***You can listen to the devotional here: Keep Knocking Audio 520
Today’s Devotional Scripture: 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. - Luke 11:8 KJV
The Message For Today (April 15, 2026):
***You can listen to the devotional here: Keep Knocking Audio 520
In a world that is so afraid of taking risks, stepping out, and hearing a no, so afraid of rejection, so disillusioned about a no, and in a world where the enemy is going to and fro, seeing who he may devour, hearing rejection, and hearing a no doesn’t feel good to our emotions. It doesn’t feel good to our self-worth. It just doesn’t feel good to be rejected.
Rejection is one of the greatest fears of some in our world. And so that fear of rejection causes many to not ask, to try to take versus asking, because the fear of getting a no is just that strong. In this case, we see in Luke 11 how to deal with the no’s. When life closes doors, and God has the capacity to open them, he will tell us to knock.
Matthew 7:7 is a beautiful example. In Matthew 7:7 he tells us what we can expect when we are drawing close to him. It reads:
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: - Matthew 7: KJV
So Matthew 7:7 shows us that when we knock, the door is going to be open. When we trust God to go forth in our assignments and knock, to walk in the word of the Lord, to trust him in the job he’s called us to apply to, to trust him in the marriage, to trust him with health issues; when God is calling us to trust, to operate in a different level of faith, what the enemy does is he wants to block you.
He wants to stop you at the first attempt, the second attempt. He wants to stop you right before you see breakthrough because he can’t stop God, but he can do his best to undermine you. So, what we see in Luke 11 is Jesus giving a parable about how to pray.
When the disciples asked Him in Luke chapter 11:1 to teach them how to pray, the Lord gave the Father’s prayer. He gives that in verses 2 through 4. But then in verse 5, it takes a turn. After He gives the “Our father which art in heaven” prayer that we know so well, he turns and he says to them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and saying to him, friend, lend me three loaves.
So immediately he shifts from instruction to parable in the scripture in Luke 11. And as He’s shifting from structured instructions to a parable, we can see persistence come into play in our prayers. It states in Luke 11:5-8, it says:
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. - Luke 11:5-8 KJV
And importunity is what it says in the King James Version. But there’s another version that says “shameless audacity.” In the NIV version, it gives a different word for importunity that essentially shows us that prayer should not be something that’s beautiful, clean, just polished and poised. Prayer is meant to be raw. It’s meant to be authentic. It’s meant to go before the Lord in authenticity with realness, with reality, with earnest expectation of what you need, not performance, not polished, not poised, but reality real.
And so in Luke 11:8, it states:
I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. - Luke 11:8 NIV
Because of your shameless audacity.
Because we’re so accustomed to doing things the right way, the godly way, the good way, the demure way, the soft way, the way that does not push too much. It does not. It does not repeatedly, repeatedly ask. We’re trained, in essence, to not pray this way.
We’re trained to ask God and to pray that he changes things. But we’re not trained to keep praying, keep knocking, and keep trying until you see it. We think, well, He didn’t answer that prayer or that prayer didn’t come to pass. So maybe that wasn’t the will of God. And yes, there are times when yes, you have situations that really aren’t the will of God to grant.
But this scripture from Jesus, this parable describing prayer, says something completely different. This is not about whether or not it’s the will of the Father or not the will of the Father. This prayer is about asking for what you need, opening the door, and being persistent, knocking again, again, and again.
To keep knocking in a way that as you are praying for the Lord, as you’re praying on behalf of your marriage, as you’re praying on behalf of your health, as you’re praying for your children, as you’re praying for your job, as you’re praying for your extended family, as you’re praying for your church, as you’re praying for your church leaders, those prayers should be consistent knocking until you see it. Knocking on the door of heaven until the prayers come forth, not by might nor by power, but by God’s spirit.
Just because it’s God’s Spirit and not your own might does not mean that you’re not meant to fight the good fight of faith. You’re meant to stand in the testing, in the trial, and wait for when God says go. You’re meant to stand in the midst of the trial and press when God says this is the way, walk ye in it. Shameless audacity is the key.
And so when we look at that scripture holistically, we look at the neighbor, it’s midnight, he’s in bed, and we’re knocking, and there’s a need, there’s a lack. A lot of times in our lives, we see a need, but we don’t understand that it was allowed so that we may start knocking.
The lack, the issue in our health, the issue in the marriage, the issue in the finances, it has been allowed so that we can start knocking, being strategic, trusting in the Lord, not forcing something to happen, but knowing in our hearts that he is able and pressing into that, pressing into His Spirit and praying with diligence, praying with fervency.
Because it tells us in James 5:16 in the King James Version, it states:
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. - James 5:16 KJV
Where is it that your prayers are not knocking? They’re not fervent. They’re not knocking consistently. They’re not persistent in the way that you can capture the sound of heaven, capture the heart of the Father in terms of prayer, in your heart, in your earnestness, your honesty, your integrity, and prayer.
Keep knocking.
Don’t stop believing that God can do what he said he would do. The open door comes by faith, not by sight. So the faith must be living, but in the open door of the living faith, as we begin to walk these things out, walking with God, knocking on doors, touching the hem of his garment, as we begin to operate in a living faith, the door will be opened in season as God ordains.
Doors open by His will and matter of His divine timing, not in our own logical understanding, not in our own limitations. The door opens according to the grace and glory of God. The door opens quickly when we trust the Lord, when we trust him fully, knowing that he’s able to do what he said he would do. There is something that shifts when we knock, and we knock, and we knock.
There is an earnestness. There is a faith that goes beyond just a noun. It is a faith. It is a single-mindedness, an assurance that if God has called us to a thing, we have the capacity to pray and to bless and to decree in the name of Jesus, the will of the Father.
We have the ability to pray, decree scripture, which is His will, decree the beginning of a thing, the end of another, to speak life and know that we are here in the midst and that God is with us. As we press, as we knock, the doors will be opened.
In the meantime, the not-quitting part is hard, right? In the meantime, the part where you just don’t give up no matter what, that’s the part that requires cultivation. That’s the part that requires the perfect work of the Lord, the patience having its perfect work.
There is something that happens when we begin to trust the Lord and not lean to our own understanding. He opens the door. He directs our path, is what the scripture tells us, to lean not to our own understanding, but to acknowledge God in all of our ways that he would direct our paths.
But when you trust God and you are knocking and you’re leaning in, there is something that breaks. We see it at the top of Mount Carmel when the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 18 went to the top of Mount Carmel, put his head between his knees and began to pray and told his servant to go look and his servant came back and said, master, I see nothing.
And so the prophet said, go back seven more times. And the whole time the prophet Elijah is on his face in a posture of prayer, praying, knocking on heaven’s door for rain to come because he did his part. He did exactly what God said.
God told him in 1 Kings 17 that it was time to show himself to his enemy. And he did that. And in the meantime, the Lord answered by fire, and all the false prophets that sat at the table of Jezebel and all those who were in the grove of the enemy, all of those were eliminated by the sword. They were all ended. But in the midst of that, the rain had not come.
So Elijah, in his divine wisdom, started to pray. He started to knock, and he kept knocking while someone else did the looking. He kept knocking. He kept believing. He kept his head between his knees until the wind came, until there was a cloud in the shape of a man’s fist that came out of the water near the end of 1 Kings 18 in the King James Version.
When God has called you to a new season, when he’s called you to start knocking, he will empower you to overcome every obstacle to walking out that assignment. And so today, remember that God is with you, that he is knocking, that he has not forgotten about you, that he is opening the door when you knock, that he has not forgotten about you.
And so that as you knock and as he opens the door, you can rest assured that things will continue. Nothing will fall apart. You can trust in the Lord your God to knock, to knock and to keep going, to not be afraid, to keep knocking, to keep believing what he said. Keep believing God for complete health. Keep believing Him for financial breakthrough. Keep believing Him for restoration in your marriage. Keep believing in the name of Jesus, for our God is able to do what he said he would do.
Keep going. Keep believing. Keep trusting in Jesus name.
Closing Devotional Prayer
My Prayer for You:
Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for the mighty woman of God. I thank you, God, that the just shall live by faith and not by sight. I thank you for covering her now, God, as she considers and as the word of the Lord is flowing through her.
Oh, God, as she considers the thing that you’re calling her to knock for, the thing that she’s been praying about, God, but that maybe, just maybe, the knocking needs to continue. The knocking needs to go. That the breakthrough needs to happen.
This, Lord God, I pray that she considers that thing and that it comes to her mind by way of the Holy Spirit and that she believes again, that she begins to get back on the wall and decree again, to speak life again, to know that you are still God and that you are more than able.
Lord, if she has surrendered the towel, if she has given up, I thank you for a refresher upon my sister in Christ. I thank you, God, that you are mighty to save and mighty to deliver. She is not alone. I thank you, God, for overcoming the plans of the enemy and for the breakthrough coming upon her now in the name of Jesus, that her joy would return back and that she would be restored, God, back to the fullness of being in your presence, back to the fullness of her salvation.
I thank you, God, that every weight is breaking and that together, oh God, we’re knocking. Collectively, God, we’re knocking, and we’re not going to stop until we see it. I thank you, Lord, and I pray in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
Amen! I truly needed to hear this devotional this morning. It truly touched my heart and spirit.