Standing in the Doorway — Carter Conlon

The Open Door Before the Church in Philadelphia

I want you to find Revelation chapter three. That's your last book in the New Testament. And once you've found that, find second Kings chapter four in the Old Testament. And then once you've found those two, find Romans chapter nine to save time because I want you to be able to see the words we're gonna be reading.

Revelation chapter three, second Kings chapter four, Romans chapter nine. Now, Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart today. I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for your presence. I thank you, God, that you are speaking to us if our hearts are open to hear you.

Wherever you are, there's the creation of life. You create things in us that are not there, but by your spoken word. Father, I thank you that you'll give me the ability to speak this word today and you'll give us the ability to hear it.

Lord, I bless you for this. I bless you for the quickening of your Holy Spirit and the strength you give to those who serve you and live for you. It is a supernatural strength. It's divine. It doesn't come from our energy.

It's your life within us. Help me today to stand in that life. Help us to hear in Jesus' name. Message is called Standing in the Doorway. Revelation chapter three, beginning at verse seven, Standing in the Doorway.

And unto the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things says he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens. I know your works.

Behold, I've set before you an open door and no man can shut it. For you have a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I'll make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie.

Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. Because you've kept the word of my patience, I will also keep you from the hour of temptation that should come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast that which you have, that no man take your crown. He that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he will go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God.

And I will write upon him my new name. He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Revelation chapter three, verses seven and eight. Jesus Christ is speaking these words to his beloved friend, John.

John is now probably in his 80s, perhaps even in his late 80s. He's in a prison, basically, because of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Christ himself chose to appear to John and in this prison place, he gave him these letters to write to the churches that had been formed throughout part of the world at that time.

And he declares himself to John to be someone who is holy and true. In other words, my words can be trusted. I'm not like other people. God says, the things that I speak, they're truth. They're holy. In other words, they can dwell in the presence of God because they come from God.

There's no variableness, the scripture calls it in the King James Bible. In other words, there's no crookedness in God's speech. There's no fine print. The way he says it is what he means. He said, I have the key of David.

In other words, I hold the keys of complete victory in my hand. I have the power to open doors and the power to close doors. I have the power to create that which you can't access in your own strength.

And what I open, nobody can shut it. And what I shut, nobody can open it. Now, these words you would think are coming to somebody who's strong, the powerful, the influential, the rich, but actually the message that he gives to John for this particular church is for people who don't have much strength.

He says, I know your works. I'm fully aware of who you are sitting in Times Square Church this morning. May I paraphrase it? I know everything you do. I see that you only have a little strength. When you pray, it's a constant part of your prayer.

God, I'm not strong. God, I don't know how to do this. Lord, I don't know how I'm gonna get through this. I don't know how I'm ever gonna change in this area of my life. I don't know how my home will ever look like what I feel it should.

I don't know how my marriage will ever find the wholesomeness that I know you can bring into it. And God, I feel you calling me to do something that's so far beyond me. And he says, I know. I know all of this about you.

And I know you only have a little strength. And you've kept my word though. In other words, you've not written off anything that I've spoken here as false. You've kept it. And you've not denied my name.

You may not be a partaker of everything you've read, but you've not denied that I am who I said I am and that I can do what I say that I can do. And he says, now I'm gonna open the door before you that nobody can close.

And I'm gonna close another door that nobody can open. The best way to understand this is go back now to 2 Kings chapter four. And there was a couple, this portion of scripture talks about a woman of wealth.

The Shunammite Woman and the Promise of New Life

She was a woman from Shunem. And she and her husband, they had a prophet called Elisha that was constantly passing by their house. And of course, this is how God spoke to those generations. He would have selected vessels that he would put his Holy Spirit upon.

And these men or women would speak for God to their generation. And they were great prophets and Elisha was one of those. His predecessor was taken up in a flaming chariot right before his eyes. He picked up the office that that man Elijah had and he was walking in that office.

And so he's passing by them. And typically in the mouth of a prophet in the Old Testament is the power to do the miraculous. And so she and her husband were inviting him in to eat bread. It speaks about you and I, that we love fellowship with God.

We do know that the worlds were created by the power of his speech. We know these things. And we do come to church because we want fellowship with God I know you do, I do. It's wonderful to be in the presence of God.

It's wonderful to hear his words. And so I can see this couple there. He's sitting at their table, he's eating bread and he's speaking of things which are wondrous really because Elisha did marvelous.

God did marvelous miracles through this man. And she said to her husband, verse nine of chapter four and second Kings, behold, I perceive this as a holy man of God which passes by us continually. And in other words, she felt even though they were eating bread, she said, this something about the speech of this man.

I hear something, I don't fully get it, but I hear something in this man's speech. It stirs my heart. And she said to her husband, let's make a little bedroom basically, a little chamber on the wall. And let us put a bed there and a table and a stool and a candlestick.

And it will be that when he comes to us that he can come and turn in there and maybe spend the night there. And these are people who enjoyed, they recognized the fellowship and they must have felt though that the presence of God, he said, he passes by us continually.

That it is true, but it seems to pass us by. Do you ever find that happening in your life? That you come here and you get so stirred by, hopefully you do, I mean, hopefully. I mean, if you don't get stirred Sunday morning, try three o 'clock, maybe you get stirred at three o 'clock.

But you hear something and you hear a Sunday night saying, if anyone be in Christ, he's a new creation. And you know it's true, you know it. But there's only like a little place in your heart for this truth.

You've made a little room with a little bed, a little stool, a little table, a little candle. And you want to hear the words, but the words are passing you by. Constantly, they're spoken, but they just keep on going.

And you love it, you do, you love the words of God, but you have such little strength. And you wonder how are these words ever going to become part of my life. And one day, Elisha is in her house and he says to his servant, call her and ask her what we can do for her.

You know, there are moments in life where God speaks directly to you. And he speaks, says, what would you like me to do for you? And you know, many times we draw back and say, oh, do I dare ask? No, I can't because I can't run the risk of opening that wound in my life again.

I can't run the risk of believing for that area again. I used to, but it's gone. I don't want to talk about this. I don't want this to come to the fore. I've more or less made peace with it. And I really don't want to discuss this.

I somehow believe the words of God are true, but not for me in this area of my life. And the servant of Elisha said, what can we do for you? Can we talk to the king? Can we speak to the king on your behalf?

Or can we talk to the captain of the host? Now, these are incredible things. Would you have us ask the king of the nation to do something for you? Or would you have us go to the one who leads the armies of Israel in a sense and have, do you need power?

Do you need position? What is it that you want? What is it that we can do? And in other words, they're starting right at the top. We'll do something for you. And she said to him, I dwell among my own people.

In other words, it is what it is. You look at another translation that says, my family have been good to me. Thank you very much. I've made peace with my situation. I've found a measure of comfort, even in my sorrow.

She had created her own comfort in a sense. And there's a wound in my life. Basically, when you go on, you find out, and I really don't want to talk about it. I don't want to take a chance on believing God that there can be this kind of a miracle come into my life.

And so her voice says, it's fine the way it is basically is what she's saying. But then there's another voice in verse 14. And the servant of Elisha tells Elisha, says she is old and she has no child.

Her husband is old actually, and she has no child. And you see, this was the deepest ache and she didn't really want to bring this to the surface. I don't want to believe for this. I know this is the word of God.

And I know the word of God has passed me by. It passed me by years ago. And I don't want to take a chance on believing for this situation. And you and I find ourselves in a similar place sometimes that God wants to speak, but we put away what he wants to speak about.

It is what it is. Can we move on from there? Can we pray about something else? Can you give me a word that's something more tangible? Can you give me a word that maybe, I can have a part in fulfilling it?

Can, but don't talk about this thing in my life. Don't talk about speaking to the king on my behalf or speaking to the one who has power to make a difference in my situation. Don't talk to me about this.

The Holy Spirit Intercedes in Human Weakness

In Romans chapter nine, in the New Testament, please. Well, it's actually Romans chapter eight. I want you to think about this other voice. Now this is the servant of Elisha. And I'm talking about the servant of Elisha as another voice.

Elisha would represent what God can do, the power that's in the voice of God. And the woman is standing there before this other servant saying, no, please, it is what it is. My family have been good to me.

Thank you very much. But there's another voice. And this voice overrides our own excuses and our own fears and our frailties. In verse 26 of Romans chapter eight, it says, likewise, the spirit, that's that other voice of God, the Holy Spirit lives inside of those who belong to Jesus Christ, helps our weaknesses, our infirmities.

For we don't know what we should pray for as we should. That's amazing. I mean, I'm paraphrasing a little bit because I'm reading from King James. In other words, we don't know what to pray for really.

That's what it really says. There's something, there's things we ought to pray for, but we don't know how. We don't even know what we should be asking for. But the spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

There is a voice inside of you that is constantly leading you and I to something deeper, something fuller, something farther. And he, verse 27, that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit.

Because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. You have another inside of you praying. If you receive Christ, the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you. And the Holy Spirit of God is yearning to bring your life and mine in line with something that God has for us.

Because he's a God of the miraculous. He's a God that can open doors and nobody can close them. He's a God that can close doors and nobody can open them. Thank God. And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God, according to the place that God chose to set you and I in the body of Christ.

He has a specific purpose for you and for me in the body of Christ. And very often that purpose is beyond our natural ability. Thank God it is or we would touch all the glory, we'd take all the praise and we'd be telling everybody else how to do it.

No, no, very often the true. You see, how else is God glorified but that he takes us in our frailty and opens the door before us and brings us into something of himself where our testimony is simply, I could never have done this in my own strength.

Only God could have done this. God gave me the abilities I have. God gave me the power to love. God gave me the ability to speak. God gave me spiritual authority to stand against darkness. In myself, I'm nothing, but he opened the door before me and I went through it by the grace of God.

And the testimony that God gives to those who belong to Christ is that God took me into the miraculous. He took me out of the natural and brought me into the supernatural. You imagine the 120 people coming out of the upper room in Acts chapter two, and they're speaking languages they'd never learned.

They're communicating the gospel to people of other cultures. And it's an obvious thing that men and women would be standing there. And the very demonstration of what they were doing would lead credibility to this thought, I'm doing something that only God could have made me to do.

I'm communicating great truths about God in your language. And this is something I've never learned, but I've been given the ability to do this. And we know, verse 28, that all things work together for good to those who love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

All things work together. All things are leading you and I to a place where we will be able to be used of God to bring glory to his name because we're called according to not our purpose, but his purpose.

You and I have a purpose. You have to know that today. It's not necessarily what you think it is. For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

God knew that those who would receive Christ as savior, we would become partakers of the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, brought him out of the impossible and into the possible, out of death and into life, out of powerlessness and into all power.

And God knew. He understood this. This is the mark of the true believer in Jesus Christ. We are not to be a natural people, a people in a sense that just are governed by our own thinking, our own strategies, and our own abilities.

We are to be a supernatural people. That's what the church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be. And Paul goes on and the rest of this chapter talks about the love of God. And Paul knew this was grounded in love.

God doesn't do it because he feels obligated to make us a living testimony. He does it because he loves us. That's why Paul says in verse 38 and 39, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Not our own frailties, our own struggles, every thought of hell that comes against us and say, man, you're out of your mind. You've lost it. You really think God's gonna use your life? You really think you're gonna stand and speak before people?

Do you really think you're gonna ever amount to any more than you are, or people have told you you are or going to be? No, if God doesn't open the door, then most likely you and I won't. But the good news is that he opens the door that no man can open, and he closes behind us a door that can't be opened again.

He shuts doors that can't be opened. That means our enemies can't pursue us. He leads us into a newness of life. He does things that we ought to have a song that's just bursting out of us like a spring that wells up from within, say, God, it has been awesome what you've done this week.

It's been awesome what you've done last month. And yeah, I might be in the valley of the shadow of death at the moment, but I'm gonna come through this thing, and your goodness and mercy are gonna follow me all the days of my life.

Standing in the Doorway of God's Promise

And so now this inner voice that's standing before Elisha in 2 Kings says, call her. Call her to me. And it says, when he had called her in 2 Kings 4 .15, she stood in the door. This message is called standing in the doorway.

Call her. So she stood up and she stood in the door. She didn't come in, she stood in the doorway. She's got a choice now. She can go forward to what she's about to hear or go backwards to what she's leaving behind.

She's about to be given a promise of God, and she has a choice. Do I go through the door? Do I believe this promise or do I back up and settle into my it is what it is family situation? Or am I gonna believe God?

Am I gonna go through this door and am I gonna believe him? And so she stood in the door, verse 15. And verse 16, he said, that's Elisha, about this season, according to the time of life, you will embrace a son.

Amazing. In other words, I'm going to speak something, I'm speaking it now, and if you can hear it, it's gonna produce new life in you. As a matter of fact, it's gonna be a miracle. Your testimony is gonna be, my husband was too old and I'm barren, the time had passed, I made peace with failure, the way I saw it, but God spoke to me and gave me a choice.

You can stand in the door or you can go in or you can back out. But God said, in the season it takes, not gonna happen in a day. In this case, it's gonna take nine months, but you're gonna have a son.

You're going to embrace a son. And might I say it this way. I believe with all my heart that in this church and in many others, we're living in the last days. And there's gonna be a sudden embracing of the son of God.

Come into your heart, an explosion of faith in your heart and mind, say, God Almighty, I'm not standing in the doorway any longer, but I'm gonna embrace what the son bought for me. I'm gonna embrace what he won on that cross.

I'm gonna embrace the victory. When he came out of the grave, he said he blotted out my list of sins the devil had against me. He told me, he gave me power to step on all the works of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt me.

He told me he would take me and change me from image to image and glory to glory, even as by the spirit of God. And so I'm gonna embrace the son. I'm gonna embrace this. I'm not gonna reject it. I'm not gonna put it away.

In other words, may I say it this way, the word of God is not passing me by any longer. I'm not letting this word that goes by my house every day pass me by any longer. And I'm not just gonna make a little room in my heart for church and for the word of God.

No, sir, my whole house is now open to the word of God, my whole temple. And if you say I'm gonna have a son, that I'm gonna get it, I'm gotta go down to a baby's arrest and I gotta get a crib and I gotta get a mattress and I gotta get seats and I gotta get diapers and I gotta get pins because I'm gonna have a son.

Can you imagine this woman when she's preparing, she first prepares a room for the word of God, then she starts preparing a room for a baby. And people would have said, man, oh man, she's lost her mind.

This guy, Elisha, is really getting through to her. But God is a God of the miraculous. God, I remember when I left my secular employment back when I was 33 years of age, when I left and I remember people shaking their heads, literally shaking their heads.

This poor guy, we had such hope for him. He was rising up so fast in his career and he's leaving it to pastor this little group of people meeting in a hotel in a small little out of the way nowhere town.

What is he thinking? And the only thing I can tell people, I hear something, I hear God calling me. I don't fully understand what it means, but I know I feel a compelling to go through the door that God has set before me.

And I would rather die believing God than live in unbelief on the wrong side of the door. Revelation three verse eight, he says, "'I know your works. "'Behold, I've set before you an open door "'that no man can shut, for you have a little strength.

"'You've kept my word and not denied my name. "'Behold, I'll make them of the synagogue of Satan, "'which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. "'I'll make them to come and worship before your feet "'and to know that I have loved you.'".

In other words, God says, I'm gonna do something so marvelous in you that people are gonna leave their empty religious places and come and worship God where you are. People are gonna walk away from bankrupt religion.

They're gonna walk away from that, which is just an imitation of God, but there's no power in it. They're gonna walk away from it. They're gonna start coming down the road. I see the prodigals, daughters and sons are coming home in this generation.

Many are coming home. They've been drawn into houses of powerlessness. They've been captivated by arguments that offer no life, but suddenly God says, I'm gonna do something so profoundly powerful in a weak people who know they don't have much strength.

And the only thing is that they have never denied the word of God has power to create. And they've never denied the name of Jesus as their Lord and savior. I'm coming to these people, a people of little power and little strength.

And I'm gonna do in you what only can be done by God. And not only is it gonna set you free, it's gonna set a lot of other people around you free. They're gonna leave these other houses. They're gonna leave these places of captivity that are powerless.

And they're gonna come and worship where you are. Oh, thank God for that with all my heart. Thank God for this generation. And he said, they're gonna know that I have loved you. You see the essence of the testimony that I'm speaking about today it's built on the foundation of the love of God.

I know I'm loved of God. I know that I'm safe in the hands of God. I know that if he's opened the door, he's not gonna bring me to disgrace and shame. I know that if I put my confidence in him, if he's spoken directly to my heart, that he's not gonna cast me away so that I lose my confidence in his spoken word.

And I'm going to believe God for the impossible because he loves me. I know that he loves me. Because you kept the word of my patience. Verse 10, I'll keep you from the hour of temptation that shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.

He says to this particular church and it has application today also to you and I. I will keep you from the despair that's gonna sweep over the whole world. Jesus in Luke 21, 26 talked about a season where men's hearts would begin to fail because of the difficulties that are coming upon this world as we know it.

Matthew 24, verse 12, Jesus said, sin is going to reach such a proportion that the love of many people will grow cold. The love of life, the love of people, the love of country, the love of future, the love of God, everything will begin to grow cold because sin will become so rampant in society.

But he said to these people, I'll keep you. I'll keep you from the despair. Now, how's he gonna do that? He says, I'm going to make you a pillar in the temple of God. In other words, I'll make you an example of strength, a strength that stands when everything else fails.

You will have a confidence in God that is so much beyond anything could be produced even by human exuberance. You'll begin to know the sovereign power of God and you're gonna come into something of God that makes you a pillar when everyone else is running in and running out.

They're running in looking for help and they're running out trying to come up with their own solution. He says, no, I'm gonna make you a pillar in the temple of my God and you will go no more out. No more.

In other words, I'm gonna bring you into something of life and I'm gonna close the door behind you. And you will have no desire whatsoever to return to what you used to be. It will have lost its hold.

It will lose its appeal. You will know it's bankrupt. You will know it's empty. I've set before you an open door. I open the door, you go through and I close it behind you. You can't go back. And he says, I'm gonna make you a pillar in the temple of God and you will no more go out.

You won't be this type of person that comes in for just a little bit of encouragement on Sunday and goes back out to weakness and defeat and despair and everything else that this life offers and discouragement.

No, I'm gonna bring you into something. Yeah, of course you gotta go home, but you're not gonna leave God here. God's gonna go with you because he's inside of you. And you will be in church 24 seven. You'll be in church.

You'll be able to worship God, able to trust him for strength, able to believe. Your testimony will be morning by morning, new mercies I see. Oh yes, mountains may be falling on my left and floods may be coming on my right, but my heart is fixed.

I trust in the living God. I trust in his power and in his word. And he says, I'm gonna write upon you the name of my God. In other words, I will set you visibly apart as belonging to me. I'm gonna write my name on you.

God is going to write it. You're not going to write it. You're not gonna have to tell many people you're a Christian. They're gonna know, say, hey, you're a Christian, aren't you? I see something. I see something in you.

Thank God. Thank God. I will set you visibly apart as belonging to me. And he says, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven, from my God. In other words, I will give you a countenance of hope and of one who has a certain future.

You will see something coming. When everybody else sees disaster, they see wars, they see culture and country rising against country. They see global conflict perhaps arising again that begins to cause their hearts to fear.

They see lunatics having access to nuclear weaponry and weapons of mass destruction. They see this incivility coming into society that's causing them to be perplexed. But it says, I'm gonna give you, when hopelessness is surrounding this world, I'm gonna give you a countenance of hope.

You're gonna see something that people who are outside of the true power of God can't see. You're gonna have an understanding that you have a future. You have a destiny. It's not just in time, but it's for eternity.

And you're gonna see a city coming down with the name of God on it. Out of heaven. And also, he says, I'm gonna write upon you or him my new name. Praise God. You will be called and even call yourself another name than the one which you presently are called by.

This is what God does. He did it with Peter. He said, this is what you're called, but this is what you will be. God says, I'm gonna give you a new name. A new name. You're gonna be called and you're gonna call yourself something different than what you call yourself today.

I thank God for that with all my heart. An example of strength. Visibly set apart. A countenance of hope and joy and a certain future. And a new name. Given you by God. Behold, I set before you an open door.

And no man can shut it. Nobody that ever told you you were a loser, that ever told you you weren't gonna amount to anything, no teacher, no professor, no instructor, no mother, no father, no neighbor, no enemy.

Doesn't matter what anybody said about you. Jesus said, I have the key to your life. I have the key to your future. Nobody else has it. Nobody else can hold that right. I hold that right since you gave your life to me.

And the door I open for you, nobody can shut it. And once you pass through it, I'm gonna shut it behind you. You can't go back. And you're not gonna want to go back. I've set before you an open door. I haven't called you because you're strong.

I know you're weak. But you have kept the little bit of truth that you know. You've done your best to walk as an honest person before God and you have not denied the name of Jesus Christ. I've set before you an open door.

Israel's Failure to Enter the Promised Land

Now think of this Shunammite woman when Elisha called her in and she stood in the doorway. And that's where many people are today. They stand in the doorway. Israel at one time went to the shores of an incredible promised land and they stood in the doorway and they made a tragic mistake.

They chose to believe that their own weakness could have the power to keep them out of what God promised. And so being in the doorway of an incredible life and place, they backed away and they chose a place of dryness and hopelessness and that's what happened for the next 40 years.

This Shunammite woman stood in the doorway and she's been given a promise that came through a servant but from the mouth of God that she was going to, in the season, it would take a season. It's not a snap of the fingers, but it would take a season.

But in its appropriate time, she would embrace a son. I think if the tragedy that could have been in her life had she chosen to back out of the room and say, no, sir, not me. And even when the devil came later on and tried to take that son away, he couldn't take it away because God had opened the door that no one can close.

She knew that. And so my question to you this morning is what is to be done for you? Now, immediately I see heads bowing and I know what that means when I see that. It's called body language. I say, what is to be done for you?

And many here, your immediate response is, oh no, not me. Why not you? Why not? Give me one valid reason why not you. You look through this text of history. Whenever he wanted to raise a profit, he searched for a barren womb.

Never chose the strong in themselves or the influential or the wealthy. When he wanted to do a miracle, he always looked for the least likely person through whom he could do it. Wanted to deliver Israel from an encroaching nation that would take away all of their prosperity and their produce.

And so he goes to the smallest tribe, to the smallest house, to the smallest man, to the smallest man's son and says, I've come to you mighty man of resources. Amazing. Wanted to deliver Israel out of bondage, out of hundreds of years of bondage.