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CBN.com – Welcome back to our Week of Prayer. We want to encourage you to develop a habit of prayer. That is why we are asking you to pledge 15 minutes a day or longer, if you so choose, to pray. Let this be a season where you truly discover the secrets of prayer.

I am teaching you today about the secrets of prayer. This lesson is on persevering prayer, how to obtain results because you persevered in prayer. So often as Christians, we pray these half-hearted prayers and we don’t really lay hold of God. As a result, we are frustrated in our prayer life because we are not seeing the answers we so desperately want. But Jesus gave us a tremendous clue as to how to obtain answers to prayer. You find it in Luke 11, where it is the parable of the man who came to his friend at midnight, and he asked him for three loaves [of bread].

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, "Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

Luke 11:5-8 NKJV

The good thing about this parable is that he is not asking for himself; he is asking for his friend. Jesus is telling us it is because of his persistence in asking. He knows that his friend has bread, he knows that his other friend has a need, and he knows that if he can connect the two together, the need will be filled. Because of his persistence in prayer, the friend answers.

It is the same with God; it is because of our insistence, our persistence in prayer, that we obtain answers. And it is through this persistence of prayer that we see change.

You need to keep in mind the friend is not asking for himself. He is asking for someone else. He is acting as a mediator between the two. And if we take on that role in prayer, then suddenly we will find ourselves transformed. No longer are these selfish prayers, but we are asking as a mediator between a source of supply and a source of need. And it is because of our persistence in prayer that we see the answer.

If you look at the world today, how many sources of need is God the only source of supply? If we will be persistent in praying for those needs of others, then we will see the answer to prayer.

Then Jesus does something very unusual, where He gives us a Kingdom principle. These are the words of Jesus Christ. He is part of the trinity. His words are forever:

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.

Luke 11:9-10 NKJV

“So I say to you, ask.” And the Greek behind that is ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking. Now, you have these as general Kingdom principles. If you will, these are laws of the Kingdom of God, that if you keep asking, you will keep getting answers; if you keep seeking, you will keep finding; if you keep knocking, it will be opened to you. The greatest hindrance to successful prayer is being content in where you are with God. It’s that hunger, it’s that searching after that God really loves and He really wants to fill -- those who are hungry, those who are thirsty.

Then Jesus adds something else at the very end here.

… how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!

Luke 11:13 NKJV

So often in Charismatic communities – I have been around the world – we have gotten satisfied with where we are in our experiences with the Holy Spirit. And somehow we think that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is just a one-time event. I am here to give you good news. If you read chapter two in Acts and then go read chapter four in Acts, you will find that the apostles are filled twice.

There are many infillings of the Holy Spirit, as many as you are thirsty for. So keep asking for that. Keep asking for more of the gifts, more of His indwelling presence, more of His righteousness, more of His love, because I assure you, more is there. And if you keep asking, you keep seeking, you keep knocking, you will get it, too.

Tomorrow I will teach you about the Prayer of Intercession. You don’t want to miss it.

Gordon Robertson became the Chief Executive Officer of CBN on November 30, 2007. Prior to being named CEO, Gordon was the Executive Producer of The 700 Club for the past six years and a member of the board of directors for the past five years. He is also founder and president of CBN Asia, Inc. and founder and president of the Asian Center for Missions.