Supernatural Expectations

Jesus told a parable about a master who gave a different amount of talents to three men. Two of the men doubled the amount given to them while one man hid his talent. When they were called to give an account, their stories were told. The master was pleased with the two guys who doubled what they had been entrusted with. The guy who hid his talent had a couple of things to say that gives us insight into the ways of the master. First, the servant said that his master was a hard man. The Greek defines hard as tough or severe. We might conclude that the master was disciplined and expected serious stewardship of what he owned. The second statement the servant made is a little more mysterious. He accused the master of reaping where he had not sown and gathering where he had not sown seed. Because of this the servant admitted that he was afraid. (see Matthew 25)

I believe that Jesus was giving us a revelation of the Father’s expectation. The Father’s expectation is not natural as in the way we understand expectation. He has a supernatural expectation of us. To begin understanding the ways of God we need to understand this. Anything we can accomplish on our own doesn’t require faith or trust in God. He expects us to tackle the impossible. He expects us to reap beyond what we have sown. He expects us to cross divides of impossibility and pull into our times things that belong to the future. This is a part of the mystery of God. It is also a part of the mystery that the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us. Paul said that eye has not seen nor ear heard about the things God has prepared for those who love Him. But, God is revealing them through His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things even the deep things of God (see I Corinthians 2:9,10)

Jesus cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season. (see Matthew 21:19) He expects fruit out of season. Paul instructed young Timothy to be instant in season and out of season. The Greek meaning of instant is to stand or to be present. (see II Timothy 4:2) Our excuses of going through a rough time and therefore not able to stand our ground for God are not acceptable. In Heaven’s culture, trees bear fruit every month. This is also our privilege and right to be able to bear fruit every month.

Someone might argue that these are things reserved for Heaven or the Millennium. Even if they are….. there is no reason we cannot call them forward into our times. There are multiple accounts of men and women of faith who called something reserved for another time into their time. David lived under the dispensation of law when animal sacrifice accompanied every act of public worship. This did not stop him from erecting a tabernacle in Jerusalem and establishing 24/7 worship without any animal blood offered. He stepped across the great divide between law and grace a thousand years before the gap was bridged by Jesus. I am willing to say that it (law and grace) was a greater divide than we have between grace and millennium or even grace and heaven.

I define the dispensation of grace in short form as a time of miracles, power, salvation, Kingdom extension, revival, restoration, and greater works than even Christ did while on earth. I remember Jesus teaching the disciples to pray that the Father’s will be done on earth as it was done in heaven. There is no limit to what we can pull from heaven to earth. When Jesus died on Calvary and arose victorious on Resurrection morning, He had built the biggest bridge the universe had ever known. He not only made a way for man to go to heaven instantly upon leaving earth but gave us unlimited access to the ways of heaven. He bridged the gap between man and Father which was His sole purpose of coming. He extended the bridge to allow us to pull things reserved for eternity into the now. This is revelation that will set us free.

When they ran out of wine in Cana of Galilee, Mary asked Jesus for help. His reply to her was that His time had not come. His time of miracles may have been close but not hardly yet. Mary told the servants to do whatever He told them to do. He must have looked up at His Father and saw a nod come from Father. Jesus began his miraculous works that day. Mary had carried this promise of seeing her son perform the miraculous for approximately 30 years. She pulled into one day what was reserved for another day. This is living a life of supernatural expectations. This pleases the Father.

Jesus’ ministry, for the three years before the cross, was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. However, a Canaanite woman wanting deliverance for her daughter asked Jesus for help. Jesus explained His present mission was to the house of Israel. Her response was to beg for just the crumbs from the table. Her daughter was healed. She had stepped across the divide of Acts 2 when the gospel would be opened up for all nations. The Samaritan woman of John 4 went and told her city about Jesus. The Samaritans begged Jesus to stay with them a couple of days and He did. They pulled into the present that which was reserved for the future. If these people sound like radicals then God is calling us to be radicals. If they sound like revolutionaries then God is calling us to be the same. God expects this out of us.

Too long we have hid behind our dispensations and eschatology as excuses to do nothing to extend the Kingdom of Heaven here on the earth. Any given Sunday millions will pray the Lord’s Prayer meaninglessly. Are there any revolutionaries or radicals out there who will pray and mean it? Pray heaven onto earth. We often have our minds so set on getting from earth to heaven that we overlook the fact that God is expecting us to pull heaven to earth.

We need to pray big. Expect big. We need to have vision that is impossible for us to accomplish. When Isaiah talks about restored cities and healed nations, do we throw that off into some future dispensation? Even if it is a part of the Millennium it can be pulled into our time. When the prophets talk about a time when the glory of God is manifest over all the earth, do we start thinking Millennium? Yes, the glory of God will be manifest over all the earth during the Millennium but is there anyone hungry enough to pull it down now? When Acts 2 quotes Joel 2 about Holy Spirit being poured out upon all flesh, where do we put that promise? Do we water it down for our time and trust in greater fulfillment in a future time? When are we going to step forward and bring a promise across the great divide of time? When are we going to stop hiding in our caves of unbelief and become men and women of valor who call forth that which is not… into being? (see Romans 4:17) We can change history. Let’s live daily asking Him for revelation of His supernatural expectations of us.