ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK
(week 44/09)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Matthew 7:7-12 ESV “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (8) For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (9) Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? (10) Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? (11) If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (12) “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Here, the Lord Jesus teaches to do three things in prayer:
i. Ask
ii. Seek
iii. Knock
To ask is to make a petition to God using your understanding: in the natural language you speak.
Mark 11:24 ESV: Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
To seek is to pray in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer including travail to overcome the Satanic opposition in the air (Eph. 2:2) and in the flesh (soul: mind, will and emotions and physical body) that is hindering the answer to what has been asked for, so receiving the necessary wisdom and power to ‘birth’ the answer into physical manifestation:
Ephesians 6:18 MKJV: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching to this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
1 Timothy 2:1 AMP: FIRST OF all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men,
Romans 8:26 ESV: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
To knock is to walk in love by the Spirit by ‘washing feet’ at least once every six hours (2 Sam. 6.13, Mk. 13.35) to cover for every hour (Mt. 24.42) and consequent frequent acknowledging the Lord for mercy and praying in tongues (Jude. 1.20-21); this knocking causes us to be positioned to receive from God into physical manifestation what we have asked for and ‘birthed’ in the spirit by seeking:
Joshua 1:8 ESV: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Romans 8:2 ESV: For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Galatians 5:14 MKJV: for all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
So, as we ask, seek and knock diligently in this way, we will consistently get answers to our prayers.