From the eleventh chapter of Luke, we will find exactly what we need according to the things we’re believing God for now.
And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Father, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation.
After giving them the model prayer, Jesus gave them the key to prayer. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee? I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, (the Greek tense of this verb indicated action continued in the present, so it implies: Ask, (and keep on asking) and it shall be given you; seek, (and keep on seeking) and ye shall find; knock, (and keep on knocking) and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh (and keeps on asking) receiveth; and he that seeketh (and keeps on seeking) findeth; and to him that knocketh (and keeps on knocking) it shall be opened. This means we must stay with it.
And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:1–13.
How did that person get the loaves of bread? By staying with it. The promise was given that if we keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, we get what we’re after. Luke brings a sidelight on this, that none of the other gospels indicate. And he repeats it; for there are parables of three lessons on every truth that Luke teaches in his gospel.
In the eighteenth chapter of Luke the same lesson is taught again. And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, who feared not God, and regarded not man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came oft unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge saith. And shall not God avenge his elect, that cry unto him day and night, and yet he is longsuffering over them? I say unto you, that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth? Luke 18:1–8.
The Lord Jesus saw that the time would come when there would be only a philosophical assent to certain teachings of the gospel, but that people would not really believe them. It is true, very few churches really believe the Bible. The denominations say, “We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.” But when it comes right down to standing on that Word and making it work, the faith is not there. The same thing is true of the modernists, for they don’t believe it at all. A smaller percentage of the world in this generation is Christian than in the last generation. Every year missionary effort is diminishing, and in many nations it has been expelled completely. The world is not becoming Christian; it is becoming faithless more rapidly than there are converts to Christianity. There may be a few denominations that show a numerical increase, but it is in no way proportionate to the increase of the population itself. With the present population explosion it is very evident that we are exploding with heathens, not with Christians! So Jesus posed the question, … when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
God has committed something to us and the only way it will work is that we knock and we keep on knocking. We must be like the man who pounded at the door until his friend got up and said, “You’ll wake up the babies anyway, so I might as well get up and give you the bread you want.” He wouldn’t get up and give him the bread because he was a friend, but because he kept on knocking, he gave it to him. Likewise, the judge did not fear God nor did he fear man. It was not any moral conscience that caused him to avenge the woman and give her justice when someone had cheated her out of her inheritance. No, the only thing that stirred him was the fact that there was a persistence in the woman and it began to trouble him. It had a nuisance value. Jesus reminds us, “How much more will God avenge those that cry day and night unto Him, though He is longsuffering with them?” God may have a lot to put up with them, but He said, “I tell you, He will avenge them speedily.”
If you think sometimes, “I’ll never get a prayer answered until I’m perfect”—forget it; for you get your prayers answered when you’re persistent, not when you are perfect. There is a great deal of difference in the two. He may be longsuffering with you. You may have a lot of problems and so you say, “Lord, perfect me tomorrow, but answer my prayer today.” The prayers that are in the will of God, God will answer for you because of sheer persistence on your part. It’s this terrible self-condemnation that wipes us out. It plagues and bedevils us until we hang our heads before the Lord without confidence. Our coming to God is not based upon our righteousness; we come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means we come in His righteousness, in His provision; we come in His grace, in His mercy, and with His understanding. We do not come in personal worthiness or a deserving position; we come because we love the Lord and have accepted what He has done for us. We come in the name of Jesus, Who said, “If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in His Son” (John 14:13).
We are believing for greater works. But you must not get discouraged, for discouragement is the mark of people who live on a very emotional plane where circumstances disturb them. I like the situation that Paul described. When everything came against him, he said quite frankly, “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy” (Acts 20:24). His attitude was, “Circumstances are not going to disturb me.” He was the only man in the New Testament that people followed down the street shouting, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; Acts 17:6b. Find a man who is not moved by his circumstances and you’ll find a man who moves the world. Find someone who is not wiped out with periods of emotional tension, loneliness, or hostile circumstances; but instead he says, “Nothing is going to move my heart,” and that man will be moving problems and mountains like a great bulldozer. With his faith he’ll be plowing them under. It takes persistence and a lot of faith.
God has given us words, but if you say, “I’m going to sit and wait for them to happen,” you will collect a lot of mildew and dry rot in your soul. Passivity is one of the most deadly things you can have. Get rid of it! Set your heart on fire for God! Actively, aggressively reach in and make it happen. The promises are yours—make them happen!
The most precious truth you will ever learn in the Word is the proper balance between the sovereign promises of God and the initiative of the individual’s faith. God requires that the two be linked together. The two have to be linked together so that faith becomes an activity. Faith is an activity, not a mental assent. The devils believe—and tremble—in that way you wouldn’t call that faith. James says, “You believe? The devils also believe—and tremble” (James 2:19a). We ought to have more faith than the devil, if we’re to get anything done.
How do we do it? We listen to what God says, we take His Word in our heart, we believe it with everything that is within us—and then we move in to make it happen. God says, “This land of Canaan is yours.” “Ho-hum, I’ll wait until He gives it to me.” He has already given it to you. “But there are giants and high-walled cities there.” So? The promise read technically, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon.…” You may be afraid to go in and stand alongside the giants because you know they’ll be active, swinging at you with ball bats and swords; but if you want to take it, you’ll put the sole of your foot on that land, for wherever the sole of your foot treads, that will be your inheritance forever. “How can the sole of my foot climb up that wall? It’s high.” Walk around it, yell at it—and watch it come down. God will tell you how to do it. There’s a way to bring that wall down. There’s a way to beat those giants. That land is yours. God didn’t say, “It’s yours if you can take it;” He says, “I’ll hand it to you, I’ve given it to you. Go ahead. I’ll drive the giants out in front of you.” The giants exercised themselves in quite a few battles because they weren’t entirely persuaded to run until the Israelites marched in and took them in the name of the Lord. That’s the way we’re going after it—with everything that’s in our heart. Like the widow coming to the judge, like the man who had to have some bread—they just stayed with it, and that’s the way they received the answer.