God has given us through Jesus a mighty privilege. We can fully trust Him with it. Through it we can cast all our anxiety, sorrows, needs and desires upon Him. He will certainly answer and deliver us. Moreover, by it we can find ways to glorify Him. By it we can maintain righteousness, faithfulness and the godliness that permits us into His presence. He has given it, because He dearly loved us and desires to care for us. Remember He created us in His own image, an image He holds with high regard. He does not abandon us after having rescued us from sin through the sacrifice of His Son. He has prepared marvelous things for us and desires we use the privilege to find them. And Jesus said, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9).
This is a privilege of being loved by God. It is not a command, but more of a desire of God. There are many things He provides us without asking, because as the Father of all believers He knows our needs. Besides He even provides to all men, although they may not know Him; He sends the sun and the rain to all alike. Then much more is He concerned of us. Yet, do not consider lightly the value of asking Him. If there is no reason at all for it, He would have told us. All desires are not needs and every need is a want that seeks fruition. Though God many times fulfills our needs without asking, He enables us that we ask Him for our imminent needs and seek Him for the things He desired for us. For it is His way to have a personal relationship with us. He gives His children the right to desire according to His will so that they ask Him according to His will. It separates them from the world. Thus, not all desires are sinful. Have you ever desired something and yet, feared to ask God thinking it may not be His will? Such fear is good. It is of God and keeps you from aimless, greedy and frivolous desires. It lets you have a clear knowledge of the desires that are according to His will. Those desires do not always have to be for God, but even for your joy or the joy of your family. He is not selfish so as to think of Himself alone. Asking, seeking and knocking are all terms Christ used to signify the seriousness of God in having a pure relationship with us; they all mean the same. Nevertheless, our asking should have a clear intent and in accordance to His will. “Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?” (1 Cor. 14:7).
When we knock at His door with such understanding, we will certainly see the light of our desires. There are many that do not know they can indeed ask the Lord in His will. There are those who cannot distinguish between the Lord providing for our needs and expecting us to seek Him for our desires. Still, there are those that ask Him with wrong desires. Those with wrong desires are those that do not possess an intimate relationship with Him. The advantage of an intimate relationship with Him is that it gives the power to discern the desires He places in us from the desires the devil invokes in us. We will know the intent of our desires. Such knowledge is pleasing to God, because it brings Him glory. And when Christians seek Him with wrong motives, they seek their own glory. They do not produce a clear speech that is in accordance to His will. However, we who trust Him with all our strength and will are not so. We are like the flute or harp that produces a distinct tone when played by a skillful performer. We produce the right speech by that which He permitted us to seek, because “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world” (Heb. 1:2).
That He has spoken to us in His Son means we possess intimate relationship with Him. He has prepared us to exalt His name. He prepared us to knock at His door for the things we desire. What is the outcome? He makes us as well as the world through us know the power of believing in Him. He gives us the things of the Spirit as well as life of abundance. Do not be enthralled by the words “has spoken.” They were there because God addressed a people who were born again in Him (Christians) through the gospel preached in the Spirit. Thus, assuring He continues to speak from the Word. Now, if He speaks, we who ask Him for all that we desire will surely obtain an acceptable response. He gives a guarantee (promise) for our desire from the Word. We know He does not fail to keep His promises. It is not in His nature to fail when He chooses to love us unconditionally. Again, He does not make promises to those whom He does not choose, i.e. to those who do not believe in Him or exercise intimacy with Him. Instead, He leaves them to live to a different desire. “And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’” (Rev. 6:16).
Without intimate relationship with God one cannot know the intimate details of His desires, much less be able to fulfill them. When one cannot fulfill them, he has not lived up to his call. The intimate details He gives to His faithful are for His glory and their joy. They may be anything depending on the purpose He set for them. Because He lives in them, He leads them to seek Him for the things He desires for them. Not only this, He also fulfills their desires to which He did not lead them, but are justified in faith. These are by the free will He gave. There are many things we ask God when in a personal relationship with Him. Some are by His leading and for some He waits on us to use our faith to seek Him.
He leads us to ask Him for spiritual gifts; there are many. All do not have all gifts, but He gives to each at least one gift. Faith is a gift He gives to all believers. Every other gift comes by it. As we deepen our faith, it opens up the door to seek gifts such as heavenly wisdom, knowledge, and even greater gifts based on His purpose for us. Without them it is impossible to survive in this evil world as well as in being able to bring Him the appropriate glory. He waits on us to use our faith in Him and ask for blessings such as job, marriage, children, health, success in life and the well being of our family. He leads us to pray for ourselves, our friends, relatives, the churches and of our part in the furtherance of the gospel. Doing these means we are rightly utilizing the mighty privilege He gave us. We have the confidence of Christ. “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29).
In all of this be sure of one thing. God who was with Christ and who made us His sons through Him will also be with us till the end. In Christ Jesus He never left us as orphans. The reason is simple. We are renewed by the blood of Christ to always do the things that please Him. The power of His blood has turned us into a people that do not ignore God’s desire. We are His humble servants acknowledging that His love for us has given us more than His usual care, because we receive when we ask, find what we seek and enter when we knock. We fulfill everything God has called us for and that too by simply entering His presence through faith. So, Paul said, “That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants” (Rom. 9:8).
If we are the children of the flesh, we would not fulfill God’s desire. Instead, we would do the things that are either induced in us by the devil or by the inflation of our fleshly mind. Though we ask, it would be with wrong desires. Our spirit will not experience the leading of God who works in the Spirit. We will not be inspired to bring Him glory. He would also leave us to our own self that we too should call on the mountains and rocks to hide us from Him. But thanks be to Him, because He saved us by the precious promise of Christ, i.e. whoever believes in Him will not perish. By this we have become His children, the descendants of promise. And we are sure He re-created us to please Him always. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13).