WHAT DO YOU WANT IN LIFE?

Pastor Maselo Mosomane

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

In one of His greatest teachings, Jesus taught how we can have what we desire. He gave us three promises as recorded in the above Scripture. He said we should ASK, SEEK and KNOCK. For the next three days we will be discussing these promises.

When Paul closed his famous chapter (1Corinthians chapter 13) he wrote these words in verse thirteen; “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love,” I also want to say; and now ASK, SEEK, KNOCK, this three; but the greatest of them is ASK. 

If you can pay a little attention you will see that the word ASK is an acronym of ask, seek and knock. ASK summarizes the three and binds them together. All three operate together through ASK. When you seek you ask and when you knock you ask. 

A - ASK

S - SEEK

K - KNOCK

Jesus said when we lack something; we should ask for it. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, James added; “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.” (James 1:5)

This is the promise that Heaven is eagerly waiting to see Christians take advantage of. God is a good God. He does not change. Above all; He keeps His promises. The Bible is the book of His promises and examples of their fulfillment. So then, if God is a Promise Keeper; how come we go around in life lacking all that He said we should have?

The problem is we don't ask. Even if we do, we don't do it the right way. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss,” (James 4:3) There is the right way of doing everything. Things are easier when you use the right method. It’s easy to reach the North Pole if you travel north. But if you travel south hoping to reach the same destination, you will have to travel twice the distance before you arrive. Have anyone shifted the finishing post? No, you took the wrong route. 

Well, if there is a wrong way of asking or praying, then there should be the right way to do the same. Here is the right way to ask from God

Ask in faith. 

“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive…” (Matthew 21:22)

This means we should ask completely convinced that what we ask for shall be given to us. The Bible teaches us that; in fact we have already received our petition. Jesus said we should  believe when we ask. We don't ask and wait to see IF what we asked for will be given to us; no; we believe while we are asking or praying. We believe that we already have what we asked for. We may not have the manifestation as we stand there praying, but, in the spirit our petition has been granted and dispatch already. We don't have to see anything to believe it is so. Things in the natural world are determined by five senses; what we see, what we hear, smell, taste and touch. Hence the statement; seeing is believing. But what about if you are only seeing an impression? However; in the spirit the opposite is true: believing is seeing. We don’t walk by sight; we walk by faith.

Ask according to God’s will 

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, 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 the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1John 5:14,15)

God laid down some promises in the Bible which He expect us to follow when we deal with Him. To ask according to God’s will is to ask according to God’s promises. In simple terms; to ask according to God’s will is to ask according to the Bible. For instance; you don't just wake up the next morning and say; “God, I want so and so’s wife. Give her to me.” How can He give you so and so’s wife when He has already said in the Bible; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife and commit adultery? Will it still be in order if someone asks God for your wife? No, my friend; God is the God of order. He is not the author of confusion.

Will this not be one of the reasons some prayers go unanswered? Pray or ask according to God’s will and wait in faith and see if God will not answer your prayer.

Ask in Jesus’ Name

“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:23,24)

We don't ask from Jesus. We don't pray to Jesus - we pray to God. Many times we find ourselves praying or asking from Jesus. This is not according to God’s will. Jesus, Himself says; “in that day you will ask Me nothing.” Jesus was referring to this days we are living in. We might as well read it this way; “in this day we will ask Him nothing” Remember; the key point in prayer is “according to His will” and we said the Bible is His will. 

We do not ask from Jesus. We ask from the Father in Jesus’ Name for “God also has highly exalted Him (Jesus) and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) This is God’s arrangement and if you want to get your prayers answered, if you want your petitions granted; you better pray or ask according to the arrangement.

What to do after “Amen”

It is always after you have said, ‘amen’ at the end of that beautiful and powerful prayer that the pendulum begins to swing backward and forward. From faith to doubt. Feelings begin to alter your faith. So what do you do then? 

You wait. This is the testing station where every prayer is evaluated. Many answers are aborted here. Let us not forget that, when Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive” He did not fix the promise to any time frame. Time should not determine how long we should wait until the prayer is answered. Our faith in the promise should be the determining factor. We should not validate God’s promises by how quick He answers our prayers. He is God when He delays our answers; He is God when He is spot on and He is still God when He answers our prayers while the prayer is still in our mouth. 

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:31)

God answers prayers. We have all the reasons to believe that our prayers will be answered "for everyone who asks receives…” Matthew 7:8

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT YOUR PRAYERS AND PETITIONS ARE RECEIVING ATTENTION