Moving on in our little look at parts of Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy”, this evenings discussion covered two areas which I would like to share with you here so I have decided to split them. Firstly I am going to look at “the power of asking”, and a little later I will come back to “being ashamed of Jesus”. So keep your eyes peeled for that one.

In tonight’s section, like so much of Willard’s exposition, the most striking thought that it left us with was; “Oh, of course, that’s so obvious”.

The primary focus of our discussion was the famous verse from Matthew 7 “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be open to you…” etc. Often we felt that this verse had been explained solely in terms of our relationship with God. Willard suggests however that that is only part of the story.

As we are created in the image the God and we are designed as relational beings; beings needing to be in relationship, it follows that our relationships with other people are a mirror of our relationship with God. Our relationships are made in the image of our relationship with God. The same rules and principles apply. Some of these are a matter of choice, and as such have been lost to many in today�s society. Basic courtesy and an overall respect for our fellow human beings is sadly in the decline. However, some things we cannot change, and the power of the request is one of them.

God designed the great order of things so that we would have to ask Him to intervene in our lives. Whether that be the first time we meet Him or for the more day to day things in life. Now that is not to say that He wonââ?¬â?¢t do things for those who don’t ask but He certainly will not force Himself on us. Our relationship was designed in such a way that our requesting of things is an integral part.

There is great power in this request. All we need to do is ask and God will answer. In fact we also know that if two or three agree in His name it will be done (Verse Lookup). This order of things has spilt over into our earthly relationships too.

If we look at where this verse in Matthew is situated, it’s right in the middle of a section about our earthly relationships. Jesus is pointing out that when you ask for something, and keep on asking (present continuous tense) then, in general we will receive it. We know this to be true. Many people find it very difficult to say no to a request even if they really don’t want to do it. Unfortunately this can often be abused by people; emotional blackmail. However, this is the way we were designed. And if we respond this way, how much more so will God the Father respond that way to our requests; which is what Jesus goes on to say a few verses later.

This is such an important concept for us to grasp because it not only affects our prayer lives; understanding that it is not only ok to ask for things but it is actually a major, if not the major, thing that prayer was designed for, but it also effects the way we interact with others, especially when we are trying to communicate the Gospel to them.

We must remember that asking people to do something is much better than simple telling that it is what they should be doing. For example, (albeit a bad one) if you tell people that they should be going to Church, they may well agree that it would be good for them but it is unlikely that they will respond positively. On the other hand if you ask them if they would like to go to Church they will, more often that you would think, say yes.

Often, with our forceful and condemning attitudes we simple create problems for people who didn’t realise that they had any. We become their problem. We become the “Bible bashing” that wonââ?¬â?¢t shut up and people try to avoid.

Our relations, both with God and other people, were designed to be request based. There is great power in the request. Let’s use it, and not abuse it.