Expect nothing but the MIRACULOUS!

The number one way to make sure that the World Race is the WORST year of your life is to carry around expectations.

Whether they're good, bad, or somewhere in between, the one thing that you can expect to come to expect, is that your expectations will be absolutely destroyed.

Initially, I expected to be in a hut somewhere not eating well, and never showering. I was placed in a gorgeous Romanian cottage (a LARGE cottage by the way), with a shower at my disposal, and wifi.

Whatever you are expecting when it comes to your team, you can throw that right out the window. Somehow God manages to place you on a team with people you'd NEVER expect to be sleeping next to for four months straight.

Ministry? Forget it. When you expect to be busy, you find yourself with ample amounts of down time. When you expect down time, you're sorely disappointed as you're working from morning till night on a variety of random ministries.

We were given a schedule at the beginning of this month, only to toss it away immediately as our contact has legitimately changed every four days due to the Christmas holiday.

The World Race is a roller coaster, and an incredible exercise in letting go, going with the flow, and relying on the Lord to provide you with literally EVERYTHING.

A few days ago, we visited a place called the Home of Hope. It's a women's homeless shelter... more accurately, a shelter that gives homeless women a place to die with dignity.

As we walked in, we were greeted by hundreds of women with various diseases, deformities and mental illnesses- literally in every stage on the road towards death. The air reeked of decay.

 

Dirty, partially bandaged, and laying in the fetal position on the cement... the ground was littered with women- there was no dignity involved, and certainly no hope.

 

A few of our team members had been there a few days before just to scope it out. They said that one woman, with a clear mental disease, was screaming and hitting herself in the face as hard as she could... over and over. The only word they could utter as they came home dazed and traumatized was 'horrific.'

With only one foot inside the gate I knew without a doubt that it was the most horrible place I'd seen in my entire life. My worst expectations had been exceeded with flying colors.

 

Speaking of expectations though... there is one expectation that we're beginning to cultivate, and it's times like these when that expectation is the only thing keeping us from collapsing.

We're learning to expect God to show up.

In the past month, I've seen five people healed from different types of pain. In the past month, I've prayed enough and seen God answer those prayers enough to be able to start closing my fist around the expectation that he'll always hear my prayers, and he'll always answer them.

So when we walked into the Home of Hope, instead of being filled with despair, instead of feeling crushed under the weight of the death and darkness hanging in the air, we walked in with confidence.

 

With all the women surrounding us on the floor, we started out by singing a few songs and doing a little skit. Then with the help of our rudimentary translator, we told the women that we were going to pray for them.

Without even a moment of planning, we split up on different sides of the room and got into small groups. Women swarmed us, complaining of back pain, joint pain, lack of circulation, dizziness, coughs, chest pain, and foot pain. One woman was practically carried into the room, barely able to walk.

I began praying so quickly and with such fervor, I didn't have time to even look up to see what everyone else was doing.

One by one, we prayed for the women, sometimes two or three times, kneeling in front of them, laying our hands on whatever part of their body was aching. Then we'd stand up, and ask them how they were feeling.

And then the moment we'd been waiting for... we'd get the miraculous head bobble. The one that goes from side to side (what looks to Americans like a VERY unsure 'maybe' but here means an emphatic yes- it's so confusing.) We'd quickly grab the arm of the translator to confirm. Are they feeling better? Is the pain gone? Completely? REALLY!? OH MY GOSH!!!!!

And one after another, she confirmed that the pain was in fact ACTUALLY gone. The women would smile at us, thank us, and then walk away, flexing, twisting, or stretching whatever had just been healed in amazement.

One woman complained of a lack of circulation in her hands, and as we prayed for her hands, we legitimately FELT the warm blood begin to pump through her fingers.

One woman came to us with back pain, leg pain, dizziness, and a wicked cough that was causing her intense chest pain. After we prayed for her, she began twisting from side to side and taking the BIGGEST breaths, rising up to her tippie toes, to get more air into her newly freed lungs. (I have that on video- stay tuned.)

It was incredible.

For over an hour, I'd lift my head up every few minutes to catch a strain or a glance of what was going on around the room. I'd hear groups of girls singing over women, letting their worship wash over them in healing, I'd catch the boldest prayers being said with fervor and ferocity. "Pain, LEAVE this body in the name of Jesus!"

I was able to get over to the group that was praying for the woman who couldn't walk... and I made it just in time (camera in hand), to watch her take her first steps... unsure at first... but growing in strength and confidence with each step.

Amazing doesn't even begin to cover it.

As we walked out of the Home of Hope, we walked with even more confidence than before... knowing that through us, God had just healed over 30 women.

And that's what we're learning about expectations.

We're learning that if you have expectations about showering, transportation, ministry, your teams, your locations, or any 'rights' that you think are yours to keep... you are going to be SORELY disappointed.

But an expectation in Jesus is another thing entirely.

I'm starting to expect Jesus to fulfill his promises. He says that we have the authority to heal in his name... and this means that when we pray, and pray for healing in his name, people get healed.

In Acts chapter 2, the author quotes God saying, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophecy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below."

And that's a promise. With the Spirit of the Lord working from within me, I am beginning to ask God a question, and expect to hear the answer. I EXPECT to hear from God, and when he tells me things, I'm beginning to expect the fact that they're true- I have yet to be disappointed.

Joshua 23:14 says, "You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed."

On the World Race, all of my expectations have been dashed.

But I am FULL of expectations for the Lord. I expect him to show up, I expect him to do miracles, I expect him to be good, I expect him to love me, every moment of every day, I expect him to surprise me with his goodness. I expect his plan to be infinitely better than the one I had in mind, and I expect to be blown away with wonder and amazement.

And I have not been disappointed.