YOU’VE ALREADY GOT IT By Andrew Wommack
Andrew Wommack offers free mp3s and notes on his website, www.awmi.net from which I have been greatly blessed in the past. I thought I would copy and paste this for those interested for it can be life changing if you catch what he is saying.
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 l 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? 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 some - thing 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. 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).
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
The Gospel of Matthew also quotes the same verses to show that Jesus provided for the healing of our physical bodies (Matthew 8:17).
“When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
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.
It is far easier to release something you already have than it is to try to obtain something you don't have. It's a step in the right direction to believe that God can heal, but there is still an element of doubt in that approach. It's the equivalent of looking at something way off in the future: it might happen, but then again, it might not. When you begin to understand that you already have healing, it's a whole different story. The healing might not have manifested in your body yet, but you will know, by faith, that you already have healing in your spirit.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who ‘hath’ blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3
"Hath" is just an old fashioned way of saying "already." You have already been blessed with all spiritual blessings. It's a done deal, and the blessing doesn't stop there. God has placed within every born-again believer the same power that raised Christ from the dead:
“And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 1:19-20
God's power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is already on the inside of you. You don't have to pray and ask God to come heal you; you've already got it! You already have prosperity. You already have anointing. You already have wisdom. You already have faith, and on and on it goes.
I know somebody is thinking, If I've already got it, then where is it? It's in your spirit. You can't feel by sensation what is in your spirit. By contrast, your body feels everything that is going on: whether you have pain or feel good, your body instantly knows it. In the same way, your soul is constantly monitoring how you feel emotionally: happy, mad, hurt, or sad, you know it. Because people always know what is going on in their body and soul, they assume that if they had the healing power of God in their spirit that they would know it. But you can't feel what you have in your spirit. The only way you can discern what is true in the spirit is through the Word of God.
Jesus said,
"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).
God's Word is like a spiritual mirror (James 1:22-25).
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”
If you want to know what you have in your spirit, you have to look into the Word of God to see what it says.
For one thing, the Word says that by Jesus' stripes you were healed. It's already been done. The Word also says that you already have the same power that raised Christ from the dead living on the inside of you. It's not out in front of you somewhere waiting to be obtained; you already have it.
You might think that the difference between having and wanting is insignificant, but it isn't. This is a vitally important truth of God that every believer needs to understand, and a brief listen to the prayers being uttered in our churches today reveals that most believers don't get it. God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
and that wherever two or three people are gathered in His name, He is there among them
(Matthew 18:20). “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Yet many church services begin by begging God, "Come and be with us today ... move in our midst ... we need to feel Your presence." They're asking for something that the Word of God promises is already a reality.
The majority of Christians aren't walking in the spirit or by what the Word of God says; they are trying to navigate through life by their feelings. They have to feel chills run up and down their spine or see somebody jump a pew, to believe that God is present. When in truth, God is present at every gathering of believers.
We need to stop chasing our tails. Instead of asking God to do something that He has already done, we should start believing what His Word says — regardless of how we feel or whether we can physically sense anything. We simply need to go by what the Word of God says, and praise Him for what He has already done. If you start expressing your faith and praising God instead of begging Him to give you something you already have, you will begin to see positive results in your life. Faith will rise up within you as you thank God for what He has done. The Apostle Paul prayed for Philemon,
“That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” Philemon 6
The word "effectual" means it begins to work. Paul is saying that faith works by acknowledging every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus - not by begging God or getting a prayer chain together. Faith works by simply, acknowledging, or getting a revelation of, what is already in you. That is a powerful statement.
Healing isn't the only area where believers struggle to understand what God has provided. I've noticed that people seem to have a particularly hard time believing that they already have God's love. I can't count the number of times people have come to me and asked me to pray that God would pour out His love into their lives. On the surface that sounds like a great request, but it reveals a lack of understanding that God showed His love for us by dying on the cross. The Bible says,
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
God's love for us is without question. There is nothing we can do that will make Him love us more than He already does. The problem people have is that they don't necessary feel God's love, but we can't go by our feelings. Feelings are fled to our carnal nature, not our spirit. As believers, we need to walk in the spirit, not in the flesh
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25).
Instead of praying for a feeling, we need to get into faith and start believing what the Word of God says. For example, begin truly believing that God loves you so much He gave His only begotten Son for you.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).
Jesus bore your sins in His body on the cross, and He says that He will never stop loving you. He will never withdraw from you or forsake you.
“We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
It's not that we love God, and then He responds to us. God loved us first, and now we respond to Him. You have already received God's love, in the same way that you have already received healing.
God made provision for you when Jesus died and rose again, and when you were born again, His power took up residence in your spirit. Before you ever got sick, God put the same power on the inside of you that raised Christ from the dead. Before you ever had a financial need, God commanded His blessing upon you in your storehouse and in your barn and upon everything you set your hand to (Galatians 3:29 and Deuteronomy 28:8).
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
“The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.”
You are praying from a position of unbelief when you ask God to give you something He has already provided.
When God says it's already done and you're saying, "O God, please do it," that is unbelief. How do you respond to somebody who is asking you to give them something that they already have? Imagine a father who gives his son the keys to his car: the son pockets the keys and immediately asks, "Dad, can I have the keys to your car?" The father would be thinking, ‘Why is he asking me for something I just gave him”? If it were possible for God to be confused, I believe that He would be confused by our prayers. We're saying, "God, please heal me," and He is saying, "I know I specifically told you in the Bible that 'by Jesus' stripes you were healed." We're praying prayers of unbelief because we don't understand what God has already provided.
Everything that God has made available comes through the spirit. Whether or not it comes out of your spirit and into the physical realm where you can sense it, isn't dependent upon God; it's dependent upon whether or not you believe that God has already done it.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Faith acts like a bridge that runs from the spirit realm over into the physical realm, allowing what is in the spirit to cross over into manifestation. Or you could say that faith is like a pipe through which all that God has provided in the spirit flows into the physical realm. If you don't have that bridge or conduit of faith, you probably won't see God's power manifest in your life. It isn't that God hasn't given; it's that your lack of faith is shutting off the flow of His power.
Understanding that you already have God's power in your spirit will greatly increase the degree of His provision that you experience in life. God has placed Himself on the inside of you. In your spirit, you already have healing, prosperity, joy, peace, deliverance, love, and anything else you could ever need. Before a need arises, God has anticipated it, and His supply is greater than any need. No problem or obstacle can come your way that God hasn't made provision for. He has given you the power and wisdom to deal with whatever circumstances come along.
This revelation will change the way you look at life. It will give you the confidence to face life with boldness. Once you recognize that you've already got it, and you quit trying to get it, you'll begin to see God's power flow through you. And it won't just bless you, it's going to flow over and bless the lives around you.