Does Jesus Knock Or Do We Knock At The Door? Why The Difference?
- Thread starter banjo71
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I believe your reference to Jesus knocking at the door of someone's heart is found in Rev 3:20, notice that Jesus is talking to a church that has not included Him in their church, hence they are not born again, He is speaking to individuals that when they do hear His voice, receive Him as their Lord and Savior.
When Jesus speaks about knocking on the door He is speaking to believers, those that are born again, ...basically He is teaching His children have His ear through prayer.
I hope that helps.
Blessings,
Gene
When Jesus speaks about knocking on the door He is speaking to believers, those that are born again, ...basically He is teaching His children have His ear through prayer.
I hope that helps.
Blessings,
Gene
There is no difference. God meets us halfway.
As has been said, Rev 3 is to the church of Laodicea. However that is a moot argument. As Rev 3 also says this of them...
Rev 3:15-18 ''I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see''.
So, if Jesus stands at the door and knocks for them, we can be certain He does it for all of us. Besides, you don't need that verse to grasp God meets us halfway. The cross, presence of Holy Spirit and believers confirms it 100%.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
All Christians before salvation heard that knock on the door of their heart, and opened it and welcomed the Lord in.
Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Those who keep His Word in them Jesus said is the one who loves him, and in return he loves us back by revealing himself to us. If we have never seen Jesus, maybe we are not loving him.
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Once Jesus is in the Father also comes in and makes their home in us. They never have to knock again as we are his house that belongs to him. We are no longer our own, we have been bought with a price, we are God's property, and he has marked us as his by giving us the Holy Spirit sealing the deal.
All Christians before salvation heard that knock on the door of their heart, and opened it and welcomed the Lord in.
Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Those who keep His Word in them Jesus said is the one who loves him, and in return he loves us back by revealing himself to us. If we have never seen Jesus, maybe we are not loving him.
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Once Jesus is in the Father also comes in and makes their home in us. They never have to knock again as we are his house that belongs to him. We are no longer our own, we have been bought with a price, we are God's property, and he has marked us as his by giving us the Holy Spirit sealing the deal.
No that is not quite correct. If any man answers or opens the door I will come in and eat with that person or take a meal etc.
Jesus knocks at our door or hearts many times through our walk with Him and especially before we are born again.
The other keep on knocking is simply telling us to not give up or quite before we see the answer. Many believers will say if it did not happen in set amount of time it is not of God and that is simply a lie from hell.
Christ is the Truth, the life and the way. In regards to Truth, it is everything that is real. Anything else is untrue.
In this regard, Truth is complete and has no wants or needs. It does not seek attention to fulfill a need or a want. It has no need to get our attention.
Truth simply waits for us to become aware of it. It is in our awareness that allows us to live a way of Truth.
It awaits for us to stop being fearful, fanciful, dreaming our wants and needs. As soon as we let go of trying to save our self, the veils of delusion start falling away.
Truth start to become clearer. Our heart starts to get more alive and real from the power of Truth within us. This is what seems to be the knocking.
Most times, for most people, these moments of Truth awareness, are called 'moments of clarity'. It is when the door opens to a new and realistic vista.
Denial has lost its hold on the veils that cover the truth.
We can provide the space for Truth to be seen by simply loving the Love that loves us.
The one knocking is the one starting the conversation or initiating the visit. When Jesus knocks on our door, we can answer the door and invite Him into our heart. When we knock, Jesus invites us in to His spiritual home. We can do that just to visit, exchange information or ask for help. Too many of us knock, and when He answers the door, we don't enter to be with Him, we just ask for help or ask for something we want. How would you like to have that kind of friend, who only came by to ask for stuff and then left? Sure we might say "thank you", but we want to talk about ourselves too often. Have you asked God what He has on His mind?
Excellent, this is exactly how I see it and how I view my relationship with the Lord. I know he calls my attention constantly, and I his. I live for his whispers and thoughts and love the closeness it gives me.
Is he daddy God to you, or a distant father? How do you see him?
I get the impression that many christians are on occasional email terms with God, and that many of the return emails end up in the junk mail box. Its a bit like the parable of the sower really, the birds come and take it away.
Whenever I praise God, do God's will, thank God, love God, I am surrendering my self to faith in God's Truth.
Whenever I do these things, my heart comes alive. It is that heartfelt love within me that tells me that I am in Truth with God.
In my experience, adoration of God leads to devotion.
Devotion to God leads to oneness.
Oneness with God is Unconditional Love of His Truth.
Great question! If only all Christians were confronted with it on a semi-regular basis.
I never called Him "Dad" or "Daddy", but He isn't a distant father to me. We have been brought up to be very formal in prayers with a salutation, Dear Lord or Dear Heavenly Father, and a closing, "Amen". I often talk to Him during the day as I know He is right beside me. Something aggravating happens and I ask Him, "Really?" or "Did you see that?". Other times I have to make a decision, and I say, "Well, what do you think?" Or my kids praise God in word or song and I can imagine Him just smiling. To me He is like my adoptive father who loves and cares for me more than anybody else. My father who came to find me when I was lost. Maybe I will start calling Him "Dad".
Thanks Big Moose.
I initially struggled to address the Lord as "daddy God", perhaps because it necessitated me climbing down to the level of a child, just like my own kids were to me when they were little.
One of my challenges to fellow christians, especially those who struggle, is to get them to reverse there declarations of love for God. ie. all the time we declare our love of God in songs of worship, we remain in control.
Telling God, "I love you" puts us in a dominant position as the giver, giving towards God.
However getting them to repeat before God, "I know that you love me, I know you love me." is a very different thing altogether. I have seen the most mature christians break down, completely unable to say it because it cuts too deep into their wall of defense!
If you cannot tell God that you believe He loves you, it proves the absolute necessity of getting to a place where you can say it.
Basically, if we cannot speak out to God, that we know and fully believe that he passionately loves us, we are just faking it, we are the walking wounded of the Body of Christ.
I know a lovely feisty christian lady in her 70s. In our home group meeting one day I challenged them all to say it to God, at home if necessary. We discussed the why's and wherefore's and everyone there admitted the struggle they had at the idea.
Later on I got a phone call from this lady. At home she had gone through the exercise with extreme difficulty and much weeping, but as she gradually progressed through with the words, she experienced probably the greatest experience of release she had ever know, as for the first time in her life she truly felt the love of the Lord flow through her.
The first knock is the call to get saved, to allow Him into your heart. The other is to show your interest in Him and to seek Him out to change our heart to be like His. It's how I see it
It all comes down to context. What is the text itself actually talking about? Just because a similar phrase is used doesn't mean you shouldn't pay attention to how it is being used in context.
In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke when Jesus speaks of us "knocking" it is being used in the context of prayer....asking and seeking faithfully and persistently. In Luke 12:35 Jesus uses the image of being ready for His return...when the Master comes and knocks we will open up to Him immediately...we were mindful that our Lord was coming...watchful....being faithful to Him and looking for Him.
In Revelation the context is what He is saying to the church at Laodicea...do not remove it from the context. V.19 He sums up what He was saying to them "Be zealous and repent!" The door was closed because they had closed it. V.20 begins with "Behold." This means "look...pay attention!" Behold.......what? Behold...He is standing at the door and knocking...He Himself wants the relationship to be restored. And if the door is opened...if there is repentance...what happens? Does Christ treat them lightly? No, He enters back into full fellowship...dwelling with them...equipping and empowering them.
So it is used three ways...prayer, faithfulness, and repentance.
A key to understanding is context.
In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke when Jesus speaks of us "knocking" it is being used in the context of prayer....asking and seeking faithfully and persistently. In Luke 12:35 Jesus uses the image of being ready for His return...when the Master comes and knocks we will open up to Him immediately...we were mindful that our Lord was coming...watchful....being faithful to Him and looking for Him.
In Revelation the context is what He is saying to the church at Laodicea...do not remove it from the context. V.19 He sums up what He was saying to them "Be zealous and repent!" The door was closed because they had closed it. V.20 begins with "Behold." This means "look...pay attention!" Behold.......what? Behold...He is standing at the door and knocking...He Himself wants the relationship to be restored. And if the door is opened...if there is repentance...what happens? Does Christ treat them lightly? No, He enters back into full fellowship...dwelling with them...equipping and empowering them.
So it is used three ways...prayer, faithfulness, and repentance.
A key to understanding is context.