There is no power quite so strong as the power of expectancy. We usually accomplish what we really expect to accomplish.
An example of this is recorded in Matthew 17 where a man brought his devil-possessed son to Jesus and complained: "And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him" (verse 16). After Jesus had rebuked the devil and cured the child, the disciples came to Him apart and asked, "Why could not we cast him out?" Jesus replied, "Because of your unbelief." If they had really believed, if they had really expected success through the power of God, they would have been successful.
And today it is this same unbelief, this same lack of expectancy, that so often prevents us from having the success that God desires to bestow. The messenger of the Lord says: "Every failure on the part of the children of God is due to their lack of faith."—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 657. Our biggest need, then, as workers for God is to increase this power of faith and expectancy in our service.
The Expectant Attitude
It is surprising what people will do when we really expect them to do it. This was impressed on my mind during one of my recent visits to Nairobi by an African selling pineapples. He approached our car with a very happy and enthusiastic smile. He told me in Swahili what lovely, sweet pineapples he was selling. He said the price was only two shillings for five nice pineapples. And even as he told me the price he started to place them in our car. Now I didn't really want those pineapples, I didn't need pineapples, but I bought them because he really expected me to buy them! It is this expectant attitude that will bring us success in our work for God. And shouldn't we be much more expectant, enthusiastic, and earnest about our wonderful message than that salesman was about his pineapples?
The messenger of the Lord counsels us in Colporteur Ministry, page 115: "Talk and act as if your faith was invincible." This is what that pineapple salesman did and this is what we have to do to get people to respond to our leadership and our preaching. We must talk and act as though we expect success. Ellen G. White worked in this positive way in her personal soul-winning contacts. One of her experiences is related in the book Evangelism, pages 451, 452. She was impressed to take her books to a neighbor who had heard the truth but had gone back to his worldly ways. She says, "I talked with him just as though he were with us." She told him that he had a responsibility to take the truth to his neighbors. He looked at her in a queer way as though to say, "Don't you know I've given up the truth. I've allowed my girls to go to dances, and we are no longer keeping the Sabbath." But he didn't say anything and Mrs. White spoke to him just as though he were a member of the church. She told him she had brought him some books he could use to help his neighbors. Then she knelt down and prayed for him. As a result, this man and his family took their stand for the truth and were the means of saving other families.
This all happened because Mrs. White talked and acted as if she expected them to make the right decision. Truly, there is power in this attitude of faith and expectancy.
Think and Talk Success
Workers who have the right relationship to God will never allow themselves to think or talk about anything but success. They know they are working for a great cause that cannot fail. They know that Jesus is soon to return and that His message is destined to go forward to triumphant victory. They know that He has all power, that His promises are sure, and that with Him there can be no such thing as failure. The messenger of the Lord declares that "workers for Christ are never to think, much less to speak, of failure in their work" (Colporteur Ministry, p. 118). And again, "We need to have far less confidence in what man can do, and far more confidence in what God can do for every believing soul... He longs to have you expect great things from Him." —/bid., p. 119. (Italics supplied.)
This principle applies and brings success in every branch of God's work. In all forms of evangelism—in building churches, in selling our literature, in doing Ingathering —it is essential to believe in and expect success and victory. A young minister asked the great preacher Spurgeon, "How can I have more baptisms?" Spurgeon replied, "You don't expect to have one every week, do you?" "No," said the young preacher. "Then," said Spurgeon, "that's the reason you don't have more." And that is exactly the reason today why Adventist workers are not baptizing more converts. That is why they are not building more churches, reaching higher goals in Ingathering, receiving more tithes and offerings in their churches, and most important of all, receiving more of the power of God's Spirit. They are just not expecting more success than they are now having. And if we do not expect more, God cannot bless us with more. 0 brethren, let us arise at this last hour and expect the really great success our Lord is waiting to Dive us.
His promise is sure, "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).
