Unanswered Prayers? This is the Secret Key

After teaching the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, without skipping a beat in Luke 11, Jesus then went into a second lesson on prayer by sharing a parable. We need to see that, through this parable, Jesus was still answering the disciples’ request to be taught to pray.

If the Lord’s Prayer is Jesus teaching us how to walk through the open door into Heaven and to freely access what has been made available to us, this parable is how to persevere into seeing closed doors open in our lives, our families, and our circumstances. Put simply: Prayer is about walking through opened doors and opening closed doors.

So, after providing the disciples with a great paradigm for prayer, Jesus looked at them and basically said, “OK. You want to learn about prayer? Well, picture yourself asleep one night, and around midnight, you hear a loud, alarming knock at the door of your house.

“You’re startled, right? You’re awakened, and a thousand thoughts flood your mind of who could be at your door at this time of night. As you open the door, you’re surprised to see your friend standing before you. He’s been on a journey, so he’s hungry and asks you for bread.

“You love this friend and desperately want to help him out, but a painful revelation hits you: You don’t have any bread. You don’t have any, yet you have a friend whom you know has bread and will give it to you. So, it’s midnight, and you and your friend go to your other friend’s house and begin to knock at his door, expecting an immediate response. But you hear a voice from the other side of the door, saying, ‘Leave me alone. My children are with me in bed. It’s late. Go away.’”

This story or analogy Jesus shared tells you there will come “midnight knocks” to the door of your life that will awaken you from your sleep, expose your inability to solve the problem in your own wisdom and resources, and drive you to your knees. Furthermore, His parable shows us that, in the midnight moment when we need God urgently, He doesn’t move on our timetable. In fact, His slowness to act will feel as if He’s resisting us.

What do you do then?

According to the parable, you keep praying, knowing who God is, what He possesses, and who you are to Him.

This is so important because, if you continue in your prayer life long enough, then you inevitably hit this wall where God is not breaking in according to your timetable. And you need to know what to do when that happens: You persevere.

It seems to me that there aren’t many leaders who have persevered through this kind of long night and gone through to the other side. We need leaders who know how to keep knocking, keep asking, keep pursuing until God comes through with the bread!

I believe this moment where God is seemingly resisting us is the place where leaders are made. Leaders are the ones who don’t quit and who press on and press into the release of fullness. Jesus said, “Though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give to him as many as he needs” (Luke 11:8).

What provoked the man inside his home to open the door at midnight? Was it friendship?

Not according to Jesus. The friend with the bread got up and gave the friend standing outside his house all that the friend outside needed because of the outside friend’s persistence, not because of their friendship.

Jesus, then looked at His disciples and said,

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:9-13)

It’s sad to say this, but many times, it takes circumstantial crises to incite us to pray. God will throw us in the deep end of the pool, as it were, causing us to flail and kick and call out to Him. It’s a rude awakening, for sure, that drives us to our knees. Prayer begins where we end.

Have you ever encountered a circumstance that you didn’t see coming, and when it came, you found that you weren’t strong enough or smart enough to get yourself out of it? Then, to top it all off, God wasn’t breaking in when you needed Him to?

This, my friend, is where prayer begins and where prayer goes from a nice religious exercise to your heart frantically becoming fully engaged in petition. This is where leaders are formed into the image of Christ and where victories are won. The ones who don’t quit but stay in the furnace are the ones who see God do wonders.

What keeps you in the furnace when everything around you says, “Quit!”?

The continual daily receiving and confession of who God is, what He possesses, His generous heart to give, and who you are to Him—these will keep you in the furnace.

The revelation of our good Father who will not give us something different than we are asking to “teach us a lesson” or hold out on us will keep us in the furnace.

Our God is a good Father who loves to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Remember He said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13).

Let me say this another way. I want to speak to you in today’s language: You do not have a jacked up, twisted Father in Heaven who answers your prayers by creating harm or difficulty. He doesn’t respond to your sincere request by giving you things to hurt you. No! He is a good, kind, generous Father who gives you the very thing you’re asking for. If we, having twisted intentions, have the capacity for generosity, how much more will our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

This is the climax of Jesus’ teaching on prayer. He is good, and no matter what walls you hit, don’t quit. Just keep coming and asking because He’s good, He loves you, and He will answer you.

In twenty years of doing daily prayer meetings, I’ve found countless people hit this wall. Afterward, I’ve seen them slowly and subtly begin to withdraw their hearts from God and settle for a safe form of Christianity. They couldn’t handle what they thought was going to end in disappointment. Don’t do like I’ve seen so many others do. Don’t back off. Lean in and ask our Father again.

It’s in the furnace where all of the wrong views of God are brought to the surface.

It’s in the furnace where we cast down arguments and lies that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.

It’s in the furnace where we declare the truth of who our Father is over and over and over again.

It’s in the furnace where we declare who we are to Him over and over and over again.

It’s in the furnace where we wait and just burn before Him.

The furnace is where the new breed continues to be fashioned and shaped. It’s where we are forged in the fire of delayed promises. We are delivered from fantasies of grandeur and are conformed into the image of the Son.

The new breed of followers and leaders are the ones who stay—the ones who don’t quit! We know what God has promised He is able to fulfill. We pioneer into the bakery of Heaven and become distributors of the life of Christ to a lost world, giving them as much as the world needs.

I believe there are midnight wrestles with God that change us forever. We may have a limp forever, but we also walk with an open Heaven over our lives as God gives us divine resource whenever we need it.

So, when you pray, pray!