Objection: “Claiming” Your Healing Is an Arrogant Attempt to Twist God’s Arm

Then shame on you for “making” God renew your spirit and let you into heaven, which He did when you claimed the forgiveness that was available to you.  God did not do a new sacrificial work for you.  You just claimed something that was waiting for you.  You arm-twister, you!

There is nothing arrogant about receiving something that is already yours as far as God is concerned.  Peter writes that your healing is in the past tense (1 Peter 2:24).  In God’s eyes, it is rightfully yours because Jesus paid for it.  You are simply receiving something that God has already decided to give you.

Suppose I walk into my bank.  I tell the teller that I want to withdraw some money from my account.  Then the teller says, “You're mighty arrogant, aren’t you?  Are you trying to twist my arm?”  The tellers don’t say that at my bank!  (They were a little bit like that at a previous bank.  The ATM had a better personality than they did.  They acted inconvenienced that a customer would appear at their windows and make them work, but even they never called me arrogant or accused me of arm-twisting when I made a withdrawal.  I was simply getting out what was already mine.  In that case, I took out EVERYTHING that was already mine and went to another bank where the tellers acted like they actually wanted to serve customers.)

Why do you think that God provided healing for you by the stripes of Jesus?  So that you could sit there and act falsely humble and stay sick?  Of course not!  Jesus was not wasting His time when He was lashed!  His body was torn up so that your body would not have to be torn up.  He deposited healing into your heavenly bank account.  You have the right to make a withdrawal at any time.  That’s why God put it there!

You aren’t twisting God’s arm because you aren’t even asking God to make a decision.  He made the decision to heal you before he sent Jesus to bear OUR diseases, which by definition includes any that you may be facing right now.  You are not asking God to do anything.  You really aren’t as much claiming a promise as you are acting on a fact.  1 Peter 2:24 does not promise anything.  It is a statement of a historical fact concerning your healing.  You are acting on the facts of your covenant, not asking God to do something special for you.  God already did all that He needed to do.  Healing is in your account waiting for you to make a withdrawal.

God is faithful to His Word.  You don’t have to “twist his arm” to get Him to honor it!