Have you received what God has given?

(Exodus 14:13-14)
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

The above passage of the Scripture shows how Moses comforted the Children of Israel when they were terrified at the coming of the chariots of Pharaoh pursuing them when they were stuck at the Red Sea. At this juncture, the Children of Israel had lost their hopes of escaping from Pharaoh and his army as they had come to the dead end of their journey as the Red Sea was preventing them from further moving.

Being the Leader of the Children of Israel, it was the duty of Moses to comfort them and give them a direction at this most critical moment. The opening passage shows how Moses did this. However, when we read the next two verses (Exodus 14:15-16), we understand that Moses had cried unto God asking for God's help. Look at the same verses below:

(Exodus 14:15-16)
And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

The above verses reveal the fact that although Moses encouraged the Children of Israel, even he didn't know the answer to their problem. Moses just believed that God would do something in their favor, but he had no idea on how God would deal with their problematic situation. Hence, he started to cry unto God for help.

But God responded to Moses in a different manner by asking why he was crying. Truly, he was crying as he was not aware of the answer to their problem. In other words, Moses did not know God's response to their problem.

Why was God unhappy with Moses' crying?

God wanted Moses to divide the Red Sea by speaking to the Children of God and by stretching the rod of God toward the sea, instead of speaking to God.

Why didn't Moses divide the Red Sea by stretching the rod of God toward the Red Sea, without crying unto God?

Well, God trained Moses to perform many signs and wonders in Egypt by stretching the rod of God. God never asked Moses to pray to God before Pharaoh to perform any of these signs and wonders. Instead, God taught Moses to speak out the words of authority in the manner of commanding before Pharaoh in the name of the Lord. But Moses had no experience of performing a miracle without consulting God.

For the first time, God was revealing to Moses that Moses had the authority to speak the answer to the problem instead of speaking to God about the problem.

SPEAKING TO THE PROBLEM

Speaking to people about problems is a common habit of almost every human. But speaking to a problem sounds stupid for an average Christian because a problem is not a person to hear what is spoken. However, this has been God's method all the time. God wants His people to respond to their problems on their own by trusting in God all the time.

Look at the below scripture:

(Numbers 20:7-8)
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

The above passage shows how God wanted Moses to speak to a rock, which had neither ears to hear nor a mouth to speak. It is true that it is God who brings the solution to the problem, but God wants His people to speak God's solution to the problem instead of speaking to God for the solution.

Even under the New Testament, God uses the same method for releasing power from Heaven to perform a miracle in the physical realm . In other words, even we, being the people in the New Testament, have to speak answers to our problems in order that God releases power from Heaven to cause our spoken answers to come to pass. However, there is a difference between the Old Testament & the New Testament in speaking answers to problems. What is this difference?

When we consider the above two incidents in the Old Testament, we can see Moses waited upon God for the instructions to speak to His problems. Why? Because Moses did not know the will of God for his individual problems. However, for the people in the New Testament, God never gives instructions from Heaven in a supernatural manner, as God did for Moses,  because God wants them to know His will through the Holy Spirit. What does this mean?

Yes, when you and I are in a problematic situation, we can know God's answer to our problem by knowing God's will through the Holy Spirit. Hence, we can directly speak the answer to our problem. Look the below scripture:

(Mark 11:23)
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

The word "mountain" in the above verse shows our problem. The phrase "Be thou removed" indicates our speaking of the answer directly to the problem without consulting God. Thus the above scripture reveals that the people in the New Testament have already been given authority to speak answers to their own problems without consulting God.

Who gave the above authority to the people in the New Testament?

It is the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look at the below scriptures:

(John 14:13-14)
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

It is the Son (Jesus Christ), who would execute what we speak out of our mouth as answers to our problems. The Son is doing it in order that the Father (God) be glorified in the Son. Further, it is necessary to speak our answers in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus, this authority could not be exercised by the people in the Old Testament.

Asking God for answers to our problems through begging type of prayers is not valid for the New Testament even though it was for the Old Testament. Why? Because God has already given us authority to receive everything we need through Jesus Christ. But today, we lack almost everything because we have not used our authority which God has given in order to receive.

Why have we not used our authority?

We have not used our authority because of our lack of knowledge of God's giving. For example, if you are sick today, you need not pray to God begging Him to heal you because God has already healed you through Jesus Christ. Look at the below scripture:

(1Peter 2:24)
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.

All you need to do is to use your authority and receive your healing in the name of Jesus Christ.

WHO HINDERS YOU FROM RECEIVING WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU?

As we are ignorant of what God has given us, the enemy (the devil) always attacks us. The devil would not allow you and me to enjoy what God has given us. He will always try to deceive us by giving thoughts of discouragement. He will cause us to use wrong words in our prayers to God. When we get caught to the deception of the devil, he gets empowered to afflict us with sickness, poverty, agony, strife, hurt, broken marriages  and many more.

SPEAKING THE RIGHT WORDS TO THE PROBLEM

It is very important to use the right words when speaking to the problem. Our words should always be according to the will of God. Look at the below scripture:
(1 John 5:14)
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

The verb 'ask' in the above verse does not mean only 'prayer', but it also means 'speaking the answer to the problem'. Thus, our asking gets two forms according to our problem. If the Scripture clearly says that God has already given what we are asking, then our asking should get the form of speaking the answer to the problem. But if our asking is so specific and the Scripture is silent about it, then it can take the form of 'prayer'.  Whatever form our asking takes, it is important that our asking is based on the will of God.

Today, many Christians do not know how to find the will of God. They say that is the biggest puzzle they have concerning God. They say they get into many troubles as they could not find the will of God before hand.

How do you find the will of God?

For the people in the New Testament, the will of God is mostly revealed by the Word of God. This is where reading the Bible comes into play. If we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will teach us about the will of God whenever we face a problem.

(John 14:26)
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 

Remember, the above verse does not mean that the Holy Spirit is teaching you as you continue to attend the Sunday Service. The Holy Spirit begins to teach us at the moment we begin to study. In other words, we have to open the Scripture individually and start to read it for the Holy Spirit to play His role mentioned in the above verse (John 14:26) because the Holy Spirit is only a Helper, but not a master or a servant.

Those who read the Bible day and night know what God has given them and on how to use their authority to receive them according to the will of God. But those who do not know the Word of God don't know their authority. They are the people who have not received what God has already given.

Today, if we lack something, in the first place, we must understand through the Word of God that God is a good God and He has already given what we lack. Then, we must understand that our enemy is always standing in between us and what God has given us. When we have this understanding, we automatically use the right words to recover from our problem whatsoever. We never cry before God begging for what God has already given us. We receive the understanding of our authority to speak the right answer to our problem causing God to bring our spoken answer to pass in God's timing.