WHAT YOU EXPECT DETERMINES WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE.
TEXT:
"And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus." (John 20 verse 14).
Scriptures affirm that your expectations shall not be cut off (Proverbs 23 verse 18, 24 verse 13, Philipians 1 verse 20). It's absolutely important for you to have expectations from the Lord because invariably, they dictate your experience as a Christian.
From the Scripture reading for today, Mary Magdalene didn't recognise the Lord Jesus at resurrection. But during the Lord's earthly ministry, she was one of those disciples that followed Him and ministered to Him from their substance (Luke 8 verses 2 to 3). In other words, Mary should have known Jesus well, even so well His voice. Yet, when she encountered the Lord at resurrection, she couldn't recognise Him but mistook Him for the gardener (John 20 verses 14 to 15).
But how come this happened? This was because Mary didn't expect to see Jesus alive. Although she might have heard the Lord talk of His eventual resurrection (Matthew 20 verse 19, 27 verse 63), it was yet to properly sink into her spirit to become an expectation. It's a spiritual principle that should be understood by God's Children, that your expectation shall dictate your experience! In other words, what you expect from the Lord is what you get from Him; after all, His Word says it all: "thine expectation shall not be cut off." (Proverbs 23 verse 18). Child of God, know henceforth that believing God is very crucial to receiving from Him. In Luke 8 verse 50, Jesus' counsel to Jairus upon hearing that his daughter had died, was “Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.”; and it turned out to be so.
Like Mary, a lot of God's Children have also fallen into the trap of unbelief. Truth is, you will only experience God the way you think He is. After all, your thought life is the function of what you believe in. This is why we need to renew ourselves daily with God's Word, so that we can have a proper perspective of Him and particularly to have our minds transformed with His thoughts (Romans 12 verse 2; Ephesians 4 verses 23 to 24).
Any wonder why those who don't believe that God heals illnesses won't get divine healing until they start believing differently? Any wonder still why those who don't believe in the Spirit's baptism linger in Church without experiencing the wonderful phenomenon of speaking in other tongues? Indeed, those who don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead might find it difficult to experience or recognise Him, though He stood before them, except He helped them as He did to Thomas in John 20 verses 24 to 29.
Like He helped Thomas as aforesaid, Jesus also helped Mary. She recognised the Lord eventually when He called out her name (John 20 verse 16). Clearly, it was unbelief that hindered Mary and Thomas. Like the Lord said to Thomas, the remedy is, don't "be not faithless, but believing" (John 20 verse 27). This can only happen when you start believing God's Word, no matter how far-fetched or incompatible it is to your physical conditions or circumstances. As you start believing God's Word, let it grow into an expectation and soon, He will make it to become your experience.
Jesus is LORD and His Word will never return to Him void (Isaiah 55 verse 11). Believe everything that God's Word says about Him, what He has done for you and who God He has made you to be in Christ. By doing so, you're coming out without fail with a testimony, in Jesus name.
PRAYER:
Father, thank You for making my expectation to become my experience, in Jesus name.