Jentezen Franklin - The Lord Is My Doorkeeper
Have your Bibles, open them with me to the book of Revelation. I want to go to the book of Revelation 3:7-8. "To the angel in the church in Philadelphia write, 'These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens: I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name'".
The Lord is our doorkeeper. The thing about transition, when you're in transition, is we find ourselves in that awkward place; we're wanting God to open doors and shut doors in episodes of our life. There's something about being in transition that's important when it comes to doors being opened and closed. When you're in between one place and you're trying to get to another place, there's this thing that we call a door. How you get from one place to another place is a door. A room has a way to access it and you know that's through the door. You can't get from where you are to where you want to be unless you go through a door.
A door separates one room from another, which means something. It's significant because it means that your movement doesn't have to be far for you to make the transition. Sometimes we think that when we've got to make a transition, that it's got to be a long journey. But the truth is, God can set a door in your life and you can transition out of one place, walk through the door, into another place. And it doesn't have to take a lot of movement to make it happen because if you're standing at the door and you're in this room, all you have to do is step through the door and you're in the other room.
Your movement was only one step and you're in a whole 'nother room. Sometimes we think it takes big movement to make a transition. You can be in a room of brokenness one minute and just one step away from brokenness to wholeness. All it takes is a door. You can be in a place of sorrow and grief and, one moment, and God can make the transition where you walk through the door to a place of joy and peace and contentment. All it takes is one step. And you access it and everything in that room changes. Doors in the Bible are very important. Open doors give you access to something. Shut doors means you don't have access.
So there are positive and there are negatives to a door. A door means you're shut. If it's shut, then you don't have access. If it's open, then you have access. The Lord is my doorkeeper. He opens doors and He shuts doors. And if trust Him, He's going to let me have the access or deny the access to stop me from missing His plan and His purpose. A shut door means several things. Number one, it means protection. When you go home after this service, you don't leave your door wide open. You shut the door because you don't want just anybody coming in while you're trying to sleep tonight.
A shut door means protection. And sometimes, God shuts the door to protect you. You know, the children of Israel, when they came out of Egyptian bondage and they crossed the Red Sea and God said to Moses, "Turn around and look", and suddenly Pharaoh and his army had entered into the Red Sea that was parted and standing up on both sides. And the Bible said the water caved in and they vanished. It was symbolic of God closing the door, saying to Moses, "These enemies you will see no more". In other words, what He was saying is, "I open doors. When I parted that ocean, I opened it and no man can shut it".
Sometimes we shut a door for privacy. Sometimes people come over to your house unexpectedly and you say to the kids, "Run through the house; pick up everything, take it to the back bedroom, throw it in there. I don't care. Get it all in there. Get everything up. Clean every bathroom. Get everything, every piece of laundry, every towel, everything in your room. Bring it to the back bedroom. Throw it in there". And then guess what you do. Don't lie. You shut the door. Why? Because not everybody needs to have access to private matters in that house. You stay in that area and look around, but the shut door means that's private.
What I'm saying to you is you don't need to see the mess. I only want you to see the clean part. And God knows how to shut the door and deal with the mess in our life and not let everybody see it. So He closes doors for protection and for privacy. He opens doors to give you access to something or someone. Almost all sin can be traced to an open door that you opened to someone or something that moved into your life because you opened the door. In life, there are doorkeepers. And it's frustrating because doorkeepers can let you in or they can keep you out. Doorkeepers can shut you out. And politics or whatever you want to call it, in the office or whatever it is, they can limit you. Then can stop you from having access.
Someone who controls the access, says no to you and they can shut you out and you feel like you don't belong there. People may try to block your progress. People may try to stop you. But, He opens a door no man can shut. The Lord is my doorkeeper and He opens doors no man can shut. Nobody can keep me from having access. Even if you don't like me, if I'm supposed to be there and God told me I'm going to be there, I'll get there in spite of you. Because the Lord is my doorkeeper.
Turn to somebody and say, "The Lord is my doorkeeper". Any door the Lord opens, no man can shut. And any door the Lord shuts, no man can reopen that door. Man is not in charge of my door. The devil is not in charge of my door. The Lord is my doorkeeper. There're some doors that need to be shut, if the Lord is your doorkeeper.
There are some doors that need to open for you, some places you're supposed to be, some things you're supposed to do. You need access to do these things. And I'm here tonight, proclaiming over your life that the Lord is your doorkeeper. "Behold, I set before you an open door and no man can shut it". Not only is He our doorkeeper, that means something else. It doesn't just mean He opens doors and He shuts doors, but it also means, according to the book of Exodus, that when they were commanded to take blood and put it on the door of their house. And when the destroyer came, he said, "When I see the blood, I'll pass over your door".
The destroyer may be assigned to your home to destroy it and somebody may be fearful of what the destroyer would love to do to your little family. But I'm here proclaiming over your family and over your life. Don't you let fear torment you. Don't let the enemy tell you something happened and it's going to come back and haunt you again. The Lord is your doorkeeper and He's watching your house. And He says, "I'll watch; and if there's blood on that doorpost when the destroyer wants to come to that house".
I'm speaking a word to somebody today who's been a little tormented with fear and the Lord says to you, "I will not allow destruction access to your family again if you'll believe Me". Come on and give God praise for that. I really, I will not... Say it. "He will not allow the enemy access, the destroyer access, to my family. I will stand over the door" 'cause the Lord is your doorkeeper. He says, "I'll stand over the door and I'll watch over the door of your household". If the enemy wants to access, put blood on the doorpost and the Lord will be your doorkeeper, standing over the door. And when the devil knocks, He'll say, "Don't answer this one. I'll take care of that".
Now, this is really important. Maybe you've never thought about this. But Isaiah 6 gives a great insight into doors. Isaiah 6 is when the, you know, Uzziah died and "I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And the glory of God came into the temple". And then it makes this strange statement. It said, "And the doorposts moved at the sound of His voice". The doorposts moved. Since the Lord is our doorkeeper, sometimes He moves the door. And when He speaks, the door moves. There are some people God does not want to have access to you and yours anymore. And He can come with a word and speak a word, and at the sound of His voice, the doorposts moved. It was here. They did have access. But God moved the door and now they don't have access. Every open door to someone matters.
So every so often, God has to speak a fresh revelatory word to your soul and to your spirit. And when He does, God speaks the word and the door moves. And the next time they come back, they can't get to you anymore. And I'm not talking about necessarily the physical house; I'm talking about those emotional, psychological, soul ties that people can have to you, that they just knew how to get to you, just... All they've got to do is show up and say something and they go all the way down in you and get on your last nerve or touch that emotional thing. And suddenly, all that old stuff, all that old hurt, all that old pain, it starts coming up and they just know how to do it. But you get a word from God. They come back. They can't get to you anymore because God has moved the door.
Some of you got online and you opened a door you should have never opened. Some of you had a conversation at work with somebody that you should have never opened the door to that conversation. Should have never got their phone number. Should have never got the email. And you've tried and tried to shake yourself loose and you can't shake yourself loose. But the Lord told me to tell you it's time for you to see the door move. And the Lord is your doorkeeper and He's going to move the door and they're not going to be able to get to you like they used to get to you.
I've discovered every time God gives a significant word, my door moves. And if some people have access to you, they will cause you to abort what God wants you to give birth to. They'll rob you of your faith. You ever met those people? I mean, you're feeling... You knew God told you to do something. You knew you had faith for it. You were fired up about it. And here they come. And they walk through and they start talking, and by the time they finish, you just feel like, "I was crazy. I didn't hear from God. It ain't no way I can do that. They're right".
They rob you of your faith. They shift you in your thinking in the wrong direction, especially when you're in transition. When moving from one thing to another thing, the Lord must be your doorkeeper, not people, not what your aunt said, not what your crazy friend who's been married four times and they're telling you how to live the married life. The people you surround yourself with in transition is critical. You need people who call you to your highest place, people around you who modify your behavior. You got any friends that will modify your behavior? Or do you get around people that are just as crazy and off as you are and all y'all do is just stir each other up for trouble and mischief?
You need people who don't take you down the wrong road. They help modify your behavior and take you to the right place. May the door move to those people tonight. May your door move in Jesus' name at the sound of His voice. Guard your heart with all diligence. The Lord is your doorkeeper. You better guard your heart with all diligence, because there are people who know how to stir you up, how to take you into your past, take you into the worst place for you emotionally and psychologically. God can speak to that door and say, "Move". And don't know what it is, but suddenly, your eyes get opened and their opinion don't matter to you anymore. And then He starts bringing other people who have access to you rather than the same people having the wrong access to you, new people are coming into your life and into your loved ones' life.
Everybody shout, "New people. New people are coming into my life and into my family's life. And the door for the wrong people is about to move because the Lord is my doorkeeper. Not man. Not devils. The Lord is my doorkeeper and there's blood on my door". Give God a big shout if you believe it. Here's a big one. God can shut the door to poverty and open the door to prosperity. I like that. I said God can shut the door to poverty and open a new door to prosperity. And this year don't have to be like every other year.
Why don't you just say, "Lord, I believe You're opening brand new doors, brand new people, brand new resources into my life". Let's take a praise break and thank Him. This is the word of the Lord, and doors are moving even while I'm preaching. The door to joy. The angel rolled the stone away, and he sat on it. In other words, he was saying, "This door's staying open. Try me". You see him sitting up there, sitting on the stone, a mighty angel? And he said, "I'm just going to hang out here 'cause I want the devil to know God's opening this door, and this door's not going to close again".
The Lord is my doorkeeper. Shout it. The Lord is my doorkeeper. Shut that door on that season, Lord. Everybody needs a door to open and a door to move and a door to close. The door to close on the person who brings out the worst in you. People who have access inappropriately bring the worst out of you. The Lord is the doorkeeper, watching over my door. That thrills me. Some people are hard to get rid of. People who know how to mess up your world are very faithful. But God's about to shift your door. Hallelujah. 'Cause your gift to rise up. 'Cause your faith to rise up. Shut doors that no man can open. Open doors that no man can shut.
Say to the destroyer of your house, "I'm the Lord, their doorkeeper, and you will not come in and take joy out of this house again". How many of you have some doors that you would love to see God close? Alright. Get up. Come on down here. Looks like we got more that want 'em closed, than open. I don't know what that means, but God does. And it's good. People who keep taking you to your worst place, gon' be nice, gon' be cordial, but they can't get to you like they used to get to you. They can't push your buttons, because God has shut the door and moved the door.
This is a revelation for somebody. You don't have to live that way, anymore. How many of you've got some doors you'd love for the Lord to open? You know you need some open doors. You might as well come on down, too. I know it's full, but get in here. Get in here. Come on. Activate your faith. Move. Activate your faith. Activate your faith.
How many of you have issues with your family that you would love for the Lord, as you apply the blood, to become the doorkeeper and say to the destroyer, "Not in this house"? Maybe it's a fear thing. Maybe it's a sickness or a disease that maybe the Lord's healed somebody of cancer or something and the enemy says it's coming back. It's coming back. Not if the Lord's your doorkeeper. That's a word. And the door just moved. Throw your hands up. Open your mouth and begin to praise God for just a moment. Open your mouth and thank Him. Open your mouth and praise Him. Open your mouth and declare. Your words are multipliers. When you say it, it begins to multiply.
The Lord is my doorkeeper. I boldly declare that a new door is opening before me that no man can shut and old doors are closing and no man can open them. I boldly declare what the pastor preached I receive by faith; that in the name of Jesus, at the word of the Lord, the door has moved and what used to have access does not have access anymore. The Lord is my doorkeeper and the destroyer will not have this marriage, this home, this family, these children, this business, these resources. I see a door and I'm moving from brokenness to wholeness, from poverty to blessing, from sickness to health, in Jesus' mighty name.
So I want to close with this, Hebrews 10:35, "Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has a great reward". Something's coming, and it's not going to be normal. It's going to have a great reward if you'll maintain your confidence. "Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of patience", or endurance, "so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and not tarry. And the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him".
I love verse 39. "We are not of those who draw back". We don't quit. We don't give up. We're strong and we're mighty. We're not weak. We're not beat up. We're not victims. We're not defeated. We're strong and we're mighty. "Open up, you doors. Be ye lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory will come in". Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty.