A.S.K

Ask, Seek, Knock: Seeking and Finding Jesus 

"Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; Knock and it will be opened to you" - Luke 11:9 

In life, we all have our battles we must fight and demons we must face – both literally and figuratively. At times we fall and at times we get lost and do not know the way. Even the disciples faced times of uncertainty. In the final days before Jesus went to Calvary He told the disciples of the times to come. In John 14:3 He said, “When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there”. The disciple, Thomas, quickly interjected “No Lord, we don’t know where you are going so how do we know the way?” In one of the few times that Jesus did not speak in parables, He replied plainly in verse 6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known who I am then you would have known who my Father is. From now on you have known Him and seen Him!”

From the previous chapter we know that God is love and Jesus, being his son, is the son of Love. Jesus was essentially saying, “I am in the image of my Father, the image of Love. To know me is to know my Father. To know me is to know Love. As such, you must know Love to know my Father. I’ve walked with you and shown you the path of love to salvation. The only way you can reach where I am going [salvation] and meet the Father is by following the path which I’ve made clear to you.” At the time, the disciples had not yet received the Holy Spirit and were not able to fully grasp all that Jesus had taught them during the times they spent together. But as we see a few books later in the Bible, the disciple Paul had finally received the understanding from the Spirit as indicated when he said in Ephesian 5:1, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love just as Christ also loved you…”By this time, Paul had fully understood what Jesus spoke while he was with them. Paul understood that we must all imitate Christ [Love] to get to the room he has prepared for us. Thankfully, we don’t have to wait to understand the lessons Christ taught. As Jesus said in John 14:26, “…He [Holy Spirit] will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I myself have told you”. When we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we received the Holy Spirit in our hearts who makes clear all that is opaque. 

Jesus told us clearly how to find the Father– only through Jesus. Nearly all translations of the Bible use the word “through”. This word is used for a specific reason. When you go through something you typically have residue on you from whatever you went through. For example, if you walk through mud or dirt you will be covered in it when you walk out of it. If you walk through rain or snow, your clothes and body will be soaked and drenched in water. When you go through Jesus you get showered in His blood and His love so when the Father sees you, He sees his son. He sees love because you are covered in it. So we know we must go to Jesus to get to the Father, and His Holy Spirit will guide us on the way. But how exactly do we find Jesus? Where do we look?

Last night around 10:30, I couldn’t sleep. I was battling my own demons and I was failing. I was worn out spiritually and emotionally but I knew I needed to find Jesus and dwell in his presence to receive the joy, love, peace, and help that I desperately needed. Suddenly, Luke 11:9 came to my mind, “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.” Yet again, Jesus gave us the map to follow. I immediately prayed and asked the Lord for help. I asked that He dwell in my heart that I may dwell in Him and that he show me the way. Then I heard the Spirit whisper again, “Seek and you will find”. I had already completed the first step asked Him for guidance and to show me the way. Now I had to seek Him. Seek is defined as “To attempt to find, obtain, or achieve” and is synonymous with entreat which means “to ask earnestly or to anxiously do something”. Seeking is not passive, it is very much an active task. When you seek Jesus, you must do it earnestly and anxiously with the intent on searching until you find him. At this point, I was seeking Jesus like every fiber in my body depended on it. So I opened up YouVersion and began searching through the scriptures that Jesus spoke, highlighted in red and the Spirit led me to Luke 2:41. The verse starts by telling of Jesus and his family heading to Jerusalem for Passover which was Jewish custom. After the festival, the family started on their journey home but Jesus stayed in Jerusalem.  They didn’t notice he was missing until the next day. They then immediately went back to Jerusalem to seek Jesus. They searched all around the city, but they couldn’t find him. On the third day, they found him in the church sitting among the teachers. Mary, like any caring mother, asked him in verse 48, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” At 12 years old, Jesus’ replied matter-of-factly, “Why did you need to search for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Verse 50 tells us clearly, “But they [his parents] didn’t understand what he was saying to them”. Jesus was basically saying, “You were looking in all of the wrong places. You know who my dad is. Why would I be anywhere other than with him at his home?”

This scripture guided me in the right direction. I knew then I had to continuing seeking but I knew exactly where to find Him – in the Father’s house. By then, it was around 11 o’clock and I assumed all churches would be closed at this hour. But I desperately and anxiously needed to be in His presence and I knew if I knocked, the door will be opened. Sure enough, a few blocks from my home there was a church with a prayer chapel that was open. I knocked and the door was opened. I prayed desperately until I could no longer vocalize my needs, at which point I just prayed that He would listen to the cries of my heart and provide the way according to his promises. I prostrated myself in His presence and He immediately filled my heart with His love, joy, peace and then His Spirit whispered to me the guidance that I asked for. He also showed me that like Mary and Joseph, I had lost Jesus and I was searching for Him in all of the wrong places. I was seeking Him in the teachings of preachers, records and history,  religious books and traditions, sage wisdom, new age schools of thought, and the like. There is nothing wrong with studying and learning from any of these sources. They will actually help you understand the world in which we live and how we are all connected. However, this is not where you will find Jesus. 1 John 2:27 tells us “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” This verse is telling us essentially that the Holy Spirit, who lives in you, will lead us to Jesus and teach us all we need to know, as He did for me.

Often times we look in the wrong places for the things we desire. We look for jobs to give us security, money to buy us happiness, spouses to give us love, etc. But the Lord tells us in Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” We let things of this world take the place in our lives where God should be, we lose sight of Him and then wonder why we are unhappy. Nothing in this world lasts forever, but God who is eternal will fill all of our voids in this life and the next if we allow him to do so. Going to church every Sunday does not ensure that you will find Jesus either. Mary and Joseph were so focused on the routine and customs of church and the Passover that they lost Jesus. In this same way, we can continue the weekend shows and religious traditions so that it becomes a habit or routine but still lose sight of what really matters. We must always seek Jesus, earnestly and anxiously as if our last breath depends on it. When we do, we will surely find him and dwell in his presence full of joy, peace, and love.

To find Jesus, and through Him find God, all you have to do is A.S.K – Ask, Seek, and Knock. Ask for him to come into your heart and show you the way. Seek Him on the path that His Spirit will lay out for you. Then when you reach the door, Knock, and He will open it and greet you with open arms.