Section 01 - The Arm of Faith

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Because of this, I am telling you, No matter what you are asking for yourself, while you are praying, take hold of it in faith, and it will happen.

Your Desires

What is the most important thing that you need or desire from the Lord right now? There is a simple way of finding out. What is top of your prayer list?

Your desires probably fall in some of the main areas of life. There are three main areas where most of our desires fall.

You first probably want to overcome sickness and disease and live a long life on this earth. Or perhaps you need enough income to be able to do all the things that you love.

Maybe you would like favor with people that you interact with daily. You want good relationships and friendships. These are some of the main areas that we tend to have desires in.

Then we come to your life calling and success in your career or work. That is probably a big desire in your life if that is important to you.

Also if God has called you to ministry, then you probably have very high on your list, a desire to really be effective in ministry. You want to see God use you powerfully and to make things happen in the lives of people when you minister to them.

What does it take to realize your dreams and desires? And what does God require of you for Him to give you these things?

These are important questions that we are going to answer in this teaching.

Where Blessings Come From

I want to look first at the origin of all blessings. There is only one source of blessing and that is God. He is the originator of all blessings, and you are not going to get them from the devil or from this world.

If you are needing something good in your life, God is a good God. And He is the only one that you can turn to, to receive your blessings.

God lives in a heavenly realm; a place that we call heaven. That is a big subject on its own, and I don’t want you to think of heaven as being far away on some planet somewhere. Think of heaven as being a different realm from the realm in which we live. It is a realm in the spirit.

If God then is the source of our blessings and He lives in heaven, then it is logical to assume that everything we receive from God is going to come to us from heaven. This is because it is coming to us from God.

How to Receive Your Blessings

How do you receive from the Lord? Paul gives us a good indication in the book of Philippians 4:19. This is a very well-known verse that goes like this in the GBM Translation.

But my God will supply all your needs, coming down from his abundance in [the realm of] glory through Jesus the Anointed One.

In other words, it is first going to be given to you from the heavenly realm; the realm of glory. Secondly, it is going to come to you through Jesus. And thirdly it is going to come to you through the anointing power of the Holy Spirit.

For God to give you His blessings, if they are coming from heaven, somehow they have to get sent down from heaven to earth.

We are not in heaven yet. We will be one day. But while we are on this earth, we want blessings. And we have to try and get them down from heaven to where we live.

Illustrations of Receiving Your Requests

We have a wonderful opportunity today in our modern age. It is a thing called shipping. Shipping has always been there, but they don’t use ships anymore. However, they still keep the term shipping.

I am sure you have at one time or another gone online, seen something that you would like to buy, and then placed an order from a website. Your order is then despatched usually to a courier.

In some countries, the postal system is still good enough that it can be sent via post. This doesn’t happen in South Africa. If you send it by post you will probably never see it.

When we were in Mexico it was the same. You couldn’t rely on the Post Office, so they use courier systems very much here in South Africa.

Do you know what fun it is to go online and place an order for something that you want and then wait for it to arrive? Depending on how efficient the company that is selling it to you and how efficient the courier is, it usually takes a couple of days.

The exception is if they have to order it from somewhere else. Then you might have to wait. But they will usually tell you when you can expect it. And there is a moment of excitement when you think,

“The item that I ordered is coming tomorrow! I can’t wait for it to arrive.”

Then they let you know it is going to arrive some time that day and you wonder,

“Is it going to arrive first thing in the morning, or is it going to arrive in the afternoon?”

You spend the whole day in anticipation, waiting for the delivery of the awesome thing that you ordered.

We all know this, don’t we? And you can see that the picture is very similar to what happens when you ask for something from the Lord.

You go online, into the heavenly realm, and place your order. You ask the Lord and He says,

“Yes, it is coming. It is on its way.”

Now you have to wait for it to come down from the heavenly realm and into the earth.

Is there something you can do about it? Yes, there is a lot you can do. I teach this clearly in my teaching called The Way of Blessing on a principle known as transmutation, but I am not going to cover that here.

I suggest you go and get The Way of Blessing. Many of the things I am sharing in this teaching are explained in a lot of detail in that book.

Sometimes you may need money to come, and someone is maybe sending you money from another country. It has to come through a bank transfer. And again there is usually a delay, especially if it is coming from a foreign country.

It takes a certain time for some of the companies that handle things like that, but eventually, you know it is going to arrive in your bank account. So you watch eagerly every day to see whether it has arrived yet. Then you say,

“Yay, my money has arrived! Let’s go to the bank. Let’s go to the shops. We have received what we wanted.”

Wrong Ideas That Stop God’s Blessing

Do you know that receiving from the Lord can be just as exciting, and just as sure? Why? Because God wants to bless you.

What is it going to cost you to receive the blessing of God? This is the big question.

They say you get nothing for nothing in this world. What does God require of you? What will it cost you to receive from the Lord the things that you desire?

Earning His Favor

Most believers start out by making a big mistake. They think that they somehow need to earn or deserve the blessing of God before He will give them what they want.

They think that they have to do something to get Him to like them or to favor them. They feel that maybe if they improve their behavior, the way they live, and the things they do, God will be pleased with them.

If you are like that, do you know what you are trying to do? You are trying to trade with God. You are saying,

“Lord, this is what I want and I will give you this in exchange.”

As if God needs anything from you! But it is so subtle and so built into human nature isn’t it? People don’t just give you things for free. They always require something from you and it is always going to cost you.

Because of this, we feel that we always have to pay a price to receive the blessing of God. We think,

“I have to somehow get more spiritual. I have to get closer to the Lord and deal with things in my life.”

Letting Go of Things

Sometimes we think that we have to give up things that we really want to gain His favor. Some people think that not wanting wealth is spiritual, so they develop a poverty mentality and they say,

“We can get by with what we have. We don’t need anything fancy.”

We think this is going to cause the Lord to favor us. But a poverty mentality doesn’t come from heaven because there is no poverty there. Don’t ever think that you have to give up the good things in this life to receive the blessing of the Lord.

Religious Thinking

Next, we get into religious behavior and all the things that preachers expect churches, denominations, and religious groups to do.

We have to change our behavior and act in a religious way. As if this is going to win God’s favor and want Him to bless us all the more.

This is a big mistake that we all make until we learn to recognize that by the grace of God, through Jesus, the price has already been paid. Jesus already paid the price for everything you could ever desire from the Lord.

You don’t have to add to it. In fact, your puny little efforts are worthless. The Scripture says that our righteousnesses are like filthy rags in His sight.

So as you come now to the Lord to ask Him for these things, be careful that you don’t get caught in this mold of saying,

“I need to somehow earn the right to the blessing.”

No, you don’t. Jesus already earned that right for you on Calvary. God will provide your need from His abundance, coming down from the heavenly realm through Christ Jesus. That is how He will do it.

God’s Requirements

God only needs two things from you. It is so simple that if you just remember these two things, you will never struggle again with trying to work so hard to somehow deserve the blessing of the Lord.

What are these two things? Let me give you a Scripture so you don’t think I am just making these up.

Faith First

Hebrews 11:6 is a very well-known verse. It says this.

But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]; for he who comes to God to receive something for himself must know without a doubt that he does exist, and [that] he is one who rewards those who are earnestly desiring to receive something from him.

I want you to notice everything in that verse. We often skip the last part of the verse, and we major just on the part that says without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Because you see God is a 'faith God'. And no matter how righteous or holy you act, I am afraid it is not enough. God is pleased with faith, not with your efforts, and faith must always come first above everything else.

Then you need to realize that the Lord never ever imposes Himself on us. He knows what we need and what we desire, and He won’t do anything until we express those desires.

What Jesus Required

Jesus required two things from every person that He helped. He usually asked them two questions. The first one was,

“What do you want from me?”

In other words, what is your desire? Secondly He said,

“Do you believe I am able to do this? Do you have faith in me?”

He didn’t ever say, “Do you go to church? Have you been attending the Synagogue regularly? Does this man pay his tithes?”

Did you ever see Jesus making inquiries about the person to see whether they were worthy? No, all He wanted to know was,

“What do you want? Tell me what you desire, and tell me if you have faith in me to do this for you?”

If they fulfilled those two requirements, He always met their desire or their need.

So you have to fulfill these two requirements. Firstly you must believe that He exists because He is the source of all blessings. If you don’t believe there is a God, who is going to bless you, and what hope do you have?

Then you need to believe and know that He is willing to give you the things that you desire.

You Need More Than Desire

Desire in itself is not enough, because there are levels of desire. You might say,

“I would like to have one of these, but there are a lot of other things I would like to have as well.”

What is important to you? The term that was used in that passage was 'earnestly desire'. Covet; almost lust for and be passionate about it.

Just a passing desire is not enough. It should be a passionate desire. That is what stirs the heart of God.

It’s just like any parent when they see their child passionate about something. They somehow want to get it for the child when they are looking at you and saying,

“Hey dad, I really want one of those. Can’t you get it for me? Dad, I know you care. I know you want to get it for me.”

When that happens you just start looking for the money to go and buy it. Do you think our Father God is any different?

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