"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matthew 7:7

Whatever area of life you consider including our walk with God, it takes persistence and patience to achieve breakthrough. We are familiar with Matthew 7:7 and we have different understanding of what it really means. At first sight one would say that the asking, seeking and knocking it talks about are figurative ways of suggesting different approaches to tackling different issues. While that might not be wrong, they might as well mean different grades/steps in addressing the same issue.

Asking: This is when we bring a petition to God through simple prayer. Our praying process might stop there if answered by God. That is what every Christian expects. But since not all our prayers receive immediate answers, we need to go one step further.

Seeking: We may call it intersession. It goes beyond a mere Asking and requires persistence and patience. If it pleases the Almighty to answer you at that point, then give Him thanks and praise. Still, God might want you to go to a higher level, that of knocking.

Knocking: As it looks, knocking requires even more perseverance, acute persistence and long-suffering patience. Knocking here is no less than a warfare you need to get involved into. It is the degree of prayer one can liken to PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens). Being in warfare will require you to engage all spiritual weapons available to Christian.

Brother, Sister, in the request you have made known to God, what stage of prayer are you in: petition, intercession or warfare? Whichever your case may be, put in all your energy, add faith and patience and I trust the God I worship that He will hearken to your request and answer it and fill your heart with joy unspeakable that comes from answered prayer. Please keep on trusting God; He surely will honor your confidence in Him.

Don't give up. Satan has the never-give-up spirit which has made him successful for thousands of years. That’s why when you rebuke him, he will give you peace for a while but come back to you. Yet, we, believers, we give up at petition stage thereby refusing to explore the intercession and warfare stages. In other words, if you pray and it seems answer is not coming, pray again. Heaven and earth align to the desire of them that are persistent in prayers! Therefore, don’t give up until YOUR PROBLEM GIVES UP!