Objection: It Is Humbler to Ask for Grace Than to “Claim Your Rights”

If you want to take some money out of your bank account, do you just write a check (manual or electronic) or do you go to the teller window and say, “I’m making a request for this amount of money.  If you want to give it to me, that’s fine, and if you don’t, I’ll understand because I know you’re probably busy with other customers and your time is limited by your short “banker’s hours,” and it’s your bank so you can make the decision to let me have it or not?”

There would be nothing “humble” about “asking” if you can have your money at the teller window.  The teller would think that you were strange, because after all, it’s your money, so you have the right to access it as you please.  Writing a check is claiming your right to have the bank withdraw money from your account and send it to someone.  You don’t have to ask for this right; you already have it.

It is the same with healing.  Jesus already deposited healing as well as every other spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3) into your heavenly account, so you do not have to ask God if it is okay for you to have it.  It is just as much yours to have as money in your bank account.  You do not need to ask God for grace that He has already given to you.  What you need to do is receive by faith what God has already laid up for you.

Far from offending God, “claiming your rights” honors Him because it shows that you believe and act on His Word.  “Asking” for grace that Scripture says is already yours in the case of healing dishonors Him because it shows that you do not believe what He said about what belongs to you.

If you think that “asking for grace” is humble, try praying this the next time you see some lady slithering on the floor like a snake – “Lord, I come to your throne, humbly beseeching Thee for Thy grace to make this demon leave.”  I can assure you, that demon won’t go because he doesn’t have to.  God have YOU authority to cast out demons (Mark 16:17).  If you don’t “claim your rights” over that thing, nothing will change.  God will not make it leave.  You must make it leave as Paul did in Acts 16:18: “I command you to come out of her in the name of Jesus Christ.”  Paul had the right to do that.  He did not go to the throne of God asking for grace in that situation because that grace had already been given to him to do that.

Where would we come up with the idea of “asking for grace” anyway, seeing that every spiritual blessing is already yours in Christ (Ephesians 1:3)?  The objector cites Hebrews 4:16.  But a closer look at that verse shows that it disproves the very argument it is supposed to support.  The verse says that you come to God’s throne to obtain mercy and find grace.  You don’t have to ask God to supply grace that He didn’t already supply; you “find” grace there.  That is not the same as asking for grace (humbly or otherwise).  Also, the verse says that we come to “obtain” mercy.  The word for obtain in the Greek (lambano) is the same word translated “receive” 133 times and “take” 106 times in the King James Version.  So this is not something you’re asking God for on a humble request basis; it’s something that’s there for the taking!  You don’t have to ask God to create it; you receive it.  You go to God and take what He’s already laid up for you.  You’re not “asking” Him to do anything new, nor do you need to do so!