ASK part 3 – Knock

Matthew 7:7-8 (New International Version)

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

In part 1 of the ASK series we covered that the most important part of asking God for anything that gets answered is asking God for what He would want in our lives.  Ask and it will be given to you is the promise that is fulfilled once we meet the condition of Matthew 6:33, Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will given to you as well.

In part 2 of the ASK series we covered our responsibility to seek out the education, resources, and community necessary for the task at hand.  A Godly mission will require us to be better tomorrow than we are today.  We will have never found what we are in search of rather we will be continuously seeking after what we need to continually serve the Lord.

Part 3 is really where the rubber meets the road.  We can be diligent in prayer and have a keen sense of God’s calling in our life.  We can then seek out Godly counsel, practical insights, and a healthy mental diet but if we do not put what we have learned into practice it is all in vain!

James 1:22-25 (New International Version)

²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Knock and the door will be opened. One of the greatest tragedies in life must be a life lived with great intentions and little action.  So many of us have dreams for our families, ministries, and business but yet very few of us will actually get out of the boat and take action.

What stops us from acting?

Fear

One of the very first things that stops us from achieving our awesome God given dream is that we are fearful.  This fear can manifest in many forms.  Some of us are fearful of stepping out of our comfort zone, and dealing with the unknowns.  Some are fearful of failure and not finishing what they started.  We can be fearful of many other things and allow our fear to completely halt what God has planned for us or we can apply the only real antidote for fear.  Faith.

What do we know about faith.  Faith is truly the antitheses to fear.  Faith comes with the unknown.  There is no faith required to turn on the TV.  Your pretty confident that when you click the remote, poof, your watching TV.

When your starting a new business, ministry, or some other God honoring dream there is usually a great amount of uncertainty that comes with it.  This uncertainty is the very thing that makes us fearful.  This uncertainty however is the very thing God uses to cultivate the faith we need to do His will.

Faith is not just something that we need so we can be successful, no it has a much greater purpose than that.  Did you know that it is impossible to please God without faith?  Impossible?  Don’t take my word for it.

Hebrews 11:6 (New International Version)

⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

If we now know that we cannot please God without faith, and faith is cultivated by the uncertainty that life brings us, we can be confident that stepping out despite our fear is the very first and most important step in achieving our God given dream.

The Plan…or the lack there of.

When people do start they are most likely to meet frustration head on if they lack a good plan.  Planning is one of those things that we all know we need to do, but rarely do.

“People don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan.” – Jim Rohn

A good plan of action will include at least these 5 things.

First off are your goals.  What is the end goal you’re looking to achieve at this time.  You can always add goals, but when you do you should follow the following 4 steps to achieve that specific goal.  Your goals need to have some structure.  I personally like SMART goals.

Specific – A specific goal should answer the 6 “W” questions.  (Who, What, Where, When, Which, Why)

Measurable – Your goals need to have a specific amount and date in order to keep you on track.

Attainable – Be careful not to shrink your goal.  God is capable of exceedingly more than we can think or even imagine.  You do however want to break up your goal into attainable chunks.  This gives you stepping stones of achievement to build upon.

Realistic – Make you goal realistic to your output.  A tremendously large goal with you committing a small amount of work to is not realistic.  Match your energy to the size of your goal.

Time based – Make sure you have specific time lines for when your goals are to be achieved.  Deadlines give clarity and cause you to push forward.

Schedule

Now that you have clearly defined goals you must actually set time aside to work.  We all have very busy lives and if you don’t schedule time to do something it’s still just a dream.

When scheduling go big then small.  Start by scheduling specific events or goals on a monthly basis.  Then weekly schedule the days and times you can work on specific projects.  Finally daily schedule specific tasks or projects by the hour.

Big goals are rarely achieved by some big one time event, but achieved bit-by-bit and piece-by-piece on a daily basis.

Action Items

Now that you know what your goals are and you have set aside actual time to sit down and work on them you have to have action steps.  What are you actually going to do.  Brainstorming a list of actions you can perform that will lead towards the success of your God given dreams will ensure that your always active and keeping on track.

Warning:  List PA’s, not UPA’s.  PA – productive activities are those activities that move you toward a specific goal.  UPA is an unproductive activity.  Cleaning your desk or responding to inane emails is activity but not productive toward a specific goal.  Items to list should fit into these three categories.

1. Big things – These are very time consuming but powerful activities toward your end goal.  Building a website, bringing together a team or volunteers.
2. Little things – These take less time but are very needed as well.  If you only have an hour to work one day fill it with the little things such as making need phone calls, sending important emails, etc.
3. Right now things – Since this post is about “knocking” and taking action then what is the one or two things you are going to do right now.  Right now!  The first step is the hardest step.  Take action and do something right now.  This would be a great time to create your goal list, schedule your time, or make a well over due phone call.

Commitment

The final step is not a step but a promise.  A promise that you will not quit in the face of adversity.  And you will face adversity.  No God given dream, a dream that requires faith, will come without a storm of challenges from time to time.

Since you already expect the challenges then you will be prepared when they come and you will not let them get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

May God bless your endeavor, give you faith that you’ve never experienced, and the courage to persevere.

About the Author: William Robbins is the founder of MLMFellowship, and the owner of iWantMoreWealth.com with his wife Bethany. Learn more about William and Bethany.