“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.” Matthew 7:7
In this message, I will
define these terms in the following manner: “Ask” is for gifts from God. “Seek”
is for opportunity by God. “Knock” is for growth in God.
“Seek”
The time had come to seek God’s
blessing in completing the work they were commissioned by Him to do. As we continue
reading there in Acts 16:16 “And it came
to pass, as we went to prayer…” we find another prayer meeting. With the
use of the collective pronoun “we” it is clear that the human author of Book of
Acts, Luke, and the other men in the group: Timothy, Silas, and Paul all joined
together in seeking God. As they were on the road to Philippi, they were
preaching the Gospel when a person with an apparent connection with darkness in
whom there was a spirit of divination began to follow them. She joined with
their group and began making loud, obnoxious statements about their intentions.
Though, her proclamations were not false, they were not helpful. She persisted
in this behavior for a couple of days as these men continued to preach and to seek
God’s will for the opportunity to establish a church. Finally, Paul, being
filled with the Holy Ghost, was grieved in his spirit and commanded the spirit
to come out of her in the name of Jesus Christ. It would seem that this woman
was quite accurate in her fortune telling because there were two men that had
been manipulating her to profit from her satanic torment. When they lost the
benefits of their awful scheme, they became very angry and they took Paul and
Silas to accuse them of several crimes. The text uses the term, “caught” (Acts
16:19); so, what does that indicate to you? I believe it means Paul and Silas
could not run as fast as Timothy and Luke. Apparently, the young guys got away
and Paul and Silas were caught and were taken into the town square where they were
accused of breaking some local statutes. Though, the charges brought against
them were based on greed and revenge, the two men convinced the “magistrates”
that the preaching of Paul and Silas was not lawful for Romans to even hear, much
less obey. These two furious accusers, it seems would have said anything to
incriminate Paul and Silas. The magistrates ordered the clothing Paul and Silas
were wearing to be ripped off of them and that they be beaten and cast into the
dungeon. They also ordered the jailer to “keep
them safely” (Acts 16:23) in the dungeon. To the dismay of Paul and Silas,
the order was carried out by putting them into the innermost portion with their
feet in the stocks. Paul and Silas were seeking! You see, when we pray, “God
I'm seeking for an opportunity!” we may, never in a million years, consider the
idea that part of the path on which He might place our opportunity could lead
us through a dungeon. However, in Philippi, they were seeking for opportunity to
establish a church. Notice, they did not forsake God in the midst of adversity!
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and
sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them.”
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