by Ivan Maddox
Atlanta, GA


Years ago I took a Bible class called "Power for Abundant Living." In the first session of that class, I was taught several keys for receiving things consistently from God. These were:

1. Know what is available;
2. Know how to receive it;
3. Know what to do with it after you've got it;
4. Get your need and want parallel; and
5. Know that God's willingness equals God's ability.

Nowhere in the class was it clearly explained what was meant by "getting your need and want parallel." The scriptures referred to in the teaching of this point seemed to have nothing to do with it. Basically, all we were taught was that "if your need's up here and your want's down there..." (or vice versa), "...you'll never get (your prayer) answered."

What does it mean to have your need and want parallel? With what are they to be parallel? With each other? How do you know when they are parallel? Why are prayers not answered when your need and want are not parallel?

Several passages of scripture seem to shed light on this subject. By examining these and other related scriptures, we may come to a better understanding of what is meant by "getting your need and want parallel," and of how to go about doing it.

The first record we need to consider concerns the rich young ruler who came to Jesus to find out how he could receive eternal life.

Matthew 19:16-22.
And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Honour thy father and [thy] mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
(See also Mark 10:17-22 and Luke 18:18-23.)

This man wanted eternal life, and he went to Jesus to find out what he needed to do in order to get it. He still wanted eternal life when he left; that's why he was sorrowful. However, he was not willing to carry out the conditions set by God, and revealed to him by Jesus Christ, in order to receive what he wanted.

Most of the promises made to us by God in His Word are conditional; they require that we do something before God will fulfill the promise, and that something is usually found right along with the promise in God's Word. No matter how badly we want what was promised, if we do not carry out the condition, God's Word does not guarantee that we will receive what was promised (though God is able to give to us anyway by grace, going above and beyond what He has promised in His Word). If we want to receive consistently the things God has promised us, we must want them enough to obey God's Word and carry out the conditions set by God for receiving what He has promised.

The believers described in James 4 had a different problem. Instead of basing their wants on the Word of God, they decided from looking at the world what they wanted.

James 4:1-4.
From whence [come] wars and fightings among you? [come they] not hence, [even] of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
(See also I John 2:15-17.)

Two distinct problems are evident in this passage. First, God's people looked to the world in order to determine what they wanted. This is evident in their asking amiss, so that they might consume what they received on their desires. Is it possible to desire the wrong things if your desires are based on the Word of God? By the same token, is it possible to desire the right things if your desires are based on what the world says we are to desire, or on what appeals to our senses, or to our vanity?

Second, these people desired these things so badly that they disobeyed God in order to get them. This is evident from the wars and fighting in their midst.

The result of each of these problems was that either they did not receive what they wanted, or, if they did, they received it from some source other than God.

When we base our desires on "the lusts that war in (our) members," and when we desire anything so greatly that we disobey God in order to receive it, we place ourselves outside the will of God -- we imitate, in fact, those who are at enmity with God! -- and shut ourselves off in those areas from receiving from God.

Matthew 6:24 - 34 needs to be studied in light of this. The danger we are warned about here is not just that of seeking after riches, but, in setting the wrong priorities.

Matthew 6:24.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Many times this verse is taken to mean that we are not to exalt riches or luxuries or the hope of success above God; and that is indeed part of what is meant. But the rest of this passage makes it clear that we are not even to exalt our most basic needs above God. If we do, these become our other master in place of the One True God.

Matthew 6:31-33.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

We are not to have the same priorities as those who don't know God. We are to make God's kingdom and God's righteousness our priority. Then God will see to it that we receive those things that we need.

The woman with the issue of blood described in Luke 8 had a mindset worth looking at.

Luke 8:43-48.
And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

This woman had been sick for many years. According to Mark 5:25, she had been treated unsuccessfully by many doctors, and exhausted her finances, and had grown worse instead of better. Many people in this woman's condition would have resigned themselves to their fate; but she refused to do so. When she found that Jesus was in town, she went to him, determined to receive her healing from him. She did not even bother to ask Jesus to heal her. She pressed her way through the crowd, touched the hem of his garment, and was healed.

Because our culture is so different from hers, we don't really appreciate what it took for her to do this. Jesus was on the move at this time, on his way to the house of Jairus. He was surrounded by a crowd, but there was a definite "pecking order" in the crowd, due not to the teachings of Jesus, but to culture. First came the disciples; they were closest to him, crowd or no crowd. Then came the men. After that came the women and children. At the very bottom of the list, by all rights, came this woman.

Leviticus 15:19.
And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.

Because she had an issue of blood, this woman was ceremonially unclean. So long as she had this issue of blood, she was not allowed to go into the Temple, nor was she allowed to so much as touch another Jew. Yet so determined was she to receive her healing that she disregarded everything that stood in the way of her healing. To get to Jesus, she had to push her way through the other women, then through the men, and finally through the disciples. She didn't let any of this stop her; she pressed her way to Jesus. When she reached him, she didn't even try to get his attention -- or his cooperation. Without his knowledge or prior approval, she reached out and touched the hem of his garment, and, just as she knew she would be, she was healed.

This woman wanted her healing so badly that it didn't matter what she had to do to get it. She overcame every obstacle in her path as though it were not there, and her health was restored. She not only needed what God had made available to her; she wanted it with a passion.

The standard by which our needs and our wants must be measured is the written Word of God. If God's Word tells us that we need something, but we do not want it badly enough to do what God said do to get it, we will probably not receive it. If we allow the world to determine our needs and our wants, or if we desire anything so badly that we are willing to disobey God in order to get it, we will probably not receive it from God. Now this is not cast in stone. God can and does give things to people based on His own grace. But He does not guarantee that He will do this, and most of the time, you will find that He does not.

But if we make God's kingdom and God's righteousness our priority instead of our needs, and if we pursue the things of God with passionate desire, we will find that we are receiving consistently from Him the things we are asking Him for.

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