Kaykay Fellowship

Theme:  Ask And You Shall Receive – Any Preconditions?, Matt. 7:7

Ministering: Dr. Biodun Sotunmbi

When Jesus says “ask and you shall receive…” He was making a solemn promise on behalf of Himself and the Father, a promise that they have always fulfilled provided the person who is asking is willing to satisfy certain conditions.

What are those requirements? We will focus on them later in this discussion. But why does God encourage His beloved to make their requests known to Him? First He knows that man is weak, that without Him he would be an easy meal for the devil, John 15:5. So, right from the beginning God had provided support, knowing that Adam needed a helper, a human source of strength although, in the course of time, she also aided Adam’s fall, Gen. 3:1-19.

Who is to blame? God, who showed so much love and goodwill to Adam or the husband and wife who allowed satan to trick them? The truth is that Adam did not even ask for help. He never complained that He was lonely. Yet when he received help he did not make proper use of it.  

Back to our theme: Ask and you will receive. Since the days of Noah the population of the world has been growing despite periodic disasters caused by famine or pestilence. Could God satisfy the demands of believers then or now given the billions of mouths, asking, prior to and in the wake of Covid-19?

The answer of course is yes. God never makes promises He would not fulfill. Whatever may be the size or nature of your needs, at individual, family, organizational, national or even global level, He can satisfy them. He created, owns and controls the entire universe and everything therein.  He can, on account of His mercy and Grace, make whatever is needed, anywhere, available to whomsoever He wishes. He has so much in stock, Haggai 2:8, Ps. 50:9-12 that He can never run short because, for Him, the creation process is endless. Consider for example what He gave to King David. It was mouth-watering, I Chro. 29:2-4. And for King Solomon, his son, what He gave him was the envy of his generation. And all that Solomon did was to dare to offer God 1000 burnt offerings when most of his subjects gave, at best, a handful. Delighted, it was God Himself who asked him what He wanted.

Where do all these resources come from? They are from heaven, and are inexhaustible, Rev. 21:9-21. When God was going to create Lucifer He used the best precious stones and musical materials so he could appear and perform at the heavenly sanctuary in glistering form, as he conducted the sanctuary choir, Ezk. 28:12-14. But he overreached himself, due to ambition and pride, and was driven out of heaven, Luke 10:17-18.

At the spiritual level God Himself is the repository of everything. He can do what no man can do. If He so wishes He can make the poor rich and banish poverty from their family forever, I Sam. 2:7-8. As for the barren He can bring dead wombs back to life, age notwithstanding, Gen. 18:11-12, 2 Kings 4:12-17.

So ours is a God of abundance. Whatever may be your area of need – physical, materials, mental or spiritual – He has much more than you need or you could ever ask for. And He can use whatever method of His choice to bring it to your doorstep by a touch, Mk. 1:40-42, the spoken word, 2 Kings 5:9-14, the use of an apron, Acts 19:11-12, or a meal, Matt. 15:32-38.

So when Jesus says, ask and you will receive, He was following up on what the Father had said through the mouth of Prophet Jeremiah, Jer. 33:3. There is no doubt at all that if you ask you will receive, Luke 11:9-11.

However there are conditions

1.       You have to pray, which is what asking actually means. It is true that sometimes even before you begin to pray at all you receive, Isaiah 65:23-24. This is favour, reserved for the children of God who obey and serve Him.

2.       There are, however, circumstances, when you have to sweat in the place of prayer, for a period of time and sometimes for years. And it may appear that God is not  going to grant your request, Ps. 13:1. For barren women in biblical times, and in our time, the years of waiting can result in anguish leading to loss of faith, until God comes to their rescue, I Sam. 1:4-10.

3.       During the waiting period you must be persistent in asking in the knowledge that every committed christian does have some Jobian experience which satan seeks to exploit. But persistence pays, Lk. 18:1-8.   

4.       When Jesus says ask and you will receive He never put a time-frame on when the answer would come. Rather He advises you not to simply sit back, if you do not receive immediately, which is why he says you must seek God’s face and knock on the door of mercy. He who shows compassion to lepers will attend to your desperate need, Matt. 8:1-4.

5.       But God is not bound to answer the prayer of a sinner at all unless he repents, Ps. 7:11, Isaiah 59:1-2.

6.       However He rewards the deep and abiding faith of even non-christians by granting their request, Mk. 7:24-30.

7.       Finally, to receive you must give to others, when they ask for help, and, indeed, when they do not even seek your help, Lk. 6:38. You should represent God in the lives of others even if they do not share your faith. God can use you to bring them to His kingdom, those Jesus refers to as the “other sheep I have that are not of this fold…” John 10:16.