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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

We Pray Wednesday: Ask, Seek & Knock - Part 2




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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