“Look! I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it” (Rev. 3:8a).
Perhaps you can recall the game show, Let’s Make a Deal. You kind of have to be my vintage to remember it—there have been remakes, but the original ran from 1963-1976. In most of the games, contestants had to decide whether to keep a cash amount or trade for what was behind door No. 1, 2 or 3, without knowing what was behind it.
The Lord has been speaking to me a lot about doors recently. Doors can represent decision, opportunity and expectation. I see three doors reflected in Scripture, and one in particular that stands open before us today.
The Door of Hope
“There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt” (Hos. 2:15, AMPC).
One of the doors the Lord showed me is the door of hope. You can’t fully appreciate this door without understanding a bit of the backstory. Hosea, at God’s request, had married a prostitute who worshipped idols. His marriage was a wreck, and the nation of Israel was not much better off.
The Valley of Achor or Troubling is referenced in Joshua. The children of Israel had had a tremendous victory over Jericho, but went on to suffer disaster at Ai. There, Achan sinned and hid the sin, which caused God to remove the blessing from over the nation. The place where Achan was stoned to remit the sin was called the Valley of Achor or Troubling.
And in that place of overwhelming circumstance and trouble, God spoke to Hosea of hope, restoration and turnaround.
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Diane Lake is a writer, speaker and minister ordained with both Christian International and Generals International. Her articles are regularly featured on The Elijah List, as well as platforms like Charisma Magazine, Charisma News, Intercessors For America and others. She and her husband, Allen, co-founded Starfire Ministries with a vision to see the kingdom established beyond the four walls of the traditional church. They host a podcast with Charisma Podcast Network and serve as church mountain, regional and Montana coordinators for the Reformation Prayer Network and as media mountain leader/facilitators for C.I.’s Culture Influencers.
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