Joyful Expectations
A couple of weeks ago the Lord started talking to me about faith. Is faith believing that God can do something? Is faith just believing that God is able to do something? Is faith some kind of power that somehow makes God do what we want? Or is faith something more?
What the Lord started speaking to me was that faith is better explained as expectation. When blind Bartimaus was sitting by the side of the road, what do you think was floating through his mind when he found out that Jesus was walking by? (Mark 10:46-52) I do not think he was calling to mind all of the Messianic prophesies concerning Jesus. I do not think that he was saying to himself, “I think He can…I think He can.” No, when everyone else was telling him to be quiet he knew that Jesus could heal him and he expected Him to do something.
When the paralytic's friends tore through the roof and lowered the man on his stretcher to get him before Jesus, what do you think was running through their minds? (Mark 2:1-12) I think that they were expecting Jesus to raise their friend up from his pallet. They expected a miracle. It is amazing to me that the religious leaders said nothing about the property damage but wanted to argue about the Sabbath.
In the book of Acts what do we see the people do? They come to the apostles and expect God to work through them just like He did while He was on earth. In fact, at one point, they expected even the shadow of an apostle to heal them of their diseases. (Acts 5:12-16) It was not just the apostles either, because even deacons were doing great things when they were walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:4-8)
What about now? To tell you the truth, I think that the church actually walks around acting like practical atheists when it comes believing God. God tells us that deliverance is the children of the kingdom's bread or sustenance (Matt. 15:21-28). God tells us that if we know how to give good gifts to our children, won't our Heavenly Father give us the thing that we keep on asking for, that we keep seeking for ,and won’t He open the doors that we continue to knock on (Luke 11:5-13)? What about now? Was that for just those times? Has God changed? Has anything changed?
What about the future? I do not know about you but I know that Christ is coming again. I am expecting that. I am also expecting God to work some things out in my life. Now, I do not know what your predicament in life is. Here in prison we deal with issues that surround a court case or the parole board or an application for community or family members that are sick or in trouble. So, our circumstances may be different, but we all deal with life’s hardships. Perhaps you have a mortgage payment that is overdue and you need a miracle. Perhaps there is some sickness that the doctor just told you about. Perhaps you have a family member that needs deliverance. My question is: How big is your God?
The Bible says in James 5:13-18 that Elijah was a man just like us and he prayed and it did not rain for three and a half years. Not for one harvest season. Not for a year. Not for two years. Not for three years, but for three and a half years. The passage goes on to say, "The effective fervent prayer of the righteous man can do a little bit…?" Nope! It says that it gets the job done. Why, because that man has a BIG GOD, and he expects that BIG GOD to do something.
What are you expecting God to do today?