Hearing the Knock
The one who knocks is the Lord Jesus. Those who open the door are human beings. The door is the heart. Within the heart is the spirit. If we open the door of the heart, Jesus will come in.
The Scriptures tell us of the spirit's thirst for God in this way: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God." (Psalm 42:1-2)
Here's the thing: do you know how deeply your spirit thirsts for God? The following passage shows what happens when your spirit is thirsty for God—it withers and becomes restless: "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so troubled within me?" (Psalm 42:5)
Why does the human spirit thirst so deeply for God? Because they are not living together. Why does one yearn so for a loved one and waste away? Because they are not together. When two are together, they are satisfied and feel no thirst, no yearning, no longing. Why does the human spirit thirst so deeply for God? Because God is not with them. God is standing outside, knocking at the door. The heart is holding him out, refusing him entry. The heart does not want to let God in. The heart is stubborn, and it wants to run everything, always saying, 'Uh-uh, I do things my own way.' But what it takes is just to open the door of your heart and welcome the Lord Jesus, who is God. Then He will come in, and your spirit will come alive and be refreshed.
Some people open the door of their heart to the Lord and let him in, yet they never really accept him as the master of the house. Instead, they treat him like just a guest—seating him alone at their living room, years in, years out.
Jesus said, "Anyone who hears my voice will open the door; I will come in to them and dine with them, and they with me."
Why does Jesus speak of dining? The one who prepares the meal is the master of the house. A guest can only eat what the host sets before them. Jesus wants to come in as the host, not as a guest. Yet many Christians do not let Jesus be the host; they receive him only as a guest. That is why they proudly hang pictures with the caption "Jesus, the unseen Guest," in the dining room and living room. Do you accept Jesus as a guest, or do you let him rule as the master of the house?
If Jesus is the master of your house, then you are his servant. We must not make him the master of the house only with our mouth, but must make him the host in practice. So then how will we receive him as the master of the house? A servant must listen to the master's words, come to know the master's will, and then carry out what the master asks without complaint. For how long must a servant listen to the master? For a lifetime. Therefore, if the Lord Jesus is your Lord, you must hear his words, understand them, and put them into practice.
To hear it, we must read the Bible. And when we read it, we shouldn't read only to clear our conscience or to make ourselves feel good—but read to understand what God is trying to say. And once we understand God's will, we must put it into practice. Just as a servant seeks only to please the master—ignoring their own wishes and striving to do the master's will—so must we. We must rejoice in the Lord's joy rather than in our own joy.
Can such a thing be done, you may ask? Don't people fear upsetting the one they love, and seek only to please them? And what about at the workplace—don't workers try to please their employer's will above their own? So if we accept the Lord Jesus as master, we must seek only his will.
Jesus himself said: "Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does." (John 5:19)
He also said, "I can do nothing by myself; I judge only as I hear. And my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent Me." (John 5:30)
And again, "My food is to do the will of him who sent Me and to finish his work." (John 4:34)
He said to his Father, "I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do." (John 17:4)
Jesus lived it out—that everything He did was the will of his Father. Yet believers cannot understand it, nor follow his will at all. "Who could possibly follow it?" they say. If the will of the master of this world could be followed, why couldn't the will of God be followed? From now on, let us seek only his face. Let us reject our own feelings and our own desires. Let us follow only the will of the Lord.
Jesus said, "If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)
It has been said that to follow Jesus, we must deny ourselves. Denying ourselves means setting aside our own desires, feelings, and plans, and following the Lord Jesus's will. The reason this is thought to be difficult is that our own desires are too strong. As Jesus said, whoever seeks to save their own life will lose it—believers are indeed losing out. From now on, let us reject our own desires, place Jesus in his proper position as Lord, and let him be master of our lives.
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