One of the most common questions is “Why do I not receive [request] from God?”. This question is usually asked sincerely, and in many cases from people who are genuinely hurting because of their lack. If left unanswered, these questions can actually lead to a total degeneration of faith because people will be left wondering why God never answered their heartfelt request.
The trouble is that most of these questions do go unanswered in churches today. People are not taught because in most cases, the leaders are either afraid to teach about it, or in some cases are uninformed about the subject themselves. So today we will be answering the question of why people do not receive from God, and free many people from this question once and for all.
There are four main requests that most people make to God: Forgiveness, Healing , Provision and Protection. It is interesting to note that in each of these requests, these same people often do not fully expect their requests to be granted, but instead take a “gee, I hope so, but I can’t rely on it” type of attitude. For example, they ask God for forgiveness, but are still riddled with guilt. They ask God for healing, but never take hold of it. When it comes to provision and protection, they ask God for it, but then proceed with their own solutions, never even giving God a chance. So for any meaningful examination of our topic today, we must also answer the question of why people behave in this manner, and the answer might surprise you.
As it turns out, most people when they are completely honest with themselves, really don’t trust God to some degree. This is not because they are mistrusting, but because they have a wrong belief about God. Please allow me to give some examples of this wrong belief:
I have encountered several sick people, who were utterly convinced that God’s will was for them to be sick for one reason or another. Usually because “God was teaching them a lesson” or “God was keeping them humble”. It is important to understand that nowhere in scripture does God ever make someone sick for any reason. Nor does He afflict anyone to keep them humble. To believe in such a manner totally destroys faith, because if you truly believe that God is responsible for your suffering then you can never believe that He will heal you.
This is a key point my friends, because God very much wants to heal each and every person! Consider Isaiah 53:4-5:
“Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
This is a fairly well-known bit of scripture, but many people have not actually stopped to meditate on its meaning. Jesus bore our pains, sorrows and sicknesses on the cross. This was His payment for our sins. Now here is the crux: there is no reason for two people to pay for the same thing twice! He paid for it completely, once-for-all, and it is an action that never needs to be added to or repeated. Not only do we not need to add anything to it, we are utterly incapable of adding to His perfect divine sacrifice for us. Now, knowing this, we can see how foolish it is to assume that God – the one who paid such a high price to free us from pains, sickness and disease – would inflict us with it for any reason. No my friends, God wants to set you free!
Another common wrong belief for why people do not receive something that they have asked for, is because that “God is waiting for the right time”. The idea here is that God wants to give it, but it is not the right time and so we need to wait until some undefined point in the future in order to receive. Honestly my friends, this is one of the biggest lies and traps of the enemy that I have ever heard. If the enemy can keep you waiting until some future date, you will never receive your request because you will never believe that it is the right time.
The truth though is that because Jesus has already paid for you to have these things, the right time is now! The long wait is over, grace is here! The favor and blessings of God are yours for the taking! He died in order to give these things to you freely and without any reservation or hesitation! Can I prove this in scripture? Of course! Let’s read Proverbs 3:27-28:
“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.
Say not to your neighbor, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when you have it by you.”
Here we see the advice of God for dealing rightly with our neighbors. We are instructed that the right thing to do is to pay them good without delay when it is deserving. We can also see here that it is wrong to delay in doing them good when we have the power to pay immediately.
Now here is the question: If it is wrong to delay in giving your neighbor the good that is owed to them, why do we expect God to behave worse than how He has instructed us to behave?
Do you see? We have developed wrong and bad opinions of God that are eroding our faith. We can plainly see the truth from this verse that God does not delay in doing the good that we are owed, and we are owed good because of the finished work of Jesus Christ for us.
So you may be wondering why all of this belief stuff matters. The answer is because if we are burdened down with wrong ideas and wrong belief about God, then we can never trust Him enough to reach out in faith and grab the gifts which He has given to us freely in Christ Jesus. They are ours for the taking, but our own wrong belief has chained us down so that we can not take hold of what is rightfully ours. 3Rd John 1:2 says this:
“Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”
This is the desire of God for each of us. Notice the condition that we prosper and enjoy health to the extent of our soul. We become prosperous and healthy to the same level that our soul does. Now your soul is your mind and your emotions. When you think, it is your soul doing the thinking. When you feel emotion, that is your soul feeling it. So now we can begin to see how vital our beliefs are in relation to the prosperity and health of our soul. If we have bad opinions of God, then our soul cannot prosper because the giver of gifts (God) is cut-off and hindered in our mind.
Dear friends, I encourage you today to start seeing God for who He truly is: a loving, caring and generous Father, who does not desire that anyone should suffer in any way for any reason. A God who paid an extremely high price for us to receive all of His provision and blessing freely, and will not play anyone out when they come to Him for healing, protection, provision or the greatest of all, salvation. Simply belief in His mercy, favor, grace and love. Have a good opinion of God.