What Does “Ask, Seek, and Knock” Mean in Matthew 7:7?
Matthew 7:7---Ask
and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock and it will be
opened to you.
While this scripture promises that we will receive when we ask, find when we seek, and have doors opened when we knock, in practice, this does not happen for everyone. Why? Because there are conditions to receiving, finding, and accessing God.
Does Everyone Who Asks Receive?
✔ Asking Rightly
Not everyone who asks receives. Matthew 7:7 guarantees results only when we ask rightly. Asking rightly means asking according to God’s will, which aligns with His Word:
James 4:3(GNB)---And
when you ask, you do not receive, because your motives are bad; you ask for it
for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.
Does Everyone Who Seeks God Find Him?
✔Seeking God with All Your Heart
Not everyone who seek God finds Him. If you must find God in your
seeking, then you must seek Him with all your heart. This means; seeking Him
with all your attention—no divided attention. This is confirmed also in:
Jeremiah 29:13---You
will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Seeking Him
with all your heart also means seeking Him with understanding and sincerely of
heart, and seeking Him consistently.
Proverbs 8:17---I love
those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
This is the condition for finding God when you seek Him. Not the long prayers and fasting that you do but not done sincerely/ diligently. This is why people get different results when they see God. A man can seek God for 5 minutes and find Him, yet another can seek God for days and not find him. Are you just doing lip seeking or you are doing heart seeking? If the former is your answer, then you might never see God. Are you fasting to show to your fellow workers in the house of God how much you can fast or to truly seek God. If your motive for fasting or praying is to get praises of men, then you will never see Him.
✔ The key is diligent, sincere seeking, not merely long prayers, fasting, or outward shows of devotion. People who seek superficially may never truly find God.
Knocking on the Gate of Jesus
✔ Two Aspects of Knocking
Not all who knocks on God’s door have it opened unto them, even
though Matthew 7:7 said so. There are two aspects to knocking on His door so
that it can be opened.
Knocking for Salvation (For the Unsaved)
One aspect is for those who are yet
to be saved. Jesus
can never shut the door or refuse to open it for any man who truly comes to Him
to be saved. His door (gate) is always opened for sinners to come in and obtain
salvation, and it is only through this gate can a sinner transact with
Divinity---because Jesus is the only currency for transacting with Divinity.
John 6:37---All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out.
So, when the Matthew 7:7 was saying we should knock and the door will be opened unto us, God was referring to sinners. He was telling them that, anytime they come knocking on the gate of Jesus for salvation, He will in no wise cast them out, but His gate will be wide opened unto them as further confirmed in John 6:37 above.
Knocking as a Believer (For the Saved)
The other aspect is for those who are
His sheep. Those
already born again. Remember that the door being referred to here is the “Gate of Jesus”. Jesus is the only gate
to Divinity. So, when the scripture used the statement “knock and it will be
opened unto you”, the scripture was referring to knocking on the gate of Jesus
for whatsoever need: salvation, healing, breakthrough, child, etc.
Further on
this;
John 10:3-4---The
gatekeeper opens the gate (door) for him, and the sheep listen for his voice.
The
gatekeeper refers to Jesus—because He is the currency or link through which we
access the Father (Divinity). The sheep refers to a believer who approaches the
gate of Jesus in request for something. Interpreting this scripture, it means:
Jesus open His gate(door) for only His sheep. Only for those whom heaven
recognizes their voice, because not everyone who calls on Jesus(heaven), get
their voice recognized. Let take a look for confirmation to this truth from:
John 10:14---I am the
good shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me.
So, the only
condition and reason that the gate(door) of Jesus will be opened to a believer
that knocked on the gate of Jesus is on the basis of having a good relationship
with Him which is possible only through salvation. Salvation that grows into
good relationship with Christ, because not every child of God has good
relationship with Him, just as not every son has a good relationship with their
father.
For you to
be called a sheep of Jesus means you are truly His own. It means you have
obtained sonship in Christ. For all those who are saved but don’t have a good
relationship with Him are the wayward sheep. That’s why Jesus can’t open the
gate for them because they are not worthy to appear before Him.
Relationship Determines Access
Jesus will
only open His door for you as a believer when you knock on the basis of you
having a good relationship with Him. Whenever you call on Jesus----knocking on
His gate, the first question He will ask you is “Who are you?” This question
can also come in different forms such as “Why do you think I should grant you
this request?” The moment you respond to that question, He knows if you are His
or Not.
Matthew 7:21—Not
everyone who says to me, Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only
He who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Hearing and Recognizing His Voice
His sheep
can hear His voice when He ask “Who are You” because they belong to his
fold. This is why every true child of
God must master how to hear and recognize His voice, if not there are many
times you will knock and He will ask you questions but you can’t answer Him
because you can’t hear Him, and when you don’t answer Him, He can’t open His
gate for you, because your silence means you are a stranger to His fold.
Also, from any perspective, many times, we are unable to access His gate not because we are sinners but because we are Christians who have not known Him enough to hear His voice, which is our medium of communicating with Him. No one opens his door to strangers or to people they don’t know too well. You can be a very good believer yet be a stranger to God. A stranger in the sense that when He speaks to you, you don’t recognize His voice, hence you don’t respond back to Him. Meaning there is no good relationship between you and Him. With this kind of relationship that is not cordial, He can’t open up His gate for you to come in.
The Will of the Father and Access to the Gate
According to
Mathew 7:21 we read earlier, “only those who does the will of the Father will
enter into the kingdom of heaven”. The kingdom of heaven here is not only
referring to the eternity in heaven, but also referring to accessing the gate
of Jesus, which translates to accessing heaven (Divinity). So it is not
everyone who comes knocking at the gate of Jesus and claiming to have a
relationship with Him, will the master open His gate for. He only opens for
those who does His will and hear His voice clearly.
One of the wills of the Father is that everyone of His sheep must know and master His voice clearly, and be able to communicate with Him. If you not yet attained this status in Christ, you are not yet a complete believer, though being a good child of God, but still not able to easily access the gate of Jesus.
Illustration: Military Access Code
The right way for every Christian to
always access the gate of Jesus freely is by mastering His voice, so that when
He speaks to you, you will be able to respond back to Him which gives Him the
assurance that you truly belong to His fold. Even in the military, they have a
language and communication code that you must be able to understand and speak
as a well-trained military man. When you
want to access some high level sensitive military formations, this language code
will be spoken to you to ascertain if you are truly military personnel and what
part of the military force you are serving, even when they see that you are
fully kitted in military uniform.
If you can't understand and respond back this military code, you will not be given access to go in and you will even be tagged an infiltrator and detained. This is how it exactly in the Kingdom of God.
Parable of the Ten Virgins
Let's draw
more wisdom from the parable of the 10
virgins.
Matthew 25:6–12
6 “At midnight the cry rang out:
‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and
trimmed their lamps.
8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us
some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not
be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some
for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way
to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with
him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came.
‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell
you, I don’t know you.’
This is the
summary of this message.
For sinners,
Matthew 7:7 assures you that whenever you truly ask for salvation, you will
receive it. Or when you seek to know Christ, He will reveal Himself to you. Or
know at His gate of Salvation, He will gladly open up to you to come in and
obtain salvation.
Jesus’ gate is always open to sinners seeking salvation:
John 6:37 – “All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”
✔ If you are seeking salvation, His door is always open.
✔ Jesus opens His door for believers who have a good relationship with Him. Not every Christian has this access; it depends on whether you can hear and recognize His voice. This is key to enjoying our all-round victories in Christ Jesus in 2026.
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