Receiving from God 1
Scripture Reading - 1 John 3:22 KJV
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
In today’s lesson we will explore the subject of “Receiving from God”. “Receiving from God” is special and holy, however, it is not as hard or mysterious as some would lead us to believe. Let us start with a natural parallel like how you “receive” a good thing from someone else. First, you would generally know the person which means we need to know Jesus Christ the Son of the Living Father God. Knowing the person giving you something helps you to “receive” it with gladness and appreciation. We, as picky people would also like to get (“receive”) something we asked for. Likewise, Our Heavenly Father desires for us to ask for specific things to be sure He is providing something we need. This is why today’s verse reads “whatsoever we ask” because asking is important and it does show forth our desire to have God’s Help and Provision. Yes, when you ask God for something He has the legal right in this earth to give it unto you no matter what anyone says or thinks about it. Since legally speaking, the Lord owns all things upon this earth He can choose to bless you in so many ways. Getting exactly what you desire blesses you and God equally. We notice next that there is no hesitation time between asking God for something and “receiving from Him”. Therefore this has troubled certain (some) people who think that once they ask God for something they need to wait upon God to deliver it. No, the truth is the very second (moment) you prayed to ask God for His divide intervention He answered your prayer right then. God only gives what He has and He has all good things including you, so there is nothing good that the Lord will withhold from you both physically and spiritually. Yes, we as believers in Christ Jesus need to “believe we receive” the very instant we prayed. Notice Mark 11:24 KJV which states, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” This means that our reception time frame is zero because when you pray for something specific you must “believe that you received it” the moment you concluded that prayer. Yes, “receiving from God” through faith is done exactly that way. Yes, many will say, “We need faith and patience to receive from God” quoting Hebrews 6:12. However when we look at Hebrews 6:12 KJV it reads, “That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Since, you have just read that verse of scripture it is speaking more about our inheritance than directly “receiving from God”. We would never say that faith has no place in “receiving from God” because we (ihlcc) both believe that it does. Knowing that faith is your confession of truth believed on in your heart. All things that you believe in without any physical evidence requires faith. So you must start with truth and confess by faith that we have the request even before we see it in the natural. Yes, to clearly explain “Receiving from God” we must confess that this is a faith proposition and this is completely an immediate spiritual transaction that needs a good and honest heart to grow. Since, this is an immediate spiritual transaction you don’t need patience to “receive from God”. Remember, the reason you need patience is when you are waiting on or for something but when “we believe we received” we are not waiting on God because we already “received the blessing from God’s Word”. Now to keep us from any confusion you might need patience to see it naturally before your eyes but that is always after you have “immediately received it” in your heart when you prayed. Yes, the reason we need patience when dealing with “receiving from God” is because the growth process in God takes very little spiritual time (instantly in many cases) but moving that expression of spiritual time into the natural physical realm could takes days, weeks, or even some years. During this walk of faith we must keep His Commandments in our heart and do them because that will keep us focused on pleasing God and keeping a positive attitude ourselves during our walk with God. It is exciting to see all that God has in store for us but it starts out with a good knowledge and understanding of what God desires for us. We only get that type knowledge and understanding when we read, study and mediate upon God’s Word. If you can read a sentence in a book and understand what you have read to the place (point, level) of speaking it out loud you have “received” that information (sometimes instantly). Likewise, when you read in your Holy Bible that God in Heaven, our Gracious Father, loves us so much that He sent His Precious Son Jesus to the earth to die for our sins, if you can “receive” this gospel truth you can be saved. Your outward confession of faith validates your reception of God’s Promise (His Word). Now, all you had to do to “receive” those words of God was just understand it and repeat the prayer of salvation by repenting of sin (renouncing willful violations of God’s Word) and then declare that Jesus is Now your Lord and you were instantaneously saved. Now any Born-Again Christian knows just how easy it was to “receive from God” their salvation. Therefore, we (ihlcc) would like to use that example to establish the fact that “receiving from God” is easy when you understand that no good works are involved just the belief in your heart. It should not be a struggle or a bunch of good works, no, just simply believing in your heart the promise of God’s Word and speaking that promise out loud to give it life and that in a nutshell is exactly how “you receive from God”. Yes, we do know that other things have a place in seeing the full manifestation before your natural eyes but we submit to you today that if you keep this simple in regard to just “receiving from God” it is really that easy. Remember, to “receive from God” all you have to do is know what you desire from God according to God’s Word, (aka the Holy Bible) then ask God for it or speak the promise forth out of your mouth as an acknowledgement of your reception then “believe that you received it” and the “receiving from God” part is done. There is nothing complicated or dramatic about receiving from your Heavenly Father or Lord Jesus Christ but rather a simple and easy belief in your heart. Yes, “receiving from God” is our pleasure and benefit it truly blesses the Lord Jesus and our Father God in Heaven therefore God didn’t make it hard to “receive” but instead He designed it to be easy so even a little child could do it. Just remember you “receive” by knowing first, believing second, speaking/or asking third and acknowledging to God what you just received fourthly because the Lord needs to hear thank-you from your lips because we (ihlcc) do understand that your thanksgiving acts as confirmation in the spirit realm where God works and provides for His beloved children in Jesus Name. Amen!