CHAPTER 12
"...To him that knocketh it shall be opened." -- Luke 11:10
These words of the Master reveal the third
fundamental principle of the effectual fervent prayer that availeth much.
The Master disclosed the value of praying
persistently in His discourse about the man asking three loaves at midnight.
There is something much more encouraging in His teachings about prayer than we
find in the words of the reluctant neighbor, who said, "...Trouble me not: the
door is now shut..." Our Lord would have us understand that the goodness of our
heavenly Father far exceeds the goodness of the sleepy man. The Master is
teaching us that we can prevail in prayer in spite of the discouragements and
difficulties confronting us in life.
The bread so desperately needed to satisfy the
hunger of the weary wayfarer was on the other side of the closed door. Much
depended on the importunate pleading and insistent knocking on the part of the
man seeking bread. If he had been discouraged by his friend's gruff words,
"...Trouble me not...," he would have gone away defeated and empty handed. If
he had believed that his drowsy friend had spoken his final word when he said,
"...The door is now shut...," he would have departed with a deep sense of
frustration and failure.
Our heavenly Father will never rebuff his praying
children, saying, "...The door is now shut..."Jesus is teaching us to pray with
unwavering faith and firm confidence. He inspired us with dauntless courage to
pray persistently when He said, "...To him that knocketh it shall be
opened."
The Saviour's heartening words imply that a vast
realm of truth will be opened unto us when we knock at the door of the Father's
house. It will enhance our understanding concerning the possibilities of
prayer if we will devote some time to study what the Saviour has said about the
open door set before His people.
Jesus identified Himself as being the door when
He said,
"I am the door: by me if any man will enter in, he shall be saved, and shall
go in and out, and find pasture." -- John 10:9
His astonishing words enable us to comprehend
more completely the truth about prevailing prayer.
Christ is the door. He is the only entrance to
God, and the only entrance to salvation. When we put Him in the promise
regarding our persistent knocking in prayer we can perceive the truth. We can
interpret the assuring promise as saying, "To him that knocketh, Christ, the
Door, shall be opened." In other words, Christ will open Himself to us in
answer to prayer. This is a blessed truth to contemplate. Christ opens His
loving heart to His praying people. He opens His eternal hope to His praying
people. He opens His enduring holiness to His praying people. He opens His
invincible strength to His praying people. In the light of this Divine
revelation, one is constrained to say,
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how
unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" -- Rom.
11:33.
It has pleased the Lord to open His immutable
purpose to His faithful saints and enable them to see His ultimate triumph over
sin and death. He opens the gates of eternal life, the greatness of enduring
love, and the glory of His likeness to His praying family. Through prayer we
can enter into the joys of an uttermost salvation and delight ourselves in the
abundance of peace. Through prayer we can escape the snares of Satan, and
elude the evil purposes of the foe.
Christ is both an entrance and an exit. We can
pray our way into the blessed realities of spiritual life, and pray our way out
of the bewildering problems of life. Our Lord revealed these gracious facts to
us when He said, "...To him that knocketh it shall be opened."
When Jesus opens Himself to His praying people He
opens eternity to them, for He fills eternity with Himself and contains
eternity in Himself. He is the First Cause and the Final Conclusion of
everything in time and in eternity. Our concept of Christ is enlarged when He
opens to us. The Psalmist was fully aware of this marvelous truth when he
said,
"...Thou hast set my feet in a large room." -- Psa. 31:8.
Christ wills to open His Word to us in answer to prayer. He stated this fact
when He said,
"I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me." -- John 17:8.
Perhaps my personal testimony will encourage
others to pray that Christ will reveal His words to them. During the quiet
hour of the morning I was asking the Saviour to enable me to understand His
Word. For many years I had made it my practice to study the Scriptures, but I
was aware that the Scriptures contained a depth of meaning that I had not
perceived. I sincerely desired to understand the Word of God. I realized my
need of an enlarged concept of the plan of salvation. It was the one prayer of
my heart to know more about God's invincible Word in order to preach the
message of life to a perishing world. I was convinced that the Lord had heard
my sincere prayer. Not many days after the season of prayer, He began to
unfold His Word of truth to my heart and mind with a depth of meaning I had
never known.
I was teaching in Asbury College when the Lord
began to reveal His Word to me. I listened to my own lecture with great
interest. I said things about the Saviour that had not been prepared in my
notes for the class. The light of Divine revelation flooding my soul was not
the result of my reasoning. The truth about redemption did not come from my
own mind; it was coming from the mind of Christ. My soul was enjoying great
peace, and His living words were like fire in my spirit. I was constrained to
tell others of the Saviour's love for lost humanity. To this happy hour His
truth abides within my heart and mind. His Spirit continues to reveal the
Words of Christ to me day by day. I can say with the Psalmist,
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God." -- Psa. 42:1.
God's imperishable truth will glow with a new
light when we knock at His door in prayer. If we have failed to grasp the
significance of Christ's plain teachings about prayer when He said, "...To him
that knocketh it shall be opened," we should ask Him to open Himself to us.
There is nothing more simple and understandable in life than knocking at a
door. Even a little child can knock at a door.
Christ is the Door between the spiritual realm
and the physical realm. When we are born of the Spirit we enter a spiritual
kingdom, which is a spiritual realm. We live, move, and have our being in a
spiritual realm with Christ. We are in the world physically, but we are not of
the world spiritually. God's Word declares that a righteous person is like a
tree. A tree lives in two realms of nature; it lives in the earth, and it
lives above the earth. Paul recognized this amazing fact when he said,
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." -- Col.
3:2.
Jesus revealed an amazing truth when He said, "I
am the door..." We can enter into His presence and pray before Him in the same
simple manner that we can go into another room through an open door. When we
discover this amazing truth, we find it possible to take others into
His presence and talk with Him about their needs.
It has been my pleasure to take others into the presence of Jesus many times.
I saw the truth of these things when I entered into a covenant of prayer with
Christ. I do not find it difficult to enter into His presence at anytime.
When Jesus said, "...To him that knocketh it
shall be opened," He meant to show us that it is possible for His praying
people to enter the heavenly place where He is seated on the mediatorial
throne, and present their petitions to Him. This fact is substantiated by
Paul, who said,
"...Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God." -- Col. 3:1.
The inspired prophet evidently perceived this
wonderful truth concerning Christ when he said,
"...He shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house." -- Isa. 22:
23.
God's children have a glorious throne in the
Father's house. They have a perfect right to come boldly to the glorious
throne of grace and make their requests known unto their heavenly Father.
Our Lord likewise disclosed a marvelous truth
about the door when He said, "...And shall go in and out, and find pasture." It
is apparent that a saved man can go from one realm to another and find
spiritual food. Jesus has made an ample provision to sustain His people in
both the physical realm and the spiritual realm. He cares for His people in
the natural world and in the spiritual world. The Saviour would have us
understand that the Good Shepherd will care for His flock while they are out in
the field, even as He cares for them when they are in the fold. In other
words, the Saviour will preserve us while we work and witness for Him in the
world, like He preserves us when we are resting safely in the fold of His love.
It is written,
"The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time
forth, and even for evermore." -- Psa. 121:8.
The changeless Christ has spoken with absolute
authority concerning the open door.
"...Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for
thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my
name." -- Rev. 3:8
"...To him that knocketh it shall be opened."
It shall remain open to all eternity.
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