WHAT KIND OF THINGS, HOW HUGE, DO YOU EXPECT FROM GOD?

“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you”, Mat 7:7 

There is a difference between when you look for a big thing and a small one: the manner of all seeking differs.

If we come near unto God to ask from Him, if we are to seek and find His face, one of the reasons why we are unsuccessful in so doing might be because the expectation is lower than the object of prayer. Because God grants above measure upon right and properly offered prayers, above whatever we may be able to ask, there is always this danger that, because of the heart we have, we may not take notice of God’s glory concerning the issue in it, and we will be content to have an answer to prayer below the dimension of it. People, once nearing God, fear selfishness and greed. Because of that, they pray little and expect little of the little things they ask for and enquire God about, little knowing God can change their heart and ways if they do not change or alter that prayer to the end, and even though God is a God of little things as well. If you find yourself to be selfish, you should dare to increase your expecattion nearing God, for He is fully able to change you if and when you come near Him, believing.

If a heart is to come to God looking for a little thing, it is not the same as to look for great things. If I loose a needle in the sand or on the floor and look for it, I have not the same attitude, the same eyes, the same pose as when I am looking out for a mountain in the landscape. Because of knowing just how huge a mountain may be, I will stand back and make room for the possibility of looking afar off. If and when I do so, I may see many others things because I make space and stand back. But, if I look for a little thing somewhere, my eyes will become dim and instantly closed up for other things, no matter how huge these may look around me. Hyper-consciousness kills away all consciousness of God.

The attitude differs, the way to do one and the other are never the same and so will  the contentment be upon receiving. If a man is preparing himself to receive great, enormous things from God, he will surely be prepared to take in the small ones as well: but you cannot state the same concerning people who expect little from God, for these will no have room enough to take in huge things in, even if they know not what they are praying about, using vain, big words among the weeds of low expectations.

The main reason people refuse to ask according to God’s own views and things, is because they are not on the mood to believe they will change once nearing God. I saw that people, quite often, expect litle from God because they are unwilling to change, somehow. It may take time to build cellars to take huge amounts of corn and provisions, and because Joseph expected abundance above measure, he built such like cellars to hold them in as well - beforehand. He grew in grace while expecting just that. It takes a small man to expect and receive huge things. But, if you believe not God, that He cannot come to have you fully changed, you will not expect great things and you will only work accordingly. But if you are unwilling to change and yet expect great things to be done, you will surely have no answer upon prayer even if the object of all doings has been prophesied about.

One of the goals of all prophecies is to have people be turned prepared for a certain kind of blessing. It is not to make people guess about the future, or be soothsayers and diviners, but rather to have them take it in and, believing, work accordingly to be fully prepared when it comes. The promise is to find it if we seek for it, never just that we will find it. By seeking after it, our believing mind will soon be confronted with the whole truth of it all, with the means, the holiness, the humility, the love, the perseverence and, in fact, the whole of the works of God which need be done so that blessing will be turned possible. This is where we should not give up on God if we have sin, but rather work on its removal nearing God even more and better.

This gives us two dangers towards sinning I can see clearly out now: one is, one may abdicate of whatever God has promised because of them being either great or small issues. The other is becoming impatient and demand from God to do things He has promised, out of time and extemporaneously because we might not be willing to be changed by the pre-nuptial power of God. God sent John the Baptist beforehand so as to prepare a way for the Lord; Jesus prepared the disciples for revival, and right trough Scripture we may find just that. David waited thirteen years for the prophesied throne (and Saul lost it because he did not wait one year and seven full days, falling at the last day), David, never gave up on it even if it took so long to be fulfilled and even if he had to do a lot of things anyone would expect it was God who had to do them for him. But no, he said the throne was for God to give him, the preparation was fully his being together with God when it seemed not to be so. Usually people do the opposite, because they are slack and lazy enough to desire the results more than the preparation for them and therefore work on making it result, wishing to skip the pain of inner work and patience and perseverence in preparation. Anyone wishes to believe to be fully prepared so such may jump to the results. None of the holy men who received gave up on God to the end, they knocked and kept knocking and the door was opened unto them all eventually. Paul was told he would do great things for God, he would suffer as well and we find him fasting and praying for many years, waiting on God to do just that. Then, “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, So, then, (now is the time to) separate Barnabas and Saul to Me for the work to which I have called them”, Act 13:2. 

This is why many a revival dies right at birth, for people do not keep seeking to find, do not keep knocking to be opened unto them. To pray without ceasing may mean just that: never to give up on God, either because we do not take God seriously, or because we are unwilling to change for a change.Amen.

José Mateus
zemateus@msn.com