What Jesus Said About Prayer - Part 2

Disclaimer: Please note this is not a review of the Hagin Ministry Series. This post was made to share with you the journey I am going on while reading this book and studying Gods word. It is here posetd in my own words, while sharing some quotes of the book and for encouragement purposes only!


What Jesus Said About Prayer (Part 2)


Bible Texts: Matthew 7:7-11; Luke 11:5-13
 
Thought To Ponder: God loves us and wants us to have good things, just as we love our children and want them to have good things.
 
Brief recap: Matthew 6:7-13. The model prayer Jesus gave to His disciples was the "Lords Prayer." The last post covered the following principles:

• Private Prayer
• Repititous Prayer
• Basic Principles of Prayer
• The Principles of Praise
• The Principles of Putting God First
• The Principles of Daily Prayer
• The Principle of Forgiveness
• The Principle of Deliverance from Temptation

Now lets move on to Matthew 7:7-11 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.


“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

• Knowing God As Father

Here we can see one reason the Jews could not understand Jesus. If Jesus had come along as the prophets of old, proclaiming judgement against them and presenting a distant, unapproachable God to them, they might have understood Him better. That was the picture of God that they were accustomed to. When God came down and talked to Moses on the mountain, there was fire, thunder, and lightening. Anyone who touched that mountain died instantly. When the presence of God moved into the Holy of Holies, no one dared intrude there for fear of instant death. The Jews knew about a God who was high and holy      a God who dealt an awful judgement       and they feared Him.


Jesus, however, came with a message of love. He introduced God as a Father. He suggest they could approach God as a Father. But the Jews just couldn't comprehend that kind of a God. We see this very thing happening today. For many, Christianity is just a religion to a faraway God. They really don't know Him. They never come to Him in the name of Jesus Christ in order to know Him personally as their Father; so they try to approach Him in the wrong manner.


I want to paint a few visual images for a moment, bare with me:

• Imagine knowing of a God who was harsh,distant, full of judgement and fearsome much of your life. Then one day, a man comes along and proclaims he is the son of God. He describes this God to be his Father and how He can be our Heavenly Father. Most of all, this God he speaks of is gentle and loving to all. Then he speaks of how anyone can approach this God anytime, anyplace. Now I want you to compare this visual to the next visual.
• Imagine your an only sibling for a moment, your mother or father, well it is all new to them. So in a lot of cases the first sibling usually has it more rough, but in most cases a loving roughness. Keep in mind that in most cases, Both parents are loving, loya and really good parents. But... There are many cases today where either Mom or Dad is absent or they are everything but Mom or Dad. They are harsh natured, very distant, highly judgemental and very fearsome to their kids. These are the kinds of parents that never show much love.

So where am I going with these two visuals? What happens when one day: Another child is born, A serious accident happens that is life threatening, etc. I can name a lot of instances that could happen. One day these parents are going to get a wake up call, hopefull it wont be too late. But what happens when they do get that wake up call and want to change their life and make things right between their loved ones, their children and all those they hurt in the past? It can happen, It does happen, most every day some where, some one wants to make things right.
Now lets go back to the first visual, God sent His only son to earth to preach the gospel, share His love so that we could have eternal life with Him. Do you think the day Jesus was born to earth, God didn't have second thoughts about changing the way He was to the people He created? He must have because He gave His son to all of us. What about the day Jesus died on the cross? These are things to definately to think about.

•  Ask, Seek, Knock... Believe (Matthew 7:7 nlt)“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you."

We all know it is in the bible, but how much of us truly use this verse in our walk? Too often we fail to receive what we are asking for, we fail to find what we are seeking and the door on which we are knocking is not opened. Why? We must be doing something wrong when we don't receive, because the next verse (vs 8) promises, "For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."  What is the reason of our failure?

In this prinicple Mr. Hagin brings out this point: In the earlier days in the Holy Land, when someone came to the outer gate and knocked, seeking entrance, the more wealthy would send their servant to call out and ask the name of the visitor. If it was someone who was known, they could enter immediately. If it was someone unknown, the servant would go to the master of the house and ask if he should let the visitor in. The thought here is that when you knock, if you are known, you gain immediate entrance. "To him that knock it shall be opened."
If when we ask we do not recieve, if when we seek we do not find, if when we knock it is not opened to us, we should ask ourselves if we are known by the Master of the house. If not, we should become acquainted personally and intimately with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We should make Him Lord of our life.

What earthly parent wants their children to go through life poor and downtrodden? Most of us labor and sacrifice so our children can have advantages we never had. So if we being carnal     being human      want good things for your children.  "...How Much More shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"  If we want happieness for our children, how much more does God want the same for us.

Luke 11:5-13 Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

• The Prayer of Importunity (Luke 11:5-13 nlt)

In this account, which deals with Importunity, many people had the mistaken idea that Jesus was teaching us to keep on asking in order to get results. In this parable we see a man who ahd a guest arrive during the night. He didn't have any bread to set before him, so he went to his neighbor's house and asked for a loaf of bread. The neighbor responded, "I'm already in bed; don't bother me." But when the man kept pleading with him, he finally granted his request. Here Jesus was illustrating that although the neighbor would not get out of bed to give the man bread just because he was a friend, he gave it to him because of his importunity. Jesus was saying, how much more our heavenly Father will hear us and grant our requests. It is the importunity of faith, not the importunity of unbelief, that gets results. Importunity of Faith - works!

• Memory Text: "Ask, and it shall be given you;  seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matthew 7:7

To get a copy of this book please visit: http://www.rhema.org/store/the-will-of-god-in-prayer-book.html

To read post number 2 and lesson 2 please click the link below:
http://hissevencones.blogspot.com/2011/10/will-of-god-in-prayer-lesson-3-part-1.html