Robert Hotchkin is one of the core leaders of Patricia King Ministries. He is a passionate lover of Jesus Christ and that passion is truly contagious! He ministers with strong faith, releasing revelation, prophetic decrees, healings, miracles, and the love of God.
The devil wants you disappointed and wants to take you out of your Kingdom appointment in the earth as part of God’s solution. This month, Robert shares how our unmet expectaions can dis-appoint us and derail us and how we can shift our mindset to refuse the enemy’s trap of disappointment, and walk in our appointment as His dominion stewards in the earth.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
– Proverbs 3:5-6
There is a tension in the spirit right now. It has been building for quite some time. You may be feeling it directly, or maybe you’ve just caught yourself being a bit more “on edge” than usual. Wrestling with anger, frustration, offense, or similar limiting emotions.
Maybe something didn’t happen the way you thought it should.
Maybe someone said something they shouldn’t have. Or failed to come through for you in a way you thought they would.
Or maybe it is the state of the world, your nation, or even the church.
Maybe it’s your spouse. Or a co-worker. Or your pastor.
Maybe it has to do with the election. Or the Democrats. Or the Republicans. Or CNN. Or Hollywood. Or that one cousin.
But I can almost guarantee that there’s something poking at you. Trying to get you to focus on how something, or someone – or lots of somethings and lots of someones – isn’t how you thought it would be. Or even more challenging, isn’t how you thought it should be.
So you’re disappointed.
It happens all the time. Because it is one of the devil’s favorite tactics. Especially right now when it is so easy to look around and find something to be disappointed about.
DON’T “DIS-APPOINT” YOURSELF
The devil wants you disappointed. Because when you give into the temptation to be disappointed, you quite literally “dis-appoint” yourself. You take yourself out of your Kingdom appointment in the earth as part of God’s solution.
The devil knows you’re here for a reason. He knows as a born-again believer you are a significant part of God’s plan to turn things around in your family, city, nation and the world. He knows he can’t strip you of that power. But he is also very aware that you can strip yourself of it. That’s why the devil wants you disappointed.
When we choose to be disappointed we are actually taking on a victim mentality. We give place to disappointment when we feel that things have not gone according to how we think they should. We put our trust in our understanding and timing, as opposed to trusting in the will and ways of God. That’s rarely what we’re consciously thinking, but we need to be aware that’s actually what’s happening – so that we can resist it.
When we take on that victim mentality through disappointment, we no longer operate as victors in Christ. We dis-appoint ourselves from being faith-filled hope-ignited believers knowing God is good and that He is well able to bring about the best results from any set of circumstances. We dis-appoint ourselves from being faith-empowered releasers of hope and expectation, and we unintentionally appoint ourselves as releasers of darkness.
That’s why the devil wants you disappointed.
The key is to TRUST IN THE LORD. Yes, that sounds simple. Because it is simple. And powerful.
EXPECT GOD, NOT YOUR EXPECTATIONS
Let’s go back to why disappointment gets a foothold. It is because we feel our expectations are not being met. Which means we are trusting in our understanding, and how we think things should be at any given moment.
Unpacking this a bit more … We give place to disappointment because we think God has missed it, instead of realizing that we have.
Take Joseph as an example. He missed what God was doing. So much so, that he almost left his fiancée. In his disappointment over Mary being pregnant, Joseph was just about to dis-appoint himself from being her husband, and Jesus’s earthly father. Because he was disappointed in the situation, Joseph was ready to dis-appoint himself from being an ally and partner in stewarding, nurturing and raising the greatest move of God that has ever been seen in the earth.
Look at the church back then. They totally missed what God was doing. The whole earth did. Everyone but three desert nomads missed the foretold coming of the Messiah because no one’s expectations of how a Messiah should come were met. God did it His way, not ours.
It was the same with the Pharisees and Sadducees during Jesus’s earthly ministry. The greatest religious minds and scholars of the day missed Messiah walking in their midst because He was not exactly what they expected Him to be according to their understanding.
There was a great falling away of Jesus’s followers in John 6 because so many missed what He meant when He shared with them about the bread and the wine of the New Covenant.
Even all of the original disciples missed it. Those men who walked with Jesus for three years. Who heard from Him and learned from Him every day. Despite Jesus totally mapping out for them what was going to come to pass, they totally missed what God was doing at the cross. They thought it was a defeat, completely missing that it was the greatest victory ever seen.
They all missed what God was doing at first. They were all disappointed that their expectations were not met. And because of that, each and every one of them was either temporarily or permanently dis-appointed – taken out of their position and place because they were not willing to trust in God beyond their understanding of things.
But the story did not end there. For Joseph. Or for those disciples. Or for Pharisees and Sadducees like Saul and Jairus and so many others. Because, yes, the enemy wants us to be disappointed. But our Savior wants to encourage us. And while the enemy’s trap of disappointment causes us to dis-appoint ourselves, the encouragement of the Lord causes us to be in-filled with courage and empowers us to lean not on our own understanding but instead lean into the Lord, trusting in Him no matter what!
REFUSE DISAPOINTMENT RIGHT NOW
It’s the same for us today. This is no time to be disappointed – emotionally, spiritually, politically, socially. Because if we allow that, the devil gets a victory. He wants us dis-appointed. He wants us to take ourselves out of our place of impact and authority on behalf of the kingdom in the earth.
Don’t allow that.
We need you. The Kingdom needs you. You are here for a reason. You have a purpose. You are meant to be an agent of impact. Don’t give the enemy even a short-term win. Don’t allow yourself to be dis-appointed.
If you realize you have fallen for the trap, that in itself is a victory. Now take the next step. Shake off the disappointment. Repent for leaning on your own understanding. Repent of giving place to that anger, frustration, bitterness, negativity or offense. Repent of dis-appointing yourself through a victim mentality. And then invite Holy Spirit to come and encourage you. He is brilliant at it and He can’t wait to remind you who you truly are and empower you to walk in it.
GOD IS NOT DISAPPOINTED – AND YOU ARE MADE IN HIS IMAGE!
God is not disappointed. He is not disappointed in the state of the world, the nations, or the church. He may not like much of what is happening all around us right now. He may even grieve over it. But He is never disappointed. And He is certainly never dis-appointed. Because He is never taken by surprise. He knows He has a plan that can be trusted.
There is one other thing I want to mention that God is not disappointed in. You. He does not hold your past against you. He is not looming to remind you of your mistakes. Just the opposite. He longs to set you free of anything that has ever limited you from walking in all He created you to be. Including disappointment.
The Lord loves you. He rejoices that you are waking up to the truth of who you really are. And He is grateful that you are now refusing the enemy’s trap of disappointment, and are willing to walk in your appointment as His dominion steward in the earth. He knows you are part of His solution for this hour, and He is grateful that you have realized that truth, as well!
Make these encouraging and empowering decrees over yourself each day this month:
I declare that:
- I trust in the Lord with all my heart. I lean not on my own understanding. I acknowledge God in all that I am facing and in everything I see. I praise Him that He is at work in ways beyond my understanding.
- I refuse to be disappointed. I give no place to disappointment, anger, fear, frustration, bitterness or offense. I shake off every negative and limiting emotion. I will not be dis-appointed. I will walk in all God has created me for and called me to.
- I am part of God’s solution. I have a key role to play for the Kingdom in the earth. I will pray and praise my way to the manifested victory.
- I am an overcomer. More than a conqueror. I have the victory in Christ in all that is before me.
- I receive the encouragement of the Lord. Thank You, God, that by the power of Your Holy Spirit you are in-filling me with courage, strength and boldness.
- I am filled with faith, hope and joyful expectation.
- I trust in the will, ways, and timing of the Lord. He is at work. He is bringing about great things.
- God You are good. I declare the fullness of Your goodness into the world, my nation, my city, my family, my health, my finances, my relationships, and into the church. I declare that You are bringing about the very best results in every set of circumstances. I will see the goodness of God!
Want More? Then May We Suggest:
BE THE SOLUTION – CD/MP3 set from Robert Hotchkin
There is a reason you didn’t go home to glory as soon as you got saved. It’s the same reason that God chose to manifest you right here, right now. It’s because you have a key role to play for His Kingdom in the earth. These three sessions will make you aware of the tricks and traps the enemy uses to try to minimize your effectiveness for the Kingdom, as well as the power you have in Christ to be God’s solution in any situation you face, and every sphere of influence you are called to.
WINNING THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND, WILL AND EMOTIONS – Book by Robert Hotchkin
All of heaven is available to you right now through the finished work of the cross. But often it does not look or feel that way. The reason: There is a battle for your mind, will and emotions that largely determines the fullness of God’s presence, power and Kingdom that you walk in. It is critical that you partner with Him to the battle. The revelation and “battle keys” this book is filled with will empower you to live in the “MORE!” of God that you have been crying out for.
God wants to use you to launch a spiritual revolution that will bring revival to the land. It’s time we take back our nations. And we can – through the power of prayer and intercession! These four sessions will skyrocket your faith and build your authority to speak to your nation and see it healed, revived, reformed and restored to God’s plans and purposes for it. This is a timely and powerful resource for Bible studies, prayer groups, intercession teams, and ministries.
Our God is invincible. All might, all power, and all authority are His. He never loses, and He wants to train you how to war the Kingdom way. God wants to teach you how to lay hold of certain victory and equip you to take down the giants in the land so that you can inhabit all of His promises and see all of His blessings. As you listen to this message, you will realize that you’re made for victory in every area of your life. PLUS at the end of this message, Robert Hotchkin prays for the Spirit of the Overcomer to be released to you. Triumph is coming … because VICTORY is yours!
