08 Aug Are You Expecting?
We’re just reaching that point. I see it in their eyes and people are wondering, “Is she expecting?” It would be socially unacceptable to be wrong, so no one is quite brazen enough to ask. You see, my wife, Allie, is 20 weeks pregnant and she is just starting to show. In December we truly are expecting our second daughter.
I found myself thinking about that phrase “Are you expecting?” a couple of weeks ago on the plane ride home from the Every Nation School of Empowerment. Something happened that week regarding my faith, and I stopped just believing that God could move….and I started expecting it.
Like many of us, I grew up in a family of faith. As a child, I often heard of the great miracles of the Old and New Testaments, and this built a childlike faith in me. To this day I am so thankful for the spiritual heritage my parents gave me. From an early age I believed in God, and I believed He could still move, heal, and speak. However, I’m not sure I would say that I expected Him to move, heal, or speak daily. Belief is different than expectation. Belief means we THINK He can move. Expectation means we KNOW He will move. Expectation eagerly awaits His move. It’s the difference between can and will.
If I am honest, I went into the School of Empowerment believing God could do the miraculous, but not expecting Him to show me or use me. My own logical brain is sometimes the biggest roadblock in explaining away a move of God. People in the Bible did this all the time too, but it is often those who were (and are) most hungry to see God move, that actually get to see His power. In Mark 10 we see the story of a blind man named Bartimaeus who fully expected to see Jesus move. You see, Bartimaeus was desperate. He was blind and left to beg. When he heard Jesus was coming he started crying out, “Jesus, have mercy on me.” People rebuked him and told him to quiet down. This just caused him to cry out all the louder. Bartimaeus was expectant. Bartimaeus was hungry to see Jesus heal. Suddenly Jesus stops and tells the people to bring Bartimaeus. The spectators tell Bartimaeus to, “Take heart. Get up; He is calling you.”
Did you see what happened there? The same folks who were just shushing Bartimaeus suddenly had a little bit of faith. Hear this; expectancy breeds expectancy. Your expectancy can literally raise the water level of someone else’s faith. Jesus tells us that if we have just a little bit of faith we can actually tell a mountain to move and it will. Do you take Him at his word? Bartimaeus sure did. The story goes on to tell us that Jesus heals Bartimaeus because…”your faith has made you well.”
Our God is powerful and faithful. I truly believe that He wants to work miracles in your life if you will just have the faith of a mustard seed. So, are you believing God to move today, or expecting Him to move? Do you wake up expecting Him to speak to you? Maybe you should. Are you expecting Him to heal? I believe that’s the desire of His heart. Are you expecting a chance to share the gospel today with a person who desperately needs Jesus? Ask for it, and He will kindly oblige.
What do you say we shoot for a little movement in our faith today? Is there someone in your life that needs your faith to help them to move from belief to expectation? Are you believing God for something right now? Rather than just believing, go ahead and move that belief toward expectation.
Don’t stay where you are…it’s time to move!
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