By Dianna Hobbs
“Kaiah’s gonna be 15 next month,” I said to my husband Kenya this morning as we were talking. Neither of us can believe how quickly time has flown by.
It feels like it wasn’t too long ago when we were expecting her. I remember how, on my due date, July 16, we went to the gymnasium at a local community center to walk around, hoping to stimulate labor.
After about the second or third lap, my mouth fell open in shock when my water broke!
I could not believe what was happening because our first daughter, Kyla, was about 2 weeks late. With her, I was waddling around, aching and miserable, praying that she would hurry up and make her arrival. Finally, when I did go into labor, our firstborn girl took her sweet time getting here, putting me through more than 18 hours of grueling labor.
So, naturally, my previous child-birthing experience—the only point of reference I had—molded my expectations the second time around. Even though I was going through the motions with Kaiah, walking, timing contractions and hoping to give birth on time, I fully anticipated a delay. I had no confidence that the process would be any different than it was with Kyla.
I knew it was technically my due date, but I didn’t sincerely believe it was my due date.
Have you ever felt that way?
You may be reading this right now, sensing that your season of release is upon you. But so many negative things have happened leading up to this moment, that you’re having a hard time believing for a full breakthrough. After all, your past experiences have taught you not to get your hopes up, to be cautiously optimistic, or in some cases, altogether pessimistic.
Somewhere along the way, you’ve developed the habit of keeping an eye out for the worst. You have trouble believing for better, greater, or positive results due to a string of setbacks, failures and delays. Bad outcomes have tainted your perception of what is possible. So you have settled into a state of either expecting horrible things, or expecting nothing at all, so you won’t be disappointed when nothing happens.
Stop it. It is time to give your mentality an overhaul. If you sense in your spirit your due season is upon you, own it. Tell yourself, I’m about to give birth to the promises of God. I am right there on the brink, the verge, the edge.
Declare this: “I’m about to give birth to the promises of God!” Believe it. Own it. It is so.
The man Jesus healed at the Pool of Bethesda had been waiting 38 years according to John 5:1-15. He was lying around with many others who were sick, hoping he could jump in the pool when the water was troubled. If he could just be the first one to hop in, he would get his healing. But everyone else seemed to get there before he did. The impotent man had no one to help him.
At least not before Jesus showed up on the scene.
When the Master stopped by Bethesda, which means “House of Mercy,” everything changed. The place where this man had been for almost four decades, feeling stuck and hopeless, became his place of healing. Friend, the Lord is about to show you mercy, grace and favor. He knows you have been in this low place for a long time.
Change is coming.
You may be pressing like the woman with the issue of blood did in Luke 8:43-48. Though her constant bleeding for 12 years made her unclean according to the law in Leviticus 15:25-27, she refused to go into hiding and miss her chance to receive healing from the Savior.
This woman had had enough.
She was bleeding both physically and financially. The treatments she’d sought to heal this vaginal hemorrhaging had cost her everything she had. Broke and broken she made her way to Jesus. Weary and worn she pursued Him by pressing her way through the crowd.
When she touched the hymn of His garment, Luke 8:44 lets us know that what had been ongoing for more than a decade immediately stopped. In the Greek, that word immediately is “parachrema,” which means “at that moment,” “right away,” or “so quickly.” What once took so long turned round so quickly!
Right now, God wants you to get your expectations up. Believe that you will reap a harvest. Anticipate good things, despite the bad things that may have preceded this moment in your life.
Declare that change is coming.
Do you receive that today?
God is calling you to believe, trust and stand firmly on His word. To help you cling to the promises of God, I’m stirring 1 Thessalonians 5:24 NIV into your cup of inspiration, which says, “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
As you drink down the contents of your cup, you will be encouraged to know that our faithful God has not forgotten you. All that He has promised is going to manifest in your life. Just don’t grow weary. Don’t faint. Don’t stop walking in faith.
Change is coming.
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