How to Receive from God
We often ask, ‘What must I do to receive… eternal life, or healing, or forgiveness, or answers to my prayers? Is it obtained by faith or works? By grace or does it require something on my part? The answer to these questions is Yes! It takes both. Grace through faith! Grace (the gift) is the root and works (action on my part) is the fruit. The problem lays when we switch the two. Thinking God responds to our works and that produces the fruit when, actually we are to take action to His works and that response is the fruit. For us to get any benefit from a gift given, it must be received. We will look at the main hindrances that keep us from receiving. (The story of a maid named Mabel)
Hosea 4:6a My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
What you don’t know can hurt you.
Matthew 7:7-12 Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you;(1) seek, and you will find;(2) knock, and it will be opened to you.(3) 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!(4) 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Being evil = Greek = pain, toilsome, laborious trouble – properly, pain-ridden, emphasizing the inevitable agonies (misery) associated with being (morally) culpable. Full of labors, annoyances, hardships. Pressed and harassed by labors or perils. Hurtful, which indicates degeneracy from original virtue. Ill, diseased; derelict, vicious, and or guilty.
Think about that. Your heavenly Father has never suffered deficiency or lack of any kind. The ONLY type of gift He could ever offer would be good and for our benefit.
(1) James 4:1-3 From where come quarrels and from where come conflicts among you? Is it not from there, out of your passions warring in your members? 2 You desire and do not have. You kill and covet and are not able to obtain. You fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that you may spend it in your pleasures. (Berean)
For example: We pray using words like, ‘If it be thy will?’ when we pray for healing. There is no Scriptural basis for praying that. ‘Well Jesus prayed like that!’ Yes, but He wasn’t praying for healing. It would be like someone asking you to pray for their salvation. ‘Lord, save them, if it be thy will!’
(2) Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Never make the mistake of seeking for the gift — seek the Giver.
(3) Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Jesus is the door to all our needs. We are the ones who opens or closes the answer. Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:9-10)
(4) James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Gift are given; not earned!
James 1:16-18 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
Jesus is the ultimate Gift.
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
God gives us grace, not based on what we deserve, but based on what His Gift to us has done.
Ephesians 4:7 Now to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
A gift cannot be earned otherwise, it is not a gift but compensation for what you did.
Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise, work is no longer work.
Amp. But if it is by grace [God’s unmerited favor], it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace [it would not be a gift but a reward for works].
Romans 4:3-5 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Receive His gift for whatever you need by faith. By believing and acting like it is true. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32) His Word is Truth!