Expectation is a powerful force in our lives. Whether we know it or not, we are all living on some level of expectation. Many are expecting negative things, sickness, loss, calamity and hardships. Others are expecting favor and blessings. Where do our expectations come from?
Expectation means “intense anticipation.” It can be either the intense anticipation of good, or the intense anticipation of bad things. What we expect we attract. A negative outlook on life creates an atmosphere for loss. A positive outlook creates the environment for increase. This is true for believers and unbelievers.
Expectation is impossible until someone sows a seed!
When you were a child you parents may have sown seeds of expectation about holidays, vacations or Christmas. Those word seeds created imaginations and desire. Expectation springs from seeds. The nature of the seeds will determine the kind of expectation that is created.
Seeds are being sown into us all of the time. The ones we allow into our hearts are the ones that will create our expectations. Seeds of fear, anxiety, worry, sickness, poverty or loss, if allowed to stay in the soil of our hearts, will produce after their nature and shape our expectations for the future.
This is important because from our expectations come faith or unbelief. Faith is the substance of things hoped for (). Hope is intense, positive expectation birthed from the seeds of God’s promises. It is impossible to have faith if our hearts are full of the negative seeds of the world. We may say we believe God, but our heart is telling a different story. The invisible, negative expectation that fills our environment snuffs out faith. Faith can only live in the atmosphere of the intense anticipation of God’s goodness.
When we allow God’s Word to plant the seeds of abundance into our hearts, and we limit negative seed sowers in our lives, our expectation level will rise, and faith will spring forth.
Expectation is impossible until someone sows a seed. Who is sowing into your life? Those seeds are shaping your future. If your heart is filled with the seeds of the world, your faith will never have a chance.
As you read through the gospels and focus on Jesus’ method of ministry, you will find that He was consistently planting seeds of expectation in those who followed Him. Making promises and giving hope are how Jesus influenced the needy around Him. In each case, Jesus would first expect something from the needy one, and then make a promise to them. Consider:
Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" ()
IF you believe. Belief was expected from the sister of Lazarus. Then He created expectation for her belief... “You will see the glory of God!”
And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. ()
Cast the net…..you will find.
" Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." ()
Give….and it will be given to you.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” ()
Seek first….and things shall be added to you.
"For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,` and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” ()
Say without doubting….and you will have what you say.
So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel`s, "who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life. ()
Be willing to leave all…..and receive a hundredfold more in this time, and persecutions and eternal life.
Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." ()
Drink of this water….you will never thirst again.
The list could go on. Again and again we find Jesus using the power of expectation to set people free. He understood sowing and reaping. He sowed expectations in hungry hearts….and He fulfilled those expectations!
Who is creating your expectations?