At this point in our Christian growth hopefully we begin to realize that though the Lord knows us entirely—we know Him relatively little. Our useful knowledge begins when we start asking, “How can I please the Lord?” Or better yet, “What makes you happy, Lord?”

It becomes immediately apparent that we must know more about God than His feats in the scriptures. We do have some idea of His character by looking at I Corinthians 13 & Matthew 7. But something is still missing. Part of the key is found in the following verses, spoken by Jesus.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. [Matthew 11:27]

This loop of oneness seems wonderful to me. How do I get within it? It already happened when the Holy Spirit called me to know Jesus. I want to be one of those to whom Jesus chooses to reveal the Father. I want to get into this knowing thing. What do I do?

I ask.

For many of the best things you must ask

Our life in the Kingdom all starts with asking Jesus to forgive our sins and come into our individual heart. At that point you have little or no idea what this means in terms of how much you are going to change for the better.

However, this new life doesn’t just happen. You cannot pray the sinner’s prayer and go back to your normal life. God requires you to become actively involved in your own spiritual growth. Though it is true that the Lord occasionally just does things to and for people because of a particular call He has on their life, the norm is that the things that really help our growth must be asked for.

I’m not really sure why this is so, but I know it has to do with the walk of faith. If God just laid these things on us, we would lay back and do nothing—eating bonbons and being lazy. Plus, unless we ask, we often have no idea what we are getting. You must seek His face to learn. Part of the asking is learning what we are asking for. Regardless, God often refuses to do anything until we ask for it.

Growth without “resources”

There are countless stories of how the underground church grew in the Soviet Union where you could be killed for having a Bible during the Cold War. God sovereignly helped those people. The Holy Spirit led them to meetings without announcement. He taught them scripture when they had no Bibles. He is not limited like we are.

Ask your father like a little child