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God recently placed the word, "expectation" on my heart.
After five years of waiting for God to fulfill His promise to heal my husband from dementia, five years of watching his cognition drop in leaps and bounds, I will admit that my faith was starting to crumble.
Four months prior to the writing of this devotional, a prophetic word reignited the promise in my heart. God would heal him, but He would do so gradually and only with prayer and fasting. As a result, a fast and prayer group came together, with initial positive results. I could hardly keep up with the daily improvements. Stress around the move of our son to a foreign country resulted in not only a complete stop of the progress, but a complete reversal to the point that my husband's cognition was lower than before we began the fasting and prayer group.
Someone suggested an online healing room, and I signed him up. I'll admit, I didn't have much hope. But why not try? The very first word spoken to us was, "expectation". We needed to be there with expectation of what the Lord would do.
I didn't give this much thought to be honest. We had been waiting for five years. We no longer had any expectation. Nonetheless, somewhere deep inside I could hear God telling me that this first word was from Him, and that perhaps my lack thereof was one of the roots of our problem...
Three other prophecies were spoken over my husband that day.
The first? That God was unwinding the cognitive decline. This was in keeping with the previous prophecy... And God doesn't repeat Himself unless He's really trying to get our attention ... (See Genesis 41:32).
But where was the fruit?
The second prophecy was that Jesus was present, that His light was surrounding my husband's brain, working to "light up" the dementia-deadened parts of his brain ... Interestingly, this is how God had been directing me to pray for the two weeks leading up to this day ...
The third prophecy was that God would re-establish the lost cognition at an even higher level than my husband had before. Again, this is how God had been directly me to pray for the two weeks leading up to this day ...
After these three messages, I figured I was doing everything right, and I would just have to wait. I recognized that God had spoken the word "expectation" to me, but somehow I just didn't have it in me. In fact, I didn't even know what "expectation" looked like...
It was my dog who woke me up on just what expectation is...
You see, she knows the morning routine. She knows that after we get up and get dressed, after we all, including her, eat breakfast, after we get our teeth brushed, she will get to go for her morning walk. And so she waits patiently ... but as I looked at her patient waiting this morning, I realized something important: She was patient, yes; but she was waiting in full expectation that her walk would happen! There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that once we had completed the necessary tasks, her walk would materialize.
Wow. It hit me right between the eyes. That is what it means to wait upon the Lord in expectation! Wait patiently, yes. Pray without ceasing, yes, but to expect the fulfillment of God's promise! To have absolutely no doubt that at the given time, the desired results will materialize!
Isn't this the reason why we say a mother-to-be is "expecting" a child? The child won't be born for nine months; yet the expectant mother does everything to prepare. There is no doubt in her mind that the child will come!
This isn't some made-up concept from a hopeful Christian. It is Bible truth. Check out these verses: "My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him." (Psalms 62:5 NKJV); "In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly." (Psalms 5:3 NIV). God knows we will sometimes have to wait for His promises; and He asks us to wait ... with expectation!
What about you? When you wait upon the Lord, is it with expectation? Or, like me, have you almost lost all hope? If you are like me, then take some lessons from my patient but expectant dog! Wait patiently, but expect that it will happen and prepare for it!
Remember: God keeps all His promises! "...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11 NIV)!
Let's all agree to wait upon the Lord ... with expectation!
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
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