Ask!

Hello everyone and welcome to Wednesday Night Live. I'm coming to you from the Father's Church in Dallas, Texas and my name is Ron Crawford and what a privilege it is to be able to say hello to my church family as well as to our Saints Network family who are located in so many places around the world. God is doing such an incredible thing, and we are so happy that he allowed us to hear his voice and to be able to say yes to him. This is a particularly unique time of the year for us. We have just concluded a string of some very powerful international ministries, and we are girding up now for our celebration of the patients seminar here in September, and, we encourage you if you've not already made plans to be here to do so.

Of course, we'll be live streaming it, but it would really be great to have you here with us in person. It's a celebration of the fiftieth, one of these that we have hosted here in Dallas, and we'll be celebrating. We'll doing some be doing some times of, reflection on the good things that we've experienced together in our service for the Lord. But we're also looking forward to what is ahead. We're gonna be having a number of those who are coming from around the world, many of whom will be speaking, and you'll be able to hear testimonies of things that God is doing in other parts of the earth.

And, you'll also be able to rejoice at the fruitfulness of God that, his message is truly being spread. And that's the main thing, that we make disciples among the nations concerning what God has given us and entrusted us. So that's coming. But before we get into the message of the day, I do want to once again extend our heartfelt sympathy to Vicky Sparrow in Florida and to the wonderful church at Port St. John in the passing of our beloved brother Larry Sparrow.

I can't even believe I'm saying that. A week ago Larry was alive and in our on earth and being Larry, But God knew what he had need of with our brother and, took him home. You know, I've said many times standing at a gravesite or conducting a funeral service or even during the few times that I've stood at family members memorial services, that we're so grateful to have a home in heaven, that we are grateful to the Lord for his sacrifice for us so that we might not only have hope in this world, but in the world to come in heaven. And those are foundational messages for any believer in Jesus Christ. And I've had times of sorrow concerning those that have been close to me who've passed on.

This time feels very much different because I don't I don't think that the line between earth and heaven is very, very thick at this moment. I think that we as saints in conjunction with the scriptures have had our conversation in heaven for many, many years now, and we have been able to do what John wrote about and what the book of Hebrews writes about, where we have tasted of the heavenly gift and the powers of the world to come. And I know that brother Larry and his wonderful church himself personally and in conjunction with the Saints Network family has spent hours in intercession and communing with our Lord and conducting the business of the kingdom here on earth. I feel not that Larry is really absent. I think you know the scriptures that speak about the great cloud of witnesses that are around us as we continue in the work of the Lord.

I know that there's a lot of activity in heaven. I know that especially in these end times things are girding up and I know that the scripture is replete with example after example after example of the active connection between heaven and earth. In fact, that's what Jesus taught us to pray, isn't it? And I know that somehow our brother is serving our Lord who he loves. And I know that I feel that I feel that continuity of our shared mission.

And I don't want to be morbid, but, you know, the Lord is coming soon. I think all Christian people can say amen to that. We just many times don't want him coming today. But one way or another, we're through the power and the presence and the love of God, only through accepting Christ as our savior by the blood of the lamb. We're all going to be in eternity, you know, no matter how much you work out, no matter how much you do to try to prolong your life and vitality, it is appointed unto everybody at some point to be with the Lord forever in eternity.

Eternity is now. And I I feel so very differently about this tragic as it may be on earth, passing of my brother. And I think that it should be a clarion call for everybody that we must work for the night is coming, and we must be faithful to our Lord every day and enjoy his presence now because we will have a home going. This is not a funeral message, but I just wanted to extend our love and continued prayers to our our precious family in Florida. And, this coming Saturday at 11:00 Eastern Standard Time, there'll be a memorial service there in Port Saint John.

It will be telecast on Facebook. I do not have that address. It was posted on Sunday. If you really wanna know, you can reach out to one of your friends there at Port Saint John, they can direct you. But God bless sparrows.

God bless all who are part of that wonderful church. And we we certainly ask that the spirit of the Lord would comfort you and hold you close in this time. Today we want to look at a passage of scripture. It's well familiar to all of us. It's in Matthew chapter seven.

We know the acronym of Ask! Seek! And Knock! A S K in English, ASK. But let's dive into it a little bit deeper, and I think God wants to say some some new things to us today from the living word.

Let's read it, shall we? Matthew seven seven. Ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receives he that seeks finds and to him that knocks it will be opened. Let's stop there.

First thing we want to talk about is that this word translated as ask is one of the most powerful words in the New Testament that indicate prayer. It is iteo and it is the the word that is utilized by the Lord and throughout the New Testament to define someone who is in active partnership with God. It is the type of term that is used for someone who's been entrusted to accomplish a task while they're in conversation with the person who entrusted that task to them. Kind of like a boardroom discussion where you're not just flailing in the air asking for everything according to your own mindset. It is in conjunction with a specified and authorized task that has been deliberated to you.

And so when you're asking, it's it's not just, what do I want? What does my heart desire? It's it it entails the idea that you are in covenant partnership in response to a mission that God has entrusted. So when you are doing that, you're you've been directed by the Holy Spirit. You are doing it in conjunction with the will of God who has enabled and empowered you and and and and entrusted you with a task.

So it it really does mean that the end result is something that God wants to do. It's not something you have to persuade him to do. It's not something that you have to argue in the courts of heaven against an enemy litigant. It is something that God has entrusted. And you're asking because God always looks for an intercessor.

It's the way he designed our relationship, and we should pray always. We should be in communication with God. And he everything begins with a voice. And in God's economy, he has elected to allow us to represent him, but we must be in this type of relationship. Now you would think that if what I just said is true, that it's a done deal.

All you have to do is spend time with God, hear from him, and just ask, and boom. There it is. Well, essence, is. But the seeking and the knocking are part of this equation. What does it mean to seek?

What does it mean to seek? Well, you this is the sila of this threefold principle. And when you ask God and you are in harmony with him, there has to be a doing. It's not of works, but you have to hear from God. He will give you direction based upon the asking.

It will be steps of faith. He's not going to detail everything that you're going to face, but because if he did that where would the faith be? You step out. You obey and you seek. What are you seeking?

Well, it's a pathway toward what it is that God has inspired you to ask. What is the thing that that God is leading you to? And you you don't really gain a whole lot of clarity until you're actually seeking. When I ask the Lord in an Iteo fashion and I know that he's telling me to do something, I then have to act upon what that point of intercessory commune and consolidated agreement entails. He will then begin to lead me.

And I then say yes and follow. And you have a lot of discovery in that seeking. It's not like he tells you everything that's gonna happen, and then you go out like with a treasure hunt, and you're looking for this one thing. The objective that God gives is is very often not what you originally think it is. Now what do I mean by that?

There are a lot of promises that God has given to us as a church and as a networker even in my own life. And I know that God is going to do this thing. How he's gonna do it? Wow. That's a mystery.

Even when I got it all figured out and I hope that God is listening to my counsel, the way he actually leads me and what he actually does to fulfill that very thing that I've been asking him about is a walk of faith. It is the Sila of going from promise to fulfillment. But the seeking really is a discovery mode. So in other words, it's not like some people just take this in a carnal viewpoint and they say, well what do you what do you need brother? Well you know I could use a new car.

Well what kind of car do you want? Well I'd kind of like I don't want to set my sights too high because the insurance on the kind of car that I'd really want is just gonna be awful. But I'd like kind of like this car. Well, all right. Well, then there you got it.

We agree. They go out and you start going around to all the car dealerships and you search the Internet search engines. And now I know that God can do that kind of thing. I've heard people testify. Well, you know, I always wanted a BMW this color, and guess what?

God gave it to me. Well, that's great. Could God do that kind of thing? Yeah. Yes, he can.

I do believe that. But this is not you asking for whatever's concocted in your thinking. Even if it's from God, this is partnership with God. And, like, I I can remember a lot of times, God would say, I'm gonna do this. You need to pray, and we would start feeling the burden for a thing.

And then God would give us some kind of an initial step. Alright. You need to do this. And we say yes. The seeking toward the fulfillment is a journey and God loves the journey.

You learn more in the journey than you do in the place of initial agreement and certainly more than you do when the fulfillment comes. That seeking part, that experience in walking with God in faith is your greatest instructor, and it is the it is the way that you forge a deeper relationship with God. And it's a measure of discovery, but you've gotta be willing to keep your eye on the intended objective that was the initial point of purpose. Sometimes in the seeking, there'll be alternative pathways. You gotta be careful.

You don't wanna chase dead ends. You don't wanna chase blind alleys. And you you know, there's a way that seems right to us, but the end thereof is destruction. You need to be really careful that you're hearing from God and that the spirit of truth is guiding you in the things that have not yet been discovered. But the seeking is really a journey.

And so often, the thing that I began believing for that I know God said, the search process was an adventure. Sometimes I didn't like it very well because it went against what my natural mind had concocted God would be doing. But how often is that that God leads us in things that seem to some degree, contraindicative of what we really were believing for. But when we finally find the answer, we think this is so much better than what I thought it would be. And Lord, I've even said, I'm glad you didn't give me what I was initially thinking you wanted to give me.

Your ways are not my ways, and your ways are better. But the seeking, that's that is really an adventure with God, and it's perhaps the most precious of of any. It's to seek and to find. Some of you, if you search this, you'll see it involves to to join with, it involves to find often by chance, it involves making inquiries, to examine, to observe and to scrutinize, to discover by experience, to understand, to detect. I'm just reading what Strong says here, which any of you can do, to gain knowledge and to then find a path of procurement.

So the finding is not a one off. It is an exploratory. It is an experiential partnership with the Lord, and that's the father of all who walk in faith. See, a teaching about faith is that you ask God, you declare it, you declare it again a few more times, and then you just focus on that answer. You really should spend a lot of time devoting yourself to hearing what God wants and then aligning with it, gaining a visionary picture.

But then you you remember the onus of that, and then you walk with him. And to to try to hold God to your initial preconceived notion is a fool's errand, and that has been one of the fallacies that has often been taught in the walk of faith teaching. The seeking is going to perhaps reveal things in you that you didn't know in the beginning. Aspects of what God created you to be. Giftings that he placed in you from before the foundation of the world that come online as you're walking with him.

It really is a discovery point. God will always be true to his promise, but the seeking is a discovery not of what you have insisted specifically God will do. I've heard people teach, well, don't just ask for I'm I'm back on this vehicle thing. Don't just ask for a vehicle. Be specific.

Tell God what color you want. Tell him what year you want. Tell him what price you want. Now God can God do that? Yeah.

But this is Aitel. This isn't shop online. So seek, and you'll find. Now the next thing, knock, and it'll be open. Here's a couple of things that perhaps are new for you.

To knock is in the the basic study of the Greek language. The first time this word was actually used was in a warfare setting. And it was was used in a positive way and in a kind of a convoluted way. If you were going out to war, you were gonna be clashing with something. You're either gonna be sword to sword, sword or spear to shield, battering hammers to a gate.

There was gonna be a knocking, and then in a negative way, it was sometimes used to describe what would happen in the fog of war where sometimes soldiers would hit each other. And that was the initial way this was used. But knocking can also mean the the the by force breaking through something that is occluded or blocked. So knocking is not just this. Hello?

Hello? Anybody in there? It's removing obstacles or insisting by warfare or by by absolute persistence that you gain a victory or you break through. Now, again, this goes against the the the paradigm of most faith teaching Because we think that when we declare, when we proclaim that Jesus, who's, this is colloquial. I've heard this taught, who's sitting in his easy boy up at the right hand, who's done everything he's gonna do.

You signed a check-in Jesus name and bless God it's done. It's not by works. What's not by works? Lest any man should boast. We're not in charge of this.

We're not self made. But there's a reason that the scriptures speak about the whole armor of God. It's not just for a parade. We have to ask and then we have to be willing to walk with him being guided by his spirit in obedience. And then we may have to insist.

We may have to knock. We may have to break through. Dare I say we may have to swing the sword a little bit because our enemy is just not gonna give up. The victory is ours, But there is some knockabout that has to go. So it's not just somebody standing at the door.

Now what does it mean to be opened? Some of you have already clicked. Well, let me click on this. Let me see. Let me see.

Anoigo. Now we don't get annoyed from that, but the the word oigo is not really found in scripture. It means to open, but Anna, Anna, and it means again. So literally this means to open again. Now you can say, well, when I go up to a door to my house, the door is closed, so I have to open it again, and then I close it so bugs don't get in.

I understand that. Who lives in a house? Were you born in a barn? That's a famous thing dads would say. I don't think they say it very often.

Close that door. You're letting all the air conditioning out. So but but the but the idea here is really to open something that has been closed, to open it again, which is really what God intends for his people to open the door of commune. Now there is another derivative of this and it is of of the oigo, it's dia annoigo, which just means to open widely or to open permanently. And this was when he, the Lord healed the the guy's ears, where he opened the eyes.

It's used in the New Testament to talk about when Jesus, when their eyes were open on the road to Emmaus and he vanished out of their sight. And it's used to describe the understanding of scriptures. And I I pray that we would all have our understanding open wide that it would not be closed again. Lydia, the seller of purple, who God opened her heart to the message of Paul and to the work of the saints, her heart was open. I pray that the people that God opens to the work of the saints would keep it open.

And this time I'll keep it open. You know, it's an interesting thing, but it has to do with not just opening and closing a door, but really the idea of restoring something that should have been accessible and open. Does that make sense? So you knock. You do whatever's necessary after you have asked in covenant partnership with God.

Then you go on the journey, and then you begin to see something that has been closed now open. And hopefully you bring about an understanding of this doorway, an understanding of its purpose, a demonstration of it, and you see that it is now gonna be available to whomever or wherever it is that you have been led by faith to go. So Jesus did not stop there. He then reiterates in verse nine this asking, iteo principle, and he does so in two ways. First of all, he says, is there any father there who, if his son Aiteo's bread, you'd give him a stone?

Now stones are important in scripture, but the onus here is that you would be seeking bread through this iteo. This is commune with God. It's coming back to the iteo asking principle, which we have said, if anybody still remembers, is a partnership inquiry based upon the directive of God to somebody that he's entrusting with a mission. So God is wanting to give commune and direction. Bread oh my goodness.

We've studied about this over and over again. It's commune with the father. It's also in the the table of grace. It indicates our willingness to believe God for something new. It's unleavened.

It's it's that at the breaking of it is our portion or our assignment in inheritance. It's willing to be on the cutting edge of piercing through into the new. And it's also our identity as the body of Christ. So we're going to our father. We're asking, and this is not some dead alongside the road memorial.

This is a living partnership and inheritance as sons. What about fish and serpent? There's Itau again. Well, he's gonna give you we're to be fishers of men. That was the sign of the early church.

Cast your net in. Bring in a hole through, the bathos and the, the obedience to God when you've done everything you've known to do and you were failing, but then you obey God and you see this tremendous harvest. It's not something that's gonna lead you into a demonic trap. This is him coming back to the Aiteo. And then in verse 11, if you being in this poneros world, calamitous world, a world that lacks character, a world that is diseased and is derelict.

Jesus is not calling these brethren who he's giving a powerful word of promise to evil people, but he's saying you're in this Ponoros society that is regularly governed by the enemy. If you're there and you know inherently how to give agathos or beloved wonderful gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly father want to give good things to those that I tail? So if you're in this place, if you're in this place, it's a good partnership with the father. So he then says in verse 12, same contextual flow pattern. All things whatever you would that men would do to you, do to them because this is the law and the prophet.

We're going out to minister the kingdom to fishers as fishers of men. We're fulfilling the scripture, hopefully, and we're functioning prophetically. So we enter in at the straight gate. Forgive me if I'm not delving down deep in every one of these principles. You ought to know them.

The straight gate is stenos. It also is linked with histeme. So God is gonna be directing you to a STEMI places that have been ordered by God from when he created all things to be a point of blessing. This is what we're opening again. And the gate is that not that just that personal commune, but for the parats, for the breakthrough, indonations.

Wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to describe destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, narrow the way, which leads to life. And who finds it? The oligos. Those that have said, I'll do whatever it is you need me to do.

I will go above and beyond. I will be as that one that is no, though none go with me, I'm going. So then Jesus warns, beware of false prophets. They're gonna come to you in sheep's clothing. My goodness.

There are a lot of them. And I wonder I wonder about that in this equation. There are a lot of ways we can look at this. First of all, he's warning what voice you're following. But secondly, if you've done all this and then you begin to see these gates open and God's miracles begin to flow, you're gonna have lots of people, I'm not saying they're not born again, who are gonna say just like the church does, oh, it's happening over there.

Let's run over there and see. Beware of them. Yes, you can welcome them, but don't be like Balaam counseled Balak. Don't intermarry with them. I don't care who they are.

I don't care what they have. Christians in oh, let me say it this way. The general church is usually comprised forgive me. I know I'm get ready. Hold your hands over here.

Some of you are very sensitive when I talk about these things. Sheep are basically dumb creatures. They'll follow. They'll just be out there, and they'll follow. And you know what?

I've seen in this city so many churches rise and become the be all end all, and they're not even in existence anymore. I've seen so many moves happen, and I've seen even before I became pastor, wide swaths of our church just take off because that's where God's moving. Well, he may have been moving at that point, but it wasn't a lasting move because the people weren't really devoted to him. Yeah. Maybe they loved the Lord, but they weren't doing what they needed to do to exist and survive.

They just knew how to flow here and there. And there are gonna be people when God begins to move, like Simon said to Peter, let me buy this from you. I'm used to moving the crowd who just follows me like a bunch of lemmings. Peter says, you don't have any assignment in this. You've not been commissioned by God, and you certainly are not positioning yourself to partner with him in this.

That's what Peter said to Simon. So be careful. First of all, don't be following every move no matter how beautiful it seems on the Internet. Stick with what God has asked you to be. But on the other hand, when you've done this and you've broken through and you've opened something and miracles are happening and people are beginning to come, don't be deceived by people that come in sheep in sheep's clothing.

Some will follow. You know, the rich young ruler came to Jesus, and he left sad because he really wasn't willing to do what Jesus was asking. There were people that came to our seminars maybe seven, eight years in. God was moving in such a powerful way, and he still is. But they came, and they wanted to have experiences.

They wanted to hear about the deeper things of the word, especially when it was opening up the exciting things. They wanted to experience partnership with the angelic. Tell us more about that. But I'll never forget telling a couple of leaders What we have to do now is we need to learn how to interpret, which is what the Lord says here and here and here. And we've got to study the word, and we've got to be willing to wait on God.

And it's not gonna all be the exciting measure. You know, I heard you know, I remember going to hear a conference and Don Potter from Morningstar was teaching. He said a lot of you wanna come and move here. Don't do it because these meetings are a month from now, we're not having these meetings, and it's the work of the ministry. You'll be really frustrated.

I remember one guy came here, and he was talking he'd just come from some other conference, and he said, oh, I can I still see him? Those people, they just walk in the glory all the time. Yeah. Right. Sure they do.

It'd be great, wouldn't it? You're walking in partnership with God, but you're in the narrow way. And few are willing to go all the way through. So there are gonna be people that will come alongside, and some of them will be big ministries. And they may not be willing to do what the word says you're supposed to be doing in the midst of this partnership with God.

So I'm coming back to this illustration I started. I said to these these leaders, you're gonna have to do this. And they said, oh, that's work. We don't wanna work. We just wanna seek the Lord and and experience him.

Well, you got to be a lover and a warrior. You got to be willing to to seek him, but when you're there, he's gonna commission you to go. You can't just stay on the mountain all the time. You gotta be willing to go down and then walk through the valley. That's where you really know and learn the validity of the Lord.

I'm telling you the truth. So be careful not to buy a bill of goods even though it's real warm and cuddly cuddly and it looks like sheep. It could be a wolf. They'll eat you up and spit you out. You know them by their fruits, not by their promises, not by their big speeches.

And, you know, every tree brings forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree will bring forth things that are not what it's advertised to be. Wherefore, verse 20, by your fruits you'll know them. Hopefully, we're teaching people how to take the seed, go deeper, resist the cares of this world, and allow God to bring forth his harvest. That's what we're that's what we're looking for. Some don't wanna hear it at all.

Others will begin, but then give up when the first or the second challenge comes. Others, we gotta watch out for those thorns that pierce the fruit. Some of them may be in sheep's clothing. So this is all Jesus' sermon. Oh, it's great to just ask and you shall receive.

Well, what do you want brother? Make a list. Go before God as a petulant child and be bold and ask him. Demand it. Demand ye me.

What was that verse anyway in the Old Testament? Demand command ye me concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands. What is God's hand doing? It begins by emptiness. What are the sons?

Are they babies? Are they servants? Are they trophy wives? Are they pampered nepo babies? Or are they sons?

And what does command mean anyway? It's very similar to this ITEO concept. It is having received in the in a military setting a command from a general, for instance, to a colonel, or you could say from a colonel or a major or on down the line. And you are operating on behalf of the authority entrusted to you by them. So you're not commanding the general to do anything.

You are turning and functioning in the authority given you, and you're directing sons in alignment with sons in conjunction with the work of God's hand, which is the task at hand. Sometimes I hear, well, you come to the throne of grace, and you've gotta be bold. I can tell you, I don't I never like hearing a spoiled child trying to tell the parent what they're gonna do. Sometimes I hear that when I travel. Sometimes I hear it on airplanes.

I remember a comedian one time talking about seeing a little boy that really had no had been received no training at all, and he was just a terror on that flight. And the parents just obviously didn't know how to direct that kid. It was a funny, comedic sketch, but it's not real funny if you're dealing with it. We don't treat God that way. I don't care how much faith or how many scriptures you've got tucked under your belt.

It's God's way, and we commit to it as sons in conjunction with his hand. So be careful about the sheep that will come when the miracles and and when it's seen. No. Those sheep don't come when you're paying the price. No.

In fact, you've gotta watch your own flock that they don't go over to those. Well, I won't say anything bad because I would offend your sensitive ears. They they go over there. Some people are so funny about language. I'm tell a story from history.

Harry Truman was a president that stepped into the White House after the death of Franklin Roosevelt at the toward the end of World War two. And then he subsequently won reelection beating Dewey, famous scene where Truman was smiling holding up the paper that said that he'd actually lost. But Truman Truman was a Missouri guy and he was raised as a farmer and so he had a really colorful language as did Winston Churchill. And one day Truman was speaking to a group of men and women, and Bess Truman was sitting off to the side of the speaker's table, and there was some really elegant women that were with him. And Truman was speaking about something, and he kept saying that the opinions of his detractors was just a bunch of manure.

And he said that word many times, and the more he said it the delicate ears of this elegant woman were really being infringed upon. So she whispered to Bess Truman, You know, I love your husband and his policies, but I really wish he'd stop using that term. What term? Bess said. Well, he uses the M word, manure.

And Bess turned to her and she said, you don't know how many years I worked to get him to say that rather than the other word he was saying. That's a true. That's a truism. And, you know, some people don't really like you to say, call a spade a spade. There are some things that I've seen happen in church, and I think, you know, what you're doing there, I could try to explain it in pastoral terms, but just down neighbor to neighbor across the fence post, I can tell you what it really is.

And I think whether you say those words or not is inconsequential here. It's whether you recognize the truth behind what's needing to be described. You know, there are some folks in the church, and we love them, even in the Saints Network, that just get absolutely exuberant about promises and oh, do you hear what this preacher over here is saying and what they're doing and you don't know anything about them. Man, I'd like to I I I hope that you never enter a used car lot because, man, those those barkers that are salesman there will sell you anything. Do you know?

My parents used to warn me, you be careful when you go to school. Don't be doing what those other boys are doing. You know what's right. You know what's wrong. And sometimes they can talk about how fun things are and whatever whatever they're doing, come and do this.

But you know what'll happen if you really do it. Some of those boys you'd be around, the the momentum of the crowd. But you know what? I remembered if I you know what? Sometimes I thought, what harm would it do for me to go over and do this with these guys?

Nobody would know. It's not gonna hurt anything. And then I thought, if my dad ever found out, that was that was the line. And, you know, dad will always find out. You know that?

Those things have long shadows. So I'm telling you, don't believe everything that's put out there. There are a lot of they may not even be ravenous wolves. They could just be a rogue ram that will lead you into some place that is hazardous to you. Just be careful.

But what are you gonna be? Are you gonna be an oligos? The few? I hope you are. Are you gonna keep moving with what your father is asking you to do and not get ahead of him?

Are you going to be looking for crypt notes so you don't have to read the book? Are you going to look for shortcuts? Are you going to try to jump over into a seducing pathway because those folks are really moving fast? The end thereof is destruction. I don't care how exciting it is.

Boy, I'm preaching now, aren't I? Ask, seek, knock. Maybe we've talked about some aspects of this that have not been considered before. I hope we have. Even in our dealings right now in the nations, as we seek and we teach those things that we've asked, as we seek, we're making lots of discoveries.

Good discoveries, discoveries of things that we make note of not to do. And when we come to the breakthrough, we've got a knock. And not just not this. Well, what about that same word in Revelation where Jesus is standing at the door and he's knocking? Yeah.

I love that. I've been on the receiving end of that knocking, and it's not always goosebumps, you know, the breath of the spirit blowing, and if I know anything, it's the voice of the Lord. Sometimes that knocking is pretty hard. Sometimes that knocking is breaking through things that I have constructed as a barrier and I don't like it initially. Come on now, don't shout me down now just because I'm preaching real good.

Are you out there? Amen or ouch? Sometimes the knocking of the Lord is breaking through. And even when he's broke through, then I need to welcome him in to sup with him. Oh, we could talk about that sup business.

It's not like he's brought food from heaven on heavenly Uber Eats. The sup is really where he's discussing things. How much he loves me. Oh, yes. We all want that.

But let's talk about this barrier that I had to knock through. Now let's talk about why you put it there because it hindered me from coming. Let's talk about the bitterness that is the mortar that you use there. You wanna be healed of that? You wanna surrender that?

Let's sup a little bit here. Oh, I don't like it when God does that, but it's because he loves me. That's knocking. So let's not just take the acronym and just think, well bless God, let's talk today about prayer. Let's just put all the words for prayer and all the passages about prayer into big pneumonicos blender and let's just and we can just sip on it, all the nutrients of the word.

And it's what a lot of people do. This word means what Jesus chose it to mean, knowing full well what it meant. In fact, he used this word in the middle of John when he said, you know what? I'm not gonna be here with you. I'm going away.

And, you know, you're not you're not gonna be asking me for things anymore. Would you ask the father in what I have done in my pattern and what I'm commissioning you to do? You ask in that, and he'll give it to you. Sonship, responsibility. How important is that?

So where are we right now? We've lived this. What I'm telling you shouldn't be an eye opener. You should say, yeah. We've we've walked this way.

This has been our partnership with the Lord. And you know what? Sometimes when you are and you're asking, I face this. How do I seek this? Where do I seek it?

How do I how do I go? How is this gonna happen? And you just gotta hear the first step and take it. And then go. And that's discovery.

That's learning. That's training. And you'll find that that finding is not eureka, here we are. It's, oh, I'm learning. Yes.

And the lessons you learn in that seeking prepare you for the knocking. If this road's a seeking, you come a knocking. Alright. Well, I guess I'm done. That last one was a Thanks for joining today.

I pray that we'll all continue in our walk with the Lord, and may God bless you. We'll reach out again this Friday in our Friday devotional on the Saints radio channel of this website. Look for it there. And, God bless you all. May his presence be with you, and let's keep growing in him.

God bless, and goodbye.