God has a plan of preparation for us of which Isaiah 40:3–5 speaks: A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Notice this phrase: “then the glory of the Lord will be revealed.”
In His heart, God has prepared a plan to meet you, a plan for His glory to rest in your life. He has an ordained plan to be your God, to walk in you, to live in you, and to fill you with His very presence. The plan of God, as revealed in Ephesians 3:19, is that you be filled with all the fulness of God. He is prepared to fill you, but in order for that to happen there must be preparation in your heart with expectancy. Faith has become such a general term that we do not understand the full implications when we say, “Let us have faith,” or, “Let us believe.” It might be better to use the word preparation instead of the word faith. Then we will say, “Let us prepare for the blessing.”
True faith shows expectancy, and expectancy makes preparation. For example, if you are expecting an addition to your family, you make preparation for it. Also, many a young girl starts preparing for marriage by filling a hope chest before she has even found the man she will marry. She has faith that she will find him sooner or later. It is more than a hope chest; it becomes actually a preparation chest as she prepares for another phase of her life.
Preparation is the climate in which miracles happen. Even a miracle needs preparation; it does not just happen. When the Lord turned the water into wine, He first told the servants to fill the large waterpots with water. Then He told them to draw some out and take it to the headwaiter. Then the miracle took place (John 2:6–10). Preparation for a miracle must be in your thinking. It may not even be anything that you do, but only in your thinking. You anticipate that God is going to give you a deliverance, and so you condition yourself to think about how you will live when God gives you that deliverance. You may begin to make a list of things. That shows expectancy and preparation.
Rather than being conditioned to think, “If I have a blessing, if I have a breakthrough,” be conditioned to think, “When this occurs, then I am going to act accordingly.” Begin to think in terms of the release, the victory and the tremendous meeting with the Lord you are expecting.
What do you want from the Lord? How are you preparing your heart to walk? You cannot ask the Lord to touch you and fill your life with His glory, and then not be prepared for a life of service in which you give Him everything. When he comes and meets your heart, you must be determined to have no reservations in your thinking or in your dedication. Everything must be laid on the altar, leaving you ready to go forward in the name of the Lord. This is what the Lord really wants.
The Lord will come with glory, but first you must prepare your heart for Him. Make a path for the Lord in the wilderness and make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley must be filled and every mountain brought low, because the Lord is making a highway that He can move on in your life. As you go to the house of God and prophesy, contending for great things to happen, t the same time you are filling the valleys and bringing down the mountains of oppression in your life. You are making your heart a highway that God can move on. You are making your mouth an oracle of God. You are preparing to be the channel of God. When He comes and appears to you, it will not be an unprepared road that He travels. By the grace of God you are preparing to be a channel through which the Word of God will flow out.
In II Samuel 6, we read how David brought the ark of God from Abinadab’s house to Jerusalem. However, the new ox cart, on which it started out, began to shake as it passed over a rough threshing floor. One of Abinadab’s sons, Uzzah, put his hand on the ark to steady it and he dropped dead. Sometimes we look for the Lord to bring a blessing, but we are unprepared for it when He does. David was anxious to move the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, but he did not prepare correctly. Instead of making full preparation for the Levites to carry the ark, he placed it on a new cart to be paraded into Jerusalem, but it did not happen that way. When the Lord struck Uzzah, David was displeased with Him, and he said, “How can the ark of God come to me?” Then he carried it aside and left it in the house of Obed-edom.
As you start to move in on what God has for you and the shaking begins to come, you may find that you are conditioned to draw back. You must make full preparation beforehand to go all the way, no matter how drastic the dealing of the Lord becomes in your life. Be ready to walk with God no matter what happens. Do not pray for the Lord’s will to be done, and then back off when He starts circumcising your heart. Do not pray for the Lord to have His full way in your heart without believing that your need will be exposed to you. Do violence to the problem in your life, in order to be the channel through whom God can move. Expect the blessing of the Lord and prepare to walk in whatever happens. Let nothing that God does surprise you too much. He may surprise you in a way that you do not anticipate but be sure that you are already prepared.
Jesus gave a parable about the old wineskins not being able to hold the new wine without bursting. Only a new wineskin is flexible enough to hold new wine (Mark 2:22). If you have not made preparation, you become set in your ways like an old wineskin. Your attitudes, your feelings, your habits, and your pattern of living become so set that you are no longer open or flexible for change. You may continually ask God to bring change, but if He does bring the change, the new wine could rupture the old wineskin, because it is too thick and unyielding; you could lose what you have been given.
When the Lord brings drastic changes, can you open your heart to them? Can you open up to whatever God is doing? Changes are evidence that God is moving, but some people find they cannot tolerate them; if they leave their nice little ruts, they feel lost. That can be deception of heart. If there is no preparation in your heart for the moving of God, you will lose everything. Say in your heart, “Yes, I do want change; and I know I must prepare my heart for the changes that are coming.” Your preparation can be a mental exercise.
When the Lord is planning to send blessing, first He says to prepare. A good example, in II Kings 4:1–7, is that of the widow of the prophet who came to Elisha for help. When her husband died he was deeply in debt, and the creditors were coming to take her sons into slavery. Elisha said, “Go and borrow empty vessels; do not get only a few. Then go in and shut the door, and start pouring it into the vessels.” (She had only one little cruse of oil to begin with.) Her preparation was essential. The miracle did not start until the vessels were brought, and the oil continued to flow until every vessel she had borrowed was full. Then the oil stopped. The little cruse was finally empty. Then the prophet told her to sell it to pay off her debts, and to live on whatever was left. She had more than she needed. I wonder how often she and her sons regretted not having scoured the countryside for more vessels. That miracle could have had another ending; she could have become one of the wealthiest women in the world. Imagine what olive oil was worth! Pieces of gold were required to buy oil in those days before modern oil presses were invented. Oil was one of the main staples of that day, and it was used in everything. If that widow had found three hundred more vessels to fill with oil, she would have been independently wealthy the rest of her life. But she received exactly what she had prepared for, because the oil stopped at the limit of her preparation. Notice that instead of speaking of her faith or her belief, we are speaking of her preparation.
Instead of saying, “Have faith,” let us say, “Prepare! Prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight.” Let us make a highway for our God, a path for Him to come on, and He will come with glory. Now is the time to build a freeway for the Kingdom within your heart. Then when the Lord begins to move through your life, you will be a yielded, perfect, prepared channel to do the will of the Lord. Are you prepared? Even if you think you are prepared for what will come, the Lord is full of surprises. As much as possible prepare your heart. Do not expect defeat; expect perfect victory.
We must prepare for the Kingdom, because God has already prepared it for us. Jesus spoke of this preparation in Matthew 25:34, the parable of the sheep and the goats. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ ” God has prepared the Kingdom in His heart. It will not come with any surprises to God, but it will amaze us. We must be prepared for it. Let us not be guilty of failing to walk in the marvelous teachings of restoration that God has brought for several years. They are not to be just theories in our minds that we understand in a measure. They are to be mechanisms that work. They must be so real that we are given to them. Do not merely accept these teachings: let them engulf you. Walk in them.
Be prepared to walk in the Word. Expect it to happen! Why read about the gift of miracles without expecting miracles to occur every day. Let there be a preparation in your mind, a determination to be a channel of the miracles, the greater works, the signs and wonders, and the exploits. Force your brain to think in terms of walking in an unlimited anointing of the Lord. The greater works are going to come forth. Believe it! Believe it! Believe it! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Press into a new conditioning. Think miracles! Think the Kingdom because it is upon us now. Prepare your mind to walk in it.
In John 14:2, Jesus spoke of His preparation on our behalf: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” A few verses later, in the same chapter, He spoke about the greater works: “he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” Verse 12. He was about to go to the Father to prepare this level. He did not go there to prepare mansions; He went to prepare an abiding place, another level to live on. He was speaking to the disciples who probably felt it would be wonderful just to be able to do what Jesus did. But He told them, “No, I am going to prepare a level that even I have not moved on in this world. Greater works than I do shall you do also.”
We are to do works far superior to what Jesus did in the world. This is the level He wants us to live on. He will open up the area of divine, unlimited blessing and anointing, the level of the glory of the Kingdom. Then the glory of the Lord shall appear, as Isaiah said. Now we are preparing the highway, because we are believing. We will move right into the highest level. To expect this is not being presumptuous: it is an attitude of being prepared. Everything changes for those who prepare for it.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies… Psalm 23:5. The Lord makes a preparation. Even while you are being battled and going through trials, the Lord is preparing a table for you—the victory feast, the marriage supper. While you are putting on fine linen clean and white, which is the righteous acts of the saints, He is preparing the marriage supper. You are making your preparation, and He is making His preparation. In fact, He already prepared it before the foundation of the world. It is difficult to comprehend how long ago the Lord saw you and prepared for you. You did not surprise God at all. God did not look down and wonder what to do with you. He was fully prepared in His great divine heart.
One of the things that Jesus Christ wondered about was the people’s unbelief. He marveled that He could walk with them and talk with them, and still they would not believe. Today also the Christian’s unbelief is surprising to Jesus. Let us get out of the habit of not expecting anything to happen. Instead, let us move in a state of sanctified disappointment—not a disappointment that turns into despair, but a disappointment when the answer from God does not come.
Why be surprised when an answer or a provision from God comes? Determine never to be surprised; expect more. Take the upper hand where God is concerned. Believe that He loves you. Believe that He provided for you. Believe that He knew you before the foundation of the world, and that you are not here by chance. You did not create yourself. You are not a wooden puppet that God breathed into at the last minute as an afterthought. Know who you are—one of the elect of God! Begin to think that way. Do not be surprised, but rather anticipate, expect, and prepare for what you are believing to happen. That is the action which corresponds to faith. Without works your faith is dead. If you do not act on it, you are not really believing.
A pastor often talked about an incident of faith when his daughter was only a little child. She wanted a tricycle, which the family could not afford. At the morning family altar, she prayed for it, and so he explained, “We have no money, so do not be disappointed.”
She told him, “Daddy, I prayed, and God is going to give me a tricycle. You pray too.”
When she started to dust and to sweep the house, her father exclaimed, “What are you doing? You will be late for school!”
“I have to get everything ready, because you are going to have a wedding.”
Once in a great while a couple might stop by to be married and leave him some money. Sure enough, right after she left for school, a couple came to be married. As soon as he had married them, he bought the tricycle. After school, she ran home shouting, “Where is my tricycle? Where is my tricycle?” It was there in the living room, an evidence of her prayer and preparation. When children begin to believe like this, do not manipulate or arrange the answer for them; instead believe with them like a little child would believe. What if it does not happen? That is what is meant by sanctified disappointment. It may be disappointing if it does not happen when it is expected, but that does not mean it will not happen soon after. Expect it to happen. Expectation is a necessary ingredient of faith. Moment by moment, do not be moved from a sustained expectation, a prepared heart, an anticipation of the promises and provisions of the Lord.
If you want the rain of God to come upon you, prepare. Many spontaneous moves of the Spirit led nowhere because there was no preparation in people’s hearts. The prophet Hosea cried, Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12. You may ask God to send rain, but if you have never taken time to cultivate and prepare the ground, it will be too hard for the rain to penetrate. The ground will soak up only a little, and the rest will drain away without doing the ground any good. When the earth is prepared and cultivated, it soaks up the water. God is going to send rain upon you, for this is the time of the latter rain; but you must plow up the fallow ground to prepare your heart for it. When the blessings come, be ready. Be prepared to move into a higher level.
Jesus told the disciples, “I am going to prepare a place for you. Where I am going you can come also. I will bring you there.” They asked Him to show them the way, but Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). You can climb to a higher level. The works that Jesus did you will do also, and greater works shall you do. You can live on the same level with Christ, the same level in which Christ is moving on the earth today. The same level of His Word is the practical level of reality that you can live on.
Paul gave one simple truth in Philippians 3:12, which can open your heart to what you should do. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. When God first laid hold of you, He had a certain plan in mind. He had a blessing for you, and so He took hold of you. Paul said he was struggling to lay hold of that which God had in mind for him when He laid hold of him. In other words, he was making the full preparation in his thinking to have everything that God had in mind for him to possess and walk in.
Paul also made this important statement: Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13–14. He was living on tiptoe. He was straining for it. He was determined to get it. His mind and heart were prepared and conditioned to appropriate everything that God had for him. If you are not looking for much, you will not make preparation. Unbelief does not prepare. Where unbelief reigns, the heart is continually struggling with the appearances of circumstances and the general outlook of things. Unbelief is always striving and battling, always struggling with appearances and illusions. The general outlook is pessimistic. Faith refuses to look at those aspects. Faith looks at the provision of God and gets ready for it. Preparation is the climate in which miracles happen.
II Timothy 2:19b–21: “Let every one who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness.” Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things (the defilements of spirit that must be eliminated), he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. The Lord wants you to be a vessel for Him to use, but you must prepare yourself. You may think that you cannot determine what kind of vessel you will become; but you can. You can be a vessel of gold or of silver, of wood or of earthenware. It depends on how you purge yourself. If a man purges himself, he will become a vessel of honor. Plan to become a vessel of honor. Prepare for it. There are many kinds of vessels; but the man who is prepared for the Master’s use, and ready for every good thing, is really blessed of the Lord. Are you preparing your thinking for the signs and wonders that will happen?
There is joy in a pastor’s heart over everyone whom God brings to him. Yet mingled with the joy and satisfaction, he may have a sanctified disappointment concerning them. While he is thankful for all that God is doing in them, he is always expecting and anticipating more. That is how God looks at us. He wants us to be more. What He has done in us is good so far, but He sees that there is more to do. He is expecting it to happen. Day by day, and week by week, let us expect more from one another without setting limiting goals. There are many abiding places. Why live in the basement when you belong in the penthouse? Stir yourself and move up. You do not have to live on a low level.
Prepare your heart and keep praying, even though you do not see the answer. Realize that it may already have happened in the realm of spirit. Keep talking to the Lord about it. Keep praying, and be persistent. Persistence is the manifestation of the perpetual expectancy which is part of faith. Persistence in your prayer is a manifestation of the faith that is constantly expecting, the faith that refuses to be disappointed. If what you have been expecting has not been done when you get up in the morning, tell the Lord that you are expecting it to happen. Say to Him, “I refuse to be disappointed in unbelief, but I am disappointed because I want to walk in that blessing. I am preparing my heart, and I am expecting to walk in it.”
The Lord will appear one of these days. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I John 3:3. Expect it. Make preparation for the Lord to live in you. Look for a new way of life—continually, perpetually expecting and anticipating. Be prepared in your heart, prepared in your heart, prepared in your heart—demanding, insisting, bringing it forth!