One of the recurring questions I get as a pastor is how to know when God is calling you. Akin to that question is a nervousness of choosing the wrong "path" or hearing God "inaccurately."
My answer is always: follow the grace.
The danger is not in choosing the wrong path—God will make the way clear; it is in remaining stuck. You know when grace has moved. You stop bearing fruit where it used to be in abundance; you dread what you used to look forward to. The dread isn't a Monday-after-the-weekend type of dread; it is a deep, soul-level ache.
You can also recognize where the grace is. Doors fly open almost effortlessly, your passions invigorate you, and you start to dream again. This is what I mean when I say, "Follow the grace."
If you remain stuck where grace once was but has moved from, you'll end up wandering in a proverbial wilderness, never tasting the promised land. For Israel, the wilderness was once a place of immense grace; it was where God delivered them from the agony of Egyptian slavery. The wilderness was the place of covenant and miracles. Nevertheless, the wilderness was a season. When the grace moved from the wilderness to Canaan, fear of the unknown caused an entire generation to wander outside of the call of God.
Only Joshua and Caleb, who trusted the leading of grace into the unfamiliar, were permitted to enter the land ultimately.
For those who feel grace tugging you through an open door and closing the door behind you in the process, fight the lie that doing nothing is safe. The unknown is scary, but grace has made a way. Jesus taught that He came to give us life to the fullest (John 10:10). Jesus also said that He is the "way" (John 14:6). Jesus does not lead us to places of death, where life is stripped away. He leads us to the place where we have the fullness of life. We have to trust enough to follow.
Follow the grace.