Our expectations in a situation cannot guarantee the outcome. I have found my expectations for worldly things are rarely better than what I expect. This was true when a friend set me up on a blind date.
On the other hand, my expectations with Godly things turn out much better. This is certainly true for the lame man laid at the gate Beautiful as recorded in the book of Acts 3:1-8. He was asking alms and yet when Peter ministered to him, he leaped up and stood, and walked. He certainly got much more than he expected!
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Our Heavenly Father wants the best for our lives. Why else would He sacrifice His son for our redemption. When it comes to being a son of God and fellowshipping with our Abba Father we can have high hopes and expectations.
Psa 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.
Why would we wait for anyone else? It pays to have patience with our Heavenly Father. We can have the highest of hopes, the largest of ambitions, and believe for the best, because our Father is faithful who promises.
Heb 10:22 & 23: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
We all have certain goals or aspirations that would be fulfilling in our life. When we go to the Heavenly Father those goals and desires can become realities if we wait on Him.
What kind of expectations should a son of God have? How about, ones that are “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,” (Ephesians 3:20).
Agape,
Bob
Many say life is a struggle; one battle after another. No wonder someone spoke up and said, “Choose you battles wisely.”
As we face life’s challenges may we remember who we are and how we fit into the scheme of life. You are a prodigy of our Heavenly Father as a result of the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This makes you very special and completely equipped to engage in life’s skirmishes.
Colossians 2:10: And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
We are complete in Christ! When we step into the arena of life facing the enemy and his strongholds, remember who you are! Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Our tactics in the ring are to “fight the good fight of faith.”
1 Timothy 6:11 & 12: But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed [confessed] a good profession [confession] before many witnesses.
The key points to remember from this:
Now do you see what the good fight is? You are now ready then, to enter the ring and be your best for our Heavenly Father!
Agape,
Bob
PS:
2 Corinthians 4:17 & 18: For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
This month of October, we have been working the subject of forgiveness. What will determine how powerful and confident you will walk, is realized in understanding and accepting what the Heavenly Father has done in forgiving your sins.
Jan Magiera recently shared with us about different words in the Hebrew and Aramaic which handles forgiveness in its varied details. She shared perhaps the most challenging part of dealing with forgiveness and God’s involvement with it is: We do not forgive ourselves. Many times we can forgive others, but we carry our own burdens and condemnations without letting them go. We also, realize the consequences of our sins and put up with them as it is the normal thing to do.
While the other words in her study dealt with, covering over sin, pardoning and restoring to favor, emptying the debt and dismissing it, one unique word is nasa. It literally means to lift off and carry away something. It infers the removal of sin. It is connected to the Old Testament when they would put all the sins of the people upon the goat and send him away. It is called a Scapegoat.
Another wonderful reality of this word is that the situation is over and there is no more debt owed. It is empty. The case is no more, totally shut down as it never happened!
When the devil goes to retrieve your sin to put it in your face, it is not there because it has been expunged! Only you, in your mind, will remember it and allow it to fester.
Expunged means, according to Webster, “To eliminate completely, destroy.” Legally when something is expunged it is taken off the record never to be returned. It is as if it never existed before. This is how big our remission of sins are when Jesus Christ fully and completely eliminated them!
Colossians 2:14 (ESV): by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Hebrews 10:14 and 17: For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now, it is our opportunity to confess the Word of God and believe it. Let’s expunge any negative thoughts Satan tries to use against us. Christ is our complete savior allowing us to serve the Heavenly Father.
Hebrews 9:14: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Agape, Bob
PS: Listen to Jan Magiera’s teaching on Oct. 21, 2018 at www.actsnowfellowship.net
It blesses me when someone says, “I was just thinking of you.” We all want to be loved and thought of. Obviously the ones we love and care for are the ones we think about all the time.
The Heavenly Father expresses His love to us in many ways, and perhaps it is best said, in “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” What a wonderful relationship God has setup with His children. The thought came to me. How much does God think of us? My wife answered it with the following verse:
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them;
They outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up, you are still with me!
Psalm 139:17, 18 NLT
Recently Jeanie was prayer journaling with the Father. After she wrote what was on her heart to the Father, she listened for His response. What really blew her heart away was His final words, “I love you my child every nanosecond of the day.”
What is a nanosecond? It is one billioneth of a second. That is mind blowing! He thinks about us a billion times a second. My next thought was, “How much time am I spending thinking about Him?” At least now I am motivated to think about Him more.
And what can I do that blesses Him while thinking of Him? Speaking in tongues! It is His way of helping us talk to our Heavenly Father all day long. When you speak in tongues you are magnifying Him (Acts 10:46); you are giving Him thanks well (I Corinthians 14:15 & 17); you are speaking the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:11); you are worshipping God truly with the spirit (John 4:23 & 24 and Philippians 3:3).
What is so fantastic is that we can SIT while driving, eating, working, dancing, running etc. Our fellowship with our Heavenly Father is the greatest source of joy in our lives.
Agape,
Bob
For many, man’s perception of God has been skewed. Even after 2,000 years of Christianity how most people see God is contrary to His desire.
Over 70 years ago a wonderful man of God, E.W. Kenyon pointed out the truth that has shadowed the thinking of so many. The following is an excerpt from an article on the subject of the Father-God:
For many years as a preacher and a Bible teacher; I failed to grasp the significance of the Father Revelation.
One must realize that no other religion but Christianity, has a Father-God, and even the Jews had no conception of a Father-God until Jesus began to teach.
The thing was so new and so startling to them that they stoned Him for it … They said, “Because He makes God His Father, therefore He is a blasphemer and ought to die.”
It is remarkable that at no period of the Church, since Reformation, has there been any adequate teaching of the Fatherhood of God.
Modern Christianity is practically a Jesus religion. The majority of Christians pray to Jesus. Jesus said, “When ye pray, say “Our Father who art in heaven” and “In that day ye shall ask me nothing but whosoever ye ask the Father in my name I will give it you.”
When I say we have a Jesus religion, all you need to do is turn to the hymnbooks. There are very few “Father” songs. When I began to write hymns, there were only two or three popular Father songs in all the range of hymnology.
The Father fact is the basis of all the range of Christianity. Jesus came to introduce the Father. “No one hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father; He hath introduced Him.”
You cannot think of the word “Father” without thinking of a family. You cannot think of the word “Father” without an unconscious feeling of nearness to Him. You cannot say “My Father” without feeling His embrace.
When you call Him “God”, there is a sense of Him being afar off – hard to approach. But when you say “Father”, there is a place to rest your head.
When Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions” – and “I will come again and receive you to myself,” Jesus made Heaven real, attractive, wanted. No longer just God, upon a throne; Holy Righteous and unapproachable, but a Father in His great home, waiting for His children to come.
Agape, Bob