Seek and You Will Find
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? – Matthew 7:7-11
In another place, Jesus says that “it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It seems like the things that we should be asking for are those that pertain to the kingdom of heaven—a kingdom in which righteousness dwells and Jesus is Lord over all things.
We do not see that kingdom, but it will come. He will come. Jesus must rule on the earth. A false one comes first, then He comes.
This is also true in heart. First, sin rules. Then, Jesus comes by His Spirit and we are given knowledge of truth that makes us free as He works in us.
The experience of the kingdom that is “within you” is a life-long process of seeking, asking, and receiving from Jesus. However, we don’t always know what to ask for.
One thing we can always ask for is the truth. This world is full of false ideas and half-truths, so having a solid foundation of what is true is good thing to have, especially as the world is given into destructive delusions.
As we learn about what is true, we might need to ask for more things. We might need to ask for mercy, because we have not lived according to what is true. We might need to ask for strength do live in accordance with truth and to speak the truth in a wicked world that hates the truth.
Truth is vast. Jesus is the truth, and the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Truth. There is a truth that tells us who Jesus is. There is truth that tells us what sin is. There is the truth of the fallen state of man. There is truth that tells us what it means to love others as we are loved by God, which requires us to set ourselves aside, live humbly, mercifully, justly, and to care for the needs of others above our own. There is truth that makes alive and there is truth that kills.
There are also many kinds of anti-truth, just as there are many anti-christs. There are many false and lying ideas that possess the minds and hearts of man. There are anti-truths that make sin permissible and claim that man is innately good. There are anti-truths of self-love, self-indulgence, pride, vengeance, greed, and injustice. Anti-truths only destroy. They cannot make anything alive, despite their promises. The only life they can offer is false promises of security, prosperity, power, and pleasure.
Ani-truths cannot withstand the real Truth, because the real Truth will destroy them.
Therefore, let us seek and find Truth, and Jesus is the only way. When we find truth, we need mercy and forgiveness of our sins that “miss the mark” of truth. The blood of Jesus provides this for us and there is no other way. Then, when we keep the truth as demonstrated by the teachings of Jesus, He will send us the Holy Spirit of Truth, also known as The Comforter.
With the Holy Spirit within us, teaching us, leading us, and conforming our hearts and minds to Jesus, we will experience another true saying of Jesus which is, “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
Our natural state is to speak lying things because we have a corrupt heart. Jesus gives us a new one, and this is the beginning of our inheritance as sons of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven as demonstrated to us when we receive the Holy Spirit as the “earnest of our inheritance.”
We need to seek Truth, particularly the Holy Spirit of Truth that only comes in the name of Jesus to those who keep His words and want to live according to them. See John 14-16 for more information on this topic.
Jesus tells us to knock and the door will be opened. If He wills it, He can “set before you an open door, and no man can shut it.” The door that He opens is one that brings us closer to Him through experiential knowledge of the Truth and the ability to live in the Truth by the power of the Truth that is within us.
We cannot do anything on our own because we are all liars without Him. Thanks to God the Father who loved us enough to give His Son for us, who died to forgive our sins.
He also said, “it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send Him unto you and when He comes, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Jesus also died to make the Holy Spirit available to us all, not just to some as in the Old Covenant. We can all seek. We can all find. We can all receive and serve Jesus and His Kingdom in Spirit and in Truth. As Jesus said, this is what the Father wants. He is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must do so in Spirit and in Truth.
Any god-so-called that is not of the truth is anti-truth and anti-christ. If we abide in the Truth, we will not be moved and we can rest on the true, faithful promises of Jesus who will keep us in all things, even raising us from the dead at His coming—a coming that will burn as an oven, destroying all lying things with TRUTH.
“I am come to set fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?”
This article is part of a series that considers the Parables of Jesus. Right now, we are looking at the statements Jesus made during His Sermon on the Mount, to which He referenced in His Parable of the Building on Rock and Sand. Visit the link for quick access to all articles written within this series.
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