Three Doors, Three Promises – Part 2. Ask, Seek, and Knock and the Door Will Open
This post is part 2 of a series on promises and doors in Jesus’ teachings. Part 1 was from John 10: 7 – 10, where Jesus tells us He is the door of the sheep – the door into the Kingdom of God. In this post, I examine the invitations and promises Jesus makes in the Sermon on the Mount.
(A much, much, much longer version of this post can be found in the ‘pages’ section of this blog titled, “Ask and You Will Receive, Seek and You Will Find, Knock and the Door Will Open – Kingdom Promises and the Power of Prayer for God’s Kingdom People”).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers two powerful lessons on prayer. The first is the Lord’s Prayer. The second is the verses I want to examine in this post. Here they are:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7: 7, 8 NIV).
Jesus repeats these instructions and promises to emphasize how serious He is about them. We are to take them seriously too. Let’s look briefly at ask, seek, and knock.
Why ask? Isn’t God sovereign? Doesn’t He know what I need or want?
We ask because He commands us to ask. God told Solomon to ask, Elijah told Elisha to ask, and Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “What do you want?” In other words, ask Me.
Jeremiah writes, “This is what the Lord says: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6: 16 NIV).
James tells us, “You do not have, because you do not ask God”. In the gospel of John Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you”, if you ask in My name. In Luke, Jesus tells us, “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
We seek because God wants us to seek Him with all of our heart.
“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity” (Jeremiah 29: 12 – 14 NIV).
We knock because God responds to our persistence, like the widow who kept coming to the corrupt judge pleading, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” Initially he refused, but because of her persistence he finally gave her what she wanted. Jesus adds, “And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night?” That is what I think Jesus means by knocking.
Why ask, seek, and knock? Isn’t it enough to ask? When we ask, we are asking God for a gift. When we seek we are seeking His presence – we are not so much seeking the gift, we are seeking the Giver. And knocking is the boldness and persistence we bring to our asking and seeking.
I believe God wants to give us the fullness of Himself. But His fullness is multifaceted and glorious. If we just ask, we might miss His presence. If we just seek we might miss His gifts. If we don’t knock, we might not be persistent enough. But with all three together – ask, seek, and knock – we have the greatest chance to access all of who He is, or at least all of who He is that is available to us.
These invitations and promises seem too good to be true. But they are made by Jesus! They must be true. So, what am I missing? Well two things. First, God is not a magic genie in a bottle that grants our every wish. That would destroy us. Second, there are four conditions attached to these words of Jesus:
1) These verses cannot be understood apart from Matthew 6 and 7. Context is always important, but here it is especially critical. Jesus covers a lot of ground in these two chapters, but it seems to me that one word summarizing much of what He teaches is “choose”.
Five examples in Matthew 6 and 7 Jesus warns us to choose:
Don’t store up your treasures on earth where rust and moths destroy. Store up your treasure in heaven. Choose.
You can’t serve two masters. Choose.
Don’t find your value and security in the things of the world. Look for these things from your heavenly Father.
There are two gates – one leads to life, the other to destruction. Choose the narrow gate, the one that leads to life
“Listen to Me”, Jesus says, choose to build your house on the rock, not on the sand.
In the middle of these examples Jesus says, “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6: 33).
Jesus is telling us that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of the world, where rust and moths destroy our treasure; and the Kingdom of God where there is life, light, and freedom. “Choose life”, Jesus says. Choose to find all of your value, worth, and life in the Kingdom of God. The alternative is spiritual, emotional, and physical darkness, slavery, hatred, and fear.
This is the context within which Jesus offers these incredible invitations and promises: ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will open. These are for those seeking or living with Jesus in the Kingdom of God.
People who are seeking or living in the Kingdom of God acknowledge that God is the King – He is worthy of worship and obedience. Jesus reigns and rules in the hearts and minds of Kingdom people.
We are all born into the kingdom of the world, so seeking life in His Kingdom implies repentance and faith. It is foolish to believe that someone who hasn’t repented can enter into life in the Kingdom of God, because, for one thing, without true repentance we are not trusting and believing in God. We are still relying on self.
If we choose to find our value in the kingdom of the world, essentially telling Jesus “we don’t need You, we are fine on our own”, or “Jesus help me in this emergency, but otherwise leave me alone” then we have no right to ask, seek, or knock and expect to receive.
2) John tells us to ask according to His will:
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5: 14, 15 NIV).
3) James tells us that we don’t have because we don’t ask, but that when we do ask we ask for our pleasure. That is wrong!
“You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4: 2, 3 NIV).
4) Jesus gives us one more set of instructions:
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15: 7 NIV); and “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete” (John 16: 23, 24 NIV).
We are commanded to remain in Christ and ask in His name, which is more than ending our prayer with the words, “in the name of Jesus.” Asking in His name is asking with His authority, like an ambassador to another country asking in the name of the president or leader the ambassador represents
Apparently, constrained by these conditions we are free to ask, seek, and knock for whatever we want. So, what can we ask for, seek, and knock about?
First, choose to ask, seek, and knock to enter His Kingdom. That is a good place to start. Then, how about a greater hunger to know Jesus? What about more of His Holy Spirit or better yet, the baptism of His Spirit? Can we ask for His faith, His joy, His peace, and His Hope? Yes, of course we can. We are called to love others the way Jesus loves us. Ask for more love, which is like asking for living water.
It is generally God’s will to heal. So ask, seek, and knock for that. What about revival? God’s will is to see His people saved, so ask for revival. You can ask for the gift of repentance. Do you need to release unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, or even hatred from your heart? Ask, seek, and knock about that.
Do you struggle with addiction to drugs, alcohol, or sex, including pornography? Ask Him to set you free. It is His will that you walk in freedom.
Do you need material things for ministry, like funding? What about asking Him for money, a job, a wife or husband, or help with meeting some of the challenges in life? Jesus tells kingdom men and woman to ask for whatever they need, with no restrictions except that they ask according to His will. And that is between them and God.
I have noticed when I ask what I ask for is too small. Think big, really big! Pray for revival to break out over the entire world. Pray for the cloak of deception to be ripped away from the forces of evil operating in your nation. Pray for a great harvest of millions to enter the Kingdom. Pray for strength for our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church. Pray for your ministry to reach across the globe. The greatest gift to ask for is more of God – “Father, make me like Jesus”.
The list is probably endless, even when we are asking within the context of these conditions. But generally we have to ask. We ask with humility, dependence, and gratitude. We ask from the position of a son or daughter. We ask as a ruler or priest, as Jesus intended. We ask through our mediator, the Holy Spirit. We ask in prayer.
Jesus makes it clear that we have to choose Him and His Kingdom.
“Bultmann speaks of God as One who has come near to people as “The Demander”. When confronted by Jesus a person stands before God and must make a decision (that is, they must choose). The outcome will be either the salvation of the Kingdom or judgment” (Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, pgs 85, 86).
“Here then is the alternative, either to follow the crowd (the kingdom of the world) or to follow our Father in heaven (the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven, same thing), either to be a reed swayed by the winds of public opinion or to be ruled by God’s word, the revelation of His character and will. And the overriding purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to present us with this alternative, and so to face us with the indispensable necessity of choice” (Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, pgs. 205 – 211).
Our choice. But once we choose, the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to make this choice a spiritual, emotional, and physical reality; including giving the gifts of repentance, faith, and new life, even eternal life. We are not alone.
This is good news. In fact, Jesus calls it the gospel of the Kingdom of God. But in addition to this good news, Jesus is handing His Kingdom men and women the most potent weapon ever known to mankind – the right to release the glory, presence, and power of God through our asking, seeking, and knocking. Jesus lived and died to restore this world back to God’s original blueprint for life. We have been given the power to partner with Him in this amazing purpose. We are called to use this mandate, privilege, and responsibility well – which means, in part, seeking not only His Kingdom, but also His righteousness. Let His righteousness in our hearts be the source from which our prayers emanate. And then out of our hearts will truly flow rivers of living water – releasing the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world to push back the darkness, take back the territory, and defeat the power of evil.
For His glory!
John