Ask, Seek, Knock - The Secret To The Christian Life Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

CrossWay Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

I recently read a powerful description of the human brain in a book by R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man: “The complex capacity of the human brain is the subject of ever-widening scientific wonder. Its ten billion cells (neurons) are only a shadow of its complexity because each cell sends out tens of thousands of tentacles that connect to tens of thousands of neighboring cells, each of which is constantly exchanging data impulses. The complexity intensifies as we understand that each data signal can then take one of a possible twenty thousand different paths per cell. These, in turn, radiate out to another possible twenty thousand paths and so on, so that the potential number of combinations grows beyond our comprehension.' The staggering fact is that the total number of possible pathways through the brain exceeds [10 to 80th power], which is more than all the protons and neutrons in the universe!?

The human brain does not miss a thing. It is capable of giving and receiving the subtlest input from imagining a universe in which time bends, to creating the polyphonic texture of a Bach fugue, to receiving and transmitting a message from God himself -feats no computer will ever accomplish” (pp 91-92).

In our current day, the introduction of A.I. technology is expected to completely transform our entire world in the same way smartphones have over the last 20 years, except the transformation of A.I. is expected to take just months. The amount of energy and cooling required for these computers is astronomical, so scientists are working on growing human brain cells for storage and computing. The human brain stores and computes vast amounts of information far more quickly than any modern machine and only uses 20 watts to do that.

But there is one thing that the human mind can do that no machine will ever be able to accomplish, and that is to know the mind of Christ. No computer will ever be able to communicate with God, know the heart of God, be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, or discern the will of God. Only man created in God’s image will ever be able to do that.

Kent Hughes goes on in his book to say that one of the great scandals of the church today is Christians without Christian minds. Harry Blamires wrote that while Christians may worship and even pray as Christians, we do not think as Christians. Wow! What an incredible description of the Laodicean Church! As I have said before, we live in a world where believers are biblically illiterate - or living without the mind of Christ, all the while leaving our minds and thoughts unguarded to the world's perversions.

And without the mind of Christ, we are self-centered instead of other-centered. Hence, the trend of me-centered worship lyrics in many of our modern-day worship music. Hence, the focus on comfort and entertainment instead of following the Apostle Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

So when we come to a Scripture like we have today, proper interpretation is paramount because it is easy to interpret what Jesus is saying with a selfish lens instead of digging deep into the mind of our Lord. Before I further explain, let us read this passage together.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 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! (Matthew 7:7–11)

Now, there are some who erroneously and perhaps unwittingly interpret this Scripture through a lens that the Sermon on the Mount is just a collection of sayings that are indiscriminately assembled. With that kind of biblical interpretation, we can assume that what Jesus meant is that we can write a blank check for whatever our hearts desire, and he’s going to cash it for us. This is the false interpretation that prosperity preachers use to promote their false teaching.

If this blank check principle was what Jesus was teaching, then every want, need, and greed would be fulfilled because all we have to do is ask, seek, and knock. So when that happens, then the prosperity preacher will tell you that you didn’t have enough faith. Nowhere in the Bible does God ever tell us that He is some magic genie in a bottle to fulfill our greedy little minds and lusts.