In the messages of the Lord to the seven churches which are in Asia, in His message to the angel of the church in Philadelphia it was written:
“This says the Holy, the True, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens… Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it…” (Rev. 3:7, 8).

He opens and no one shuts

The word keys here has a symbolic meaning. Just as King David symbolizes the heavenly King, who has in His hand the keys of the Kingdom.

“God opens, and no one shuts.” This phrase is a great source of consolation. Its meaning is that if God opens a door for you, then it does not matter to you if the whole world rises or falls… no one can shut it.

David himself was an example…

God opened a door for David that King Saul could not shut.

Saul, with all his authority, with all his army, with all his schemes, could not shut upon David a door that God had opened. He chased him from wilderness to wilderness. He arranged more than one conspiracy against him. He himself wanted to kill him. He tried to set his wife Michal as a trap for him. He tried to incite his friend Jonathan against him… and all the attempts failed. God had opened…

Truly, our life is in the hand of God, and not in the hands of people…

There is one question that we ask, and we like to be reassured about its answer, which is: Has God opened the doors or not? If He has opened, then we do not care about the world with all that it contains of troubles and enemies. By this David sang saying: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me.”

The Lord had opened for Jacob, so Esau could not prevail against him:

He said in anger, “I will arise and kill my brother Jacob.” But he could not. When Jacob returned from the house of his uncle Laban, Esau met him with four hundred fighters, but God opened his heart, so he wept on the neck of his brother and let him go in peace.

Do not fear people, and do not think that they are able to harm you. For the Lord said to Paul, “No one will attack you to hurt you.”

The important thing is that you obtain God’s pleasure and make sure that He will open for you.

As for people, their power is limited, the world’s power is limited, and Satan’s power is limited. If the unlimited God opens for you, do not fear.

In this David the prophet said comforting words (Ps. 117). He said: “They surrounded me like bees around honey, and they blazed like fire among thorns, and in the name of the Lord I defeated them. I was pushed that I might fall, but the Lord supported me.” And what also? “Our soul has escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we have escaped…”

Imagine a fire blazing in thorns and not harming them? And a bird falling into the snare of the hunters and escaping, and the snare breaking… truly, no one shuts.

Even if “you walk in the valley of the shadow of death,” do not fear, as long as God has opened for you… The three youths were in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lions’ den, and Jonah in the belly of the whale. None of these died, because God had opened for them the doors of life.

At the beginning of the spread of Christianity, there were many forces that closed the doors before it. Yet they could not, because God opened the hearts to faith.

“The nations rose, and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ”: the Roman emperors with all their authority, with all their soldiers, their courts and tortures; the philosophers with all their ideas and doubts; the ancient religions with all their gods, statues, and priests; and the Jews with all their sects and conspiracies. All of these rose against the Lord and His Christ and said, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces, and cast away Their cords from us.” So what happened?

“He who sits in the heavens laughs at them.” He has opened, and no one shuts.

Therefore do not look at the enemies, but look at God.

Do not look at the closed doors, but look at the divine key.

Leave people and obstacles, and discuss with God: Will You stand with me or not? If You are with me, who can be against me? If You open for me, who shuts?

A carriage on the road, the traffic officer gave it the green light and opened the road for it. Can a child raise his hand and stop it?! If the reservoir of the High Dam were opened and the waters rushed out, can a boat in the road block them?! Therefore how beautiful is the word of consolation that the Lord said to the angel of the church in Philadelphia:

“Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.”

This is the unconquerable divine help. Ask for it continually in your prayers. Say to Him: I, O Lord, will not mention the opponents, nor the wicked people, nor the hidden and visible enemies…

But I ask You one request only. Set before me an open door.

When the apostles were tried before the supreme council of the Sanhedrin, and they wanted to stop their preaching work, a wise man named Gamaliel stood and said to the members of the council: “Keep away from these men and leave them alone; for if this plan or this work is from men, it will come to nothing. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow it, lest you even be found fighting against God also” (Acts 5:38, 39).

If this way is from God, you will not be able to resist it.

And if God opens the door for these fishermen, you will not be able to close it.

Another example is Athanasius the Apostolic in his war against the Arians. Councils rose against him, judgments were issued against him, they stirred the emperor against him, and he was exiled from his see four times. They said to him, “The whole world is against you, Athanasius,” so he said, “And I also am against the world.”

The whole world was against Athanasius. But God had set before him an open door. Therefore the world could not overcome him.

We marvel at these doors that God opens before His children, which the whole world cannot shut. Therefore it is better for us to cling to the Lord so that He may open the doors before us. Trust in the Lord is better than trust in humans, and hope in the Lord is better than hope in princes.

But if you find that God has shut a door, do not be troubled and do not insist on opening it. Certainly the Lord has shut it for divine wisdom.

The Lord shut Rachel’s womb, so she did not give birth. She tried by all means and did not reach a result. But when God returned and opened Rachel’s womb, she gave birth.

A person told us that he prevented pregnancy by all means. Then the matter escaped from him unintentionally, and his wife gave birth to twins. God had opened her womb…

And just as God opens the womb so that it gives birth, He also opens the door of repentance…

Stand before God in contrition and say to Him: Open, O Lord, the doors of this stubborn heart… If my heart opens to You, sins and demons will not shut it before You. But if Your grace abandons me and Your mercies reject me and You close before me, then I will perish.

The Lord says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; whoever opens to Me, I will enter to him and dine with him and he with Me.” Therefore say to Him:

I, O Lord, am unable to open to You. So open You and enter. You who have in Your hand the keys of David. You open and no one shuts…

Your key is the Holy Spirit and His work, it is grace and its work.

May these verses give us more attachment to God, so that He may open for us the doors of His mercy in this world, and open for us the doors of Paradise after our separation from the body…

Although God is the One who opens, there are means that help in this and move His keys, among them is persistence.

Sometimes we pray and then quickly grow weary if our prayers are not answered. The Lord explained to us the example of the widow who obtained because of her persistence… And we may ask for repentance, and if it is not given to us, we grow tired of asking, we despair, and we say that we are rejected from grace!! Why?

Be certain that God will open, even in the last watch of the night. Do not grow weary and do not despair. By your persistence the Lord opens for you.

And just as the mercies of the Lord open by persistence, they open by tears and contrition.

Like the tax collector who stood from afar and did not dare to lift his eyes upward.

Like the Gentile who said to the Lord, “I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.”

Like the Canaanite woman who said that the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall.

Like the weeping soul to whom the Lord said, “Turn your eyes away from Me, for they have overcome Me”…

And like Hannah the mother of Samuel, who by her weeping and humility God opened her womb.

And just as persistence and tears open the doors of mercies, so also the intercession of the saints.

Ask from the saints, because God accepts their requests, just as Elisha interceded for Gehazi and said, “Open, O Lord, the eyes of the young man that he may see…”

Hold fast to the saints and say to them: you are near the keys of David. You have the boldness by which you ask… but I am poor and needy.

By repentance also the Lord can open for you, just as He opened for the repentant people of Nineveh. And all Jonah’s objections could not close it.

Help the Lord to open for you by offering Him your will…

He wants to open your heart, but He does not open it without your will.

O blessed son, there is still before you an open door for repentance as long as you are in the body. So enter through it before the door closes…

Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Four), January 28, 1977.

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