrow place. He is about to remove the final barriers that have kept His transparent ones only envisioning their promises so they can now step into them, while being protected in their new land.
What many tried to do in their own strength, God is now doing for the ones who sought Him and found His grace in the midst of hardship. They gained an understanding of what it looks and feels like for them in their divine assignments and it has become their new familiar peace forward.
For those who may still be struggling to find their way out of the hard place, the Word “sliding” can also mean "rising or falling, increasing or decreasing, according to a standard or to a set of conditions" (Dictionary.com). We know we can glide forward or slide backward, depending on daily decisions and disciplines. Yet, God’s support remains constant.
We know that Jesus is our Door upon which we can choose to knock and that He has the final say. It isn’t too late. We must know that He goes before us and waits for us at the finish line of divine assignments to reward us and to accompany us into His new beginnings for us.
What’s especially interesting about the Word “door” is that it can reference direction and location of a building and reveal occupancy as in "two doors down" (Dictionary.com). It can be "any means of approach, admittance, or access: [such as] the doors to learning." Or "any gateway marking an entrance or exit from one place or state to another."
Concerning opportunities, Dictionary.com defines this Word as "an appropriate or favorable time or occasion; a situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal; a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success.”
So, it’s obvious to me that our Lord is revealing that He has set His people up to follow Him into and through His best opportunities and that He has been leading them up to these doors all along. He has given His people wisdom along the way, even in and especially in hard places and times; and now they must continue to sync with Him for what is needed to experience the fullness of His promises for their lifetime achievements.
Pray with me if you will…
Dear Lord,
Thank You for opening sliding doors to opportunities that will lead to the fulfillment of Your lifetime promises in our lives. Please help us to continue to receive Your wisdom and apply it in ways that will keep us on track with You now and in new places to come. Thank You for helping us to forge forward as victorious in and with You.
In Jesus’ Mighty Name,
Amen.
Margaret D. Mitchell is the Founder of God's Love at Work, a marketplace outreach purposed to share God's greatest power source - the love of Christ.
Originally published Sunday, 11 December 2022.
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