The Spirit of Expectancy
The Spirit of Expectancy
Roadblocks to Expectations
Part 2 of a Series
TEXT: 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."
Here is a short review to renew, reboot and refresh ourselves to the previous sermon in the series Luke 11:9-13 KJV, “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. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
God wants you to do three things here:
1. Ask
2. Seek
3. Knock
In return, God promises three things:
1. You will receive what you ask for
2. You will seek what you are looking for
3. You knock and it will be opened
It is a simple concept really. Think about it……..
Now to keep everything in balance lets refer to James 4:3 “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
I mean, some folks just miss the whole point because they look at God as a mail order catalog or something. Yes, it’s okay to pray for you needs and even your wants, as long as you keep everything in balance….. Keep it within the agenda of the Kingdom and not just to heap it upon your fleshly lusts.
In the first lesson I said; Sometimes, good people go through difficult things but those people should never lower their baseline for their standard of living. Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: What is the difference between a successful person and a failure? It is identified in the “Hang in there until you get it!” or in the “I quit!”
The person who hangs in there often has to work much harder than the other guy. He may not be smarter than the quitter, tougher than the quitter, more qualified, more skilled, or anything. What makes him a winner is the fact that he refuses to give up on the dreams until those dreams come true.
We also talked about Fear verses Faith. Fear actually opens the door for bad things to happen. We looked at Job who said; Job 3:25 KJV “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” I am firmly convinced that one of the reasons Job found himself in his predicament was because his fear overcame his faith.
We also talked about The Theology of Unbelieving Believers.
Think about it. What does it mean to be an unbelieving believer?
Some of you are probably even mildly offended by that terminology; Unbelieving Believers.” How can that be?
They believe in God
They are born-again
They pray and read their Bibles faithfully
They live moral lives
They pay their tithes
They are faithful to church
They may even give food to the food bank
Those things are good but…… they are still Unbelieving Believers.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Then we ended the teaching with the following three scriptures in order to keep us focused:
Matt 19:26 KJV “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
So, now we come back to our text in Jeremiah 29:11 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.
God does have a plan for your life, and it is a good…. No, strike that…., He has a great plan for your life. He has designed your life to be filled with purpose, destiny and prosperity.
He is not a harsh, uncaring deity who is completely unconcerned about you. Nor is God Narcissistic or self centered. A self centered God would not have loved us so much that He would send His only begotten son to save us. Man, God loves you more than you will ever know…..
But there can be Roadblocks to the Fulfillment of Expectancy
Some of the largest roadblocks are not directly the devil’s fault. We will talk about that another time; right now I want to talk about the roadblocks we can find between the chin and the scalp.
Most roadblocks are found in the mind; the way we think about things.
As crazy as it sounds, some of us will not allow God’s blessings and plans to happen in our lives. As bad as it sounds, some will refuse God’s goodness because of several possible things. All of these things are heart conditions as well as wrong mental concepts.
Perhaps it is because of:
Low self esteem
A sense of unworthiness
A Victim Mentality
A Poverty Mindset
A Loser’s Mentality
A fear of being judged by others
A fear of risk taking, and we could go on and on and on!
Most of us, in our past and before we were Christians, had become a product of our sinful society. The Christian terminology for this is “Worldly.” We lived sinful lives, had values that reflected such a life, and were products of that sinful environment.
Psychologist will tell us that the first 6 years of our lives are the most significantly developmental years of our lives. The problem with that is the fact that so many of us did not have ideal circumstances during these growing up years and we then developed learned behavioral patterns based on the dysfunctions we grew up in.
So, often there was a duel standard. There was the standard that was hypothetical, you know, based on our perception of the perfect lives of others. And then, there was the environment in which we actually grew up; which was vastly different than the perfect families we perceived others had. Or perhaps all the other families around you were just as messed up as yours and know knew it. Either way, dysfunctional patterns and misguided values often became the normal experienced life.
When I was a young man and before I was saved, I moved around from town to town a lot. In each town I moved to, there were all different types of people. Rich and poor, nice homes and campers down by the river, Christians and sinners, and so on.
You know, I did not have to look for the drug scene. Why? I attracted what I was! And when I would move to a new place they would find me there as well. Yes the faces were different but it was the same old game. Why? Because I had not changed on the inside, that’s why. A couple of years after I was really changed by the Lord, those old kinds of associates were no longer trying to connect with me.
That’s what I am trying to say about roadblocks to fulfillment of promises. Until something changes inside a person, they cannot handle the promise.
Have you ever been in a room full of people who were all higher than you? Did you feel you really belonged there? Why not? Maybe they were more educated, more experienced, more successful. Why did you feel you didn’t belong? Because you were not yet mentally and experientially ready to contribute yet. So, you can either crawl back into your hole, give in to the mindset that you are not good enough and never will be. Or you can use it as a motivation to grow, improve, change from the inside out and then find yourself achieving new levels.
You can do it!
So, let’s talk about Inner Vows.
An inner vow, by definition, is a personal determination made as a reaction to an event; the reaction may or may not have ever been verbalized. The nature of the inner vow is such that it takes the form of "I will never." or "I will always." or some other statement of our will.
The Inner Vow is a "bad thing" because it is activated by our personal spirit. Our personal spirit is that part of our being which, as God designed it, rules over the rest of our being. The strength of the inner vow is such that it affects the mind, will, emotions, soul and body.
Inner vows are a big, long and complex subject. The basic gist of it is that we see a behavior we don't like in another, generally and sometimes unconsciously, judge or condemn them for it. Then we make a promise to ourselves such as; "I'll never be like that" or "When I grow up, I'm going to be like _____" (the opposite of what we saw) or "I will never do that_____." Any inner vow spoken out of bitterness or judgment will always cause an opposite effect.
The bottom line is that we put a lot of emotional and spiritual energy; usually tied in with hurt and unforgiveness to the inner "promise" we make ourselves. This is usually done when we are very young and frequently we don't even remember these self-promises as an adult, or the unforgiveness or condemnation (or other sin attitudes) behind them. Most people do this in some area or another.
Therefore, the root issue is sin. All sin must be handled at the Cross of Jesus Christ, by His shed blood. The consequences of those sins are dealt with by the power of the Cross to destroy sinful structures or patterns of response. The result is a healthy soul, free of wounds and flowing with the Holy Spirit.
The bottom line is that Jesus commands us to forgive when we've been hurt. If we don't forgive, then resentment, bitterness and sometimes even hate build up in a person's life and that gives the enemy a stronghold. If the person makes themselves promises because of the pain/resentment/unforgiveness, then that self-promise can backfire and become a bondage or yoke in their lives... they can be "sentenced to act out precisely (or become) what they did not want to become." Or that self promise may turn into roadblock that holds folks back and keeps them from realizing their full potential in life.
Hebrews 12:15-17 NASU, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; 16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”
When we have negative things happen over and over, failure, or people have told us that we will never amount to much, we begin to believe and expect those very things. We don’t necessarily think this in our head, but believe it down deep inside. You can tell we do when something goes wrong. We respond something like this, “things always go wrong for me, everything always messes up, I always mess everything up, it happened like it usually does, etc.”
We have had a life time building this negative expectancy and so it won’t go away over night. We can, however, begin the process of rooting it out of our life and replacing it with a positive expectancy.
Here are a few things that can begin this process:
1. Resist it (James 4:7-8)
You must stand against this temptation and fight it with everything you have. Be determined you won’t let this remain rooted in your life. The Devil’s job is to keep us down. When this type of negative expectancy enters our heart we must recognize it as being from him and resist with all we have. God promises that when we do, he (the devil) must flee.
2. Renew your mind (Romans12:2)
Change what you allow in your mind. Dwell on positive things like success, your potential, etc. Listen to tapes on success or read books on the subject. Feed on positive things until it begins to crowd out all the negative things that life has fed you to this point. One of the best things we can do is feed on the Word of God. Read, study, memorize and meditate on it. Get as much of the word in you as you possibly can. Read also Colossians 3:16; Psalms 1:2-3; Psalms 119:9 and 11; Joshua 1:8.
3. Watch what you say (Proverbs 18:20-21)
When something goes wrong we tend to get upset and vocalize the negative. “Things always go wrong, I always mess up, I can’t do anything right, etc.” Instead of this we must resist and say something positive to counteract the negative. Like, “no I am going to succeed; I will overcome and be victorious over this.
4. Change who you hang with (1 Corinthians 15:33)
Face it we become like those we’re around. If you’re around those who are going nowhere, in a rut, and not striving to better themselves you will tend to fall into that same trap to one degree or another. On the other hand, if you hang with those who are pursuing success and constantly trying to better themselves you will likewise move in that direction.
5. Forgive others - This is a big one and not easily done, but…… Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
When we hold things against someone, we will often retain similar things to our life down the road. For instance, if your father was a drunk and abusive, you frequently end up doing the very things we hated. This often happens because we never forgave them. Unforgiveness has the tendency to retain to you the very thing you hate.
The only way to free ourselves is complete forgiveness. This isn’t always easy but it can be done. We must choose to forgive them from the heart or bitterness will dominate your life and you will become what you despise.
It takes time and will be a battle. Every time it comes up you must chose to forgive them over and over until it is uprooted out of us completely.
6. Pray something like this: Father God, change my heart. Give me a heart of faith and expectancy, not of negative and bad things but for the good and positive. Please forgive me for my unbelief. Help me to resist the negative expectancy of my heart and replace it with faith. Please renew my mind and heart at this time. In Jesus name, amen!
The Process of “Walking It Out” causes us to go through refinement and positive change: 2 Corinthians 7:1says, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
You know, stuff happens when you have to walk out your faith in order to receive the promises of God. The internal struggle with yourself and the spiritual warfare, and the changes it all makes on the inside of you is a hard thing but the results are amazing.
Check out the progression:
1. You receive the promise
2. You cleanse yourself from:
A. Filthiness of the flesh
B. Filthiness of the spirit
3. Perfected holiness in the fear of God
