CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE EXPECTING

Change What You Are Expecting

“And he said:  Fear not for they that are with us are more than they that are with them” 

II Kings 6:16

We have a spirit, soul, and body.  The body sees and senses things through our five senses, sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell.  The soul contains our mind and emotions and will.  The spirit is the part of us that God uses to communicate His love and truth to us.

In this historical Biblical event, we are told of two men.  Elisha who was looking with his spiritual eyes, and his servant looking with his physical eyes.  Elisha could see his deliverance while his servant saw the danger.  The king of the Syrians sent his army to capture two unarmed men.  Possibly the king had heard that this man’s master, Elijah, had prayed and fire came down from heaven and consumed fifty men three different times, and four hundred and fifty false prophets another time.  He knew that he had power to know all the secret military secrets that he had attempted to use against the nation of Israel.  But what he did not know was that those who fight against God, His people, and His Church are fighting against the chariots of God with tens of thousands of Angels..  Our Lord Jesus said to Peter at His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Do you not think that I cannot now pray to my Father and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions (72,000) of angels?”  (Matthew 26:53).  God has an unlimited amount of Angels to be both messengers and soldiers.  “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels the Lord is among them.” (Psalms 68:17)

This protection is also available to you and I.  “The angel of the Lord camps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them.  O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the person that trusts in Him.” (Psalms 34:7-8).  “If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).

Elisha servant was looking with his physical eyes.  He was reacting with his emotions and senses rather that his spirit.  It is no doubt he believed in God, but this shows us that in times of stress we often do not use our spiritual eyes to trust in our deliverance. Even the disciples questioned the Lord Jesus when they were in a storm. “Master, do you not care that we perish?” (Mark 4:38).  The Lord’s response to them after He told the storm: “Peace be still”, was “Why are you so full of fear?  How is it that you have no Faith?” (Mark 4:39-40).  We need to pray for each other the prayer Elisha asked God for his servant: “Lord, I pray that you would open his eyes that he may see.” 

Elisha’s servant represents those today who concentrate so much on problems and obstacles, that they don’t see the power of God.  God expects us to live by faith.  “The just shall live by faith”. (Romans 1:17).

What are you expecting today?  If you are living totally by your five senses, you can expect disappointment and failure.  But if you are allowing God to feed your spirit with His faith, His words, and His Holy Spirit, you can expect a life of blessings from your Heavenly Father.

When you are down to your last dollar or your health is failing, or a relationship has gone bad, what are you expecting?  Have you taken your needs to someone who really cares about you and can do something about them?  If you are one of God’s children and you have given your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you can expect God to help you and deliver you.  “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Then shall you call upon Me, and I will listen to you.  And you shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart”. (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

Listen to the words of our Lord and Savior about expecting good things when you pray.  “Have faith in God.  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be removed, and be cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says.  Therefore I say unto you: What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.” (Mark 11: 22-24).  There are conditions to getting answered prayer.  He continues his talk on getting answered prayer by saying that you must forgive others when they hurt and disappoint you.  In I John 4:7-8 we are reminded that we must love one another if we are going to get our prayers answers.  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God and knows God.  He that loves not, does not know God; for God is love.”  We are reminded that God expects us to keep His commandments of loving Him and others.

If you have been living a life of just getting by and not expecting much from God, change what you are expecting.  He wants to give you a life of joy and abundance.  The blessings that He wants to give you go beyond just the temporal things of life.  He wants to give you a greater gift.   “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”.  He wants to deliver you from an enemy that is battling for your mind , will, and emotions, in other words your soul. - and that is evil force is Satan.  He uses fear to immobilize us and paralyze us from receiving things.  He makes them seem impossible for us to accomplish.  But remember, we have to see things with our spiritual eyes and we can have so much more and accomplish so much more with the help of the Lord.

I  am expecting great things from our God.”Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of any person, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him”. (I Corinthians 2:9).  He is saying to you and me “Open your spiritual eyes”.  He is saying love Him and trust HIm.  He is saying to pray: “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers”.  (I Peter 3:12).