KNOCKING HEAVEN’S DOOR
UNTIL IT IS OPENED
Matthew 7:7-11
This brief passage
contains a lot for the education and edification of every child of God in every
age. The privilege and power of prayer is not left on the unreachable branches
of a tree of philosophy but the branches are low enough for all members in the
family to pluck the fruits. In these verses, the Lord has not given us some
deep well of theological mystery with nothing to draw with,
He has brought the supply of every need to the table and we do well to come and dine.
He has brought the supply of every need to the table and we do well to come and dine.
The opening verse
supplies the key to the interpretation and application. We are to ask, seek and
knock. These three verbs are in the present imperative in the original text.
That simply means that they demand continual, repeated action. Ask and keep on
asking until you receive; seek and go on seeking until you find; knock and
continue until the door is opened. Pray and keep on praying until the Father
answers according to His promise. The whole process is put in the family setting.
We are not asking as a beggar from an unknown
stranger, we are asking as a trusting child from a loving Father. We are
not seeking as a traveller seeks water in a desert, we are seeking fruit as a
member of the family in the family garden. We are not knocking at the door of a
house guarded by wild dogs, we are knocking at the door of our Father’s house
Who is waiting to open the door and receive us.
1. IMPORTUNITY IN PRAYER SYMBOLIZED BY KNOCKING
Matthew 7:7,8; Acts 12:13-16; Luke 11:5-10;
18:1-8; Genesis 18:23-33; 32:24-28; Deuteronomy 9:18-20; Daniel 9:2,3,10-14;
Acts 12:5-12; Hebrews 4:14-16.
“Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Comparing Matthew 7:7,8 and Luke 11:5-10, it is obvious that the Lord is
teaching us and calling us to importunity in prayer. We often give up too soon,
just before the door to heaven’s storehouse is opened. Our lack of supply is
often the result of our lack of importunate supplication. A few of us are
ignorant of what is in the storehouse for us. Others knock at the door of the
storehouse so feebly that they are barely heard. So very few ever knock
continually with a firm hand of the prayer of faith.
There was a great famine in Egypt. The famine had spread
beyond Egypt to other nations. To meet the needs of all people, Joseph had
beforehand filled the vast storehouses in the land. As the people came from all
the land, “Joseph opened all the storehouses” (Genesis
41:56). Everyone who came received enough sustenance from the opened
storehouses. Jesus is waiting for us to come and knock at the door. Whatever
our needs are, the door will be opened and we shall be satisfied with
justification, salvation, regeneration, transformation, provision, restoration,
imputation, sanctification, impartation, protection, preservation and finally,
glorification. We are not knocking only to stop after receiving an initial
supply of grace; we keep on knocking until we receive abundant grace,
sufficient grace, grace for every need.
2. INTENSITY IN PRAYER SIGNIFIED BY KNOCKING
Matthew 7:7,8; Luke 13:25; 11:5-10; Hosea 12:3,4; 1
Samuel 1:9-20;
1 Kings
18:41-46; James 5:16-18; 2 Kings 20:1-6; Acts 4:23-31; Romans 10:1-4.
The fervency of our prayer and force of our faith often show
how important our request is to us. Coming back to the illustration of
knocking, the desperate man who is knocking at the door to meet a pressing need
will knock differently from a casual visitor with no definite purpose. Those
who knock casually in prayer often have wandering thoughts in prayer; they are
formal and repeat the same phrase each prayer time; they do not have any specific need in prayer; they
habitually sleep off when praying; they lack freshness of thought and have no
grip on any promise of God; they do not remember what they have prayed for and
they are not conscious of their spiritual state; like the Laodiceans, they are
lukewarm in the closet, too lazy to seek urgent remedy for their spiritual
malady.
Intensity in prayer is demonstrated by the righteous whose
fervent prayer avails much. Watch Jacob at Peniel; observe Elijah on mount
Carmel; visit the plains of Mamre with Abraham as he intercedes for Sodom;
follow Moses to the mount where he pleads for backslidden Israel on the verge
of destruction; kneel beside Daniel as he prays for Israel’s seventy-year
captivity to end; feel the great heaviness and continual sorrow in Paul’s heart
as he cries in prayer for the salvation of his kinsmen according to the flesh,
and you will catch a glimpse of what it means to knock with importunity and
intensity.
3. INIQUITY IN PEOPLE SPECIFIED AS STUMBLING-BLOCK WHILE KNOCKING
Luke 13:25-27; Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:1,2; Jeremiah 5:25; Ezekiel
14:1-11;
Isaiah 1:4,12-20; Psalm 32:5-10; Ezekiel
18:30-32; 2 Timothy 2:19; Job 22:23-28.
God is so eager to bless us and if we are as eager to be
blessed, our spiritual stature will change so quickly that it would be
difficult to recognize us. Our lack of thoughtfulness is often our greatest
hindrance. We hinder ourselves more than any enemy, demon or Satan can ever
hinder us. Holding on to iniquity or sin is the major reason why we knock and
knock in vain. Sin is dangerous and deadly in itself and it also hinders the
opening of heaven’s door of blessing. We commit two evils against our soul in
one stroke: we poison ourselves with iniquity and at the same time prevent
remedy and infinite goodness from coming to us. Repentance and cleansing in the
fountain of Christ’s blood will remove all hindrances. Then we shall pray and
God will answer; we shall knock and the door will be opened; we shall also
decree a thing and it shall be established unto us.
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