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31. Ask and It will be Given to You

Ask And It Will Be Given To You

A Message by Pastor Eric Chang

We continue in our systematic study of the Lord’s teaching. We come to Mt. 7:7, and here it reads: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” We will also read up to v12 so that we have the whole context.

For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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! So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

The Apostolic Teaching On Communion

Last time, we saw [in Mt 7:6] that the Lord Jesus was teaching us concerning not giving to dogs what is holy nor throwing pearls to swine. We saw that the Lord Jesus was teaching us that our old nature in its sinfulness, in its filthiness is like that of dogs and of swine. We saw that the natural man does not receive the things of God. We saw, too, that God never preached his wonderful Gospel, his wonderful saving truth and crammed it down through one’s throat.

In this connection, I should also mention one other thing. The Early Church used this verse - by the ‘Early Church’ I mean now the Apostolic Fathers that go back to the 1st century - to show that no one who was not baptized, that is, anyone who was not baptized may not take of the Communion. In that very important work called the Didache, that is, the teaching of the Apostolic Fathers, it was said there that no one may take Communion who is not baptized on the grounds that the holy things are not given to dogs, i.e., the person who has not yet become, through the process of faith and the baptism, the new person that he ought to be. This shows that the Apostolic Fathers, too, saw that the dogs represented man in his old nature.

Today, not only in this point, but in so many points, the church is ignorant of the teaching of the Word of God. People who have never been baptized are admitted to Communion, because obviously even the teachers in the churches today do not seem to understand the meaning of Communion. When people who have not been baptized come to me and ask whether they may take Communion, and I say, “No,” they are surprised. They say, “Well, all the other pastors in the other churches allow it. How come you do not allow it?” I seem to stand out in this generation as a very unusual person. It is not because I want to stand out. It is not because I want to be different. It is because the Word of God teaches in this way. Why do the people not see it? What do I lose to permit a person to go to Communion who has not been baptized? What do I lose from that? [He says,] “I’m not yet baptized.” I can just say, “Yes, go ahead.” I am saying “no” for his sake, not for my sake. It is because as we see every time the passage is read out to us at the Communion, “He who partakes of the body and the blood of Christ unworthily,” - i.e., he is not entitled to partake of it - “is guilty of the body and blood of Christ.” It is he who is in trouble, not me. Sometimes I think of the words of Paul, “Am I loved less because I love you more?” When I say, “This is for your good, not for my good,” why do you have to love me less for saying what is for your good?”

But then, as we saw last time, there are people who do not care much for the truth. They do not want to hear the truth. They are not concerned to study the truth, and so, they do not like to hear these things. But sometimes, of course, I cannot blame the people because they say, “Well, other pastors say this and you say something different,” so I seem to be one against the majority. But it is so sad that in this generation, in this day and age, there is such an ignorance of the Word of God. I do not wish to attack any other pastors, but go and ask the pastors who you know. Ask them to expound to you the meaning of the Communion. Ask them what it means. I want to ask you to find out how many of them can expound to you what the Communion really means, and not just to tell you that it is some kind of a remembrance. All we care today is that the Communion is just some kind of a remembrance. If it is only a remembrance, how can you be guilty of the body and the blood of Christ? Ask them the question. And when you have got to the root of it, find out who is speaking the truth. There comes a day when you must look for the truth and not just look for politeness, even if by having to speak the truth you offend them.

Thus, I pointed out to you that what I have said concerning the Communion, what is the principle that was taught by the Apostolic Fathers in the Early Church, is not something I have invented in the 20th century. I can tell you that everything I teach is demonstrable not only from the Word of God, but equally from the Early Church and from the Apostolic Fathers. Today, unfortunately, people are not even familiar with what the Apostolic Fathers taught, never mind what the Scriptures taught. We must return to the Word of God in this day. It does not matter whether it makes us popular or not. But what the Lord Jesus says is that it is required of a servant that he is faithful. That is the most important thing.

We Have A Responsibility To Meet The Standard Of The Sermon On The Mount

Now let us turn to Mt. 7:7. There are so much riches in this passage that I do not think we will get beyond this one verse today. What is the connection of this passage with what has gone on before? There are two things. The first thing, when you have looked at the Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount so far, you will have seen that the standard set is so high. As one of our sisters was saying a moment ago, the question is: Can you attain to this kind of standard that the Lord Jesus himself has set? You know, today in the churches, another thing that is not taught is our responsibility. We are constantly told what God does and God does everything and the presumption seems to be that in the end we have nothing to do. God does everything and we do nothing. That is why it is so important to study the Sermon on the Mount. It is telling us what we have to do, what is our responsibility before God. But when we see that responsibility, we can only throw up our hands, and say, “Lord, how am I going to reach that standard? In my own strength, in my own wisdom, I cannot live this kind of life.” When you begin to see that, you are on the way to becoming a true Christian.

Today, the church is full of Christians who think that they can live any kind of life they like and they are still going to be saved. The Lord Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart... and your neighbor as yourself.” They only love themselves and they think, “Well, I believe in Jesus. I am going to be saved. No matter what Jesus taught, anyway, I will be saved. It does not matter what Jesus said. What matters is what the evangelists said, what the pastors said. But what Jesus said does not really matter. The pastor said that as long as I believe in Jesus, no matter what kind of life I live, I am going to be saved anyway, even if Jesus said something different.” I ask you, brothers and sisters, to check what pastors and evangelists say against what the Lord Jesus said. Check what I say in the light of what Jesus said. See whether we are saying the same things, whether the pastors are teaching the same thing as what the Lord Jesus is teaching. If what I say does not correspond to what the Lord Jesus taught, or what the Word of God taught, then I am a liar, then everyone has the right to point out that I am a liar. The Lord Jesus said, “You shall love not only your neighbor, but even your enemy.” How many Christians can love even the brothers and sisters in the church, never mind the enemy? The Lord Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things,” - material things, you will find that these things - “will be added unto you.” How many Christians can honestly say in their good conscience that the first thing they seek in this world and in this life is God’s kingdom and his righteousness? Yet, these same people who do not seek God’s kingdom first are assured by these preachers that so long as they ‘believe in Jesus,’ whatever that means, they are going to be saved.

So, we find that we must constantly compare what we think and what we hear people saying in the light of what Jesus taught. It is because in the last day, as we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus says, “On that Day,” - that is, on the Day of Judgment - “many people will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not do this and that in your name?’” In his name! The Lord will say, “Well, I don’t know who you are. Depart from me, you evildoers.” I wonder how many will say to the Lord Jesus, “But, Lord, that’s what the pastors taught me. That’s what the evangelists taught me. They said, ‘All you have to do is believe in the name of Jesus.’ I believed in your name. What’s wrong?” There, the Lord Jesus says, “Only he who does the will of my Father - only that kind of person enters the kingdom. Unless that true faith finds expression in action in doing the Father’s will, that kind of faith will not save anyone.”

We Depend On God To Give Us The Strength To Fulfill Our Responsibility

Also, for this reason, because people have never been told of their responsibility, there is not the dependence upon God that every Christian should have. Do you live every day in dependence upon God? You say: “Lord, I’m so weak. I haven’t got the strength. Give me the strength that I need, I beg of You.” That is why I said a moment ago, if you have a sense of weakness and inadequacy, and therefore, you are constantly depending upon God, you are on the way to being a true Christian. This is the reason why, now coming to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus says, “Ask, and you shall receive. I know you haven’t got the strength. I know you haven’t got the power, but ask and you will have it.” If the Lord Jesus had not said these words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, I think we would all be in despair. But when you look at the standard that the Lord Jesus has set, what else can you feel but a sense of despair: “I’m so selfish, I’m so weak. How can I love, Lord, in the way that you require me to love? I’m so weak. When I see the beautiful things of the world, oh, they beckon to me. They attract me. Lord, how can I live the life of seeking first your kingdom, unless you give me the strength?” But here the Lord, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, I say gives us the hope and the strength that we need. He promises to give us everything that we need as we live in the path of doing the Father’s will. He said, “Every good thing will be given to you. Everything that you need will be given to you.” And what good thing is that? What are the good things? As we compare with Luke, we realize that he is referring in particular to the Holy Spirit.

The Principle In Prayer: God’s Relationship To Us

So, we see that the first reason that the Lord Jesus is teaching us about asking here is precisely because, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we need strength to live the life to which he calls us to - that high calling. The second reason is the principle of God’s relationship to us: the principle in prayer. You have noticed, for example, in the last [message] when we spoke about the Lord’s teaching in v6 that God never crams his grace down anyone’s throat, that means if you do not ask for it, you do not get it. That means to say, if you are not a Christian and you do not ask for God’s salvation, God is not going to take his salvation and throw it at you. No, you will never get it. But this same principle applies to Christians as well. The Apostle James says in Jam. 4:2[b], “You do not have,” - he is speaking to Christians - “because you do not ask.” And in v3 he says: “You ask and you do not receive because you ask for the wrong thing, so that you may consume it upon your lusts.”

Now consider this, many Christians do not have certain gifts, spiritual gifts. Has it ever crossed your mind that you have not got it because you did not ask for it? You may see a lot of brothers or sisters in the church and you say, “Why does he or she have so many gifts that God can use?” Has it ever crossed your mind that he or she had asked for these things? Anything that you dreamed or you desired in God’s work, which will be for the glory of God and for the edification of the church, you can ask for it, with the confidence that you will receive, so long as you are not asking to consume it on your lust. The Lord Jesus, when he says, “Ask, and you shall receive,” is not indulge in things, in this context: “Ask for a car and you will have a car. Ask for a Cadillac and you will have a Cadillac.” So, if you only ask for a Beetle, then too bad, why do you not ask for a Cadillac or a Rolls Royce? So we can see that when the Lord Jesus is speaking about “ask,” he is not saying that you can ask for things that you can consume on our own selfishness and greed.

Here we can see, then, that the important principle is this: if you ask for something that is spiritual and ask for it in such a way as to bring glory to God and the benefit of the church, you can ask with the confidence that you will have it. Here we also see in this wonderful sentence of the Lord’s teaching, in one sentence, how much is involved, how much riches is there. In this sentence, the whole principle of God’s relationship to us is clearly defined. You see, Jesus says, “Ask, you will receive.” The fact that you will receive, that God gives it to you, it is his own grace. He gives it to you. He freely gives it to you upon the asking. Here we see, just on the one side, the grace of God that freely gives to those who are in need. But notice also our responsibility. He did not say, “I will give it to you whether you ask for it or not.” Our responsibility is to ask, to seek, to knock.

God’s Grace Is Given When We “Keep Asking” And Have The Right Motive

So, we see this relationship of God’s grace and man’s responsibility. God’s grace is freely available, but we have to ask for it. The asking is not so easy. Here, the original, the tense is what you will call a ‘present continuous tense,’ which means that the asking is not just once. Ask once and that is it. The present continuous tense means “keep on asking” and you will receive. It means “keep on seeking.” It is not just one look and it is finished. Keep seeking and you will find. It also means keep on knocking. Knock, knock, knock, until the door opens! So many Christians, when they pray, they knock once or twice. Knock, knock! No sound! [And they say,] “Well, he does not want to open the door.” The whole point of the Lord’s teaching is this: Keep knocking. Keep on knocking until he hears. Do you think God is not at home? Of course, if you think he is not at home, you walk away. You knock a few times and he does not open, then he is not at home. And so, you walk away. But God is always at home! He is always there!

So, if you know what you are asking for, if it is something that is to his glory and to the blessing of the church, you keep knocking until you get it. So important is this principle that the Lord Jesus gave several parables precisely to illustrate this point. Well, you may say, “Why does God require us to keep on asking and asking until he gives it?” When a child keeps asking for something, you get annoyed. You say, “Don’t keep asking! You’ve asked this before. I told you I’m not deaf!” We feel annoyed by the persistence. But when we come to the Bible, it is really amazing. God’s ways are not our ways; it is exactly the opposite of our ways. He just loves the persistent people who never give up. The kind of people who get on your nerves - oh, they are loved by God! They get all the grace. When you study the parables of the Lord, you will begin to see.

I was telling one of our brothers who is in full-time training, when you study the parables, it is a process of ‘thought reform.’ It is because you are going to learn to think God’s thoughts after him and his thoughts are very different from human thoughts. That is why some people find the teaching of the Lord Jesus, on the parables in particular, so difficult to understand. God’s way of thinking is so different from our way. If you want to receive from God, you have got to keep on asking - asking until you get it. Persist until you receive. How did Jacob become Israel? You remember that Jacob was wrestling with the angel of the Lord. All night he was saying to the angel of the Lord, “Bless me! Bless me! Bless me! I won’t let you go until you bless me.” You may say, “Cheek of this fellow! To treat the angel of the Lord in this way? How can you say...? He did not reply to you; he did not answer you; and you are still holding onto him and you say, ‘I won’t let you go until you bless me?’ What kind of a cheek does this fellow has? Jacob had not heard about the element of courtesy? You would not even treat a human being like this; how can you treat an angel of God like this!” Why didn’t God just bless him and let him get away? It is like a child who is pestering you all the time because he wants chewing gum. “Okay, have a chewing gum and leave me in peace.” You see, God’s thinking is not like this. He loves the people who persist. At the end, you know, the angel of the Lord said, “You have triumphed with God. From now on, your name will be Israel.” I wish that Christians could learn this principle: You persist until you get it.

Do you remember the Syro-Phoenician woman? [Mk. 7:26-30] She came to the Lord Jesus and said, “Heal my daughter.” She kept on saying, “Heal my daughter,” until the disciples said, “Why don’t you send her away? She is getting on our nerves.” Did she get on the Lord’s nerves? No! You see, she got on the disciples’ nerves, but not on the Lord’s nerves. The Lord Jesus only loved her. The Lord said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done as you have asked.” You see, sometimes we are the kind of people who like everything instant. We like to say, “Lord, give this to me in one instant.” It comes right back. But the Lord wants to see just how badly we really want it. How much cost are we willing to put in to gain it? He is training us by the asking — constantly persist! Not the easy-going people who just ask once or twice, and when they do not get what they ask, they say, “Forget it!” No, he wants that person who persists to the end, who endures to the end.

Now notice the beauty of this verse in Chapter 7 - Mt. 7:7. We have already seen how much riches is in this one little verse. This verse has only eleven words in the Greek, in the original, but it is like a beautiful jewel speaking the same truth, like a diamond from different angles, reflecting the light. Consider this: what happens when you are looking for the way to some place. First, you ask the way. And then, having got the instructions, you look for the road; you seek. When you have found the place after seeking, what do you do? You knock on the door. Isn’t that beautiful? Exactly the order of the words of the Lord Jesus! Ask, seek, knock! I see this exactly in Matthew Chapter 2, when the wise men were looking for Jesus, you find exactly that order. In v2, it says they asked, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews?” In v8, having asked, they go and seek. They go and seek for him who is born King. In v11, they find! When they finally find, they come near, they knock to enter. It was the principle of the Jewish courtesy: you never enter a door without knocking. So, the Lord Jesus is saying, “Just as these wise men sought for the Lord Jesus and for the King of the Kingdom, so we, too, seek. We ask; we seek; and then we knock that we may find admission.” Of course, the motive of the asking, the seeking and the knocking is also very important. We find in Matthew Chapter 2 that Herod is also asking, “Where is the Messiah to be born?” He was also seeking. He was also trying to find, but his motive was wrong. Therefore, he did not find. Thus, we saw just now that the motive, the reason for which we ask something from God - that is very important. Remember that God sees your heart.

So, again, consider that our responsibility in God’s grace: we want to look for Jesus; we want to find his kingdom; but there are a few things we have to do. The responsibility on us is first: that there is something that has to be said. You say something. When you ask, you are using your mouth. When you seek, you use your eyes. When you knock, you use your hand. This is to represent that the whole person is involved in the seeking after the kingdom of God. Of course, this seeking, as we have now already seen is connected with what goes on before and what goes on afterwards. It always has to do with the seeking for the kingdom of God. “Seek first the kingdom” - we are looking for the kingdom - “and for his righteousness.” [Mt. 6:33] In doing that, of course, we are seeking eternal life in God. And then when we arrive, what do we do? We knock on the gate of eternal life. There you see the beautiful connection with what goes on immediately after this passage. In Mt. 7:14 it says: “For the gate is narrow” - the gate, the doors are narrow - “and the way is hard,” which you have to look for - “that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Thus, we see that in the asking, the seeking, and the knocking, all the basic forms of human activity are involved. Our whole person is involved. When you want to look for life, you cannot do it as just a pastime. Your whole person is involved. I see also in these words the representation of seeking the Lord with all your soul, your mind, your strength.

When We Ask, Seek And Knock, God Answers, And We Have A Spiritual Experience

Let us consider for a moment also, finally, concerning the knocking. We have already spoken quite at some length about the asking. We also considered for perhaps a moment about the seeking. In all these, I want to speak for a moment also about spiritual experience. So, where it says, “Knock, and it shall be opened,” it means God will open. God will open the door. All this means, of course, that when you ask and God answers you, you have a spiritual experience. When you knock and God opens, you have a spiritual experience. You experience something that God has done.

Many people say to me, “I will be a much stronger Christian if I have the kind of spiritual experiences that you have.” They say to me, “You are always sharing your spiritual experiences. Well, if we had that kind of spiritual experiences, we would also have the same strength and the same spiritual faith as you have.” But the point is, brothers and sisters, nobody, none of us asked for such spiritual experiences. How do you have these spiritual experiences? The Lord Jesus is telling us right here. There is no mystery about it. It is very simple. How do I experience the wonderful things that God has given to me? It is because I asked! How would I find this spiritual richness in God? It is because I sought! How do you enter into the experience of the new life? By knocking upon the door! You have not got because you did not ask. You have not found because you did not seek. You did not enter because you did not knock, and therefore, the door is not open to you. Always remember that God’s grace is ready to be given to you; why do you not ask? That is why so many Christians live a poverty-stricken Christian life. It is because they did not go in with the spirit of faith, to enter in, to ask, “Lord, I beg of you. Bless me, O Lord, with the spiritual blessings. I haven’t got power. I’m weak.” Well, ask for it! God’s power is there available. What are you waiting for? If you are not saved, what are you waiting for? God is ready to save you; just ask! But he is not going to throw it at you, as I have said before. Notice the certainty of his reply: “Ask, and it shall be given to you.” Do you want more certainty than that? Do you think that Jesus is lying? Well, here is your chance to prove, to test it, to see whether he is lying.

Many Christians say, “God is not real to me.” Well, how is he ever going to become real to you, unless you ask, you seek, you knock? How is he ever going to become real to you? He will not become real to you until you meet with him. And how are you going to meet with a person unless you go, you look for his place, you find his address, you knock on his door. When he opens the door, you say, “Aha, I’ve met with him now.” So, why do people say to me, “How is it God so real to you and he is not real to me?” Well, the Lord did not give me a secret that he has not given to you. It is all here. Right here! One precious little verse of eleven words in the Greek! Notice that he stakes, as it were, his whole reputation upon it. He challenges you, to say: “Ah! I will! I will give it to you. Go ahead and ask. Try me and see.” I have often said it is not God who is afraid of the challenge. It is we who are afraid to take up his challenge. So he invites us to come to him: “Come to me! Just ask the way. Look for the way; knock on the door; and you are going meet with me.” Well, he did not say, “Oh, that’s simple! Just ask!” and we do not have anything to do. But if we are prepared to persevere, if you are prepared to pay that little cost, whatever the cost is involved, then we are going to meet with him. We are going to have a living experience of God.

And so, finally it says here, “Knock at the door.” The church of God is pictured as a building. So, at the end of the road, at the end of the asking, the seeking, we come finally there to the abode of God, his church, his temple. That is why the Lord Jesus says, “I will build my church” and the keys he gives to his servants. You see, the whole thing is pictured as a building, of which you come to the gate, you come to the door, and you knock upon it. So, even when you enter in, there are also different rooms: “In my Father’s house, there are many mansions.” [Jn. 14:2] There are many rooms. You have got to knock on the door and the right door, too. So, now, we see the whole preciousness of the Lord Jesus’ teaching. He has invited us to come and meet with him, provided that we are prepared to do these three things and to do it with perseverance. I have proved these words to be true. Why do you not try and prove it to yourself, too? I cannot preach the Word of God with any conviction unless I have proved in my own experience that it is true.

Experiencing God: He Made The Impossible Happen!

When I preach the Word of God, I do not preach it from knowledge of theology. I do not preach it simply from Bible knowledge. I preach with the burning conviction in my heart that every word that the Lord Jesus has said is true. “Ask, and it will be given to you!” Do not ever go out from today’s meeting, and say, “Well, I don’t know how to meet with God. I don’t know how to have spiritual experiences.” These words will answer it forever.

I would like to share one experience, in conclusion, [which happened] about a year-and-a-half ago when I went to a conference at Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario). Some of you knew that I ran into some problems with [visa] application. Some of you knew that because of a few problems that I nearly was not be able to get to the conference. Some of you also knew that God opened the way, but most people had no idea how God did it. What happened, of course, was that only the year before, the Planning Committee of Camp Trent invited me to speak at that particular conference. The Canadian Consulate, i.e., the Vice Consul, assured me that there was no visa problem for my going to be at Camp Trent at the conference, so I did not have to apply in advance for a visa.

So, the week before the conference, I went to the Consulate to collect my visa and this time another official saw me. He said, “But we cannot give you a visa right away.” I said, “Well, the Vice Consul told me that it could be given to me right away.” And this man said, “I’m sorry, but it’s a mistake. In your case, you have to apply to Ottawa first.” This was Friday. Camp Trent was to start the following Friday and you know that you need to arrive on Thursday night at Trent. That means there are only six days to go. Of course, on Friday the government offices would be closing. I said, “Look! There is a conference over there with several hundred people waiting for the Word of God. And you are going tell me that you are not going to give me the visa to go there?” I said, “What do you think the conference organizers are going to do? Where are they going to find a speaker with six days to go?” He kept on saying, “Look! It’s out of my power. These are the regulations. That man made a mistake. I’m very sorry that he made a mistake, but I haven’t the authority to give you the visa.” I said to him, “What can you do?” He said, “I can send a telegram right away to Ottawa. But in my experience, it requires a few days. It will never get back in time.” And so, he said, “Do you want me to send the telegram, even though I honestly tell you, I don’t think there is any chance it would come in time, from my experience with the Consulate for so long?” There are seven days in a week, but it would need about three days to get there. Well, it is weekend; nobody is in the office until Monday. I said to him, “Send that telegram.” You can imagine my feeling as I came out. Through a mistake of theirs, not through my mistake, the whole thing was going into pieces.

I was thinking, “Poor conference organizers - what are they going to do?” If I go or do not go, it is no loss to me; there is no harm to me. But what happens to those people?” I went home and went on my knees before the Lord. My wife Helen and I prayed together. I said, “Lord, what is this happening here?” Now I have to leave on Wednesday if I was going to arrive on Thursday in Trent. That means to say the cable would arrive and the government officials could only attend to it on Monday. How would I get a visa and leave on Wednesday? What did I do? I went to the Lord, and I said, “Lord, you are God.” Here it says, “Ask, and you shall receive.” What I was asking now was purely for God’s glory, purely for his church. I have nothing, I had no benefit out of this myself. I came before the Lord and I said, “I am going to ask of you something very, very specific, and I know you can and you will do it.”

So, I go off and run the program for the Lord’s activity. It is a very simple calculation. If I have to leave on Wednesday, I have to get the visa Tuesday. If it has to be dealt with and reach England on Tuesday, then it has to be processed on Monday, the same day the telegram arrives. Now, any of you who know government departments will know this is virtually impossible. Well, I was determined to ask for the impossible. Can you imagine that central Ottawa office, which has to deal with telegrams from all over the world? I mean, England is not the only place in the world which will send telegrams. There were telegrams from all the consulates from different places in the world. How was I to expect that I might have my visa processed and sent back to England the same day? So I asked the Lord. I said, “Lord, the telegram comes back to Manchester on Tuesday. I get the visa on Wednesday. On Thursday I’m on the plane. Lord, please.”

Now in retrospect, it looks easy. Think of your position if you were standing there at that time. On Saturday I walked with Helen in the park in Liverpool. I said to Helen, “You are going to be my witness of what God is going to do. If I tell you after the event has happened that I prayed for it, you have no evidence that I did pray for it except my word. So I’m going to tell you before it happens what I have prayed for. And I am going tell you not only that I have prayed for it, but it is absolutely certain it is going to come to pass, and forever you will be my witness that I have told you this a few days before it happens. Everything happened exactly as I had asked of the Lord and he granted it exactly as his servant had asked. On Tuesday, I had the visa and I got the air ticket. On Wednesday, I was on the plane. You should have seen the look of surprise on the face of those Consulate officials. They never dreamed that anything could come back so fast from Ottawa.

Experiencing God Starts Through Asking, Seeking And Knocking In Prayer

I can share so many experiences of God’s answer to prayer, but it always starts at the asking, the seeking, and the knocking. I became a Christian when I sat in that Communist prison camp and I asked the Lord, and he did it! I asked and he answered. And he answered so fast that he really astonished me. That means to say that God is always longing to answer you, provided that you are willing to ask and that he knows that you are asking persistently with determination. Brothers and sisters, I ask you, I beg of you to take the Word of the Lord Jesus and prove them for yourself. The way to learn the Bible, to understand the teaching of the Lord Jesus is not just to read it and listen to the preacher, but to go out and prove it. And then you would say, “Lord, your words are really true. It is so wonderful.” Then you know that you are dealing, you are talking to the living God. Then you know that your Father - he is the God of heaven and earth. Then your heart will be overflowing with joy, exactly as the Lord Jesus says to his disciples in the gospel of John: “...ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full!” [Jn. 16:24]

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