Knock, Knock

Still talking about Matthew 7:7 and the need sometimes to 'knock' when we pray.


Last time, I said there were at least 3 types of barriers that can prevent us from receiving what we're asking for and seeking. And I said that sometimes that barrier can be people outside the church.


There is a fairly vocal group of people who oppose what evangelical Christians believe and stand for. Some of them are liberal 'Christians' who more properly fall into the group we discussed last time. It's not, however, that they don't know what their spiritual gifts are or fail to exercise them, but rather that they have a completely different idea of what the gospel is. Hence the quotes around the word Christian. They are part of the overall church as an organization, but they seem to have missed the point. Then there are others who oppose us because they are of different faiths. Or no faith at all, as we understand it.


But, here in America, most of our opposition doesn't seem to be conscious or intentional. It comes from people who are ignorant of the gospel. People who are ambivalent about it. People who are distracted by life and never seem to consider the deeper questions because they are so involved in other things. It is passive opposition, but a barrier nonetheless.


This opposition exists in part because of our failure to evangelize effectively. But before we share our faith, there must come prayer. Prayer that comes from a deep longing for others to know Christ and the peace and empowerment of His grace. How many of us feel that longing? How many of us lose sleep over friends and family who don't believe? Are our lives so cluttered with our own desires and comforts that we hardly think of them? I believe they are. It's a battle I fight every day.

At the risk of sounding archaic, there are spiritual forces at work behind the scenes. Forces that distract us from prayer and witness. Forces that draw attention away from Christ when He is presented. Forces that make people think they're too busy to have time for God. Forces that draw people into other, cultic religious beliefs. Forces that provide the distractions. They are forces of culture, of attitudes. But overall, I don't know what to call them except demonic.


We have, I believe, the power to knock on that door, to batter down that barrier. To battle against the 'spiritual powers in high places' that deter us from a single focus on Christ. To combat the forces that prevent others from really hearing the gospel and responding to it. We have that power and privilege in prayer. And if we do not do so, if we focus on the obvious and selfish, we have missed something important that may be hampering our own spirtual growth and effectiveness.


You might think that battling things -- forces, beings, attitudes -- we can't see is more properly God's job rather than ours. But believers have been called and chosen and sanctified to be a part of what He is doing. God can surely do everything Himself, but He doesn't want to. He wants us to participate. What parent doesn't love it when a child works alongside him or her, learning to do what the parent does? God loves it too. That's why He created us in His image and made us His children.


I firmly believe that in Christ, we have the power to command these spiritual forces, to break their hold on others and remove the opposition. Destroy the barrier. Try it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and enormously blessed.