OPEN DOORS: Lessons in Discerning the Will of God

One of the questions we are often asked is, “How do you know that God is calling you to do a trip like this?”

Nicole and I have learned that God often uses the principle of the Open Door in our lives. God gives us the ability to hope, dream, plan in cooperation with Him. As we discern God’s will for an aspect of our lives we consider if doors are either opening or closing for that particular situation.

If the doors in front of us continue to swing wide open, chances are God is allowing us to walk through them with confidence.

But what about those times when all of our effort to push forward with our own plans is met with struggle after struggle; barrier after barrier? If doors are swinging closed ahead of us, we may want to ask if God is halting our progress for a purpose. It could be that we are simply being selfish. We may be more highly valuing material comfort and our culture’s definition of “success” over God’s own Kingdom-purposes. Perhaps we are trying to make something work that God is not calling us to do. If we try to force our way through closed doors we may actually be working at “counter-purposes” with God.

There is biblical support for this way of discerning God’s will for direction in life. A passage from Acts comes to mind,
Acts 16:6-7 Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia:

“6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; 8 so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.”

Clearly, God can halt forward progress or redirect our steps as we remain attentive to His Word and through prayerful discernment.

Nicole and I discerned we should world-school our kids for a year using the principle of the Open Door as a guide. As we asked trusted friends and advisors about our plans, we only found open doors. As we asked the leaders and Church Council at Good Shepherd… no closed doors. (It took the Church Council 6 months to prayerfully discern if they would allow me to go and return to the church; nevertheless, they affirmed the direction.) As we met with school advisors and shared our plans for worldschooling our girls and the ability to return to their schools, doors remained open. Not only that, but these people were enthusiastically supportive of our plans. That was another affirmation that we were not working “counter-purposes” with God. No closed doors in over 2 years of prayerful discussion and planning!

Two years of discernment work has led us to confidently be able to affirm, God has given us the unique opportunity to travel as a family and to Worldschool our girls in 2016-2017. This confidence and the long line of open doors behind us will surely help sustain us through inevitable stretches of homesickness, travel frustrations, and the challenges that will certainly be part of our learning opportunities during Our World Edventure.

In a recent sermon on discerning the will of God for your life, Pastor Tom Brashears used this quote:

To us, this means, it is not our business to direct God, but we can prayerfully catch on to what God is doing and let His power and provision empower our endeavors. We can and must adjust our sails — to cultivate flexibility as we live with awareness; to stay sensitive to the moment-by-moment opportunities to live lives of love and compassion. This humility of heart and recognition of God’s sovereignty allows us to then make plans and say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).

So we will continue to make plans, walk through open doors and look out for the closed doors that may come. Until then, as long as the doors are open, we’ll keep walking!

 

P.S. For the theologically geeky among our readers, we recognize the above post sounds far more “deterministic” than it was intended. The post is better understood from knowing some of Ryan and Nicole’s theoretical and theological assumptions regarding the balance between God’s sovereignty and human free will.

We believe that God is sovereign, that God is utterly in control of everything in all of creation at all times; that God’s ultimate plan for redemption and renewal of His good creation will be accomplished — with or without us.

This does not mean that everything that happens in the world is caused by God. We believe and have seen the reality of the darkness of evil. Although we struggle to fully comprehend why evil was even allowed a beginning, we also believe that even the evil in this world is under the control of God’s sovereignty and limited from being fully unleashed.

Free will is another vital partner in the discernment process. We believe God gave humanity free will from the beginning of human time. This ability to freely make choices is one aspect of humanity being made in God’s own image. The intelligence, integrity and creativity that can be brought to bear as we make choices reflect aspects of God’s own decision-making. The Lord delights when we make choices that demonstrate that our priorities and identity are rooted in the characteristics and KIngram-priorities of God. Of course, we are also free to make choices that are far from God’s intention.

Ryan likes to think of the balance between God’s sovereignty and human free will as a “creative collaboration.” Nicole prefers the term “co-creation” with God. Regardless of terminology, both Ryan and Nicole believe that God has given humanity a unique capacity to partner with God as we live out our lives with intention, love and compassion.