One measure of maturity is learning to adjust expectations – usually downward. We learn through trial that the world does not owe us anything, and neither do the people whom we look to for attention, affection and affirmation – the Triple A team that can run my life if I let it. Spiritual masters teach us to let go of wanting, of having an agenda; to accept what comes, not try to make it happen.
And yet, here is Jesus, maybe the greatest spiritual master of them all, saying, “Expect more! You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” In the face of Nathanael’s new faith, which was a response to Jesus’ knowing something about him he couldn’t have known in the natural sense, Jesus replies,
“‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”
In response to his followers’ continued astonishment at his works of power, what we call miracles, Jesus always invited them to think bigger, to increase their estimation of what God can do as we invite the power of the Spirit into this realm. In fact, I believe that the healing and transformation that Jesus brought about were not miracles at all, but simply how things work in the Realm of God. After all, when the disciples did step out in faith and exercised authority in Jesus’ name, they too found that demons and diseases and even death yielded to their commands. So it has been throughout church history, and into our own day among churches more alive to the work of the Spirit.
How did so many Christ followers become people of such little faith? We don’t see that kind of power exercised in our midst, so we adjust our expectations downward, and consequently we expect less and hesitate to wield the authority we’ve been given as followers of Christ, and so we see fewer things we would call miracles. A sad little cycle of reduced investment leading to diminished returns.
When did you last ask God to reveal something big, bold, scary? Did you see an answer to that prayer? Sometimes we’re afraid to pray big because we’re afraid of what it will do to our faith if we are disappointed. Well, guess what? Your faith is more robust than you think – and like the muscles in your body, can only get stronger when it's exercised. What do you want to exercise faith for today?
Try this: "Okay, God - release your power and love and healing in me, in so-and-so, in this situation or that country." You can add, like the father whose son Jesus healed in the Gospels, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." You do not have to add,"If it be your will." It is God's will that the power and life of the Kingdom be revealed.
The “bigger things” Jesus talked about aren’t only answers to prayer. He was also telling Nathanael – and, by extension, us – that he would come into the very presence of God through closeness to Jesus. If we start to spend more time opening our hearts to the power and love of Christ, I believe we will find ourselves encouraged to believe in those greater things. And to open the eyes of our hearts to see.
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