What Did You Expect?

By Rachel Hall (1916 -1988)

I recently heard a man testify to God’s faithfulness, and something he said impressed me.  He said, ‘I went to gather blackberries, so I took along a kerosene tin’.  He expected to get some black berries - not just a few but a kerosene tin full!

When we ask God for anything, let us expect an answer - and even more than we asked for - because He is more willing to give than we are to receive.

The scripture says, ‘my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches.’  Is God poverty stricken?  No!  A thousand times, no!  When you go to Him for anything, take a big container - not a billycan or a little tin mug. 

The Bible tells of the widow who, with her sons, was to be sold into slavery to repay a debt.  2 Kings 4.  Her only possession was a small bottle of oil.  The prophet told her to borrow vessels from her neighbours and then the pour oil from her small bottle into them.  An amazing thing happened.  The oil multiplied so that every vessel she had collected was filled with oil.  When there were no more containers the oil stopped.  Every jar and vessel in Israel could have been filled that day, if it had been possible to gather them there.

In another account, the crippled man at the gate of the temple, looking to the disciples expecting charity, received much more than he asked.   He was not given, just a paltry coin, but so much strength and power in his crippled legs that he leapt up and walked into the temple praising God.  Yes, indeed!  More than he had asked or thought!

The scripture says, ‘open your mouth wide and I will fill it’.  Psa 81:10. 

Jesus himself expects great things.  The writer of Hebrews says that after Jesus had ‘offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool’.  Heb 10:13.  What an expectation!  His enemies shall be made His footstool - put under His feet!  His expectation is a certainty. 

If you belong to Jesus, then He lives in you and you in Him.  Therefore your enemies are His enemies.  He is expecting your enemies, sickness, depression, fear, poverty and death to be put under His feet.  He is not worrying.  He sat down, ‘expecting’!  There is no need for you to worry.  He has everything under control.

[Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1916, Rachel Hall (nee Hale) came to Australia as a girl and was among the first here to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit under evangelist Smith Wigglesworth.  As a woman of prayer and faith who also raised a large family, her life of serving the Lord has yielded enormous fruit.]