Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
When God Closes a Door
Have you ever been frustrated when a door closed in your life, only to realize later it was actually divine protection? This eye-opening exploration of "When God Shuts the Door" challenges our perspective on life's disappointments and redirections.
Drawing from Revelation 3:7, we discover the profound truth that what God closes, no one can open—and this closing often serves as our greatest blessing. Through biblical examples like Noah's ark, where God literally "shut him in," we see divine preservation in action. The contrast is striking: the Titanic, built by professionals, sank, while Noah's amateur-built ark survived because God sealed its door.
The journey continues through the Exodus story, where God's protective barriers—blood on doorposts and pillars of cloud and fire—created spiritual "doors" that preserved His people. Most fascinating is the Apostle Paul's experience in Acts 16, where the Holy Spirit actually prevented him from entering certain regions. What seemed like frustrating roadblocks were actually divine redirections, positioning Paul perfectly in God's timeline.
Personal testimonies bring these ancient truths into today's context, showing how closed doors in ministry, health challenges, and career paths ultimately revealed God's better plan. When we face obstacles, our instinct is often to blame the enemy or push harder—but what if we're fighting against God's protection?
Whether you're facing career uncertainty, relationship challenges, or ministry transitions, this message offers a fresh perspective on closed doors. Before you struggle to force open what God has shut, consider that He might be preserving you for something better or redirecting you to where you're truly meant to be. Your seemingly frustrating detour might be the very path to your greatest purpose.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
And today's message is talking about when God shuts the door. Now I know I've sort of like been hampered on this a bit lately about, you know, going through difficult times, challenges that we come across, but the thing is we live in an ungodly world and we're surrounded by ungodly things, so naturally things are going to happen by ungodly things, so naturally things are going to happen. And sometimes, as a Christian, we actually find that things happen or appear to happen more to us than non-believers, and that's purely and simply. I believe me personally is that's because we have a greater understanding of how things work in the spiritual realm and how things work in the natural.
Speaker 1:Now, a few months ago I was reading a book. I mean, hang on, okay, I don't want you to think I only read one book. I mean I read lots of books. But I mean this was one particular thing that I was reading and I can't remember the title of it, but I do remember that it highlighted Revelation 3. And a particular phrase in Revelation 3.7 still caught my attention today and this last week as I was preparing for this message. Let me read this verse to you and I'll try and put it into the right perspective To the angel of the church of Philadelphia. Write To the angel of the church of Philadelphia, right. These are the words of him, who is holy and true, who holds the key of David what he opens, no one can shut. And what he shuts, no one can open. Now, as I pondered that I was looking at this particular thing about what he shuts, no one can open, now, just to put things into clarity. I mean, this is the book of Revelation and we are specifically speaking about Jesus. So just those that are fairly new to this or haven't got around to reading Revelation because they don't think that it's prevalent yet but I'd like to remind all of you listeners that we are living in the end times and Revelation is something that we need to be aware of and we need to read it, not so we can fall into fear, but to have a better understanding of what is going to take place in the world. But we, as born again believers, will not be subject to a lot of these things, because that'll be after the rapture has taken place. But it is important to understand and that's why it's important to read the Bible and not just parts of it that you think that are good. I mean. At the moment I'm going through one and two kings and man. Some of the things that happened. You would think how did mankind survive? But obviously we did, otherwise we wouldn't be here. But I'm digressing, hang on, let me get back to where I was Now. So what he shuts, no one can open.
Speaker 1:So I began to study this particular passage of scripture and I realized that God closed doors us blessings in disguise. Now this is how I relate to this right Closed doors. They test our faith, they build perseverance, and we're waiting for the Lord is sometimes harder, but it could be a means by which we learn patience and trust. Closed doors also may prevent us from making mistakes. Sometimes we might not have all of the information we need to make a wise decision, so God blocks the way. And also closed doors may result in better fruit. And also closed doors may result in better fruit, more satisfaction and greater glory for God, and most of us have prayed and asked God to open doors for us. We all have testimonies of how God miraculously and supernaturally open doors in our lives, and whilst we are grateful for God for these prayers that are answered and the testimonies that come out of this this morning I would like to focus on doors that our Lord and Saviour, our God, sovereignly shuts in order to fulfil his purpose in our lives. So I've entitled this sermon when God Shuts the Door, and the scriptural reference for this is Revelation 3.7.
Speaker 1:Now I'll give you an example. No, no, no, not yet I'm getting ahead of myself. Okay, I'd just like to draw your attention to the three separate passages in this scripture where God shuts a door. In one case, he did it literally. In the other two they were figuratively. In the other two they were figuratively. And yet how these doors shut proved to be a great blessing.
Speaker 1:Now, when we look at this basically, okay, divine preservation, or preservation, is in Genesis 7.16. Now, the animals were going in, were male and female, of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah, then the Lord shut him in. Now, Genesis 7.16,. See, I need to focus on this for a particular reason, just for a second. Okay, the story of Noah is about him building an ark and the rather strange expressions that are done after Noah does everything that God commanded him to do had done after Noah does everything that God commanded him to do. We read in Genesis 7.16 that the Lord shut the door of the ark. Now, this is divine preservation. I'll pronounce it properly and mentally properly and mentally. So it's a way of preserving people or situations. See, noah obeyed God and he built the ark exactly as he commanded. He preached and warned his generation about the intimate judgment, and his family bore the ridicule and the ignatiation of the people who treated this message with contempt, because none of them knew what rain actually was. And he was very diligent about what he was done. And when everything had been done, the text reminds us that the Lord shut them in.
Speaker 1:Now, what does this talk about in divine preservation? Well, it was all about protecting Noah and his family. It was not the gopher wood, it was not the size of the ark, it was not the craftsmanship. We need to read these lines. Somewhere along the lines, you've got to realize that we don't even know whether I mean I don't know. I mean someone might be able to correct me on this. I like to listen to pastor david. He's very, very good with the Old and New Testament, historically, but I'm just going on from what I perceive from this. We don't even know whether Noah was a carpenter. He may have had some other trade that he did. So, basically, the Ark was built by, you can say, an amateur, whereas you look at something like the Titanic, that was built by professionals. The Titanic sunk and Noah's Ark did not. The Titanic sunk and Noah's Ark did not. So Noah was preserved inside the Ark because God shut him in. So the thing is hypothetically I'm speaking now if Noah had to close the door of the ark himself, he may not have secured it physically as well as spiritually, whereas God intervenes and his divine preservation of the Old Testament was very, very apparent here.
Speaker 1:You're probably not getting where I'm going at the moment, but humor me all right. I'm not as intellectual as some and I don't use the Greek and the Hebrew and all of these different interpretations. It's only by reading the Word of God and by being led by the Holy Spirit, and sometimes that happens to me. Sometimes you may see that there's no pattern to the types of subjects that I come up with to speak about and where I'm actually, you know, like trying to actually bring the word of God in such a way that you can understand it and you can actually use it in your life. And it doesn't always come along that way, but every now and again, you know, I'm led by the Holy Spirit and he drops something into my heart and I go, I have to talk about this and so I myself have to study it, you know, and he says because it says we perish, perish, not a parish, we perish through lack of knowledge. Understanding the word of God is more important than a lot of other things, because it is my old pastor, pastor Dr Reverend Margaret Court. She used to always say it's our roadbook.
Speaker 1:Other people have said that the word Bible means basic instruction before leaving earth. If you look at this from the Greek and the Hebrew, the word Bible just means book. So you've got to put things into their right perspective and you've got to understand how things are done. Now I'm getting off the track here. Let's get back to this. So the Lord shut the track here. Let's get back to this. So the Lord shut the door physically with Noah and his family, and that was the way that he was protected. Right Now, then, if we go down a little bit further, we go to say Exodus 11.7.
Speaker 1:Down a little bit further, we go to say exodus 11 7. This was when the final plague come upon the egyptians and they would lose. Well, see, the thing is, everybody says the egyptians would lose their firstborn, but it says everybody that wasn't protected or everybody that didn't have this divine preservation would lose their firstborn. So it says in Exodus 11, 7,. It says but among the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any person or animal. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egyptian and Israel. What is that that kept Israel safe as they lived, went through the wilderness? Okay.
Speaker 1:Now there's three things here In Egypt, okay, when death came upon the nation of Egypt okay, it was a spiritual shutting of a door was when they actually put the blood of lambs on the lentils in their house and they stayed in their house. That protected them. But those that did not have that on them, which was primarily all the Egyptians, death would come in and take the firstborn. So that was the last straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. And then the egyptians said right, without enough of this, you're out of here. And so they. They let you know god's chosen people go. But in the wilderness, okay, they were protected by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. That's in exodus 13, 21. Both of these pillars represented god's sovereign presence or it's another way of actually putting a hedge of protection around them. Okay, that was the door that was closed around them by day and by night to protect them. Both of these represented God's sovereign presence.
Speaker 1:And when we read through the book of Job, in Satan's dialogue with God, satan points out that there was a hedge of protection around Job, his family and his possessions. That's in Job 1.10. It says a hedge of protection, a protective covering over Job's life, his family and possessions. We read a similar promise by God to his people during exile in Zechariah 2.5. And it says and I myself will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord, and I will be its glory within A wall of fire talks about protection. Opening and closing of doors can be done either physically or spiritually. Consider it this way what has protected our lives, or what has protected your lives over the year and I believe every single one of us at some stage has had divine intervention in such a way that we have been preserved from harm or near-death experiences. And I can recall several of these in my life, but I'll just give you a couple of examples.
Speaker 1:When I first became ill and I had to go in a hospital. I had to have this massive surgery. It went for about 10 hours, right have. This massive surgery went for about 10 hours, right. And then I was in the icu for 11 days and I was on death's door. Um, believe it or not, I can clearly recollect that it was like the darkness was closing in on me. I could feel the darkness closing in on me. Some say it may have been medication or whatever, but I clearly saw the darkness closing in. And then there was this little ray of light coming through and I literally cried out to God, not in my inner self or my inner voice, I literally cried out to God. And so everybody in the whole hospital, especially through ICU and everything, knew that I was a Christian. Because I cried out to God and God showed me that it was him that brought me back from the edges of death. When I was in the wheelchair back in 2002, 2003, and I had to have some surgery, I actually died on the table and I sometimes wonder how I got through these things or how did I know that it was God?
Speaker 1:Just look back at your own life and look at some of the things that you went through and you see and you hear about on the news all the time, people say, oh, it's a miracle, this person survived. A classic example is just recently that German backpacker was lost in the wilderness and they found her and although she'd lost a lot of weight and was dehydrated and everything, she survived. And they were saying it was a miracle Because if you look at the timeframe that she was in the elements with no food and no water, and you think, wow, how did she survive? And there are countless examples of this. You know, I can't remember the name of the mine, but years ago there was a massive, big mine cave-in and all of these people were trapped in the mine and everybody expected them to be dead. It was just. It turned from a rescue into a recovery. Yet every one of them survived, you know, but by the grace of God.
Speaker 1:But unfortunately, in today's world we don't acknowledge the presence of divine intervention, we don't acknowledge the fact that. You know, just contemplate there for a while After you've finished listening to this message, just think back on your life, irrespective of whether you're, you know, like only 15 or 16, or you're 50 or 60. Just look back on your life and just say, oh, yes, I can see the touch of God there in my life. Yeah, I can see where Jesus stepped in here. Yeah, I can see where this took place. In the same way, if we look at the story of the Apostle Paul and I know I go back to him quite a lot because I think that he's grossly understated what he actually physically went through and had to deal with.
Speaker 1:Now I only compare myself in a very small way with Paul, purely and simply because I was a very latecomer to my faith and my belief in Jesus Christ, and I know that there's a lot of people that have been brought up in a Christian environment and their parents have been pastors or missionaries or a variety of things, or you've always had God in your life from a very, very early age, irrespective of whether it is through a different faith, belief, structure or whatever. You had that foundation, you had that structure. I didn't necessarily have that privilege. I was so far from God it was almost like I didn't even know how to spell his name and yes, I know G-O-D. But the point that I'm making here is that if you look at Paul his second missionary journey, for instance'll just highlight some verses in Acts 16, verses 6 and 7.
Speaker 1:It says this Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phygraia and Galatia, and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit, from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Byrithia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them. So they passed by Mysteria and went down to Troas. During the night, paul had a vision of a man, a Macedonian, standing and begging him to come over to Macedonia and to help them. After Paul had seen the vision, he got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now listen to this.
Speaker 1:Acts 16, 6-10 in the NIV says this when we read of obstacles, barriers, problems, delays in the ministry, we often ascribe it to forces of darkness resisting or coming against the work of God. In this passage we see something unique it is the Holy Spirit that prevents Paul from going to Asia and later to Bithynia. See, if you study this passage carefully, we realize that the time was not right for the province of Asia. When we study the background of his text, we realize that Paul had wanted to go to Asia in about 50 AD. It would be close to two years later that he would open the door and take him to Ephesus a clear instance of divine preservation preservation. You see.
Speaker 1:What I'm saying here is that we automatically assume if a door shuts and it is preventing us from doing something, going somewhere or achieving something, we think, oh, it's the devil stopping us. And so sometimes we try and push through that barrier to get out the other side, but we can't work out why. It's all in God's timing. God opens doors and God closes doors. Don't give any more credit to the devil than the devil is entitled to get, because a lot of the time, as things happen in our lives, we blame God for it or we blame the devil for it. We don't think that it could have just been our own stupid self making a stupid decision at a stupid time in our life. We've got to put things into the right perspective.
Speaker 1:I'll give you another example. Have a look at Acts 19, 8 through to 10, and this is in Ephesus. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing perseverely about the kingdom of God, but some of them became obstinate. They refused to believe and publicly maligned the way. So Paul let them, he took the disciples with him and he had discussions daily in the lecture halls of Tyrannus. This went on for four years so that all the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. See, the Holy Spirit knows the entire roadmap of our lives, so we should always follow his prompting. Closed doors could redirect our walk. God will not leave a willing servant with nothing to do. As Paul and his companions were sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we see them entering Europe with the gospel of the Lord, jesus Christ. See, the second place okay, was all about the Holy Spirit being led.
Speaker 1:Paul wanted to visit with Bethania. Many years later, we see that the Apostle Paul writing to the saints of Bethanesia and this is what he said Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect. Exiles scattered throughout the providence of Pontus, galatia, cappadocia, asia and Benethea, and this is 1 Peter 1.1. We don't know who took the gospel there, but the fact that there were saints in Bethania brings home an important truth.
Speaker 1:Sometimes the task that we want to complete may be a God-given assignment for someone else. It is better to trust in God's sovereign purpose for each of our individual lives. Have you ever encountered a shut door recently. Maybe God is preparing you for that assignment. He will open that door at its appointed time. Open that door at its appointed time. It's a kairos moment, or an opportune time, because he is God who knows the end from the beginning. We've got to thank God for divine preparation and see that's it. And see that's it. It may be your how would I say this? It may be part of the plan and purpose. You know.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 29, 11 says this I know the plans that I have for you, the plans to prosper you and have you in good health, okay, and he's telling you that there is a plan and a purpose for you, the plans to prosper you and have you in good health. He's telling you that there is a plan and a purpose for you. But when you look at what you believe is your plan and purpose and not all of this relates to just ministry, I'm talking about everyday life decisions that you make the right time to buy a house, the right time to sell, the right time to change jobs or the right time to look at a new career path, even, or to move interstate or overseas there is a right time and there's a wrong time and you've got to be able to discern with that. So, realistically, let me encourage you that everything that you do in life that revolves around making a major decision of some kind in your life, commit it to prayer, pray about it and if the door's not opening, you have to try and learn to accept that for a reason. I'll give you one more um, one more uh analogy to help you out here. Okay, and this was related to ministry.
Speaker 1:Right when I left being an associate pastor at Victory Life Center, I knew it was time for me to step out of that and there's a time for us to be in the wilderness and there's time for us to be in the grace and the glory of God. And I assumed too many things and I started applying for these jobs as associate pastor and also a senior pastor at different churches, and I would get to the interviews, I would actually be asked to preach at their church and they would be very, very encouraged with me and what I had to offer, both spiritually and physically. And then I didn't get the job. And I'm thinking why? Why am I not getting this job?
Speaker 1:God knew that COVID was coming and that I was going to get quite ill at that point in time and I was supposed to start on this journey that I'm on now. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying God made me sick. He didn't, but he knew it was going to happen and it had to happen for a reason. And I understand now why that had to happen and this is why I'm at where I'm at and this is why I do my podcasts and everything. And I know that there's more for me to do and, in the natural, I just need the finances to be able to actually set these things up so I can start moving forward with where I believe that God wants me to go.
Speaker 1:But back then that was not my time. See, if I would have taken one of those jobs, or I had been given one of those jobs, I may have stagnated and not been able to fulfill the full journey and blessings that God's got for me. So I understand that now, but I didn't then. Back then I was, you know, arguing and upset with God because of what was happening, and we do.
Speaker 1:We have a tendency to blame him, but just stop, think and reflect on why a door closed or why a door is opening, and see, sometimes, even when a door opens, we are fearful in the natural of stepping through, because we need to put ourselves out on that limb, knowing that someone can come along and saw off the branch.
Speaker 1:You've got to step out with faith. We need to trust our Heavenly Father in everything we do and everything we say, commit everything to prayer, spend time reflecting on it and just know that you know that you know that God is going to lead you in the right direction. Yes, sometimes we ourselves do go off script, so to speak, but God will correct us and bring us back into alignment, because all of us have got a plan and a purpose. You weren't brought into this world by accident, irrespective of what your parents tell you or other people tell you. There's a plan and a purpose for every single one of us to bring honor and glory to our Heavenly Father. Amen, all right, take care and I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now.
