Recently a friend sent me a prophetic picture that she’d had whilst praying for me. It was of a pie and like when we’re served dessert we often get asked, “How much would you like?” she saw me replying, “Yes, that’s the right size for me. In the picture, she saw the Father serving the pie and he kept increasing the size of the slice, saying to me, “No, there is more, try more, expect more” and as I got used to the size he offered me, he kept increasing it again. This picture excited me because God has been speaking about expecting the unexpected and seeing him change things, I haven’t seen him change before.
It was also a provocation because when I’m feeling discouraged or disappointed, I know I can take my eyes off who God is and expect too little; maybe you can relate. When we think like an orphan, we only expect a small portion, even crumbs or scraps; we’re just thankful for anything. When we think like a son or daughter, we wait with expectation because we know the Father always has more. He is a Father who delights to give us more than we can ask or imagine. He doesn’t just give us crumbs. His resources are unlimited.
In the desert, God provided food every day for his people instructing them not to keep any back but to trust that he would supply all that they needed. When Jesus fed the multitudes, he took their humble offering; the boy’s lunch, and multiplied it so that everyone was fed and satisfied. So satisfied that there were twelve baskets left over! Jesus wanted them to see that nothing is impossible with him and that in his Kingdom his supply is unlimited not only in terms of food and provision but in every way because He IS the Bread of Life!
I love this story from my friend Dan who is a paediatrician. Dan knows he’s a son and that he carries the Kingdom and partnering with the Holy Spirit he regularly steps out in his surgery to share the gospel.
Recently, a mother came in with her 3-month-old baby and he felt prompted to ask her how she was. Unsure at first if he meant her or her baby, she went ahead and told him how she was suffering from depression and that she wouldn’t be able to see a psychiatrist for another two months. After taking care of the baby’s medical needs, Dan said to her I would love for you to encounter God’s help, and stepping out he offered to pray for her and she said, “Yes please!” As he prayed, he told her how precious she was in God’s eyes, and at the end, he introduced her to the Bible and Jesus’ words in John 10:10 about how the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy but Jesus came to give us life in all its fullness. I’m looking forward to hearing what happens next in this mother’s life. I think everyday stories like these of sharing the good news of Jesus and his Kingdom are meant to be normal for us as believers when we live with an expectation of his goodness.
I wonder if like me, you have to regularly adjust the lens you look at God through. It might be when trusting him for financial provision or a breakthrough in an area you are facing, or it might be to do with promises he has spoken over you of how he wants to move through you.
Bill Johnson writes in his book, ‘When Heaven invades Earth,’ “It is abnormal for a Christian not to have an appetite for the impossible. It has been written into our spiritual DNA to hunger for the impossibilities around us to bow at the name of Jesus.’ Jesus taught his disciples to pray God-sized prayers. He said, ‘When you pray, pray like this, your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth… as it is in heaven’ Introducing people to Jesus and praying bold prayers for impossible situations comes from us knowing and believing how good God is. Let’s encourage one another to keep looking at God through eyes of faith expecting to see the impossible because He is the God of the impossible!
Paul prays in Ephesians 3:20-21, ‘Now to him, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Photo by Edi Libedinsky on Unsplash