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Right from the beginning, I want to declare a few good words to you from a song that's ringing in my heart today. "Hold on deliverance is coming. Hold on deliverance is coming. Hold on because deliverance is coming down!"

I'm really pumped because I know there is going to be a release of power and an anointing for delivering and deliverance. There is going to be a release and a manifestation of the Holy Spirit's anointing to break the yoke and to remove whatever expression of bondage you are chained to. Whether it's a sin; an emotional bondage of depression or fear; the bondage of religion; a stronghold of your mind; an addiction in your flesh-deliverance is coming to your house!

I believe there is an anointing present in the Holy Ghost to do instantly what would be achieved through ten years of counseling. There will be instant healings of the things that the enemy has wreaked havoc on in your life years ago. I see households being saved, healings and financial miracles. I want to say "Expect your miracle!"

EXPECTATION

When God wants to release His great miracle-working power in our lives, He looks for those who actually expect that He will act on their behalf in such a great way. So there needs to be expectancy on our part to receive of God's goodness, like a yes in our heart that trusts in God for healing and deliverance. That yes is also for receiving hope; no longer believing the lies of the enemy who whispers that it's just going to be the same as it's been all the other times. No it isn't! God is about to do something new in your life!

Let's encourage ourselves in the Lord by reading a small portion from a Psalm that David wrote:

"My soul, wait only upon God and silently submit to Him; for my hope and expectation are from Him. He only is my Rock and my Salvation; He is my Defense and my Fortress, I shall not be moved. With God rests my salvation and my glory; He is my Rock of unyielding strength and impenetrable hardness, and my refuge is in God! (Psalm 62:5-7 AMP).

David says "…my hope and expectation are from Him." Listen. "…If God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom. 8:31). When God gives you a promise, that word acts like a tiny seed that's just been planted in your heart or spirit. It's visible, just like you can't see a seed that's been planted in the soil. But nonetheless in the spirit realm, it's like you've become pregnant not just with the promise, but also with the expectancy that you need in order to receive that promise.

However, when God plants a promise in your heart, it usually comes when you're in the midst of the most impossible circumstances; everything in the natural looks completely contrary to that promise.

We see a biblical example of this when God came to Abram in Gen. 12:1. He was 75 years old and his name had not yet been changed to Abraham. God told Abram to leave his country and go to the land that He would show him. After Abram obeyed, the Lord promised to give him and his descendants the land where he was living. "...for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever" (Gen. 12:7; 13:15).

Later, when the Lord firmed up this promise by making a covenant with Abram, both Abram and Sarai became "pregnant with expectancy" (15:18-21). But what about their descendants? They must have wondered about that because there weren't any descendants! (15:1-6). Everything in the natural opposed that promise. They were getting older and they had no children.

So, just like many of us, they tried to help God out. Abraham took Sarai's maid, Hagar, and she conceived a son named Ishmael when Abram was 86 years old (Gen.16).

Well! Thirteen long years later when Abram was 99 years old the Lord appeared to him, re-established His covenant, re-named him and his wife (Abraham and Sarah) and ended the visitation by saying that by the following year they would have a son named Isaac. The Lord also said that He would establish His covenant with Isaac as an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him (Gen.17).

Even though Abraham and Sarah were well beyond being able to have a child, that didn't stop God from making a promise to them that they would have a son. The circumstances in their lives were completely contrary to that promise, but not only did Sarah actually become physically pregnant, they both became spiritually pregnant with vision and expectancy. They became pregnant with the promise of God!

You know, they had to wait years before they, as a couple, could have a son, but they were able to endure with faith and patience (Heb. 6:12-15). Do you know why? Expectancy. Listen. Even though Abraham acted on Sarah's idea to take her maid Hagar to begin their family line, this was not a sign that Abraham didn't believe the promise that God made to him. He believed, but he tried to help God out with that part of the promise about "your descendants."

Paul (the apostle) wrote to the Romans that Abraham did not waiver in unbelief, but he grew strong in faith, giving glory to God (Rom. 4:20). Look. It's possible for us, today, to hold onto the promises of God and not "jump the gun" - but wait - not only for God to act on His promises, but wait for Him to do it His way, in His perfect timing. We need to learn to do that. Paul went on to say that Abraham was convinced that what God had promised He was able also to perform (v. 21).

OUR GOD IS ABLE

God wants us to declare: "Our God is able!" Do you remember Daniel's friends-Shadrack, Meshack, and Abed-Nego? They weren't going to dishonor God and bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's gold image even when they heard that such an act of disobedience could result in their death, by fire (Dan. 3:6). In fact, under the king's intimidating interrogation, they spoke boldly that God was able to deliver them.

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up" (Dan. 3:16-18).

Not only did they say "our God . . . is able," but they had expectancy and so they could boldly declare: "He will deliver us from your hand, O king." Expectancy brings assurance and it brings confidence. I believe that they expected, at the moment they were thrown into that furnace, that God was going to deliver them. It could be that they already had a revelation of their Deliverer, Jesus, and that He was going to come into the midst of the fire with them.

That expectancy and the assurance that came with it loosed God's delivering power-the fourth Man in the furnace-Jesus! Today, He is able to bring deliverance to us, just like He delivered Daniel's friends! Our God, whom we serve, is the same God that they served.

So let's take a minute right now, in the middle of this teaching to declare the words to the song (from the beginning of this teaching): "Hold on deliverance is coming. Hold on deliverance is coming. Hold on because deliverance is coming down!" And let's not stop there. Proclaim with me: "Our God is able! Our God is able to save! Our God is able to heal! Our God is able to deliver us! Our God is able to bring revival! Our God is able to win souls! Our God is able to heal my emotions! Our God is able today to set me free from my bondage, from my addiction, to cause me to be free and free indeed! Our God is able!"

Let your faith rise up into the embrace of God's heart. Don't be afraid. Let's honor Him!

ASSURANCE AND CONFIDENCE

There is something about knowing-really knowing that God is able, and then expecting Him to act on our behalf-that brings us into a much higher level of trust and faith. But if you don't know for sure that you have a promise from God, that God has spoken to you, you will struggle, unable to have the rest, the assurance and the confidence that comes with knowing that you've heard God-that God has given you a promise. So just rest in the fact that when God makes a promise, He makes good on that promise. Let's expect that.

Also, God gives you promises to make you pregnant so that you're just like an expectant mother! You may remember the catchphrase people sometimes still say when they're pregnant: "We're expecting." Hey! We need to be expecting! And even though we may not actually have the promise manifested now, we can rest assured that it is going to happen.

Isaiah (the prophet) said, "Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child" (Is. 66:7). That verse speaks about assurance. Listen. Even when our circumstances are 100% contrary to the promise, God is going to bring it to the time of birth and delivery, just like He did for Abraham and Sarah.

Today some of you have received a promise from God (you're actually pregnant), but you're wondering how you'll ever move from the transition of labor to delivery. On the other hand, some of you don't feel pregnant anymore-hopelessness and discouragement have set in. You are wondering if you "lost the baby" and miscarried; you are at that place in the spirit right now. You knew at one time that you were pregnant but now you're doubtful that you actually were.

Be encouraged. Listen to God's Word: "Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?" (Is. 66:9a). God is going to open the womb and He is going to bring forth and release to you that which has been His promise. I want you to know that God only gives you the promise because He will fulfill the promise. Look at what the Lord goes on to say through Isaiah: "Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?" (66:9b). For every God-given true promise that you had-whether it came through a prophetic word or vision, a dream, or through the Bible-God is not going to close up your womb concerning that promise. You are going to have the "baby." And the baby is going to be "an Isaac" which speaks of you receiving the fullness of the promise of what God has spoken to you.

In closing, let's go back to David's psalm (where we left off near the beginning of this teaching). "Trust in, lean on, rely on, and have confidence in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is a refuge for us (a fortress and a high tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!" (Psalm 62:8 AMP).

What a powerful word. God is good. He wants you to have confidence in Him at all times. Why not let the knowledge of the Lord's goodness become a revelation, filling your heart with praise, because next week we're going to learn about the benefits of praising God. So get ready. Remember, deliverance is coming to your house! Expect your miracle!