<p>11:7 <i>And he from within shall answer and say- </i>&quot;From within&quot; is always used in the Bible about the inner man, rather than meaning indoors. The Greek word occurs twice in the same context: &quot;your <i>inward part&hellip; </i>that which is <i>within</i>&quot; (11:39,40). Inside himself, he spoke to his friend: &quot;Trouble me not&quot;. Yet that satan within him, that desire to be selfish, was overcome by his realization of his friends need, and <i>why</i> it had arisen. And if we have this same emboldened conscience to overcome our innate selfishness and ask of our Father <i>for the sake of others</i>, then we will s the work of the ministry will be provided by Him- that is His sober promise. Jn. 15:16 is one of John&rsquo;s versions of the great preaching commission: &quot; I chose you and appointed you, that ye should <i>go</i> and bear fruit&hellip;whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you&rdquo;. The promise of support and help and answered prayer is again held out- in the context of preaching and ministering to the Gospel.</p><p><i>Do not trouble me The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give anything to you?</i>- This gives further insight into how prayer is heard- the householder, God, is in His house (Heaven) with the door shut and his children with him in bed, and in order to get up- corresponding to God answering our prayer in the parable- the <i>whole </i>household, the children of God (a description of the Angels- Luke 20:35,36 etc.), have to be roused. Thus all the Angels are conscious of one specific action on our behalf. See on Lk. 15:6.</p><p>The man who knocks is answered, the Lord taught. He may have meant that all true prayer is answered in its essence, rather than its particularities. But for our purposes we note that the first knocks weren&rsquo;t heard. Only by continual knocking was the request responded to. And so &ldquo;knock, and it shall be opened&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t just mean &lsquo;ask for something and you&rsquo;ll get it&rsquo;. The first knocks produced nothing. It surely means &lsquo;Keep on and on knocking, driven to your utmost desperation and entreaty; <i>this</i> is what I call knocking&rsquo;.&nbsp;</p><p>The Lord will one day come to <i>us</i> at midnight, and the unworthy will not open to Him (Song 5). And He right now stands at the door and knocks (Rev. 3:20). The rejected will know what it is like to stand knocking at the Lords shut door and be unanswered (Mt. 25:10; Lk. 13:25). He surely intended us to make such links within His teachings. The message is quite clear- those who can&rsquo;t be bothered to respond to the knocking of others, who refuse to feel for others in their desperation&hellip; these are the ones who will then come to know just how that feels, as in ultimate spiritual desperation <i>they</i> hammer at the Lords door. From this it surely follows that in our response to the desperation of others, we are working out our own eternal destiny. We are deciding whether or not the Lord will respond <i>to us</i>, as we lay there prostrate before Him at judgment, knowing our desperation whilst at the same time believing and hoping in His love and response. When we see others in their needs, the sister who can&rsquo;t get to meeting because nobody will baby-sit for her once in a while, the brother who just needs someone to talk to, someone to listen, an evening of someone&rsquo;s time, the man over there who is so lost in his Catholicism, that guy so addicted to his dreams of personal wealth, the woman back there hooked on dope, the single father with two spastic children, the grandmother left to bring up three children on a tiny pension in one room with broken windows and severe winters, the refugees streaming over that border day after day&hellip; we are confronted with these pictures daily.</p><p>They are knocking at our door, at midnight. And we would rather not be disturbed. We would rather acknowledge their status as our friends, our brothers and sisters, but make excuses as to why here and now we can&rsquo;t respond. To tell the friend that, well, give him bread tomorrow&hellip;this was quite inappropriate. It could have been argued that they didn&rsquo;t <i>need</i> bread right then. They could wait till morning. But the friend appreciated the <i>shame</i> and the <i>awkwardness</i> of his friend&hellip;his heart felt for him, and he responded. It isn&rsquo;t just dire material need we should feel for, therefore; but feel for others in the sheer humanity of their life situations, and have a heart willing to try to give them all they need in them.</p>