What God Has Already Given You

He is not going to do anything more in your life
He has already done it all!

Do not ask Him for anything!

Do not ask Him for what He has already done and already given to you.

There is a time when a child asks for everything because they do not yet understand what belongs to them in their father’s house. But we cannot remain children forever. There comes a time to grow up.

Scripture speaks about this with remarkable clarity:

“What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.”
— Galatians 4:1

Notice this: he already owns the whole estate, yet while he remains a child, he does not know how to live from or make use of what belongs to him by inheritance.

When our earthly children grow up, our relationship with them changes. How much more should spiritual maturity change our relationship with our Heavenly Father—and with what He has already given us as His heirs.

“So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”
— Galatians 4:7

Prayer—how we pray and how we build our prayer life—is something we need to pay close attention to, because the outcome of our prayers is connected to it.

A prayer that begins by asking for what has already been given keeps us waiting. And that waiting can continue for hours, days, and sometimes even years.

But an entirely different kind of prayer is born from understanding your position. You no longer ask and no longer wait for what already belongs to you in Christ. Instead, you enter into what has been given to you and begin to live out your answer.

KNOW WHAT HAS BEEN FREELY GIVEN TO US!

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:12

When you see yourself in what God has said about you—that is faith that pleases God.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God.”
— Hebrews 11:6

Faith is like hands operating in the spiritual realm: you reach out and take your bread as a child of the Royal Family.

But if you continue asking and waiting for what, in reality, you already possess, another question arises:

Why are you not receiving what the Father has already called yours?

And now the issue is no longer only unbelief.

It becomes a question of submission to the Father and to His will for us.

Scripture says:

“Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
— Romans 12:2

If the Father says that He has brought us into the Kingdom of His Son, yet we continue living as though we are still outside of it; if He says that He has made us sons and heirs, yet we continue standing before Him as slaves—then the issue is no longer simply whether we believe.

We are not submitting to the will the Father has already revealed for us.

And Scripture speaks very seriously about rebellion:

“For rebellion is like the sin of divination…”
— 1 Samuel 15:23

This is where the problem lies.

Not in the fact that a person came to the Father with a request.

The problem is that the Father has already revealed His will, already given, already brought us in, already set us free, already called us His children—and yet we continue living as though we have nothing.

Instead of thanking Him for what you have, you continue asking for it. And that means you have not yet received it. You have not received it because you have not yet believed and submitted to what the Father has said about you.

There are many examples.

The Bible says that in Christ we have been seated in the heavenly realms:

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”
— Ephesians 2:6

Yet our souls suffer from sorrow and are tormented by dissatisfaction.

We have been told:

“By his wounds you have been healed.”
— 1 Peter 2:24

Yet day after day we beg God for healing.

All our sins have been forgiven:

“He forgave us all our sins.”
— Colossians 2:13

Yet we continue repenting, confessing, and singing corresponding psalms in our churches as though forgiveness were not yet ours, living as though we were still trying to acquire or earn salvation.

We have been redeemed from an empty way of life:

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life… but with the precious blood of Christ.”
— 1 Peter 1:18–19

Yet we drown in that very emptiness and futility.

We have been set free from bondage:

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
— John 8:36

Yet we live in debt, unforgiveness, and various forms of bondage that continue to manifest themselves in one way or another throughout our lives.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
— Galatians 6:7

If we sow unbelief toward what the Father has said and resistance to His revealed will for us, how can we reap answers that belong to the territory of faith and obedience?

And as a result, we suffer, become sick, and die; the same things happen to us that happen to those who have never held a Bible in their hands and have never lifted their faces toward God.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?

I think this is a good question.

It is the kind of question that can cause us to turn our Christianity around and begin again—to turn toward God, study Scripture more carefully, and become more intentional about how we pray.

Because we cannot remain children forever.

There is a time to ask.

And there is a time to discover the perfect will of God the Father for your life.

There is a time to grow up.

There is a time to stop living like a slave who owns nothing and begin living like a son to whom the Father has entrusted an inheritance.

Do not keep asking—receive what has been given to you!

Do not beg—worship, because you have something to worship Him for!

Do not mourn—rejoice, because there is a wonderful family reason to rejoice: we have found our Father, we are in His family, and we are in the Kingdom of His Son, here and now!

For it is written:

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
— Philippians 4:4

And also:

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”
— Colossians 1:13

Notice the words:

brought us into.

Not promised that someday He would bring us in.

He has already brought us into the Kingdom of the Son.

You are a son.

You are an heir.

Someone once said something profoundly simple:

“My Dad is God!”

Or are you still uncertain about who your Father is?

“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”
— Galatians 4:6–7

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it…”
— Jeremiah 6:16

There is no need to invent anything.

Return inward, because God lives within you—the King, the Creator of the visible and invisible worlds.

“I will live with them and walk among them.”
— 2 Corinthians 6:16

And there He awaits your attention and fellowship.

Then, at last, you will hear Him when you begin to listen; you will see Him when you begin to look; you will experience Him and begin to live in the reality of His presence when your prayer changes.

And notice something else: before planting, He speaks of uprooting and tearing down, and only afterward of building and planting:

“…to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
— Jeremiah 1:10

Perhaps this is also why we sometimes find ourselves in trouble and pray for God to come and take us out of it, without noticing that right there, in the middle of circumstances we ourselves have entered, God may be tearing down unbiblical strongholds and uprooting things planted in us and in our homes that never belonged to His Kingdom.

This does not mean that the trouble itself came from God. Often, we arrive there through our own initiative—through disobedience, deception, the pursuit of wealth, and many other wrong decisions that have led us away from His ways.

But God uses what we are going through to bring us out of what is contrary to His will and point us toward a most excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:31).

God has a destiny for you, and His intention for your life is far greater than simply answering your immediate need.

Sometimes we ask Him to remove the consequence, while He wants to introduce us to Wisdom that will lead us to understand the cause.

We ask Him to take us out of our circumstances, while He wants you to understand how you entered them and what allowed it to happen.

God desires to reveal to you the path prepared specifically for you.

And that is why asking:

“Why?”

—and receiving an answer—is right.

Begging God for years to come and do this or that is not!

Why, you may ask?

He has already come,
and He has already accomplished everything for us!

Now it is our turn.

We have entered His territory; He has not entered ours.

He “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13).

Now we must learn to live under His covering, keep His Word, and walk in His ways rather than expect Him to walk in ours.

This is the Father’s will for His maturing sons: not to remain children forever, doing nothing but asking, but to grow—to build a relationship with Him, discover what has already been given, enter into our inheritance, and learn to live from the reality into which He has already brought us.

“What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.”
— Galatians 4:1

But you are no longer a slave.

You are a son.

And if you are a son—

you are an heir.

So the time has come not only to ask the Father for the Kingdom.

The time has come to live in the Kingdom of the Son into which the Father has already brought us.

His will is good, pleasing, and perfect.

And to submit to that will is to believe the Father enough to begin living according to what He has already said about us.

THE TIME HAS COME, AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN HAS COME NEAR!

“The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
— Mark 1:15

With love,

Lexie from Paradise