If "It" has already been given, why do you have to find "it?"

Luke 11:8-10 (NIV)
8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
One of the two famous “ask, seek and knock” scriptures found in Luke 11 was part of our text in our staff meeting at TFI San Juan this last Tuesday morning (the other one is in Matthew 7). A point that Jesus made in this scripture is that it is persistance (boldness), not friendship which opens the door so that the one in need may receive help.

Pastor Boni, our Pastor who was leading the devotion made a good point in that regarding the culture of the time and place in which Jesus was speaking, there would have been a compulsion on the part of the townspeople to help because the purpose for the bread was to feed an out of town guest and a community does not collectively want to lose face. This applies to the Church in all cultures because we work together as one body to make certain that we represent our Lord well. This causes us to help at times we might not have otherwise. In Eastern/Asian terms, this means we will often do what it takes for the Church to not “lose face.”

Boy did Jesus nail it though! How many of my readers today I wonder, are glad that God has other ways of providing then through friends?! Friends have often come through, but there have been times when they really didn’t. And even those times that friends did, it was really more the bold persistance which opened the door and then the friendship ended up being weird or strained for awhile. Come on... you know what I’m talkin’ about!

I had a ministry friend and we both had a mutual friend who at the time, had a great deal of money. My ministry friend needed money but the money friend wasn’t moved. Finally, my “money friend” said, “To shut you up, here’s a check for $20,000. I don’t want to hear another word!” And that was that. My ministry friend had enough to get him over the next hurdle. I wish I had been the bold one! :-)

I have at times been caught up in idealism which I spiritualize in order to avoid doing something that I don’t want to do. Early in my ministry, I took to heart a saying by the famous missionary Hudson Taylor. In regards to finances, he told his missionary force to “tell no one but the Lord.” And they always ended up with an abundance of finances which they then funelled even to other ministries in need. Awesome!

I used that as my basis to never ask for financial assistance and to only “pray the resources in.” One month, I ran out of money and was considering leaving Cebu City, Philippines, where we lived at the time, to go back to the USA with my tail between my legs. In prayer, the Lord told me to ask for $1,000 a month from a guy whose business card I had been hanging on to for some time. I was upset and couldn’t believe it was the Lord because I wanted to be like Hudson Taylor! After a couple of weeks and we were down to canned food for groceries, I wrote the letter. When I was about to mail it, the Lord once again prompted me. “FED EX it!” What?!? How presumptuous and desperate would that make me look?!? I spent the extra $35 to do it and wouldn’t you know it?!? Within days, I got a FedEx from the guy back with the first check for $1,000 and a one year commitment letter. The way he wrote it showed me that he was somewhat annoyed but willing... Strange. After a year, he sent me another letter telling me that no way would he support our ministry any longer. But God had provided a different source by then.

Ask...Seek...Knock...

In 1 Kings 17, while in hiding, Elijah was supernaturally provided for by God through ravens and a hidden brook during a famine. After that season was over, God told him to go to a Widow in Zarephath who He had “commanded” to provide the prophet with food. The interesting thing is that when Elijah approached her, it seemed that she knew nothing about it... that she had evidently not heard from the Lord the same way Elijah had. How disappointing!

Even though she claimed that she would be taking her last supply of flour and oil to prepare a final meal for her and her son to eat and then die, the prophet instructed her to not be afraid and insisted that she feed him. She did as the prophet told her and received an incredible miracle of the flour and oil not running out until after the famine was over.

I wonder how Elijah must have felt. Even though God had already given him the miracle, he had to boldly and confidently continue to pursue it. He could have missed the miracle by getting depressed or by simply not being bold enough.

My conclusion is this. If Elijah had to get bold and ask, seek and knock, then who am I to think I am at some higher level then him!?! Of course we must temper all this with seeking and hearing the voice of the Lord for every situation. At times He will tell us to “tell no one but the Lord” and the resources will simply come. But at other times, He might tell us, “I’ve already given it to you, now go and get it!”

I have recently been giving much money to various people at the leading of the Lord. It has been a stretch of faith because we have no salary and we have little support. I have never been in this severe of afinancial position before and it is certainly been keeping me on my knees. Probably God’s main point!

Today I gave 3,000 more peso’s out (about $60). It leaves me with canned food at the house for the family, ¾ of a tank of gas which should last 3 more days and then what... I don’t know. If I had been the Widow, the next thing would be to die. I’m not alone. I know many many people like this, many who are worse off. Real Widow’s and Orphans with no canned goods or rice.

But wait... there are signs of miracles on the way! There is a guy who sent money from another country to our contact in the USA which hasn’t arrived yet. It should have already, I’m a bit worried, but I know it will make it! There are people we don’t even know about who might be stirred by the Lord to provide in some way in the next few hours or days just as He has done countless times before. And then there’s this new miracle for me... check this out!

I was looking at my bank statements on-line just now and I realize that over the course of the past 4 months, there are certain charges which have not passed through my account. I remember specifically handing the cashiers my debit card, signing the slips and receiving the merchandise. I calculate approximately $1,300 in total. It is just plain weird! More like supernatural! I would think that the Lord in His power didn’t rob those merchants to pay me, but that they received payment from some unknown source. I’ll have to look into it when I pass by the accounting office in heaven after I’m done here on earth. Of course those miracles have met needs already passed, but this gives me courage! Now that I think about it, how often has my gas tank hovered at a certain level when I didn’t have the resources and did not go down to empty until one of God’s resource people had come through! God has His ways of providing and we need not be choosy. He is in control!!! Sometimes I can be like the Prophet and at other times like the Widow. Either way, I belong to the Lord and He will take care of me, my family and the ministry which He has entrusted to us!

I don’t know if this post encouraged you, but it certainly encouraged me! Hallelujah!!! Trust Him today my friend! Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. Don’t give in, down get shy and don’t give up! Your Father loves you!!!