If God had any direct expectations of me other than to experience life and death, I wouldn’t have been born a blank slate with amnesia, wholly dependent on the world around me to tell me what I am, who I am, what I’m called, etc…
I would’ve been born with instructions. Of course, I was born with instructions, which is to live until I die, and those are the only instructions I was born with, because I am otherwise a blank slate.
Everything in between, is my choice of where to steer this vessel for His experience.
Agree. Each of my children were born with a unique personality and a tendency to always react in a certain way. It was amazing to watch them and those personalities, reactions develop.
Expectation of promises, made by God, expectations made by one’s sacred vows
In Buddhism the Mangala Sutta, is an early Theravadin Sutra that is the source of the beatitudes. The “Great Vow” of Mahayana Byddhism refers to primordial vows of disciples in previous lives to be born to spread the Law as “sons of The Buddha.” Great Bodhisattvas, make great vows to save humankind from suffering. Even Great Bodhisattvas from other worlds come to this “Saha World”(world of endurance) to assist in propagation of the Supreme Law, “fulfilling their vows.” Here these vows are more than expectations they are incontrovertible, as fixed Law.
When Jesus “walked on water” and others joined him, faith and expectation is one.
The Lotus Sutra explains that Great Bodhisattvas spread the Law, “expecting nothing in return.”
A letter from Priest Nichiren in Japan, in 1278 tells a story–a legend about “Expectation.”
"The mighty warrior General Li Kuang, whose mother had been devoured by a tiger, shot an arrow at the stone he believed was the tiger. The arrow penetrated the stone all the way up to its feathers. But once he realized it was only a stone, he was unable to pierce it again. Later he came to be known as General Stone Tiger. "
And he [Jesus] said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake,
30Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
22And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
John 6:47 KJV — Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
If ypu believe without doubting that God wants it done, yes, a literal mountain. But “this mountain” is a cypher for any non-sentiemt obstruction to God’s will being fulfilled through the believer. I don’t think you can override some sentient being’s free will.
In Biblical times when Jesus spoke of moving a mountain, it was a common phrase that referred to a problem. It was the problem that could be removed so that a solution could be discerned and acted upon.
Better advice about prayer is to refrain from going into a magical realm at all. Practical prayer is being in a realistic place and with good intent, want to advance to another place, realistic, but seemingly out of reach.
Speaking in the purely physical sense: Have you ever raised a dead person? Have you given sight to a blind baby or hearing to a deaf child?
Take Anne Sullivan (Helen Keller’s Teacher) for example. She (a Catholic Christian) undertook taking a blind/deaf child, and you just know she used prayer in her efforts to bring the world to Helen, and Helen to the world.
Does anyone think it was lack of faith on the part of Anne and Helen’s family that they could not restore sight to her eyes or hearing to her ears?
Or did prayer help them overcome the problems (mountains) in front of them in teaching a blind/deaf child?
Did Anne Sullivan believe it was God’s will to restore Helen Keller’s sight? She and Helen got that for which they were able to believe God. Tjat does not mean God’s will was not for something greater.
For her first year and a half, Helen was a normal, healthy child. Then she got sick which resulted in her becoming blind and deaf. Did God will blindness and deafness on a small child? After all, a child who could hear and see perfectly well, lost both sight and hearing. Do you think that must have been the will of God?
4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. 5 So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we are disgusted with this miserable food.”
6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.
Does anyone doubt that Moses expected God’s answer would be that the serpents would go away?
But God’s way is not our way.
The serpents remained. People still got bit. God’s response was to give the people a cure for the bites, not to stop the biting, even though that what Moses himself interceded for.
It was the Law of cause and effect. It is difficult to know the causes because it is difficult to know a person’s stored, karmic propensity. It is not God’s will, but it is the True Law of deep, universal justice or lightening the karmic debt (grace). That, is “God’s will.” The Law is not “created” it is what it is.
Changing poison into medicine, (Buddhist Hendoku-Iyaku or lightening the karmic debt-Tenju-Kyoju) is the same meaning as Christian “GRACE”, but with the added clarity of knowing of the existence of past karmic storage and the expectation of eventual, full expiation.
Faith would be to trust and appreciate the reality as it is,
