At the beginning of this year, I was reading one of my favourite accounts in the bible – where Jesus heals the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8. However, as I read it on this occasion, one word in verse 40 really stood out to me. I could feel the Holy Spirit all over that word and the word was ‘expecting’. The whole verse reads “Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him”. 

The crowd were waiting for Jesus to arrive, but they weren’t just hoping to get a glimpse of him. There was a good reason why he was attracting such crowds! The crowd were eagerly expecting Jesus because they knew that when Jesus showed up, miracles, signs and wonders were sure to follow.

I knew as I read this verse that Jesus was asking me a question… What are you expecting of me in 2024? Are you expecting me to do what I have promised you? 

I really wanted to say yes… but I knew deep in my soul I was actually feeling a bit negative about 2024. God had encouraged me so much in 2023 to hope and believe in him and I wasn’t disregarding that. I wasn’t hopeless… I wanted to choose to hope and expect good things from God!

But nevertheless after many years of hopes and dreams unfulfilled, my natural inclination just wanted to lean towards the expectation that this would probably be another year that would end similarly. By that I mean another year of hoping and believing but that would be as far as it got… I struggled to believe I would actually see things change and receive what God has promised. So even though I had hope in God for my future, my expectations for the year ahead were actually quite low.

And that’s why Jesus is just so kind and beautiful because he could see all of that was going on within me and he wasn’t content to just let me stay there. He really wants me to expect more this year and to truly believe God will be faithful to me! Jesus continued to speak to me as I read on in Luke 8 and showed me through the story of this healing miracle, just why my expectations matter so much.

When I read an account in the gospels, I love to look at it everywhere it appears across the four gospels as I feel this gives the fullest picture of what is going on. The story of the woman with the issue of blood is told here in Luke as mentioned but also in Matthew 9:18-26 and Mark 5:21-34, and in Matthew in particular there are some interesting insights that are not revealed elsewhere.

Matthew discloses the thoughts of the woman as she approached Jesus in chapter 9 and verse 21 – ‘she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed’. Her expectations of Jesus are made known here and she was bold and confident! She wasn’t doubting, wondering if something good might happen, or if it would be a failure like all the other doctors and remedies she had tried (Luke 8:43). 

The possibility of failure did not cross her mind – she set her focus on Jesus and confidently pressed toward him, believing that one touch of his garment would be enough to set her completely free of her long-term suffering. She had FAITH that Jesus could heal her and intriguingly Jesus’ response to her, after she has received healing, is ‘your faith has healed you!’ (Matt 9:22).

In some ways that comes across as quite an odd thing to say, most of us reading this narrative would probably say ‘Jesus healed her’ because she reached out to Jesus and was healed. So it would seem that Jesus is making a point here and almost saying through that bold statement, that he wasn’t really ‘involved’ in her healing. In Luke 8:45-46, Jesus makes it clear that he knows someone has touched him and that power has gone out from him, but he doesn’t know who it was or what has happened. The woman’s touch made in faith, with confident expectation, has made a withdrawal of power from Jesus, without Jesus considering it consciously.

I would say her faith healed her in two ways. Firstly, it caused her to pursue Jesus and position herself to receive healing from him. Her faith made her absolutely resolved to reach him, no matter what obstacles were in her way. 

The woman’s faith took her to Jesus – she was part of that crowd, waiting for him and expecting him. Her confidence that Jesus could heal her, meant that she didn’t give up, she pressed through the dense crowd, probably on her hands and knees, determined that she would touch him. She didn’t let the law or her issues get in her way – she was bleeding and therefore unclean, and should not have been in a crowd at all under Jewish law.

Then secondly, her single-minded faith meant that one touch of his garment was enough to ‘pull’ miracle working power out of Jesus’ Spirit into her need. She had faith Jesus could heal her, but it was her expectation of how she saw herself getting healed that ‘directed’ the power to her need – Jesus himself did not execute the miracle.

She had faith that one touch of the hem of his garment would be enough to heal her, and so it was. Her healing happened according to her faith, and it was in proportion to her expectations. She expected her healing to happen in a certain way, and so it was done for her exactly as she believed it would be. Her faith and expectations actually dictated what happened, rather than Jesus ‘deciding’ he would heal her.

Therefore you see, expectations really matter in the kingdom of God. Our faith and expectations can affect what and how we can receive from God! When we believe God can do exceeding abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, we welcome him doing that in our lives. God sees faith as an open door, an invitation to come and be God and do what only God can do.

But even more than that, our faith and expectations put us in pursuit of God, positioning us to receive, to the point we can reach out and take hold of his provision that is already available in the Spirit and pull it into our own lives. God is not holding out on us or wanting us to wait until he thinks we are ready for healing or breakthrough or whatever your need is! Through Christ and the finished work of the cross, all that Christ purchased for us is available and God wants us to receive his full provision of life, power, healing and restoration TODAY.

So, in 2024, I am choosing to walk in faith and to raise up my expectations so that I can see the extraordinary goodness of God manifest in my life. I am expecting that I will see his mighty power at work and the waiting will end and promises will be fulfilled! 

Will you join me in taking the limits of God and daring to expect he will do all he said he will do and beyond in 2024?