Can you trust that open door in your life is truly from God? Discover how to discern His guidance effectively on this week's episode of "God's Loving Sacrifice." James steps in to share three foundational ways to ensure that opportunities align with divine will, starting with the critical importance of them not contradicting biblical teachings. Learn how God uses the counsel of other believers for confirmation and why fostering faith and reliance on His guidance is essential. Enjoy real-life examples, including a heartfelt story about how a bouquet of roses confirmed God’s will in a relationship, proving He often works in mysterious yet affirming ways.
As we journey deeper, I open up about my husband's profound spiritual transformation and the struggles and joys we faced, from starting our marriage unequally yoked to navigating his dementia diagnosis. This chapter of our life underscores the power of prayer, perseverance, and discernment in seeking God's will. I’m incredibly thankful for my son’s unwavering support in managing the podcast and Jamie's timely assistance during technical difficulties. This episode is a heartfelt reminder that even when the path seems uncertain, trusting in God's divine purpose and the community He surrounds us with can guide us through.
Can you trust that open door in your life is truly from God? Discover how to discern His guidance effectively on this week's episode of "God's Loving Sacrifice." James steps in to share three foundational ways to ensure that opportunities align with divine will, starting with the critical importance of them not contradicting biblical teachings. Learn how God uses the counsel of other believers for confirmation and why fostering faith and reliance on His guidance is essential. Enjoy real-life examples, including a heartfelt story about how a bouquet of roses confirmed God’s will in a relationship, proving He often works in mysterious yet affirming ways.
As we journey deeper, I open up about my husband's profound spiritual transformation and the struggles and joys we faced, from starting our marriage unequally yoked to navigating his dementia diagnosis. This chapter of our life underscores the power of prayer, perseverance, and discernment in seeking God's will. I’m incredibly thankful for my son’s unwavering support in managing the podcast and Jamie's timely assistance during technical difficulties. This episode is a heartfelt reminder that even when the path seems uncertain, trusting in God's divine purpose and the community He surrounds us with can guide us through.
My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com
Speaker 1:
Hello, this is James with God's Loving Sacrifice. I'm here again because mom is having some computer problems and I will be filling in again today. So recently I had some doors open for me and I decided to do some research on how do we know if God opened that door or not. And in my research I came to an article about three ways to know if an open door is from God, and I read it and.
Speaker 1:
I liked some of the points that it made, so I'm going to start out with point one. The open door will never go against the word of God. The word of God, and what that refers to, is say you really need money, but a job opens up and says, hey, we'll pay you more money, but you have to work Sundays. Well, in Hebrews 10, 25, it says do not neglect to meet together for worship. So God wouldn't open a door with something that would go against the word of.
Speaker 1:
God. In 2 Corinthians 6.14, it says do not be unequally yoked with a non-believer. So if you're looking to have a relationship with someone and they are not a believer, then that is not the door that God opened for you. And in James 1, 13 and 14, it basically would cover any other thing that would go against the word of God. So you look at the door that you believe God has opened and you look at the word of God and that's the first place you go. Any door that God opens will have confirmation. Any door that God opens will have confirmation. Matthew 18, 15 through 16 is about confronting sins among believers and it basically tells you that if you see a believer who is committing a sin, you go yourself and you bring it up to them.
Speaker 1:
And if they turn you away, then you come back with two or three more so that you have two to three witnesses of the sin that this person is doing, and that's actually a thing that happens a lot in the Bible. It does refer to having two or three witnesses on events like that. So if you believe the door has been opened to you, then something that you could do is you can bring what's happening to two or three other believers, explain to them what's going on and then listen to what they say and God can confirm that. Yes, this is a door that was being opened by me. The door open will require you to depend on God.
Speaker 1:
That's the third, and that's actually, I think, one of the most important things. If this door would make your life easier to live but you don't have to depend on God, god probably didn't open this door. If the door opens and you have to step out on blind faith you don't know where you're going to move, you don't know how you're going to be able to do this thing then more than likely God is putting that there so that you depend upon Him more. Hebrews 11.6 says Without faith it is impossible to please God, and Matthew 6.33 says says that God's a jealous God. He will not put anything between you and Him. So if you're looking at an event in your life or some upcoming door that you see as being open, take it with these three things and you should be able to determine whether this door has been opened by God or the devil. And that's all I have today. So thank you very much. Bye.
Speaker 2:
I'd like to thank Jamie for jumping in there. Yes, my computer died. I did get a very inexpensive one today just to be able to get my podcast open. I have a better one coming sometime next week and I really appreciate the thing that he decided to talk about the open doors, and I agree with everything that he said. Sometimes those things work together. You know it says all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. I know that one of the first item that James talked about was the open door will not go against the Word of God, and it never does. We may think it is, but it isn't. And one of the scriptures he used for that was do not be unequally yoked with a nonbeliever. But the second one was the doors that God opened will have confirmation. Well, I was married to a nonbeliever. He was a believer. He was a believer of another denomination, but he didn't think everything in the Bible was real. He didn't even think Mary had a virgin birth, which was really shocking knowing what denomination he was associated with. But God confirmed that I was to be with him.
Speaker 2:
Tell you a little story about our first date. I went to his apartment. Make a long story short. I drove because I didn't want to have to stay if he was a jerk. I walked in he told me to go get him some tea. I thought that was rude so I was going to leave. But I went to get his tea first, because I wasn't going to pour it over his head, and I opened the refrigerator. There was a dozen long stem red roses sitting inside of his refrigerator. The note on the front of it said just for you. So I turned around to thank him for them and he said I don't. I've never done this before and I don't know why I've just it's bugged me all day that I have to say something to you. Those were supposed to be white roses. I went to three floors trying to find white roses for you, but I couldn't because the first time I saw you you reminded me of a white rose. So I asked when are we getting married? His response was a loud. What I proceeded to tell him.
Speaker 2:
When I was a little girl about 10, my mom, my mom, had white roses side yard and she loved them and so did I, and I kept stealing them off of the rose bush and putting them in my room and one day she said, gayla, I wished you would stop that. I like those. That's why they're right outside my kitchen window, so when I'm doing dishes I can look at something pretty. I said, fine, I'll stop it, but the man who loves me and will want to spend the rest of his life with me will buy me white roses. Well, he didn't buy me white roses, but he showed me that God had told him about the white roses. We did get married 47 days later and when he passed away we were going on our 34th year together.
Speaker 2:
In those 34 years I was able to witness to him. I was able to show him the things that God could do in your life and trusting in God and he gave his heart to the Lord. He believed and even though I started out unequally yoked, god knew that was where I needed to be. I got the chance to lead the man I loved to Christ. I also got the chance to walk through his dementia diagnosis with him until he passed, and I know that that was what God put me there for.
Speaker 2:
Sometimes the doors he opens, sometimes the doors he opens, you may see one thing telling you that that's not the door you should go through, but make sure you pray, make sure you see that you do have confirmation, and that open door totally made me depend on God. So don't be afraid. When a door opens to trust in God that it's Him. If you see it leading in the wrong direction, if you see it not coming up with any of these three things, then it's probably a door you shouldn't go through. But I'm so proud of my son and the way he has jumped in and assisted me over the last few months making sure this podcast gets out, and the door that he's talking about opening for him is also a door that would be opening for me too, and we're both trusting in God that His will be done and not ours.
Speaker 2:
I ask you to pray for us. It's been a rough year this year for me, but God has walked me through every step and I know that no matter what door opens, what door he leads me through, I'll come out on the other side in his will. Again. I want to thank Jamie for jumping in here today and helping me out when I didn't have a computer it's almost 6 o'clock on Saturday night and helping me out when I didn't have a computer. It's almost 6 o'clock on Saturday night and my podcast goes out at 6 am on Sunday morning and I just got this computer up and running. Listen to God when that door opens, when you've prayed, when you feel his guidance, walk through it, because nothing is more joyful than being in his will.
