The Faith Progression
“And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Luke 11:9 & 10
It appears that many Christians believe that the intensity exerted when praying; or the volume of their voices when praying; reflects their ability to receive an immediate response to their request.
I often refer to Paul’s request to the Lord in reference to the “thorn in the flesh”. The Bible specifically states that he sought the Lord three times. Why? It seems to imply that he wasn’t accustomed to making a request that many times. Today, we would have said, “Come on Lord…I’ve asked you 3 times…what’s up? Why haven’t you done what I’ve asked you yet?”
I know enough about God, my Father, to understand that He is omniscient (all knowing, all seeing and very well informed!). Therefore God doesn’t have to place me in a given situation and WATCH my reactions or responses to know what I will do. He has already known exactly what my responses will be prior to me even being born.
However, I must undergo a progression in my level of faith that will bring forth to me the manifestation and the revelation of God’s response to my request. Sometimes we can simply “Ask”- something….and the answer is given. Everyone has that level of faith. Then there are times when we must dig a little deeper.. – the “Seeking” level. (Like when you can’t find something and someone else comes in… moves a few things around and discovers what you couldn’t find! You may have looked -but they sought.) The seeking level is when the revelation of an answer to our prayers may require that our level of faith be increased to the extent that we can see the answer that God has already given to us. Then there’s the “Knocking” level. Knocking expresses repetitive motion. It implies that there is a barrier or a blockage in front of me – something preventing me from gaining that access that I so desire. So at this level, God is attempting to get me to move out more in faith and take the necessary measures to destroy whatever is preventing me from receiving the access to His response.
Walking by faith in God requires that we understand the principles of Asking, Seeking and Knocking. Strangely enough, if we take the first letter from each of those words we will form the word ASK. Could it be that God is trying to tell us that our faith must progress to the simple level of merely asking and then believing it to be done? Far too often we tend to make the process more difficult than God intended it to be. He simply wants us to Place our petitions before Him (Ask); Then proceed with the solution that He gives to us (Seek); and finally be PERSISTANT in our expectation of the petition placed (Knock).
God’s ultimate desire for us is to develop our level of faith in Him to the extent that once we have placed our petitions before Him… that we immediately begin to react as though that petition has been granted. We declare that we are walking by faith; however most of us are not. Most of us are still walking by sight. Why do I say that? Simply because many will place the same petitions before the Lord day after day – until they physically SEE the manifestation! We will sing and say, “Don’t wait til the battle is over…shout now”. But in our hearts we are still doubting and walking in a diminished degree of faith…. And not totally shouting and rejoicing until we physically have be granted our petitions.
So let us be determined that we will no longer “walk around in circles” in the area of our faith. Let us exercise our faith….stretch our faith…. And be more “unwavering” in the area of our faith. Let’s grasp the total concept of Asking, Seeking and Knocking…. And we will discover that our level of faith will progress from; little faith to great faith to mountain moving faith. Then we will daily walk in that level of faith, which will produce in us an expectation and an undeniable manifestation of God’s favor in every area of our life!
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