Watching a dog run in circles chasing its own tail can be pretty amusing. Round and round the puppy will go, trying to catch something that it already has. Unfortunately, this is also a picture of the average Christian: chasing after something they already have. You might be thinking, What do I already have?

You have everything. God has already given us everything we need. Whatever you are currently asking God to give you, has already been provided. You don’t need to get God to heal, save, deliver, or prosper you, or to give you joy and peace. All of those things have already been supplied. Getting what we need in this life isn’t a matter of asking God, and then waiting on Him to give. God has already given.

Getting our needs met is a matter of believing that something we can’t see or feel is already a reality. As you believe, your faith makes what God has already provided become a physical reality. Comprehending what you have in the spirit will give you a totally different perspective on receiving from God.

The body of believers, as a whole, knows that God has the power to perform miracles. They believe that He can do anything, so they don’t have a problem believing that God is capable of meeting their needs. The question people have is – will God do it for them? Is that God’s will? They don’t understand that God has already provided for their miracle, so they are in the process of trying to motivate God to act on their behalf.

The typical sequence of events in most believers’ lives is that they discover a need, and then they go about trying to get God to meet that need. For instance, a doctor tells you that you’re sick and you’re going to die, so you begin crying out to God—trying to impress upon Him how urgent your situation is, and explaining everything as if it’s the first time God has heard about it. “After all,” we reason, “God has millions of requests coming across His desk, and I need to get mine to the top. I need to make sure He knows that I can’t afford to wait a week on this one.”

The truth is that God met all of your needs long before you encounter them. Before you were even born, God had already provided everything you will ever need.

A lot of prayer time is wrongly spent trying to force God into doing something. Our thoughts follow this path: If God doesn’t answer my prayers, then I’ll get a prayer chain going. The logic being that God might not answer my prayers, but getting a hundred people together on the same issue will give me extra leverage. Somehow, people believe that if they put enough pressure on God, then He’ll give in and grant their request, so they don’t want to let up until God comes through.

When the prayers go out and the prayer chains are formed, people don’t think of themselves as trying to twist God’s arm, but that is exactly what they are doing. They think they have to do something to get God to answer their prayer, but Scripture says that the Lord has provided everything through Jesus. Jesus paid for your sins and reconciled you to God, and everything you will ever need has already been provided through Him. We don’t need to motivate God to meet our needs. God met our needs 2,000 years ago when He humbled himself, became a man, and died upon the cross.
[Blog team: “we believe in asking people to pray for us – its part of our heritage of being His family on earth that we all take care of each other by praying for one another. But as the author of this article says, not to twist His arm or try to force Him to do anything! He already loves and knows us individually and has our needs at heart! We just have to learn how to release the power he gave us 2,000 years ago, from the heavenlies into this earthly realm, and believe its already done!”]

Salvation is not a spur-of-the-moment decision that Jesus makes on an individual basis when people pray and ask forgiveness. God doesn’t pick and choose who will be saved. The truth is that God has already paid for your sins. He has already provided the forgiveness that you need. Scripture says,

“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Salvation and forgiveness are available to everyone, but they aren’t automatic. You have to receive salvation—but instead of begging God for forgiveness, it’s more accurate to say that you need to acknowledge that He has already paid for your sins. God has already dealt with every sin you have ever committed or will commit in the future. Forgiveness has already been provided. If you aren’t saved, you simply need to humble yourself and quit trying to earn God’s forgiveness. To be saved is to humbly receive the gift of salvation that God is offering you. It’s completely different from the attitude of trying to earn salvation, or begging God and hoping that He’ll give it to you.

The fact that God has already provided for all of our needs is especially clear within the context of healing:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:24

In this scripture, the Apostle Peter said that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of healing written in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 53:4-5). The Gospel of Matthew also quotes the same verses to show that Jesus provided for the healing of our physical bodies (Matthew 8:17).

Notice that the verse says you were healed by His stripes. When was it that Jesus took stripes on His body? It was during His ministry when He was mocked by the soldiers, beaten, and then led away to be crucified. It was 2,000 years ago that Jesus bore stripes, and by His stripes we were healed! Jesus has already provided healing. He isn’t up in heaven right now having stripes put on His back.

Countless multitudes are receiving healing today. In our own ministry, our television crew has documented dozens and dozens of healings. All of these people have received their healing recently, but it was 2,000 years ago that the price was paid. Jesus hasn’t taken a single stripe on His back since He went to the cross. By His stripes we were healed. It has already been accomplished.

Author: Andrew Wommack
Read Part 2 here