Wide Open Doors – 6

Wide Open Doors – 6

Subject – Untie Your Donkey

By Rick Welborne

1 Corinthians 16:9 (NLT2) ⁹ There is a wide-open door for a great work here, although many oppose me. 

John 10:10 (NKJV) 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 

–It is important that we look at our motives for wanting to go thru those great and effective doors and I believe God is speaking to many of us about the “why’ of what we are doing!

–I love fellowship with the Holy Spirit and again as I communed with Him I ask Him what would he have me to share today...within seconds He directed my heart and thoughts toward what I am about to share.

–I felt He spoke to me and said it is time for the people to take initiative (the first step, the opening move, the go-ahead) toward the wide open doors and toward abundant life. 

1. Untie Your Donkey.

Luke 13:10‑17 (NIV) 10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 

11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 

12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." 

13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. 

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath." 

15 The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 

16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?" 

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. 

–Jesus had very little patience with the religious of His day..."You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey (KJV ASS) from the stall and lead it out to give it water?”

–Jesus had no problem with initiative...He saw a need and He met it...He saw the woman and He healed her after being crippled 18 years.

–In His impatience...He said to them...when something is set before you that represents a need...a cripple woman or a tied up donkey, going thru doors, gaining abundant life...take the initiative.

–This what He said to them and I believe He is saying to us...Untie your donkey...KJV!

–We have prayed, we have asked, and we have believed God will open the wide open doors and that He will give us life more abundantly...it is time we untie our donkey. 

James 4:17 (NLT) 17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. 

--You want to go thru wide open doors in the area of your finances, you pray, tell everyone your need, but it is another thing to get off your donkey and start searching for a job. I have worked four jobs.

–It is one thing to be frustrated about the condition of our nation but it is another to educate yourself where the candidates line up with Scripture and then untie your donkey and go vote and get others to do it also.

–Find out who is pro-life, pro-Israel, pro-family, pro-marriage (man and a woman), and for protection of our country and then vote for that candidate...financially responsible.

–Again we must ask ourselves is this a Biblical principle and can we verify it in the Word of God.  The answer is absolutely!!!

2. Why Sit There Until You Die.

2 Kings 7:1‑8 (NLT) 

1 Elisha replied, “Listen to this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver.” 

2 The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!” But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!” 

3 Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. 

4 “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.” 

5 So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! 

6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” they cried to one another. 

7 So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives. 

8 When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it.  

–The four lepers were in a horrible situation...did I mention they were lepers...Hear this...They were put outside the gate because of their disease (limited...sound familiar?)

–They were broke, busted, and disgusted not to mention they were starving to death...

–Their options were not good...go to the enemy camp or stay there until they died. Isn’t this the way many of you feel.

--My life, my marriage, my family, my finances, my health all are a disaster and my options are not good...you are close to the gate but you cannot go in. You feel limited by your situation.

–These lepers asked each other...why do we keep sitting here until we die...it is time for us to untie our donkey and get up and go do something.

–They made the decision to get off their donkey...to untie their donkey and face their enemy...their problem!  They made the decision!  They were one mind...one spirit.

–We are not going to sit here until we die, when we decide to untie our donkey and we do it together there are no limitations that could be set before us that we can’t overcome thru God...shout now!

–They said “Let’s untie our donkey” and head to the enemy’s camp and just see what God is going to do for us...If we die...we die! Though He slay me yet will I trust Him!

–We keep waiting for God to move and God is waiting for us to untie our donkeys and get up and go thru that the wide open doors. Take the initiative. I love Israel’s resolve to fight.

--We need to make the decision that enough was enough...why sit here until we die...why sit here until the church dies. We don’t want to be another sad church statistic. Untie our donkey.

–We put on the armor every day and started making strong declarations every morning over our lives, our families, and the church!

–God will begin to change our hearts and our lives...you see when we untie your donkey God has the opportunity to do great things for us and in us! Encourage others!

–With God’s help let’s head toward the wide open doors and to an abundant life...I wonder if anyone is ready to untie your donkey and get up and head for the enemy’s camp?

3. When You Untie Your Donkey, God Unties the Blessings.

–What did they find when they untied their donkey and went to the enemy’s camp...they found out that God had already gone before them...enemy had scattered...they had found life and life more abundantly!

–What happened when they found that blessed life...yes, they enjoyed it for a while and then they said we have to untie our donkey and head for the gates of the city.

2 Kings 7:9-11 (NLT)

9 Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.” 

10 So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. “We went out to the Aramean camp,” they said, “and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!” 

11 Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace. 

--We have to get thru the wide open doors and when we find abundant life, what do we do? We take it to our city, our county, our state, and to the world. 

–The Doorkeeper (He is the door and the doorkeeper) is waiting on us to untie our donkeys and waiting on us to go to our world with the good news! Why sit here until we die?

–Naaman the leper was healed when he untied his donkey and faced his pride.

–Peter was set free from his fear when he untied his donkey and was filled with the Holy Spirit!

–The widow in 1Kings received her miracle of sustenance when she untied her donkey and trusted God!

–Untie your donkey and get thru those wide open doors...receive abundant life...you take the initiative!