If you allow demons to manipulate your thoughts with negative expectations, you are limiting God.
Your expectations can sabotage your future!
Let me repeat the warning I issued in a previous article (Is a Demon of Dread Manipulating your Expectation?):
What you expect is the focus of your faith, and you will get what you expect!
If your focus is being driven by demons of negativity, then your confident expectation is not God. Remember, the facts of your current circumstance are not the truth of God’s plan for your life, but the demons will use those facts to build strongholds that limit God.
Strongholds are formed in parts of your soul to oppose the ruling authority of Jesus Christ. For example, a stronghold of depression will refuse joy. A stronghold of fear will oppose peace. A stronghold of anger resists love. The lies behind these strongholds sound like this:
“I will always be depressed.”
“I am so angry. I could scream!”
“I can’t I am too afraid.”
(That last statement, “I can’t” is an essential legal right of limitation via your declaration given to demons.)
Strongholds can be based on five words or less from your childhood that have grown into a forest of negative expectations and thoughts.
Let me give you an example of these five words: “You will never amount to anything.”
A brilliant young woman who heard these words as a child, walked into my office complaining that her job was ending. She was devastated. Although this ending could be the beginning of a great journey, she expected the worst. “I’ll never get another opportunity like this one. I will lose my condo, my car, and wind up homeless.” She allowed negative expectations based on the facts of her current circumstance to dominate her thoughts. Unless these strongholds come down, she will get what she expects because her trust is in the lies of the enemy, not the truth of God’s plan for her life. These strongholds have caused her to agree with the enemy and disagree with God.
One of my friends who was raised in a Jewish family told me once that Americans have weak expectations. He said, “You Americans go in worrying about what other people think and what “might” happen instead of expecting the blessings of God. This mindset is not biblical. The reason the Jews are blessed is that we expect the blessing.”
Wow! In our pursuit of acceptance and approval, we have lost the confident expectation of God’s blessings.
5 Keys to Shift Your Negative Expectations
- Remove the “I cant’s” from your vocabulary for the next 30 days. You will be surprised how often this word curse creeps in daily to set up limitations. I realized my food choices were dwindling down to nothing because I was continually saying, “I can’t eat that!”
- Think about what you are thinking about and ask God to show you the lies at the root of your negative expectations and when they began.
- Ask God to show you his perspective of your current circumstance and know that regardless of how it started, if you trust God, he will use what is meant for evil for your good.
- Focus your thoughts on 5 things you can be grateful for in your life daily.
- Seek deliverance and counseling if you need help identifying the lies at the roots of these strongholds. You may be surprised to find out they started with 5 little words.
You may have a lifetime of negative thinking to get undone and the process of renewing your mind will likely take time. Give yourself grace to make the change.
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