TOPIC: Have you an expectation

TEXT: Prov 23:18

Do you know that a lot of people go to churches without any expectations at heart? some of them as far as I’m concerned go to see the latest cars, clothes for the ladies and especially the young ones just go to church only to enjoy the vibes of the choir ministration or praise and worship. No wonder some people go to churches filled with the presence of God yet return back to their homes the same way they went because they have no expectation. Like our text told us, “thine expectation shall not be cut short” my question now is when you have no expectation, what then happens?

Our father in the Lord Pastor E. A Adeboye, once shared a testimony of how he attended a meeting with Kenneth Hagin in the United States, Daddy said, he felt the power if God in this man of God that he and two other men waited behind just to see Kenneth Hagin. At first, they were restricted but after much pressure, Kenneth Hagin asked his other men to confirm if what they were waiting for really needed his presence. The first man said he just wanted the pastor to give him permission to sell his literatures without anyone disturbing him, the pastor said this man doesn’t need my presence and so he just gave him a go-ahead to sell his literature; the second man sent his own word to Pastor Hagin , I only want to sell your audios, please give me your approval, again the pastor gave him his approval. But when it got our daddy’s turn, he told Kenneth’s men see, what I want requires the presence of the man of God, so I would rather wait for him to come by himself’ (Now that is a great expectation) and when pastor Hagin laid hands on him and started praying for him, for a while  after daddy opened his eyes, all he saw was himself lying flat on the ground with Pastor Hagin still pouring powers on him. Indeed, the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut off! Halleluyah!

Never you settle for less. Ben Carson would always say ‘since you have an opportunity to think, THINK BIG’. If Dangote comes to you and ask what you would want for Chrstmas, what would you ask for? When the scripture says there is an end, what does it mean? Certainly, if you go to church in the morning the service will certainly come to a close. If you go to work, you will certainly have a closing time; your kid goes to school, the term will definitely roll-out. That is what the scripture is saying, there is an end and your expectations will not be cut off. Your expectation after working is your wages, your expectation after school is a good grade, your wife’s expectation in the labour room is a baby – but why do some of us go to the house of God without an expectation? May God deliver us in Jesus name. Amen!

Have an expectation! Jeremiah 29: 11, 3 John 2, these are the wills and desires of God for us, but these are not the things expected only. God expects us to create desire and have expectation towards the desire within us. Don’t just say I love Jesus, I’m just serving God, I don’t need anything. Oh great! That’s a good idea. Of course God will always show love in you but the truth is even satan knows that everyone that serves God, there’s something behind your services to God.

In Job 1:9, when God said ‘Satan, have you considered my servant Job, and satan said yes! In fact satan was like, ‘Oga God, at least before I fell I knew you well, this man called job is he just serving you for nothing, because Job knew serving God would provide security, health, prosperity and so on. Satan said does job fear God for nought? The wish of God is for us to have all round prosperity, but what is your own desire and expectations? The word of God has told us that there’s glory ahead, how many of us has keyed into it; are you still looking back at the challenges you are faced with or looking at the glory ahead of you. Remember what our text told us, surely there’s an end. There’s nothing that has a beginning that has no end. There is only one person we can boldly say has a beginning but has no end,that is the Omega himself.; Jehovah God of Host.

Even God said he has not called us to seek Him in vain. Every moment of your life, when you go to the presence of God, you should have an expectation you desire. Before going to the presence of God, long for something knowing that the presence of the Lord is there and He will deposit something great in your life. Many enter into the new year without any expectations for their lives and we forget that it’s our own expectations that can’t be cut off, but even when we don’t have , God words still remains the same.

Numbers 23:19 says He is not a man that he should lie, it is only those that have a desired expectation that theirs won’t be cut off. He is no magician, so we should not ignore relevant things for irrelevant ones. We should know that every service day is important, any meeting that brings children of God together should be prioritized because the scripture says in their midst, God is there.

Often times, people move into marriages without expectations. Before is used to be marriage before love now its love before marriage…….and you will hear things like ‘I love you pass my mama, my love can kill’ but all these things still end in fight after they marry and the man would be like ‘I didn’t know you were this kind of woman,’ my brother did you not see her before you proposed to her? Most times we expect things differently from what God desires for us, which is a terrible thing. Lets talk about the things that would help us strengthen our desired expectations in God

1. Your expectations must not be against God’s plan for your life. (Amos 3:3) ‘Two cannot walk together except they agree’
2. Connect to God to draw up your expectations – but when you draw up your expectations and you are not connected to the right source, remember the scripture in Psalm 127:1 says ‘except the Lord builds a house, they labour in vain that build it, except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman watches but in vain’. John 15:4 ‘without Him we can do nothing’. Sometimes when we walk outside God’s scope, he leave sus to see those things comes to manifestations. John 4:3 ‘Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss’
3. Write your expectation down. Those things you are expecting from God, write them down and make it plain. (Habakkuk 2:2) The first person that can run with your written vision is yourself , if you cannot run with your own vision, there’s no need writing it and expecting others to run with it because you are the one that will have the passion for it.
4. Maintain a clean walk with God- Isaiah 59:1-2. Don’t argue with God, be like the widow who obeyed the prophet. Don’t argue – just make sure your ways are right with Him. Deuteronomy 28:1-3 – harken diligently to God’s word.
5. Fill your heart with your expectation – let it dominate your thought. What you think about, you put your energy to it. Let there be something you’ll say ‘by this time next year, I will have this’. By so doing, your whole heart will go into it (Luke 6:45)
6. Now, it’s not just expecting, you must water it with prayers. it’s one thing to plant is another thing to water. God wants us to understand the effect of prayer. ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17)
7. Work towards it- that it may be fulfilled according to the prophecy. prophecy is not an avenue to seat and relax, you must work towards it to bring it to pass. If you desire a thing, work towards it, if you want to own a car, you must first learn how to drive a car. I learnt of a lady who after her “to be” husband had done all the necessary things for them to be married ran back to the pastor that she wasn’t going ahead with the marriage anymore. Later on, the man also went to see the same pastor to report – he said ‘Pastor, can you imagine after I’ve done all the necessary introduction this sister said she is no longer going to marry me’? He didn’t know this sister had already told the pastr what happened. So as he was reporting, the pastor said to the man –‘bro, did you tell her during your small misunderstanding that she was very lucky that you guys were not yet married, that had it been you were married, that you would have dropped your bible and dealt with her accordingly? The young man said it was out of annoyance – Oga, which annoyance? Then the sister said, oh flesh and blood has not reveal this to me, but my father which is in heaven. In Yoruba, they would say if the death that wants to kill you removes your cap, run! No wonder the sister said – I better not even marry at all, than to go and face hell in that marriage. So you work towards anything you feel that would go against you.
8. Wage war against anything that may want to hinder you (John 2:28-30)  from having your desired expectation. 2 Corinthians 10-5-6, Ephesians 6:10
9. Don’t just ask, make sure your faith is lifted up. In fact, its your expectation that your faith would stand on. If you don’t have an expectation, what then do you expect of God? If you don’t expect anything, what would you exercise faith on? It is actually your expectation your faith stands on.

CONCLUSION

Don’t be tosses around with unbelief and doubt. Believe God, trust him for whatever you desire and God will begin to make things work for you; but most importantly, anywhere you go whether its church or marriage you are planning for, its only God you must rely on.

Today, as you woke up, what was your expectation for the day? Remember no two can walk together except they agree, even if you have thousands of expectations , if it’s not rooted and grounded in God, it’s void – so for you to have a right  standing with God, you must amend your ways.