“Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” , Revelation 3:8
Have you ever sensed that God was calling you to do something, yet felt too ordinary to be useful? Have you delayed obedience because you were waiting to feel courageous, prepared, or spiritually strong? Have fear, doubt, or past failure become a firebrand of emotional devastation in your mind? And what if the door before you is open, but you are the one refusing to walk through it?
We have all faced that moment. We have all looked at our limitations and concluded that God could surely use someone else. But the Lord does not require human perfection before He begins His work. He seeks a heart that is yielded, persuaded, active, and prayerful.
In Pastor Anthony Joseph Massotti, Th.M.’s original 1999 archive teaching, “The One Ingredient God Requires,” the work of serving God is compared to making a cake. The right elements must be mixed together. Willingness is the main ingredient; faith moistens it, works stir it into action, and prayer is the baking that makes the offering holy.
This is not a recipe for earning God’s favor. It is a practical picture of how God works with a willing person. If you are seeking biblical teaching for growing in faith and deepening your walk with Christ, consider these four essential movements.
1. Begin With Willingness: Surrender Your Will to God
The first ingredient is willingness, the human will surrendered to the possibility that God can use you.
Not talent. Not influence. Not an impressive history. Not a perfect personality.
Willingness.
Pastor Anthony writes that without “a heart that is surrendered to the idea that God can use you,” a person cannot be used by God. Why? Because serving the Lord is relational. God is not treating you like an inanimate tool on a shelf. He invites you to respond, to trust, and to participate.
Two wills in agreement can accomplish what one will alone cannot. When your will bows before the will of God, your obedience becomes more than an isolated human effort. It becomes cooperation with divine purpose.
This does not mean that God is powerless without us. It means He has chosen to involve His creation in His work. He calls people to stand in the gap, speak the truth, show mercy, pray for the hurting, and carry the Gospel into places where darkness has settled like dirt in a vase.
The question is not, “Am I impressive enough?”
The question is, “Am I willing?”
There is a difference between being interested in God’s work and being available for it. Interest observes from a distance. Willingness steps forward.
You may be willing to forgive someone who wounded you. You may be willing to serve when no one applauds. You may be willing to study Scripture more carefully, encourage a discouraged believer, or obey a conviction you have tried to silence. These acts may appear small, but a surrendered will places them into the hands of God.
YOU must do something. Begin by praying honestly:
Lord, I have often asked You to use me while keeping control of the conditions. I surrender my will to Thee. Make me willing, not merely inspired, but obedient. Show me the next step, and give me grace to take it.
2. Moisten Willingness With Faith
Willingness alone is a dry ingredient. It must be moistened by faith.
Pastor Anthony’s archive teaching emphasizes that faith is not blind. Biblical faith is not a leap into irrational darkness or a refusal to acknowledge reality. The New Testament word often translated as “faith,” pistis, carries the sense of trust, conviction, and confident reliance. Faith rests upon the character and promises of God.
Either you allow the voice of God to persuade you, or you allow fear to persuade you. Either the Word becomes the anchor of your soul, or circumstances become your master. There is no neutral ground when the Lord is calling you to move.
Faith does not deny the Red Sea. Faith believes that God is still Lord while standing before it.
Faith does not pretend that the Jordan River is shallow. Faith trusts that obedience is required even when the water still looks impossible to cross.
This is why growing in faith requires more than collecting religious information. You can know facts about God and still refuse to trust Him. You can hear biblical teaching and still remain frozen at the edge of obedience. Deepening faith means allowing truth to move from your mind into your decisions.
The enemy will often attack at this point. He whispers, “You are not qualified. You have failed before. Nothing will change. Someone else should do it.” These thoughts can feel like your own conclusions, but we must learn to recognize spiritual warfare when discouragement becomes a chain around the will.
Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Do not allow the devil to turn humility into unbelief. There is a difference between admitting your weakness and declaring that God cannot work through it.
Faith says, “I am limited, but the Lord is not.”
Faith says, “I do not understand everything, but I know whom I trust.”
Faith says, “The door is open, and I will follow God through it.”
3. Stir the Spirit With Works
Faith must become visible.
Pastor Anthony describes this as stirring the Spirit with works, stepping out to do what seems supernatural when you know that you are merely human. This is not an invitation to seek attention or manufacture spiritual spectacle. It is a call to obey God when obedience requires courage.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not upon your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5-6). Those words are not decorative. They require movement.
Moses had to raise the rod before the Red Sea parted (Exodus 14:16). Elisha had to strike the Jordan and cry, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” before the waters divided (2 Kings 2:14). In both examples, the action did not replace God’s power. The action revealed trust in God’s power.
James teaches that faith without works is dead (James 2:17-18). Works do not purchase salvation, but genuine faith produces obedient fruit. A living faith does not remain sealed in a container, admired but unused. It enters the kitchen. It gets mixed. It touches the needs of real people.
What work is God placing before you?
Perhaps it is making the apology you have avoided. Perhaps it is visiting someone who is lonely, giving generously, volunteering faithfully, or speaking a gracious word of truth. Perhaps it is beginning a disciplined pattern of Bible study through the spiritual growth resources available to you.
There is a practical distinction between saying, “I’m sorry,” and saying, “Please forgive me.” “I’m sorry” may describe an emotion. “Please forgive me” accepts responsibility and seeks restoration. In the same way, saying “I believe God” is different from obeying Him when obedience costs something.
Do not wait until you feel fearless. Courage is often obedience while fear is still present.
Do not wait until you feel fully prepared. Moses had questions. Jeremiah felt too young. Peter had a history of impulsiveness. God uses willing people who trust Him enough to begin.
4. Let Prayer Become the Baking
The final element is prayer.
Prayer is where willingness, faith, and works are brought before the Almighty. It is the baking process, the holy atmosphere in which surrendered action is formed and strengthened.
A humble soul kneels with willingness and confidence in the power of God. Prayer is not a performance, nor is it merely a religious grocery list. It is dependence. It is confession. It is communion. It is the place where the soul stops pretending to be self-sufficient.
When we pray, we acknowledge that our works cannot bear lasting fruit apart from God. “Without me ye can do nothing,” Jesus said (John 15:5). Prayer keeps our activity from becoming pride and keeps our waiting from becoming passivity.
I have had moments when my own prayer was not eloquent. It was simply, “Lord, I am willing, but I am afraid. Strengthen what I cannot strengthen. Lead me where I would not choose to go. Let my actions serve Thy purpose and not my reputation.”
That kind of prayer is not weak. It is honest. And honesty before God is often the doorway to transformation.
Prayer also teaches us to wait without surrendering the assignment. The Lord may delay the answer, but He is not absent. He may shape the messenger before opening the ministry. He may work in hidden places before allowing the result to become visible.
Behold, prayer brings us onto holy ground. Like Moses before the burning bush, we must remove the shoes of self-reliance and approach God with reverence (Exodus 3:5). The action of prayer becomes holy when it rises from a surrendered heart.
The Recipe Is Simple: But It Requires Movement
Willingness says, “Use me.”
Faith says, “I trust You.”
Works say, “I will obey.”
Prayer says, “I depend on You.”
Remove any one of these, and spiritual life becomes distorted. Willingness without faith may collapse into anxiety. Faith without works becomes empty language. Works without prayer become exhausting performance. Prayer without willingness may become repetition without surrender.
But when these elements are joined, God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people.
This is the practical invitation of the 1999 archive teaching: stop waiting for a more convenient season. Stop measuring your usefulness by your qualifications. Stop allowing the enemy to turn your limitations into excuses.
Yield now. Do not wait.
- SURRENDER your will to God.
- TRUST His Word when the path looks impossible.
- ACT on the conviction He has already given you.
- PRAY with humility and confidence.
- SERVE before anyone notices.
- OBEY the next clear command.
- CHOOSE faith over fear.
- STEP through the open door.
The Lord is still looking for men and women who will stand in the gap. Will you be one of them?
Read the original “The One Ingredient God Requires” archive by Pastor Anthony Joseph Massotti, Th.M., and continue your journey through the ministry’s written teachings and resources. Mix the right elements. Yield your will. Let faith move your feet. And let prayer make the offering holy.
