Receiving

Mark 11:24:
Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.”

Matthew 21:22:
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.

Knowing how to receive is the key to faith.  It is therefore also the key to answered prayer.  As someone once said, “Prayer does not make faith work, but faith makes prayer work.”

Some people have mistakenly thought that all kinds of prayer follow the same rules.  This has led to some awful conclusions. One of the main ones is that we should just “bombard the gates of heaven” with as many prayers from as many people as possible to get healed, out of a financial crunch, and so on. People have taken the parable of the unjust judge and concluded that we should cry to God day and night to receive what we need. But that is not the rule for the prayer of faith.  It applies to the type of situation where believers are being oppressed and mistreated and need vengeance on their oppressors.  This is clear just by reading the passage.  Let’s look at the end of the story:

Luke 18:7-8:
And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily…

Receiving healing from a disease has nothing to do with being avenged of an adversary.

In case this is not clear enough, let’s look at what the woman in the parable actually asked the judge for:

Luke 18:3:
Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him, saying, “Get justice for me from my adversary.”

This was a cry for justice, not a cry to receive healing from some condition or to find something lost around the house. The woman’s kind of request would apply in cases where we are lifting up out persecuted and mistreated brothers and sisters around the world.  This is right to do and we should do it. Hebrews 13:3 tells us to remember prisoners who are chained and mistreated because we are part of the same body.  Isaiah 56:7 says that God’s house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. We can and should remember the plight of other members of our family around the world.  God promises that as people cry to Him, He will avenge them speedily.  This is all good to know and act on, but it has nothing to do with praying “the prayer of faith” to receive healing or the answer to another personal need.

The term “the prayer of faith” is actually used in Scripture.  James 5:15 says that the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord will raise him up.  You don’t see any exhortation for the elders to carry on and on, praying day and night –instead you see them visiting the sick person, praying the prayer of faith, and getting an answer.  (It’s good to notice in passing that the sick person needs to be in faith, too – he has to believe that this works enough to call for the elders of the church to come anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and pray the prayer of faith for him.)

So we see here that the prayer of faith is not the same as prayer for social justice for oppressed believers. The rules are different! If you need to receive something from God, the instructions are clear: Believe that you receive when you pray -- ask believing.

The prayer to receive is different from a social justice kind of prayer because the social justice kind of prayer must ask God to do something. Yes, you read that correctly! Does this mean that the prayer to receive must not ask God to do something?  Yes, that’s what it means!  Prayer to receive does not ask God to “do” anything! When you see that, you’re on your way to receiving!

That’s where most Christians miss it.  They think that they have to talk God into doing something through prayer.  That’s wrong! That’s not what receiving is about.

If I bought you a Christmas present, put your name on it, and showed up at your front door with it to hand it to you, would you ask me to go buy you a Christmas gift?  No!

Would you beg me to do something for you for Christmas?  No!

Would you try to impress me with what a good Christian you’ve been and how you really deserve a present? No!

Would you decide to pray day and night to bug me until I do something for you? No!

What would you do? I hope you would receive it and thank me for it.

This is the key. To receive something, you must believe that God already offers it to you!

You can’t ask God to do something about your sickness and receive healing at the same time.  It’s like oil and water – the two do not mix.

Therefore, prayer to receive something can’t be done in a vacuum.  You must know before you pray that what you desire is already offered to you. You must believe that God has already done something about it, not that He needs to do something about it.  If you think God still has to do something about it, you can’t receive anything from Him because you think you have to wait for it to become available.

Here are two life-changing passages of Scripture.  When you get a revelation of these on the inside, it will change your prayer life completely – from ineffective to effective!

Ephesians 1:3:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

It doesn’t say He’s going to – it says He has.  You are already blessed with every spiritual blessing.  They already belong to you as a Christian!

2 Peter 1:3:
as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…

Do you see it? As far as God is concerned, your needs are met, and it is just up to you to receive them.  He has already done something about your needs – your financial needs, your physical needs, your emotional needs, you name it!

That is why Jesus said to believe that you receive when you pray.  What you need is already available –you don’t need to talk God into doing it.

People in their ignorance have said that healing has to take place “in God’s time”.  God’s time is right NOW! “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2). You don’t have to wait for God to act – God is waiting for YOU to act! He is waiting for us to receive.  God is the one waiting here – not you.

We can see an example of someone who came to the Lord to receive in the following passage:

Mark 5:25-34:
Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.  For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.  And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched Me?”  And He looked around to see her who had done this thing.  But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.  And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

This woman did not beg Jesus for healing or try to talk Him into healing her.  She believed that healing was already available to her and that all she needed to do was receive it. And that’s what she did!

Throughout Jesus’ ministry we see the same thing.  People came to Him to receive, not to talk Him into doing something!

Matthew 14:35-36:
And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.

Whether or not you got healed was not based on anyone’s will – it was up to you to go and touch Jesus’ clothes.  Jesus has already declared that He was anointed (the word Christ means Anointed or The Anointed One). It was up to the people to receive from that anointing by touching Him in faith.

Notice that a lot of people came into physical contact with Jesus in the story in Mark 5 that we just discussed, but the woman got healed while there is no record that the others who brushed against Him got anything.  Many people touched Jesus, perhaps casually, but this woman touched Him in faith and received what she believed she would receive when she touched Him – healing from a medically incurable condition!

So the key to answered prayer for personal needs is to first recognize that God has already made what you need available to you, then to pray to receive that blessing from the Lord.

For example, when it comes to healing, you must first believe that by Jesus’ stripes you were physically healed (on a legal basis, at least, even though you may not have received the benefit yet).  You must know that healing is already available to you and that you don’t have to ask God to make it available to you! Grasp this and you are ahead of most Christians on the earth today – and you’ll get a lot more prayers answered than they do! You’ll stop praying beggy, pleady prayers and start praying the prayer of faith, which has a big advantage – it actually WORKS!

Once you see that God has made what you need available already, receiving is easy. Don’t make it hard!

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