What is Your Expectation?

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by Mike Hanchett

During the worship time, this prophetic word was given by Gill Patterson:

“Indeed our God is able to do abundantly more than we could ever ask, hope or think. God is awesome. Jesus is amazing. We serve an incredible saviour.

“The other day, while I was watching T20, God spoke to me – He can speak to us at any time of the day, whether we’re awake or asleep – and God dropped two words into my mind. So I immediately got my iPad and this is what I felt Him say.

“The two words were “shifting gears”. In my spirit I had heard and felt a shifting of gears taking place. This is orchestrated from the heavenlies and becomes evident here on earth as Man listens, hears and goes with what God is saying.

“There are some who have come to an absolute halt. It’s as if their gears are stuck and they cannot make any headway because of their inertia. And God says to you: ‘Look up to me, because I am the only one who will bring you out. But as you rely on your own strength and power you will remain in that sluggish and inactive condition. Don’t keep looking at your lethargy and dullness of spirit but look up to me.’

“I sense that there have been, as it were, many gearboxes just chugging along with minimal oil, ready to seize up. And God would say, ‘Recognise your lack of the fullness of my presence; the fullness of my precious Holy Spirit in your life; and once again seek me with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. And once again you will overflow with my fullness.’

“There are others who’ve been stuck in reverse, going absolutely nowhere but backwards. They are frustrated, depressed and thinking of opting out. God says to you, ‘Repent and let my amazing and abundant grace once again propel you forward and onward and upward.’

“Yet others are remaining in first gear, content to go at a slow pace and satisfied to be settlers and not pioneers. God would say to you, ‘Wake up, for the time is short. Start shifting gears through the power of my Holy Spirit – surge ahead for I have much work for you to accomplish.’

“There are others who’ve gone into fifth gear and are now cruising along through the power of the Holy Spirit. And I feel God would say to you, ‘Keep your eyes firmly on me for I am leading you and I’m guiding you in ways you have never been before. There are opportunities coming that are going to open doors into people’s lives, into high places, into cities and into nations. Be alert in your spirit and don’t dismiss seeming coincidences. These are of my doing and they will give you connections and entry into otherwise closed and inaccessible areas and lives.’

“These are days when many world leaders are insecure. Countries face unprecedented financial crisis. There are wars and rumours of wars and many natural disasters are taking place. But these are the days when God is asking us once again to gird up our cloaks and run with that Elijah spirit. There are spiritual kings that are trying to stand against us, but as we run in the spirit and power of Elijah, through the Holy Spirit’s power we will outrun and overcome these obstacles.

“There is a change in the spiritual atmosphere over us. And God desires each one of us to be at our maximum potential in His power and in His strength. And so rise up men and women of God, change gears, and be ready in your spirit to run in God’s strength and power. For surely there is a sound of abundant rain.”

Mike Hanchett:

It’s not all about you. But at the same time, it’s all about you. Because God works through us as his vehicles in impacting and touching those around us.

It’s been a wonderful time being here and being able to reflect. It was 30 years ago, two years before NCMI started, that the first get-together with the guys working together happened. Leon van Daele was there. And to look and see what God has done over the last thirty years is incredible. And he is doing this in every place in the world where we are. Because God has given a mandate that originated here and it’s going all across the world.

No one had any idea what God was going to do back then. We still don’t fully realise all that God desires to do. It’s more than you’ve asked and thought and imagined and God desires to do it through you and I.

God wants to do more than we ask, think or imagine, and He is not finished with you – we’ve just begun to see the fullness of what He desires to do. He’s got more. If I’ve experienced all that God’s got, I’m disappointed. No, he has more.

I want a greater understanding of what He wants to do. I love that prophetic word on changing gears. I’ve long ago realised that I can do nothing in myself. My dependence is on Him. God transcends our personalities; how we perceive ourselves; and He wants to do things in us and through us that we dare imagine. God wants to utilise us to make a difference in the world today.

I’ve watched as God has begun to do something and transcend mindsets. When we get into a place where we say, “I don’t have to touch them to do something,” that’s true; but God still wants to do things in ways we can’t even think of.

Remember in the book of James that we are instructed to call for the elders when we are sick? The principle is you don’t wait around for people to come to you. You call on them. Recently I was in the UK and we were travelling and ministering and it was the last night of a meeting. And at the very end a lady came to me and asked if I would pray for her daughter who had four tumours. My faith took a dive. I walked away and asked someone else to pray for them and they walked away from me. So I decided I had to do it since I said I would.

So I asked the Lord what I should do. He said, “Lay hands on sick people and they will recover.” So I did that. And the daughter said she could swallow and the tumours were gone! She was 14 years old. Her mother told me how she was under care with 27 doctors and has had four surgeries to remove the tumours.

It wasn’t me, it was God, because he has prepared good works in advance for us to do. It’s him that desires to do these works. In Acts 5: 12 – 16 it speaks about their ministering and it says all were healed when they prayed for the sick. In the Greek it brings out that it was in the proximity, in that location, that everyone who was sick got healed.

God wants to do things just as He has done it in the past where we have an area where we pray for the sick and everyone there gets healed. That will get the world’s attention.

The laying on of hands

What is released when we lay hands on people? Read Acts 14. When they laid their hands on people, something was revealed beyond just healing. Under their hands the people were marked with the imprint of God – the laying on of hands revealed the dimension and splendour of our God; they were never the same again. It went deeper than just gifts of healing or miracles.

Isaiah 8:11 says, “For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand…” He felt the weightiness and burn of God on His life. We need signs and wonders today like never before. I believe we’re on the precipice of these things being released more than ever before. Because we’ll be involved in greater things than what transpired on the earth when Jesus was here.

A sign means the imprint of God is on people. Most people in the ministry of Jesus had hands laid upon them. Let us expect when we lay hands on people that we will see things happen. Let’s trust for a greater anointing and that all will have a revelation of God’s desire for them and what He wants to do through them and what He wants to entrust to them today.

When we lay hands on people we release and set things into motion. God removed hindrances, shifting people into a new gear. When we lay hands we expect things to change and that things will never be the same again. God wants to do amazing things – not only through you but your children and all those around you. God is not willing that one person perish. He’s a God of second chances.

In Numbers 22 God gives the false prophet Balaam a second chance, enabling a donkey to speak to him. And he heeded to what God said and changed and was not destroyed.

Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because He knew that God would change His heart and mind and not destroy that city if they repented. It doesn’t matter where people are, they’re looking for something that will grab their attention. When we begin to release signs, wonders and miracles that God wants to release through you and I, His glory and Word will be revealed; wherever we go we will release His glory in the place it is to be manifested in.

I’ve had dreams and visions of where God says we are yet to go. And I’m only walking in things that God spoke to us 38 years ago. Most of us give up on words if it doesn’t take place quickly enough. God has dreams and things for us that have not been fulfilled and he wants to call our attention to them again because he wants to release us to these things.

The power available to us

Ephesians 6:10 says, “Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” Our strength is not in ourselves, it’s in the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants to infuse his resurrection power into us – an excessive dose of inward strength.

You see it’s never about us. The power of God is to be released where it can be demonstrated. The word of power in the scripture refers to the strongest type of power known to man and God. It’s where God’s muscles are backing up what He says. Ephesians says God has given us that power – the same power that raised Christ from the dead.

There’s nothing we can do in ourselves. God has often spoken to us and we’ve not done what he’s asked of us. He says that it’s pride that has prevented us. Often we become so cerebral in our understanding. God says the Kingdom is made up of child-like faith where we just believe what God says and we do it. When we do it we see incredible action released from Him because it’s Him that will do it anyway.

Ephesians 1:19—21 (NIV)

19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

The power that raised Christ from the dead is available to you and I. He was raised not by glory but by the power of God. Jesus didn’t have any billboards or web pages. He just had the power of God working through him. We need to expect God’s power to work through us. We need to expect that He will do what He says He will do.

If I were to paraphrase Eph 6:10 I would say, “Be strong in the Lord and in his powerful outward demonstration.” God is working to accomplish his purpose behind the scenes.

Made for this

You’re a unique receptacle especially designed by God to carry this power of God. Nothing else in this universe has been created to carry this power except us. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:10 that we are his workmanship and he has prepared good works for us to do.

It takes a risk to move beyond our pride so that we can step out and venture into uncharted waters. You’re God’s poetry in motion. In your life, God has infused His aspects to be expressed through you.

Religious demons don’t want this power to be released on the earth. They want everything to be nice and tidy and “sanctified”. God’s sanctification process isn’t quite the same as ours. When God touched David he ripped his clothes off and celebrated before God. On the day of Pentecost they were thought to be drunk because of their actions. I want God to be God and do whatever He wants to do.

God wants us to be shielded from thinking that it’s how we pray or what we do that does anything. It has nothing to do with us, it’s God at work through man. The religious demons don’t want you to experience God this way. They want Him to remain within the frame work of a theory or a concept.

What do you get when empty hands are laid on empty heads? Nothing. So you see, God wants to raise our expectation level. The early church didn’t have one book yet God worked with them – and we always want to get back to the book of Acts. We’re way beyond the book of Acts now but we must rise up and get on with what he has ordained us to do since the beginning of time.

Get into the rawness of what God desires in His church. We have it far better these days! We have air-conditioning! Planes! All sorts of things work to our advantage and yet we’ve become so sissified and have no expectation of God working through us to make a difference.

God is speaking to us and saying, will you go, will you do? He will back us up with His power and strength and ability. We all know that every good gift comes down from God.

From glory to glory

Don’t fast in unbelief. God says He’ll take us from glory to glory – not mess to glory. Most of the time we want God’s glory to show up and we’re a mess. God wants to liberate our minds from this mess so we can be used from glory to glory.

He is Lord, every day. It used to be said in the 70’s that if Jesus isn’t Lord of all He isn’t Lord at all. Today our philosophy is, “Hey Jesus, take up your cross and follow me.”

Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844 – 1924) was a healing evangelist and most of the people she prayed for would have a vision of heaven and hell and a confrontation with Jesus. They were radically changed. I want to expect that when I lay hands on people lives are transformed and are never the same again. How often is it that we’re praying for people from problem to problem and we keep having to pray? We must expect an anointing that makes a difference to people’s lives.

It isn’t the concept of fasting that makes a demon yield. It’s that we’ve yielded to the Lordship of Jesus and we’re operating in His authority, power and mandate for His church. Demons must then bow their knee and back off and leave.

God has called us to be a people who yield and not just surrender. You can surrender begrudgingly but true yielding is an attitude of the heart. We need God to touch our hearts so that we will be so impacted by the Spirit that He will transform us into what He wants us to become.

His hands

God will entrust to us His power. God is poised to release that power on you and I. Let us be His hands extended on the earth. He always broke chains off of people. Wherever we go God wants us to bless people and make a difference and have an expectation that they will be transformed.

We’re ambassadors of the Kingdom of God and our King Jesus. He says, “I give you my authority and you operate on my expression on the earth. And I will be with you until the ends of the earth.”

God will do incredible things as we yield ourselves to Him and allow Him to release and manifest. Jesus set us up for victory, not for defeat in any way or any time. That has never been His plan. His plan is that we would impact the world and see it revolutionised to come to know Him. And that’s why we go – we’ve seen and we praise a living God and the world is yet to hear His name.

God is raising some of us up with a new apostolic mantle where new areas will open up and you will never dream the methods God will use. Some of you who are not in ministry are going to find yourself in ministry as God is releasing a destiny within your heart.

Our God is an awesome God. He is able. There’s nothing too difficult for Him – no sickness is too strong, no cripple is too weak to come forth and be healed. That’s our God.