When couples are pregnant, they say they are expecting. They are expecting a baby to be born soon. They know he or she is coming, they see the bump growing, they feel it’s kicks, they prepare for it’s arrival. Expecting is what you do when you know something is about to happen.

Since I’ve been at Show Mercy there have been many, many people that have spoken into my life and taught me of this idea of being expectant of God. I had never heard of this concept before coming here. People here talk about being expectant that God will move, being expectant that He will heal the people we pray for, being expectant that we will see miracles in Uganda.

I’m a pretty hopeful individual. Anyone that went to college with me and was around while I was preparing for my senior recital can tell you that I can be fairly pessimistic but deeper down, my heart is hopeful that my negativity is wrong. I’ve always been hopeful that God will work things out.

Here, at Show Mercy, as I talk to my new friends who are much wiser than me, spiritually and otherwise, I am seeing that having a hopeful heart is not how miracles happen and how lives are changed. I could go up to someone at the clinic here in Wakiso and pray for them saying, “I hope God will heal you, I hope it is in His will for you to be healed.” But no, that’s not how we all witness heaven manifested on earth.

We see people healed, we see God work when we have an expectation that He will do it. I’m learning to have a faith so strong that when I pray for people I say, “God I thank you that You are the God that heals, I command anything that is not of You to come out of this person’s body in Jesus’ name.” God works when we trust in the authority granted to us through Jesus Christ.

God can do it. He is able. God doesn’t desire for His children to be hurting. And He could heal all on His own, but He chooses to partner with us to show His glory. That’s why we lay hands on people.

This is still a very new concept to me and I’m still figuring it all out but it’s very exciting. I want to have this faith that is so certain that I can see a leg grow out or someone raised from the dead. I want those acts to be used to bring others to Christ because when you see heaven manifested before you, you can’t deny what you’ve seen. Like in 1 Kings when Elijah is on Mount Carmel and he prays “ Let it be known today that you are God.” God lit the alter on fire and the people call out, knowing of the one true God. Now, it’s sometimes sad to me that we’ve become people of such unbelief that we often need to see God explode into flame before our faces in order to believe. It makes me sad because Christianity is not about fact, but faith. However, when we carry the presence of God inside us as the Holy Spirit, we have an open heaven above us, so seeing the miracles of God should be a normal occurrence. Elijah teaches me to walk that fine line between living with authority and not testing the Lord (Luke 4:12, Matthew 4:7, Deuteronomy 6:16).

I have just over two months left here in Uganda and while I am here, I am expecting things from God. I am expecting to see miracles. I am expecting to see dreams come true. I am expecting to see a new family created. I am expecting to meet people and have conversations that I will never forget. I am expecting God to make my next steps clear to me. I am expecting to leave changed beyond any way I could come up with on my own.

Just like Mary once road on the back of a donkey, expecting the Lord Jesus to be born of her. I want to go out expecting to see that same God working through me. I’ve seen it many times since I’ve been here, Jesus using me to bring about His glory, and I was always surprised that He would humble himself to do that. But I want to live expecting that He will show up, seeing Him growing more inside my heart, feeling His love spilling out of me, and constantly preparing for His arrival. Because when your faith is so certain of the goodness of God, that’s when miracles happen.