by Steve Ary
In last month’s Kingdom Column, I wrote about the two words that God had given for me to convey to God’s people for the year. The first word was Rest, that we are called to rest in God’s anointing, allowing His Spirit to flow through us and onto other people. Our call to rest has little to do with how much energy we are spending, and much more to do with whether or not we allow God to flow through us when we exert ourselves on the things God told us to do vs. what He didn’t. His call for us to rest, and our obedience to do so, will cause us to reap a harvest we never would have received without such rest.
The second word He gave me for the Body of Christ was Expectation. He is calling us to expect that He will fulfill His promises to us this year. He is calling us to expect that all of our prayers will be answered this year… to expect… so much so that we would bind ourselves to that expectation, progressing to the fulfillment until He achieves it… never letting go, never untying, and never cutting “the rope” which has bound us to what we are earnestly expecting.
I mentioned that this word is a conditional promise. Repeatedly throughout the scriptures, God says, “If you do this, then I will do that, but if you do that, then I will do this,” and He always does what He says. He showed me that for those who are obedient to expect God to come through, He will come through, but those who are not in earnest expectation for His fulfilled promises and answered prayers, due to a lack of faith, will not receive them.
“But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6-8
What He has shown me since the last publication is that some of us… even many of us… are already in earnest expectation of what God will do next… but we aren’t aiming high enough. We’re settling for second or third best. We’re aiming for low-hanging fruit… instead of the best fruit at the very top.
He showed me that we are using small faith to expect small victories, small answers, and small promises. For those praying for revival, we are expecting small, congregation-level revival instead of city-wide, state-wide, country-wide, or even worldwide revival. He showed me that He wants to give us more than what we are expecting, but that He also wants us to mature in our faith in Him and what He will do. So, He will wait… until we aim higher, expect better, anticipate more, and bind ourselves to His greater, and His much greater still… because He wants to give lavishly to us this year.
Scripturally, we can see how this works if we put ourselves in Elisha’s shoes. His spiritual father was Elijah who performed seven miracles. Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, and that is exactly what he got, for he performed exactly 14 miracles. Years passed and Elisha found himself on his deathbed, still advising Israel’s King Jehoash, even as the Arameans were in Aphek, closing in to conquer Israel and Jehoash.
In 2 Kings 13:14-19, Elisha told Jehoash to shoot an arrow out of the window as a prophetic act… and upon doing so, Elisha told Jehoash that he would defeat the Arameans at Aphek until he put an end to them. Next Elisha told the king to perform another prophetic act, to take the bundle of arrows and strike them on the ground (which was a common practice to test the strength of the arrow so that it wouldn’t shatter in the bow, driving pieces of wood back into the hand of the shooter).
The king struck the arrows to the ground, but he only did so three times. Elisha became angry, and then said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you put an end to it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times,” which is exactly what happened.
The moral of the story is this; that Elisha could have asked God for anything as Elijah’s mantle was passed down to him. He could have asked for a triple portion, a quadruple portion, or even an infinite portion of Elijah’s spirit… but he only asked for a double portion… and he only performed double the miracles. Imagine that Elisha completed the 14 miracles, and spent the rest of his life saying to himself, “I should’ve asked for more.”
So, when he saw that the king’s prophetic act was with only a small amount of faith instead of the big and crazy level of faith Elisha was hoping for, he was reminded of his lifelong lesson, that he should’ve asked for more. And now, because the king could have asked for more, could have operated in more faith, could have had greater expectation… but didn’t, Elisha knew that the level of faith in King Jehoash would determine the level of victory before him. It wasn’t enough… and he should’ve asked for more.
The point is simple; with low or easily attainable expectations, we operate in low-level faith, hindering the lavish flow from God’s Spirit. In fact, we can often achieve by the work of our own hands the smaller results we hope for if we would just maneuver our focus. In so accomplishing those smaller works, we might even become the recipients of 
God’s glory… but if the fulfilled expectation is far beyond our reach so that only God could have accomplished it, only God will get the glory. THAT’s where God wants our level of faith to be… pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing… aiming for higher, expecting greater, anticipating His best, and asking for more. So, be strong and courageous, full of faith and expectation. No regrets, fellow faith-walkers! Aim higher! Expect greater! And ask for more! Rak Chazak!
