Let Us Believe, Obey, and Open the Door of Prayer

Let Us Believe, Obey, and Open the Door of Prayer
Matthew 7:7-11

Matthew 18:19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.

1 John 3:22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His command- ments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

The problem is that because we don’t believe, we don’t pray, and as a result, we don’t receive.

1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

If we are praying “according to God’s will,” He tells us to just ask for anything. In other words, God is listening.

Matthew 21:22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Mark 11:24 and John 14:13 convey the same message. If we put God’s word in our hearts and believe and pray, He will surely answer. However, if we pray without believing or understanding the Word, He will not listen. God is not a fool; He is the God of those who believe. He resides in us when we believe. John 15:7 is a sincere, truthful, and honest statement from our living God. Prayer is like breathing. If a person cannot breathe, he will die, and all his cells will be destroyed. If the Bible is our daily bread, then prayer is like breathing. How can we live without eating? However, even to eat, we must breathe.

1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you

The prophet Samuel said that not praying is a sin before God. First Thessalonians 5:17 also says, “Pray without ceasing.” We must not cease in praying until we reach God’s kingdom. The twelve-volume “History of Redemption” series that I am writing is also the result of prayer. None of this would have been possible without prayer. During the three years and six months I spent on Mt. Jiri, I was writing manuscripts in a cave. When I ran out of paper, I would write on large fallen leaves and pin them down with twigs to keep them from blowing away. Later, when I obtained proper paper, I would transcribe what I had written onto them. The result was a stack of manuscripts taller than I am, born out of tears, sweat, and prayer. You’ve heard about the importance of hymns and prayer over decades of church life, well into your seventies and eighties, but are you truly practicing it? Do you have the soldier’s basic stance of “Attention!”? You must focus on praying, reading the Bible, and receiving God’s Word. If you do this, distracting thoughts and noise will not enter. You are committing a terrible sin against God if only your body is in the church but your heart is at the department store or the grocery store, or if you’re thinking about next month’s rent or your children abroad. Through Moses, God gave the law: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Matt 22:37-40). God desires 100% of our devotion. If you love God this way, you cannot help but stand before His Word. Standing before His Word is obedience. Dear believers, have you always prayed devotedly like the prophet Samuel? You’ve certainly worked hard for your children and business. If you had devoted even one- third of that effort to prayer, your household situation would not be the same as it is now. Your children would not cause you distress. This is because God would hold onto you, and His grace would be at work. One word of counsel from God is more effective than parents worrying about their children a hundred times over.

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanks- giving;

If there is no gratitude in prayer, prayer becomes burdensome. Without thanksgiving in prayer, that prayer becomes forgotten. Try being thankful in prayer. The Bible is not an unattainable ideal; things will happen according to your prayers. I know this because I myself have prayed.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Are you awake by praying with thanksgiving? Life in the world may seem lively on the surface, but in reality, it is in deep slumber. Those who stand on God’s side and pray are awake. Such people are also awake to the world. That’s why Abraham, the father of faith, was blessed in all things even though he was nearly 175 years old (Gen 24:1). Prayer is like railway tracks that keep God’s work moving smoothly. Please don’t forget this! Just like railway tracks! Prayer enables God’s work to run without interruption. With prayer, there is interrupting God’s work.

John 5:17 But He answered them, “My Fa- ther is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

God is both omnipotent and omniscient, so he does not fail to hear the prayers of the saints. We often struggle to hear even two or three people speaking at once. When ten or a hundred people speak simultaneously, nothing can be clearly heard. However, God analyzes and hears the prayers of all the seven billion people existing on earth, even if they pray at the same time. He will not say, “Pyungkang saints, stop praying! I can’t hear the people from other countries who are praying to me right now.” Please pray. Nothing happens without prayer. God will never work unless we prepare the way for His will through prayer (Eph 6:18).

No one has ever come to ruin because of prayer. Why do we not pray? It is because we do not believe, or because we are drowsy or sleeping, or because we are ungrateful. Imagine if a child always got the best scores in exams and got into the top universities. Imagine the joy and energy the parents would have, even if they were starving or sleep-deprived. If there is no prayer, only human effort is at work. A location without prayer is just a gathering of people. However, in places with prayer, God will say, “Be still,” and He will work for us. The biggest fools in the world are those who don’t pray, instead thinking, “I need to do it myself.” Receiving one small encouragement from God is more effective than struggling for a hundred days. In the world, success depends on one’s standing. But in Christianity, you only need to stand in the line of prayer. If someone asks you, “What standing is this?” you should answer, “This is the place of prayer.”

Dear saints, a place without prayer is a banquet for Satan; it’s like Satan’s birthday celebration. But Satan’s funeral would be prayer coming from a person, family, group, or church. There is nothing more that Satan hates than a believer praying to God. It makes him squirm and feel paralyzed, unable to act. Why don’t we realize this? Without prayer, our hearts are bound to worldly things, feeling weighed down and burdened. Even with no significant troubles, we feel oppressed. We lose our appetite, become tired, and get sick. However, when there is prayer, we experience the fiery work of the Holy Spirit and taste the gifts of heaven, and our hearts are filled with the glory of that realm. We are no longer able to focus on earthly things but are drawn only to what is above. This is how precious prayer is.

In every era and for every believer in Jesus, the power to live a blessed and glorious life comes from receiving the great and glorious commands and promises. That power is found in prayer. How blessed are you that the Lord, who created and governs the universe, and controls the life and death of all mankind, tells us just to “ask” of Him. If a person of very high status comes to your home, you can’t even control your nerves. Yet, despite being deserving of death a thousand times over, God visits each of your homes and says, “Ask of Me.” How joyful is this command! It is a command of life. It is a guaranteed promise given to the living and not the dead. It is not a difficult command. To live, you simply need to breathe. It is that simple. It is a command that anyone can do anything, anytime, anywhere, with 100% possibility. We are able to do all these things, but we don’t believe and we don’t want to. We lack gratitude and cannot stay awake. We’re in slumber, so intoxicated by the world. This is why we don’t pray. From now on, in every area of your life, do not just ask for God’s help, but increase the intensity of your prayers. Don’t just do the bare minimum! Make gradual progress! In other words, pray in a way that moves forward.

Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks re- ceives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

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Prayer, first and foremost, is “to ask.”

“Pray” in Greek (aiteo) means “to ask” or “to plead.” It’s about asking, “God, what will happen with this, since I don’t know?” Never forget this: It is about pleading, “God, I cannot endure this.”

Secondly, prayer is “to seek.”

“Seek” in Greek (zeteo) means “to seek diligently” or “to yearn” and “to crave.” It means “to search earnestly to find,” “to yearn,” “to long for.” When we yearn for something, God is telling us, “You are longing for me. Then, look only at Me.” Prayer is looking only at God. It is a heartfelt, desperate longing. When you pray like that, your desires reach God. When you pray, each person’s angel comes down from heaven and places the prayers in a golden censer to report them to God (Rev 5:8; 8:3-4).

Thirdly, prayer is “to knock.”

This, too, is a command. It’s not optional—you must absolutely knock. The Greek word for “knock” (krouo) represents the peak of action toward achieving a desire. You must knock persistently and desperately, with unwavering conviction. When you are asked, “Who is it?” you must respond, “God, it’s me!” And the door will be opened. Prayer involves active effort and desperate action to fulfill one’s life desires. It is not idle mumbling or meaningless repetition. Stand before the living God, and ask in faith in the name of Jesus. Nothing is impossible.

Prayer is about releasing deep-seated grudges. There was a story about an unjust judge and a widow in a certain city. The widow came knocking on the judge’s door every morning, which greatly annoyed him. The judge might have hoped for a bribe, but what money could a widow have? Eventually, the judge couldn’t take it anymore and decided, “If the widow comes today, I’ll give her an answer.” Yet, on that day, the widow didn’t come. Jesus shared this story and asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” This means, will He find faith that persists in prayer until the end? Don’t give up just because you don’t receive an answer after praying just a few times. Pray with the assurance that “My Father God is alive. I’m not asking based on human reasoning, but in faith and in the name of Jesus Christ. I will surely receive an answer!” I bless you in the name of the Lord that you will pray with this conviction.

A dead person doesn’t breathe, so their nostrils don’t flare. A living person’s nostrils flare as they breathe. Prayer is like that. The dead cannot pray. Yet there are pastors, elders, and church members who do not pray, and if they do, it is just a formality. There is no earnestness or focus. Even when gravely ill, instead of turning to God, we only seek skilled doctors, good hospitals, and medicine. King Asa was like that. God waited for him, thinking, “He’ll seek Me.” but even after one, two, three years, Asa still did not seek God. In the end, God took Asa’s life. Asa had faithfully followed God for 39 years, but in his last three years, he did not seek God. Asa didn’t die from some fatal illness; he died because he did not pray.

Prayer is a practical task required of us in our daily lives and in the struggle for survival. God asks, “Are you trying to make money through your business? Are you working hard to send your children to top universities so you can live comfortably in your old age? Then why don’t you pray?” Don’t fool yourself with thoughts like, “My children are smart. They excel at everything. They have exceptional minds and do well in school even without extra tutoring.” This kind of thinking is utter foolishness. Look at what happened to Nebuchadnezzar when he spoke like that—he ended up possessed for seven years (Dan 4). If you haven’t yet conceived a child, pray like this: “God, please grant us new life. Let this child grow in the Lord, and in this sinful world, help them to follow Jesus faithfully, understand Your Word, and, with the power of the iron rod, destroy the devil on Your behalf.” God will surely grant your prayers. It is His guaranteed promise. Matthew 7:8 uses a verb in the future passive tense, meaning that God will open the door “forever” in the future. He is telling us, “I will definitely open it, so don’t worry—just trust Me and pray.” But instead of understanding this, you might think you can do it on your own, flying here and there, barely eating, coming home with your face brooding with darkness. Your feet are on fire and you’re drenched in sweat but you’re still not any money. Then you come to a messy and disorderly home, and even just looking at your wife and children leaves you feeling frustrated. Everything feels jumbled up like a garbage dump. Why live like that? God is telling you to pray. He promises to be responsible for you.

The prayer that Jesus commanded guarantees a threefold desire and response: 1) Granting of what is asked, 2) Finding of what is sought, 3) Opening of the door when knocking. The biblical commentator Lange said that these words are based on a premise of “lack.” We ask because we are lacking in what we need. We seek because something is lost. We knock because the door is closed. We feel frustrated and unresolved. Our financial sources dry up, and people lend money to others but are closed off to us. Prayer is the key to fill what is lacking, to find what is lost, and to solve what is unresolved. It is God’s key, a living key. When Peter was imprisoned, four squads of four soldiers each, sixteen in total, were standing guard. But when the angel came and woke Peter, the shackles confined to his hands and feet fell off like rotten ropes. The three iron gates opened one by one, yet the guards didn’t hear a sound (Acts 12:1-19). How did this happen? It was because the church in Jerusalem gathered and prayed earnestly for Peter. Without prayer, such a thing could not have happened. I bless you in the name of the Lord that this message becomes a reality for every believer here.

Receive this divine key! The moment you receive the key of prayer, those closed doors will open, and your child who caused you grief and refused to study will suddenly change. Believe that God will give wisdom, understanding and knowledge, and that His grace will be with your blessed children.

Matthew 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

God is our Father. Even a physical father wouldn’t give a snake to his child who asks for a fish. If you truly believe that you have become a son or daughter of God, doesn’t that fill you with joy so great that you would leap in your excitement (John 1:12-13)? Who else in this world can forgive our sins? God is so pleased that we believe His Son shed His blood on the cross for us that He will not even remember our sins (Rom 3:24-26). He sends the Holy Spirit and allows us to call Him “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:14-16). He becomes the Father of our spirit, our eternal Father, for all believers. Our biological fathers may not be holy, but our Father in heaven is holy. His power and authority know no limits. With just one word, He can move everything in the universe. And we have been chosen as His children. God delivers justice to His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night (Luke 18:7). He answers with good things (Matt 7:11), and these good things are heavenly gifts. He mobilizes even His angels to bestow special grace upon us (Rom 8:32).

James 1:17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, com- ing down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Luke 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Fa- ther give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Prayer is our survival. Whether we live or die depends on prayer. Please never forget what this unworthy servant has shared with you today: if you do not pray, even your right to survive can be taken away. Prayer is our very breath. Prayer must be decisive. Even if you’ve been a believer for decades, now is the time to find your resolve with a burning and weighty determination in faith to make prayer a priority. Think to yourself, “If I don’t pray, I’ll die. My family will fall apart. My children won’t succeed.

My spouse won’t be healthy in body and spirit.” Pray with this determination. This year, settle things through prayer. There is no impossibility when you are resolved in prayer. Look at how the sea dries up, how manna pours down. Prayer is asking, seeking, and knocking. Prayer is relief from resentment and grievances (Luke 18:3, 8). You must release those feelings. If you don’t resolve it, it will fester inside you and lead to death. Prayer is the key to releasing what is pent up. Believe this with all your heart. Prayer is not something that is optional. We must always pray (Luke 18:1; 1 Thess 5:17; Eph 6:18). We must be alert and pray (Col 4:2; Luke 21:36).

Beloved Pyungkang saints, you are the key players in global missions. It cannot happen without you. When you realize that seven billion souls around the world are waiting for you, I urge you to give your all to your mission, to be thankful for your role, and to serve faithfully—even if it means dying and coming back to life a thousand or ten thousand times. Don’t be tempted by the praises of the world or the lure of wealth, running around like someone who has lost their senses. Instead, believe that one day in the courts of the Lord is better than a thousand or ten thousand years in the royal palaces of the world. God will take responsibility for you. Pyungkang Cheil Church is blessed with a clear purpose and meaning, as a church that leads global missions. Believe that it is the power of the Holy Spirit, not human strength, that will support you.

Everyone, take action. Move forward with the Word you have received. For those who believe, nothing is impossible. There are no limits. When you look at both the Old and New Testaments in the Bible, we can see that the nations that prayed thrived. Prayer brought revival and prosperity. In nations that pray, the blessings, love, grace, and peace of God will rest upon the people and their generations to come. Nations that do not pray may rise for a time, but they will eventually fall. Their only destination is a downward path. So give thanks for the Word you’ve been given and, instead of worrying about the problems piled up like mountains in your household, just have faith and pray. Do not think to yourself, “I have no power, no honor, no money, no connections… will prayer really work?” Don’t doubt. When you set God’s heart ablaze with your fervent prayers, His heart will be so filled with passion that He cannot help but turn His attention to us.

Joel 2:18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land and will have pity on His people.

There is much work to be done for Pyungkang to become a leading player in the world in the future. May God bless each individual and family, and as our children which He has gifted to us continue to grow in age and stature, may they also grow in great faith and wisdom that will most please God. May the work of faith, the power of prayer, and the belief in God overflow and cover the entire earth. In all this, I pray for and bless you in the name of the Lord.

 

Sermon by Huisun Rev. Abraham Park
July 29, 2008 (Tue)
Second day of the Yeoju Summer Conference

*This post can also be read in 'Champyungan'. (http://champyungan.com)