(The following lesson is taken from the writings of Steve Bray- “The Faith that Prays”)
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8)
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss. (Jam. 4:3)
Observe how Jesus uses words that mean almost the same thing. Notice also how He repeats the promise each time so distinctly: “It will be given to you,” “you will find,” and “it will be opened to you.” We can see through this emphatic repetition how He wants to impress this one great truth deeply on our minds: We can know that we will receive answers to our prayers when we ask correctly and persistently in dependent faith.
The fact that Jesus considered it necessary to repeat the truth in so many forms is a lesson of deep importance. He knows our hearts. He is fully aware of our natural doubt and distrust. Even when we obediently respond to His command to pray, He knows how easily we give up without a real expectation of receiving definite answers.
Christ had good reason for speaking so unconditionally. Be careful not to weaken His Word with your human wisdom. Believe what He says even when He speaks to you about heavenly truths that are hard to understand. The little child does not need to understand the reasoning behind the words of his parents, he only needs to believe. Your responsibility is to trust in your heavenly Father and believe He will keep His word.
If we do not receive an immediate response, we are not to give up in resignation without further thought. There may be something preventing Him from responding. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss.” (Jam. 4:3)
There is a need to seek out His guidance so we may pray in His will. We must learn to pray in harmony with the Son’s Spirit before we can know the answer will always come. It is far easier to give up without an answer than to permit our heart to be searched and purified by the Spirit. We must permit Him to remove the selfish desires from our heart. Some of these things are often hidden. And so we need to permit the Spirit to shine His light into our heart as we search for these hindrances. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Yes, there will be personal needs to bring before our Father in prayer. And we are expected to ask Him to supply our needs. But we must make sure that everything we are doing is for God’s glory. “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31) Only as we are truly living for His honor and glory can we expect to be in a place where He will supply our needs through our prayers. “But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things {the necessities of life} shall be added to you.” (Luke 12:31)
The Father is looking for children who will live in a proper relationship with Him so He may respond to their petitions. He wants a large family of children who will live through His Son and be a means for Him to be glorified by what they do in His name. In effect, the Father intends to display His life and works through Christ’s body in this world today in the same way He displayed His life and works through the Son’s mortal body. We therefore find Jesus saying, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:20) We come to realize that everything originates in the Father and comes to us through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus wants to bring His disciples—the members of His body—to the place where we can say with Him, “I do nothing of Myself… The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” (John 8:28-29) Jesus continued to explain how the Father was living through Him and doing the works. “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:9-10)
The Father was glorified through the Son because the Father in heaven was the true source of everything the Son was doing. Similarly, if we will learn to walk by the Spirit and permit Him to direct our steps through life, we will learn what the Father has planned to do through our lives. We can then begin to pray in harmony with the Son and expect the Father to manifest His glory through us in the same way His glory was revealed through Jesus. “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
There may be times when a prayer cannot be answered because it is not in harmony with God’s will. For example, Paul asked three times to have the thorn removed from him. (2 Cor. 12:7-9) Although the request was denied, he did receive an answer. God did not leave His servant in uncertainty as to His will. The gods of the heathen world are dumb and cannot speak. In contrast, our loving Father lets His children know when His will differs from their requests.
The yielded child withdraws his petition as the Son did in Gethsemane. Both Paul the servant and Christ the Son were informed by the Spirit that their requests were not in accordance with the Father’s will. However, if the burden of our prayer is known to be in harmony with the will of God, we need to be prepared to keep asking, seeking and knocking until the answer is received.
God will reveal His will by His Word and by His Spirit and by His providence when we have honestly looked to Him for help. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (Jam. 1:5) And we can expect Him to respond to our requests when we continually come to Him in faith with a yielded spirit. “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting… (Jam. 1:6)
We will need to learn to patiently wait on God. Our faith must have time to develop. God also needs time to prepare our hearts to receive the blessing. If we will continually adjust our steps according to His will, responding to the movements of His Spirit in faith, our persevering prayer will be answered.
Although certain prayers may be extended over days or weeks or even months, we should never put the prayer away until the answer comes, one way or the other. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who {persistently} knocks it will be opened.”
How deeply our hearts must be estranged from God that we should find it so difficult to accept such promises as being true! Let us not be content until the petitions we offer are carried to heaven on Jesus’ own words: “Ask, and it shall be given you.”
Learn this lesson well! Take Jesus at His word. Here is where faith must begin its work. Do not let your human reasonings weaken the force of God’s Word. Believe it just as Jesus spoke the truth. Faith in God grows as we fully yield to increasing light. And as faith grows, it will become much easier to understand the deeper meaning of these lessons. Let us now simply believe what He has stated.
We cannot overemphasize the importance of surrendering to God’s Word. If our faith proves to be true at this point, He will lead us into a prayer-life that will truly reflect His power and glory. “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” (1 John 3:22)
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8)
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss. (Jam. 4:3)
Observe how Jesus uses words that mean almost the same thing. Notice also how He repeats the promise each time so distinctly: “It will be given to you,” “you will find,” and “it will be opened to you.” We can see through this emphatic repetition how He wants to impress this one great truth deeply on our minds: We can know that we will receive answers to our prayers when we ask correctly and persistently in dependent faith.
The fact that Jesus considered it necessary to repeat the truth in so many forms is a lesson of deep importance. He knows our hearts. He is fully aware of our natural doubt and distrust. Even when we obediently respond to His command to pray, He knows how easily we give up without a real expectation of receiving definite answers.
Christ had good reason for speaking so unconditionally. Be careful not to weaken His Word with your human wisdom. Believe what He says even when He speaks to you about heavenly truths that are hard to understand. The little child does not need to understand the reasoning behind the words of his parents, he only needs to believe. Your responsibility is to trust in your heavenly Father and believe He will keep His word.
If we do not receive an immediate response, we are not to give up in resignation without further thought. There may be something preventing Him from responding. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss.” (Jam. 4:3)
There is a need to seek out His guidance so we may pray in His will. We must learn to pray in harmony with the Son’s Spirit before we can know the answer will always come. It is far easier to give up without an answer than to permit our heart to be searched and purified by the Spirit. We must permit Him to remove the selfish desires from our heart. Some of these things are often hidden. And so we need to permit the Spirit to shine His light into our heart as we search for these hindrances. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Yes, there will be personal needs to bring before our Father in prayer. And we are expected to ask Him to supply our needs. But we must make sure that everything we are doing is for God’s glory. “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31) Only as we are truly living for His honor and glory can we expect to be in a place where He will supply our needs through our prayers. “But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things {the necessities of life} shall be added to you.” (Luke 12:31)
The Father is looking for children who will live in a proper relationship with Him so He may respond to their petitions. He wants a large family of children who will live through His Son and be a means for Him to be glorified by what they do in His name. In effect, the Father intends to display His life and works through Christ’s body in this world today in the same way He displayed His life and works through the Son’s mortal body. We therefore find Jesus saying, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:20) We come to realize that everything originates in the Father and comes to us through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus wants to bring His disciples—the members of His body—to the place where we can say with Him, “I do nothing of Myself… The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” (John 8:28-29) Jesus continued to explain how the Father was living through Him and doing the works. “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:9-10)
The Father was glorified through the Son because the Father in heaven was the true source of everything the Son was doing. Similarly, if we will learn to walk by the Spirit and permit Him to direct our steps through life, we will learn what the Father has planned to do through our lives. We can then begin to pray in harmony with the Son and expect the Father to manifest His glory through us in the same way His glory was revealed through Jesus. “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
There may be times when a prayer cannot be answered because it is not in harmony with God’s will. For example, Paul asked three times to have the thorn removed from him. (2 Cor. 12:7-9) Although the request was denied, he did receive an answer. God did not leave His servant in uncertainty as to His will. The gods of the heathen world are dumb and cannot speak. In contrast, our loving Father lets His children know when His will differs from their requests.
The yielded child withdraws his petition as the Son did in Gethsemane. Both Paul the servant and Christ the Son were informed by the Spirit that their requests were not in accordance with the Father’s will. However, if the burden of our prayer is known to be in harmony with the will of God, we need to be prepared to keep asking, seeking and knocking until the answer is received.
God will reveal His will by His Word and by His Spirit and by His providence when we have honestly looked to Him for help. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (Jam. 1:5) And we can expect Him to respond to our requests when we continually come to Him in faith with a yielded spirit. “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting… (Jam. 1:6)
We will need to learn to patiently wait on God. Our faith must have time to develop. God also needs time to prepare our hearts to receive the blessing. If we will continually adjust our steps according to His will, responding to the movements of His Spirit in faith, our persevering prayer will be answered.
Although certain prayers may be extended over days or weeks or even months, we should never put the prayer away until the answer comes, one way or the other. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who {persistently} knocks it will be opened.”
How deeply our hearts must be estranged from God that we should find it so difficult to accept such promises as being true! Let us not be content until the petitions we offer are carried to heaven on Jesus’ own words: “Ask, and it shall be given you.”
Learn this lesson well! Take Jesus at His word. Here is where faith must begin its work. Do not let your human reasonings weaken the force of God’s Word. Believe it just as Jesus spoke the truth. Faith in God grows as we fully yield to increasing light. And as faith grows, it will become much easier to understand the deeper meaning of these lessons. Let us now simply believe what He has stated.
We cannot overemphasize the importance of surrendering to God’s Word. If our faith proves to be true at this point, He will lead us into a prayer-life that will truly reflect His power and glory. “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” (1 John 3:22)
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