The Only Way to Receive

Dearly beloved of God, the how of receiving the things of God is by believing. Once we know God’s Word on a given subject, we know His Will concerning it, and what is available to us, what is possible from Him.

How do we receive the things of God once we know what He makes available to us? There is only one way to receive anything from God: by believing Him at His Word.

Jesus Christ taught his disciples this great truth. He said, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” You can read the entire record for yourself in Mark 11: 12-24.

He said, “what things soever you desire,” “believe that you receive them…then you shall have them.” Whosoever believes will receive. It does not say that whosoever knows; it says believes. You believe, then you shall have. You believe, you literally take God at His Word and then you act on it, then you will receive.

“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us.”

Our confidence is in God Who promises. He reveals His Will in His Word, and we are free to ask any thing according to His Will, being confident that He hears us. Our requests do not fall on deaf ears, dearly beloved.

“And if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” I John 5:14 and 15.

When we pray, we don’t just know that He hears us; we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. We are to pray with believing confidence in Him; in His ability, willingness, and faithfulness to answer our prayers.

What did the Lord Jesus Christ say? “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” First, we believe, then we receive.

Abraham is an example of believing what God said.

“Thus it has been written: Genesis 17:5: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is the father of us all in the presence of Him Whom he believed, that is, God, Who makes the dead alive and Who calls the things that are not as though they were.” Romans 4: 17 WT

God said this before Abraham received His promise. God, “calls the things that are not as though they were.”

“Against hope, he believed upon hope to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken to him, Genesis 15:5: ‘So will your seed be.’” Romans 4:18 WT

Against all human expectation Abraham believed what God told him even though it contradicted everything his senses told him. He was 99 and Sarah was 90 and barren; they were past the age of childbearing and they were childless. On top of that Sarah was not capable of having children.

“Not being weak in the [right way of] believing, he observed his own body being deadened and the deadness of Sarah’s womb when he was about 100 years old, but he did not doubt the promise of God in unbelief. Instead, he was strong in the [right way of] believing, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what He has promised He is also able to do.” Romans 4: 19 – 21 WT

Abraham believed what God said; he did not doubt it in his heart in spite of the discouraging, disheartening circumstances that he faced sense knowledge wise.

God’s promise contradicted everything Abraham’s senses told him. Against all human expectation Abraham believed God at His Word. He was fully persuaded that God was able and willing to perform His Word – period.

He believed God at His Word and he received the child of promise at the set time God had spoken to him. He did not limit God through unbelief.

It doesn’t matter where you read in God’s Word, believing is the key to receiving what God promises. Read Hebrews 11, or anywhere in the book of Acts, or in the gospel records, or the Old Testament.

Are your circumstances dire? Are they more serious than the man with the withered hand, or the man born blind, or a leper, or the man born lame who was forty when Peter and John healed him, or the man with the suicidal son that besought Christ for his son’s deliverance, or Lazarus who Jesus Christ raised from the dead four days after his death, or the Israelites that were delivered from their Egyptian captivity, or as they entered the Red Sea with the Egyptian army perusing them, or when God delivered Jesus Christ from death after three days and three nights?

Turn to WHATEVER record you choose, and you will see that God delivered them as they believed God at His Word.

Throughout the Word of God we read that God delivered His people as they believed Him; not because they were without sin, or because they were good enough, or because of their good works; no, many times He delivered them in spite of themselves, but they believed what He said.

Dearly beloved, what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, and it works in us as we believe Him. Believing energizes His power, and it is His power that will bring about your deliverance.