God wants to change your expectation; your expectation of God is a barometer measuring your knowledge of God, your intimacy with God, and the strength of faith.
God Wants To Change Your Expectations
Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. 6 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. 7 In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God. 8 Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah
If you change the expectations of a man you can change his destiny and the outcome of his life. This Psalm of David teaches us a great deal about expectation. Is your expectation for God alone? David had learned to put trust and expectation exclusively in his God. God is the source of strength and refuge. God is a safe place to pour out your heart. What you expect from God can measure your knowledge of God What you expect from God can measure your intimacy with God. What you expect from God is like the barometer of your faith.
Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. Believer what is your expectation of God. You don’t have to settle for less. This passage is not just some good sounding words that the Apostle Paul put together to make his letter flow to the Ephesians church. There is revelation of truth we can walk in. What is it you have been asking for and thinking you want from God. He has declared He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above what you have been asking and thinking about! Don’t miss the last phrase “according to the power that works in us!" There is a power at work in the believer and God will do the exceeding and abundant reply by it!
Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; :19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Learning to be in His presence will change our expectations. Paul’s prayer for the church is my heart’s cry for the church. God strengthen every believer by Your Spirit in the inner man. It is an encounter with God that will change your love walk; it is time for every believer to be rooted and grounded in the love of God. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge is the heart beat of God.
Hebrews 6:19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Here in Hebrews 6 Jesus is our forerunner into the presence of God. God expects us to show up in His presence. Like the young woman and young man pursuing romance we need a longing and an hungering to be in His presence. Some have grown discouraged in God because of unmet expectation; God wants to move your barometer of expectation. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Expectation can be raised as we proclaim the praise of God. God has done such marvelous thing for us we need to put His praise in our mouth. If we are born again we have so much to be thankful for. Again the writer is not just filling the pages with nice words. Stop pause and consider what it means to be a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a hold nation, His own special people. If you begin to mediate on what He has done for you, that will indeed put a praise in your mouth. Put a praise in your mouth and expectations will rise!
Matthew 15:22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed." 23 But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us." 24 But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ." 25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" 26 But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." 27 And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
This is a true life story of Jesus changing a woman expectations! This woman was not of Jewish descent but from Canaan in Mark 7 it says she was a Greek. This woman had called out to Jesus calling Him “Son of David”. She had enough knowledge of the ways of God she knew the Jews where God’s chosen people. The Word says Jesus would not answer her a word! The disciples were ready to run the foreigner off! Jesus had a greater purpose in mind and that was to change the woman’s expectation! Jesus declared He was not sent except to the lost sheep of Israel . Now the woman comes before Jesus with integrity and worships Jesus and implores Him for His help. So many have called out to Jesus for His help and much like this woman did not see themselves as qualified to receive. See what the Master does! It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs. This woman found hope in the words of Jesus! Now she was not pretending to be Jewish but asked to receive from the crumbs of the table like a little puppy. She now had a sure expectation she could receive from God. Jesus called her faith great! That woman’s daughter was healed from that very hour. Some believers are like this woman from Canaan ; what you think you know about God disqualifies you from receiving from His hand. God wants to change your expectation!
Colossians 1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
We have something the Greek woman did not have; we have the power of the cross. God the Father has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light! Let your expectations be raised because the Father Himself has qualified us to be partakers! Expectations rise when the truth of God’s word is unveiled in the believer’s heart.
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
Much like the Greek woman in Matthew 15 we did not qualify to be partakers in the promises of God; however Jesus came and broke down the middle wall of separation. We too have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. We don’t have to settle for the crumbs from the table because Jesus abolished in His flesh the enmity and gave us peace! Your expectation of your God can rise because enmity has been put to death!
2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Many people think they are ready for spiritual warfare not realizing it begins with one’s own thought life. If your life experience has taught you that you can not receive from God it is time to bring that thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem , and in all Judea and Samaria , and to the end of the earth."
Jesus the groom has given His bride a precious gift the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the strengthening of the inner man.
Acts 2:33 "Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. … Acts 2:36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Here recorded is the first time Jesus baptized believers with the Holy Spirit. Peter told those who heard them speaking and tongues and acting drunk they needed repentance and water baptism in the name of Jesus and then hear the promise! You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit! Exalt the truth of the Word above your thought life. This promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was to every believer without exception.
Luke 11:10 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 "If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 "Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Jesus ended the teaching with the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! Raise your expectation, if God is your Father you can ask Him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Based on the authority of the word of God nothing stands in the way from you receiving all the Father has intended for you! Jesus finished work at the cross makes every believer qualify for the inheritance of the saints.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
The goodness of God can raise your expectation barometer When faith arises expectations rise with it. Don’t allow your past experience set your barometer of expectation! Live by the word that has come from the mouth of God.
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