Remember playing as a child and climbing inside a cardboard box? After the top was closed, it became dark and confined, and your actions became limited. The one thing that probably stands out the most is its limitations. You can't move, you can't stand, and you can't see what's outside of the box. You are limited to what's inside that box while missing out on everything outside of that box. That's what it is like when we have the wrong expectations. Having false expectations about things will put you in a box and cause you to miss the visitation of the Lord in your life.
Expectation deals with hope; if you continue to hope for the wrong thing, it will be easy to miss the right thing when it comes along. Many people struggle with false expectations. These expectations are formed in our lives in many different ways. The way we are raised, the friends we have, the T.V. shows we watch, the church we go to, the way we believe in God, and the way we study the Bible. The way we study the Bible affects how we hear and believe God; therefore, it matters what our expectations are from what we read.
All these things can play a part in forming your expectations of how you think God should work in you and around you. These things, when misunderstood, can put you in a box and cause you to not walk in the liberty of the Spirit of the Lord. Liberty is freedom, and freedom in the Spirit is your greatest friend in a world full of chaos and strife.
Wrong expectations will also affect all of your relationships with people. If you have a wrong expectation of someone who can't live up to what you expect, you will be in for a long journey because they will never be able to please you. Clean expectation simplifies your life and causes you to live in peace and contentment. It's hard to be let down when your expectation is in the Lord and not the person.
One of the most important principles I live by is understanding the parables in which everyone around me lives. When I understand that, I will have the right expectations.
My expectation of God.
What is it that you expect from God? What is it that you are seeking from Him? Where did you get that expectation? These are important questions. After all, if your expectation doesn't align with God's will, you will ask God for things that lead you astray because you expect something from Him that didn't come from Him. That's what James said was praying amiss. (James 4) You ask amiss from your lust and never get an answer.
When things don't happen the way you expect them to, it's easy to get hurt, offended, or even angry at God. At that point, you start looking for someone besides yourself to blame. The wrong expectation of someone or something always blames someone else when that expected result doesn't come true. You must look very carefully at your expectations because they will determine how you perceive God is talking to you. Knowing what to expect from Him and what He expects from you is essential in your relationship with Him.
For example, have you ever prayed a prayer that didn't come to pass? You expected it too. You believed it would, but it didn't, and when it didn't, many questions arose in your heart about God and why He didn't answer you. Did it provoke you to the truth of examining your expectations, or did it cause you to lose trust in Him? This situation can cause a lingering question in your thoughts toward God and yourself that may affect your ability to hear Him when He speaks to you.
Many of your expectations are formed by lust. You take the scriptures and claim them as your own and believe that all the words written are directly for you at that moment. But it's deeper than that! The scriptures are God's word; this is true, but being led by the Spirit requires the work of the Spirit. We often take the knowledge of the scripture and form our expectations without the leading of the Spirit. That is what creates false expectations.
This way of thinking is how the Pharisees claimed to be the children of Abraham, full of the righteousness of God. They used the scriptures to justify themselves as Jews but rejected the Spirit. They looked for a savior and a king but killed the truth when it came to them. They never had the right expectation. When Jesus came, they missed His visitation because they did not expect Him to come in the form of a servant born among them. Therefore they judged Him after the flesh and were blind leaders of the blind, never receiving Him in truth.
Jude tells us that it's a mocker that mocks God in his deeds. By not having the Spirit, he is sensual and follows his ungodly lust. You can do all the right things according to the scriptures and still limit yourself by having the wrong expectation.
There's more examples.
Expectation can cause you to think more highly of yourself than you should. This is very damaging to a person because when you fail in your expectation, you can fall into great condemnation in your heart. Having the right expectation of who you are is very important because it will free you from reaching beyond the true word of the Lord in your life. Look at the sons of Jesse, for example; God sent the prophet Samuel to raise a king from among them. Out of Jesse's sons, there appeared to be several that were worthy according to the flesh, but God looked on the heart, and only one was anointed as king. God's choice as king was unexpected to everyone who expected God to choose after the flesh. But it was David who was the man after God's own heart. God chose him, not the others. The other brothers had to be ok with that. Any expectation contrary to God's word is a wrong expectation.
What about Esau and Jacob? Before they were born, God chose Jacob over Esau. Even though Isaac wanted to anoint Esau because he was the firstborn son, God's word was true and did not fail. That's the part that has to fuel our expectations. Did God say it? Did God choose it? Anything else is a wrong expectation.
I think about the Apostles in the New Testament. God chose these men; they did not choose themselves. Jesus gave them the right expectation of His word as He continued to speak truth to them daily. During their time with Him they had many wrong expectations but hearing truth continually overcame wrong expectations and formed in them the right expectation. They were God's apostles, and not everyone was an apostle chosen and sent. Many were faithful disciples of the Lord but were never sent out like the apostles were. Many who were saved weren't even disciples, yet Christ visited them because of their faith and love for Him.
These examples should form the right expectation of God's thoughts and what He wants to do in our world.
For us to think that every one of us will do the work of an apostle would be a wrong expectation. Some of us will work helps, and if you can do the work of helps, called by God, led by the Spirit, with the right expectation of what God is doing in your life, then you will glory in the Lord and be raised in the body with Him in His kingdom. But if God calls you to helps and you keep expecting to be a prophet, then you will miss the visitation of God in your life and live in frustration that these things never come to pass in your life.
What forms a right perception with good expectation is the love of God and having His will in your life. If you love God, you can be whatever He has called you to be, and you will be ok with it even when it appears to people to be less in its manifestation. You don't have to be the greatest in the sight of man; you want to please God, the one that loves your soul and dies for it. What is purer than that? Nobody here in your life has ever died for you that you may live, so don't worry about pleasing people, please God.
Our expectation should be unto God and Him alone. It's only when your lust works that you expect to do things that God never called you to do. That's why you fight for position and self-respect on earth. That's why you work so hard to defend yourself and justify yourself in the presence of others. These are all wrong expectations. If God calls you, He will give you the ability to be what He called you to be through His Spirit. But because of your false expectation, you are always working and laboring to be something that you expect God to make you. Relax, even if God has promised you great things, you still will not be able to bring them to pass until the Spirit of the Lord overshadows you.
Paul didn't have to beg God for the call of an apostle. Jesus gave it to him from the beginning. And when it was time, the Lord visited Saul and called him forth. King David didn't have to kill king Saul to sit on the throne that God gave him. God chose him to be King and put him on the throne when he was ready for him to sit on the throne. In either case, if you know the promises of God from a child or find them out as an adult, it will not be until the Spirit of the Lord works His Father's will to give you those promises. This is how God forms in you the right expectation.
If these great manifestations of God are not working in your life right now then slow down, rest your thoughts and begin to love the Lord with all your heart. In that love, God can reveal all His will to you and make you a valuable part of His body. Whether you're the eyes, the hand, or the foot, as long as you are part of the body of Christ, you are right where you need to be if God put you there.
It is easy to get your eyes on what you can be in God instead of simply getting to know Him and love Him. Looking closely at your life will tell the story of what you are expecting from God and others. Your expectations are probably wrong if you have stress and anxiety over what you need to be. If you like to strive with people and love to always be in the middle of a good argument, then your expectations are probably wrong. If you are unhappy when you don't get your way or unsatisfied and restless with everything you see, your expectations are probably wrong.
But if you love God and have peace and joy in your heart continually, always working the patience of truth with God, yourself, and others, then it is a good chance that you have begun to have the right expectations of God working in your heart. It's also a sign that you are beginning to understand all parables and their purpose in your life. At that point, it won't be long until you find the purpose of God working in your life with great contentment.
Don't try to be something you're not. Love God and let His perfect will come forth in your life; that will be the hope that fulfills your expectations.