Are You Receiving When You’re Believing?

We all have things we’re believing for. We may be believing that one day we’re going to get well, one day we’re going to break an addiction, or one day we’re going to meet the right person. We prayed, and we’re standing in faith, waiting for it to happen. But Jesus gives us an important principle about prayer: “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). He doesn’t say, “Believe that it’s going to happen.” He says, “Believe that you receive it right when you pray”– not in a week, not in a month. Believe that right when you prayed, things changed in your favor, and God set the miracle into motion. If you’re facing an illness, that means saying, “God, I”m asking You to heal my body, and I receive my healing right now.” How can you believe that you’re healed when you don’t feel any different? This is what faith is all about. When there’s no evidence, when the medical report hasn’t improved, when there’s no sign of things getting better, your report is: “I am healed. I am healthy.”

When you not only pray, but you take it one step further and receive your healing, things begin to happen in the unseen realm. But if the healing, the freedom, the promotion, or the breakthrough is always in your future, you haven’t received it in your spirit. What God is going to bring to pass is not what you ask for, but what you believe you receive when you pray. Are you receiving when you’re believing? It’s not just, “God, I’m asking You to help me break this addiction.” That’s good, but by itself it’s not enough. Follow it up with, “Lord, I receive your freedom. I receive your wholeness. Thank You that I am free from this addiction now–not that I’m going to be free one day. No, it’s already happened.” When you prayed, you not only believed it, but you received it. Now change your report from “I’m hoping to” to “It’s already done.” It’s just a matter of time before what happened in the unseen realm shows up in the natural realm.

You have to be healed in your spirit before you’re healed in your body. You have to be prosperous in your spirit before you’re prosperous in the natural. You have to be free in your spirit before you’re free in the physical. You have to receive it when you believe, when you pray. Even though nothing may have changed, even though every circumstance looks just the same, your faith says, “It happened. Things have changed in my favor.”