Stay in Expectation!

Co-Pastor Gloria Ingram

2 Kings 4:21-37

Psalm 62:5

Challange : To rejoice because it's already done!

Thought : Am I walking in expectation?

Don't put your expectation on people places and things, but put them on God!

We need to stay in expectation of what God is about to do.

Three types of believers

• The believer with no expectation 
• The believer with low expectation 
• The believer with high expectation

God spoke and things happened. We need to live in his likeness. We need to speak God's words. God's Word says "Death and life is in the power of the tongue" .

We need to live in high expectation. As children of God we should not live beneath our priveleges.

The mind can be positive or negative. Thoughts control your actions and what you become. In other words unless you believe, nothing will happen. You have to believe you can be better, you have to believe you can get that job, etc.

Only God can turn a dead situation into life. God can revive anything! What needs to be revived in your life?
Your marriage?
Your passion for life?
Relation ships in your family?
What are you believing God for?

Jesus sent 70 deciples on their way and told them not to take anything with them. He wanted them to be in expectation every day... Can we live in that kind of expectation?

The 70 returned from being sent out and rejoiced after witnessing what God did for them on thier journey.

God wants us to trust him when he first speaks, not AFTER we witnessed something.

With God we should live in the expectation that it's already done!

Rejoice now because it's already done!

This week: Corporate Challange, expect God to do something great this week.
We are not going to talk negative
Think positive
Speak positive
Have scriptures available to redirect your negative thoughts.

ONLY BELIEVE

Mark 9:23- Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

With good reason does the enemy seek to bombard our minds with all types of things.  Like a stranger in the house of a hoarder, we will not find anything because nothing is where it’s suppose to be.  The forces of darkness knows all too well how bombarded minds find it difficult to believe God!  Their intent is to keep us mentally preoccupied, or even mentally checked out.  An overwhelmed mind will find itself drowning in a pool filled with thoughts.  Without the help of the Holy Spirit, who responds according to our faith in the Word of God, it is humanly impossible to bring the mind peace, rest, and stability.  So without divine intervention—what we believe is buried under the rubble of doubt, fear, and the box marked unknown!

It is not our business to search God’s Ways.  Our part is to believe that He will make a way! How He chooses to bless, heal, deliver, or manifest Himself is strictly according to His sovereign Will.  We must surrender our right to worry, and humbly submit ourselves to God’s loving care.  Let’s start by believing what God has said in His Word: “Fear thou not: for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”  Tired of the headaches?  Would you like to rest?  Are your burdens heavy?  Well.  If you can believe God, all things are possible to those who believe.   

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YOU ARE STILL STANDING

Ps 56:8- Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?  9.When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.  10. In God will I praise His Word: in the Lord will I praise His Word.

Of all the things I hate—the abuse of any kind to anyone, especially the sexual abuse of the defenseless, makes my righteous indignation boil at a feverish pitch.  It leaves them deeply scarred, distrusting, and damaged.  If you have suffered any type of abuse, God says that He has bottled your tears, and has not forgotten your pain.  “Where was God when it happened?” One might say.  In a world engrossed and saturated with sin, bad things happen to good people.  It does not mean that God did not know.  Rather, abuse of any kind shows the need of the victim and perpetrator.  Both need a loving savior to give them the right to enter the healing process.  You will never erase nor forget what took place, but God’s power to heal is available to you through His Word.  Rather than see the torment of the abuse, you will be taught to see it as a failed attempt of satan to snuff you out.  YOU ARE STILL STANDING!  

You may even want to see your offender suffer.  But remember, vengeance belongs to God (Rom. 12:19), and He has commanded His children to forgive (Mark 11:25-26).  “Yeah, but forgiveness seems useless!”  You might say.  To the contrary, forgiveness shows our willingness to believe God to heal us because of our obedience to Him.  Forgiveness is not for the perpetrator, but for the victim.  It reveals the resolve to love, rather than to be brought to the level that caused the beastly act of the violator in the first place!  This is what our Lord did when He forgave those who murdered Him without just cause (Luke 23:34).  He, too, was purposely violated, but He held no ill-will against His haters.  Are we better than Jesus?  Of course not!  His example of unconditional love should spark us to believe God for the spiritual revival of our hearts, the restoring of our souls, the renewal of our minds, and the eventual resurrection our bodies for using His word as our instruction manual during our redeemed life.  O, by the way, YOUR STILL STANDING.  Praise God for His Word.  God is for me!   

CAN FAITH AND DOUBT CO-EXIST

Mark 9:24- And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Imperfection is what it is until it surrenders to or is overcome by perfection.

Oh!  if we could only hush the little voices in our minds that seems to put our faith in jeopardy.  Or if the negative ones would be silent until our faith bring the thing to pass.  Unfortunately, this is the thoughts of a wishful thinker.  A faith that is not challenged must be questioned as to whether or not it is faith at all.  Our doubt will interrogate our faith; but our faith mustn’t wavier.  Faith cannot have inconsistencies in its story.  If it is asked the same question one million times, it must emphatically and relentlessly say the same thing every time: “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me” (Acts 27:25).  There is no way to stop, shut off, or shut down thoughts of doubt; but we overcome as we continue to believe God in spite of the circulating and circumstantial evidence of doubt. 

The thing that you have asked God for—is it within His Will for you to have?  And if you are within His Will—then although you know doubt, know beyond the shadow of doubt God has worked things out in your favor.  Come hell or high water, hold on to the promises of God.  

DEFEATED OR VICTORIOUS

Rom. 8:37- Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

The most powerful thing we have is the power to choose.  Not even God can take away our right to do so.  Why?  Because He gave it to us and therefore cannot renege on what He has already set in place: “For I am the Lord, I change not… (Mal 3:6a).”  All humans were born “Free Will Moral Agents.”  Listen: Jesus died so that we might have the right to life, and that more abundantly (John 10:10).  Yet, a man or woman has to make the choice to be wash in the blood of Jesus in order to receive the life He purchased with His life.  Think about it!  God gave us His son, so that all who believe in His work on the cross could live.  However, if we chose not to receive Christ then we could die in our sins.  Whatever the decision, the Father truly respects the choice.

My circumstances or situations do not dictate whether or not I am victorious or defeated.  I do!  If I choose to think, speak, or be defeated than I am defeated.  Victory must become a state of mind before we see it in reality, not vice-versa.  Having now faith—secures my victory, and speaks volumes on what I exercise inside me.  Our eyes can only see what is before us, but faith sees what the natural eyes cannot perceive as real.  Our ears may hear what we think to be true; but our spirits knows the truth, Jesus Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit!  “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith….” So—even though I may be having an unpleasant experience—I choose to think victorious thoughts regardless to what my outer life says.  In spite of what’s happening right now, I am “more than a conqueror”!  And this is what I choose to believe.           

GOD CANNOT

Luke 11:9- And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

In one of my messages, I mentioned some things that God cannot do, and a few people were offended.  Yet it is obvious how God has left certain things in our hands and He will not coerce, manipulate, neither force us to do what He wants.  God created us free will agents and even our Creator respects our right to choose.  He has given us the right to choose the path we want to walk.  We can serve God or refuse the opportunity to do so. Now of course!  the best choice is to serve God and live (Ezek. 33:11).  Nevertheless, God only offers a great future and encourages us to believe on His son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter, which means to be our Helper.  The Holy Ghost can empower us to change; however, He offers no assistance if the host rejects His sound wisdom.  Wow!  So inline with His Word is our God that He will not force us to drop our cigarette, stop the cursing, love our enemy, etc.  Whatever we want to change we must first ask God for forgiveness for our sins in the particular area, and then ask Him to empower us to accomplish what we are setting forth to do.  Now—once the Holy Spirit knows that you or I are sincere—and He knows our intention is to pursue freedom from the oppression, then immediately strength will be given for the task at hand.  But always remember: God cannot move on our behalf except you and I invite Him in to intervene.  He will not help unless we Ask, Seek, and Knock!