Opening The Five Doors Of Destiny by Apostle Michael Orokpo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

As you walk through time, one thing you will discover is that by strength shall no man prevail. The race is not to the swift, the battle is not to the strong, time and chance happen to them all. Even the best of us needs the intervention of the spirit realm, and so we begin to deploy ways of accessing spirits and drawing from their realm. One of the most ancient practices of human civilization is the practice of sacrifice. From the time of Adam, man intuitively learned the way of sacrifice, because men understood that on this side of the divide you must have the intervention of spirits to have an advantage. For us who are children of God, we are not left out. To draw from God's realm there are forces that make it happen, and that is the force of faith, as stated in Hebrews 11:6.

If you want to draw from the realm of God's spirit, you must also learn the way of sacrifice. Spirits are pleased when men believe them and when men sacrifice to them, because they are beings that transact in the natural through the instrumentality of blood. This is why when Adam fell, God slew an animal and used its blood to cover the man, because blood needed to cover him for him to continue to engage God's spirit. When God dealt with Abraham, he demanded Isaac. Ultimately, the transaction that brought us into relationship with God took the sacrifice of Jesus. So in dealing with God, you need sacrifice, and you must also engage in prayer. You must talk to him and wait to hear from him. Without prayer it becomes difficult to access the realm of God. That is why he invites us to reason with him, and though our sins be as scarlet, they can become as white as snow. God requires communication, and prayer is one of the ways the spirit has ordained for human civilization to engage him, as taught in Luke 18:1. If men don't pray, transactions between earth and heaven will not be possible.

In fact, prayers are so important that sometimes they are kept for future litigation, as pictured in Revelation 5:8. Prayer is pictured as being stored up in heaven, kept for the purpose of legislation and litigation. That is why when we pray we are passing decrees, releasing verdicts, and giving clearance for the excellencies of the heavens to invade the earth and carry out transactions. Your prayers today will have eternal implications.

Open Doors: The Pattern in Scripture

The door of the gospel opened to the Gentiles when Peter went up to the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, became hungry, and fell into a trance, as recorded in Acts 10:9-16. He saw the heavens open and a vessel descending with all manner of beasts, and a voice told him to rise and eat, but three times his own religion would not let him, until the Lord told him not to call unclean what he had made clean. Sometimes certain doors want to open to you and you are the hindrance. Peter's religiosity would not let him access the open door God was about to give him, so God had to give him a direct command, sending two men to fetch him. That was how the door to the Gentiles opened to Peter. Prayer has the capacity to open doors, and when doors are open, prayer can break every hindrance that prevents you from entering. Paul once asked for prayer over a great and effectual door that had opened to him, though he faced many adversaries alongside it, in 1 Corinthians 16:9.

There are five major doors that must open for anybody to fulfill destiny in full.

1. The Door of Salvation John 10:9

   This is the first door of destiny. You gain access into God and into the varieties of his realm: favor, wisdom, grace. You need this door, otherwise your life will not have impact. There are those who are already saved but have not started going in and out to find pasture. It is one thing to be saved; it is another to go in and out and find pasture in your own room, kneeling down and talking to God, receiving wisdom and favor directly. There are superior currencies in the realm besides physical currency, and it is as you engage God that these doors open. Many Christians, ten years in the faith, still need a prophet every time they want to hear from God or need a breakthrough. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are a blessing, but they are not your Holy Ghost. You must know how to go in and out and find pasture for yourself. This access to the throne, available to anyone in need, is described in Hebrews 4:16. Daniel had access to this door: when a king demanded his dream be told without being described, Daniel and his companions knew there is a God who reveals secrets, and they knew how to go in and out and deploy the resources of that realm. Imagine entering your room for ten minutes and receiving wisdom on how to go about your next business, where to invest, where to go and where not to go. That is the precision this door brings to a life. Beyond the door of salvation lie the doors of knowledge, utterance, grace, faith and wisdom: all the pastures of that realm.

2. The Door of Opportunities 1 Corinthians 16:9, 2 Corinthians 2:12

   If this door does not open to you, you will labor and toil but have nothing to show for it, like the man who labors all day and eats the bread of sorrow. Opportunities are the golden markers that turn diligent, hard work into visible results. Paul spoke of the great and effectual door opened to him in Corinth, and of another door of opportunity opened to him of the Lord at Troas. Doors of opportunity are often hidden. Men who own companies sell shares privately to those close to them first, before going public, because they know opportunity makes the difference. A man can be trying so hard to access an important person, only to be pushed out of the room by people who think he does not belong there, and it is on the corridor, cast out and frustrated, that he ends up meeting the very person he had come for. One minute of conversation and his life changes forever. Opportunities can be created for you, but if that door does not open, you will keep missing them: someone just left, an application just closed, a chance came and went. The door of salvation gives you eternal life and pasture: favor, wisdom, knowledge, utterance. The door of opportunity positions strategic events and people to complement your effort so an amplified potential is unlocked; it does not remove the work you must do, but it adds value to it.

3. The Door to the Heart of Men 1 Samuel 16:21-22, 1 Chronicles 12:22, Acts 9:26-27

   You can meet a president or a king and nothing will happen if the door to the heart of men has not opened. A man can see you every day and not be moved to bless you. Until his heart opens, you may even become a nuisance to him. When David came and stood before Saul, Saul loved him greatly and made him his armor bearer, because David had found favor in his sight, and that was the beginning of David's rise. When Saul grew jealous, God opened the heart of Jonathan, who took up from where Saul stopped. Men joined themselves to David daily until his following became a great host, like the host of God. A man received men until he was compelled toward God. That is how great men rise: the hearts of men open to them, and people who see them do not know what more to do for them. Paul's ministry took off because Barnabas took him in when the disciples at Jerusalem were afraid of him and did not believe he was truly a disciple; Barnabas vouched for him before the apostles. If not for Barnabas, Paul would not have been accepted. Even with Jesus, the hearts of the twelve disciples opened to him so completely that all of them but John died for him, because when the heart of men opens to you, they can endure unimaginable pain and sacrifice just to see your life work.

4. The Door to Authorities Genesis 41:14, Psalm 105:17-19

   There are men whom many people love, yet they carry hundreds of contacts on their phone with not one important person to call when they have real need. In addition to the heart of men, God opens doors to authorities. He can give you an advantage, or put something in place that creates the opportunity itself. When they wanted to mess up Paul, he demanded an audience with Caesar because he was a Roman citizen, and they could not stop him; he had access to the king. Joseph was in the dungeon for two years before Pharaoh sent for him, and the moment the king called, he was brought hastily out of prison. The case, the stigma, the accusation, all forgotten in an instant, and Pharaoh set him over all the land of Egypt, second only to the throne itself. The Psalms describe how Joseph's affliction lasted only until the appointed time came, when the king himself sent word to release him and set him over his house and his substance, giving him authority even over the king's own officials. When the door to authorities opens, your life can change overnight. This door is also called the door of promotion, of wealth, of increase, of impact, of deliverance and of escape, because it changes your status entirely. You can do the work of God with struggle, or you can do it with ease. It depends on the door that opens to you. It does not always have to come by hard labor; sometimes favor with those in authority simply removes years of ordinary struggle that would otherwise stand between you and your assignment.

5. The Door to the City Acts 12:5-10

   This is the last door, the gate to the city or the nation. When Peter was in prison, the church made unceasing prayer for him. He was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with chains, with keepers guarding the prison door, a picture of how some men are locked away from access to cities and nations, held between soldiers and gates. An angel came to him in the night, and the chains loosed from him on their own. Peter followed the angel past the guard posts until they reached the final gate leading into the city, and it swung open by itself, with no one to move it. When five apostles enter a city, only one makes an impact. A gate has opened for that one. When ten businessmen enter a city, only one, after two months, is meeting connections and opportunities. It looks like coincidence, but it is the gate to the city that opened. Without that gate opening, you can live in a city for thirty years and only watch it grow around you while others break through and eat of the good of the land.