How to receive from God

Be Persistent

How do you receive your healing? The same principles apply today that applied 2000 years ago. We can all live in perfect health and Jesus actually did tell us how to do it! There is no expiration date for divine health. God’s healing power still works today as it did when Jesus walked the earth. But a key is to not give up! Pray fervently and be persistent. Yes, keep praying and keep asking! If you genuinely want to get better - don't stop - don't give up. God is ever faithful to honour His word in the area of healing. Therefore, be persistent.

Luke 18:1-7 - Jesus gave us this parable as an example of how to pray and ask God in order to make things right. Jesus was comparing the widow to "us" and the judge to God the Father. He is telling us to literally ‘keep asking’ God for what we need. To ask until He gives it to us! Many of you have probably been told at one time or another, "Ask God only once for what you need, for if you ask Him more than once, you are not exercising your faith correctly".

Don't believe this! That is not God talking, it's merely someone else's opinion. There is a difference between babbling and believing! Jesus tells us plainly to be "very" persistent! Go to the Lord's prayer in Luke 11:1, then read the passage immediately after the Lord's prayer (Luke 11:5 through 8). Jesus gave His listeners (and us) a parable to explain how we aught to pray. Then He gives an illustration that demonstrates persistence and insistence:

"Yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs." Does it seem like God is trying to tell us something? Can we insist that He gives us what we need?

Many of you may need to change your attitude toward receiving from God. Start by acting as if you are a son or daughter in God's household. Be irreverent (insistent) about how you ask! And if you still don't feel important enough to talk to God directly, just tell Him "Jesus sent you!" Receiving your healing isn’t reliant on whether you are pure and holy. Jesus healed all who asked, even those who felt undeserving and unworthy. And the Bible confirms this...

Matthew 15:21-28; Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. (These were very wicked pagan cities involved in sacrificing their children to Idols.) And behold a Canaanite woman came out from that region, and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him, saying, "Send her away, for she is shouting out after us." (Notice how even when the Lord did not answer her readily, she persisted in her appeals to Him). He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and began to bow down before Him, (worshipping Him) saying, "Lord help me!" And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." However, she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table." Then Jesus answered and said to her, "Oh woman, your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish." And at once her daughter was healed. The woman’s persistence paid off!

This story can be an unsettling one. We think of Jesus as full of compassion, yet when a Gentile woman came to Him for help, He at first totally ignored her. Then Jesus spoke to her, saying that He had come only for Jews, and therefore, He would not help her. Finally, Jesus tried to brush off the woman with a comment about children and dogs ("dogs" was a Jewish slur on Gentiles).

We don't know what motivated Jesus in this story. Truly, He had been sent first to Israel. The Gentile mission would come later, after His resurrection and ascension. However, what's interesting is that Jesus did not send the woman away when the disciples encouraged Him to do so. Did Jesus seize the opportunity to highlight an essential dimension of faith? Did He press the woman because He sensed her extraordinary faith? Was He implicitly critiquing the "Israel only" attitude of His followers - i.e. playing to the crowd? We can't know for sure.
However, what we do know is that Jesus ultimately responded favourably to the Gentile woman's request. He granted her plea for the healing of her daughter. We also know that Jesus affirmed the woman's faith. Her bold confidence in Jesus paid off! Her persistence was fully rewarded and it demonstrated to the disciples an essential dimension of faith. Don't miss this truth! Persistence is a vital component of your faith.

Persistence has it's just rewards... "A lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in king's palaces" (Proverbs 30:28, NIV). What could a tiny lizard possibly teach us? It teaches the rewards of persistence which "takes it right to the top." A lizard will keep on trying to find a way in, and when it does, it will always get to the top!

Someone once said, "The race is not always for the swift but to those who keep on running." Among other things, fulfilling God's will for our lives is reaching our total God-given human and spiritual potential. We don't have to be geniuses to do this, but we do need to be persistent and keep on keeping on - regardless of our circumstances. And this applies to securing our physical well-being also!

The Apostle Paul experienced all sorts of trials and setbacks. He was shipwrecked, stoned and left for dead, whipped and beaten, and thrown in jail for promoting Christianity. He knew firsthand what it was to experience loneliness, cold and hunger. And he penned some of his greatest letters to the churches while in prison. Paul maximized all his potential through being persistent. He said, "It is God Himself in His mercy, who has given us this wonderful work ... and so we should never give up." Giving up is not an option.

If you have not received what you've asked God for - simply never give up! Don't give up on prayer. Don't give up on your faith. And don't loose hope! If you stay the course you will surely get the prize - you will get to the top! Sometimes your healing is available only on the next summit.

Again we can get some inspiration from the woman with the “issue of blood” as mentioned in Matthew 9:20-22... Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, "If I only touch His cloak, I will be healed." Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," He said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment... It takes guts and persistence to press through a large crowd, in a weak physical state, and touch the Lord’s garment!

Another example is found in Mark 2:1-5... A few days later the people heard that Jesus had come home. And so many had gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralysed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." And he was healed. Persistence gets’ results!

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, in the midst of setbacks and the disappointments of life, please give me the gift of persistence so that I will never give up the goal of becoming all that You want me to be, and in this challenge, to keep on doing what You want me to do. And as I purpose to stay the course I thank You that You are faithful to meet my material and physical needs (which include wholeness and soundness of mind and body). Thank you for hearing and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I ask - Amen."

Chris Demetriou, 14/06/2009