Praying Boldly With Expectations

What if the way you pray is directly connected to how you believe?

In this powerful episode of FaithFinder, we dive into the words of Gospel of Mark 11:24 (Amplified):

"For this reason I am telling you, whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given to you."

This verse challenges us to examine not just what we pray, but how we pray.

Are our prayers filled with expectation?
Or are they quietly shaped by doubt?

Too often, we pray safe prayers.
We lower our expectations.
We hope—but we don’t fully believe.

But bold, faith-filled prayer looks different.

In this episode, we focus on what it means to pray prayers that reflect faith, not doubt, and how expectation transforms your prayer life.

We unpack:

✨ What it means to truly believe when you pray
✨ The difference between hopeful words and faith-filled expectation
✨ Why bold prayers must still align with God’s will
✨ The connection between faith, authority, and expectation

Praying boldly is not about demanding from God—it’s about trusting Him deeply.

It’s about approaching God with confidence, knowing who He is, what He has said, and what He is able to do.

Because faith doesn’t just ask…
Faith expects.

This episode will challenge you to move beyond routine prayers and step into a deeper level of trust, where your prayers are rooted in belief and not fear, doubt, or uncertainty.

If you’ve ever struggled with:

• Doubting whether God will answer your prayers
• Feeling unsure how to pray with confidence
• Repeating prayers without expectation
• Wanting a stronger, more effective prayer life
• Wondering if your faith is reflected in your prayers

This episode is for you.

Because when your prayers align with God’s Word and are filled with faith, they carry power.

God is not intimidated by bold prayers.
He is honored by faith-filled ones.

So ask.
Believe.
Trust.
And expect God to move according to His will.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

At that moment, I had no expectations of God whatsoever. And I'm being honest with you. I had no expectations from the Lord. Because, and I'm a we're gonna talk about that in just a second, but because people had let me down, had failed me, had broken promises, had you know all of these things of people. This is Faith Finder, where faith becomes your roadmap. Welcome to Faith Finder Podcast, where faith becomes your roadmap. I am your host, Tamara Anderson. Thank you so much for joining me for season two, Living with Daily Act of Faith. We are on episode nine. Guys, we only have one more episode after this one. And guess what? Season two is coming to an end. But that's okay. I promise to be back for season three. Today in episode nine, we will be talking about praying boldly with expectation. Let's go ahead and jump into our prayer. Most gracious and heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, we thank you, we thank you, we thank you. Lord, we thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. We thank you for another day. Hallelujah. We thank you for another opportunity to speak your word. Hallelujah. To touch the lives of others. Lord, we thank you. We thank you. We thank you. Just for being able to draw breath on this day. Heavenly Father, please forgive us of anything we have said, done, thought, or felt that is unlike you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Continue to show us the error of our ways that we may not sin against you. Continue to lead us and guide us in your righteousness, Lord. Not self-righteousness and definitely not man's righteousness, but lead us and guide us in your perfect righteousness, your holy righteousness. Glory to your name, Lord Jesus. I ask that you be with us in this lesson on today, Lord God, in this episode. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, glory to your name, Lord Jesus. Shift our prayer on today. Hallelujah. Shift our focus on today. Glory to your name, Lord God. Shift us. Hallelujah. And align us. Hallelujah. Our mind, our body, and our spirit. Hallelujah with the Holy Spirit. Glory to your name with your divineness. Hallelujah. Glory to your name, Lord Jesus. We just thank you. Hallelujah. We ask that you be with us in this lesson. And Lord, I completely and totally decrease that you may increase and speak to your people on today what you would have them to hear. Lord Jesus. Open up their ears to hear, their hearts to receive, and their minds for a better understanding. But above all of that, Lord Jesus, give us all application of the lesson of your word. Hallelujah. Glory to your name, of your divine, perfect will. And it's in Jesus' mighty name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Our scripture today will be coming from Mark chapter 11, verse 24. I will be reading the amplified version in your hearing on today. It says, For this reason I am telling you whatever things you ask for in prayer. Here's the caveat, and that's why I love the amplified version. It says, in accordance with God's will, believe with confident trust that you have received them and they will be given to you. Hallelujah. I really want to focus today on prayer that reflects faith and not doubt. Prayer that reflects faith and not doubt. It's so easy for some of us to get into a routine of just worry, hallelujah. It's so easy for us to get into a routine of praying. And not saying that your prayer is just praying, just words or what have you. I'm not saying that, but I believe a lot of us just to say that I have prayed, we pray. Not really seeking, um I don't want to say saying the right words, because I believe any prayer is just communication with the Lord. Any point blank, simply putting, I've said that many times. Prayer is simply communication with the Lord. But we do one or two things. Sometimes I believe we have people who pray just to hear themselves pray. We talked about the Pharisees. I uh the scripture I can't remember right now, where it talked about how the Pharisees were uh praying and and the the poor man and they were sitting there talking down on him, but he prayed and he gave he gave his last, but he was praying with a sincere heart. And I promise you, I don't believe, I believe some people prayed just to pray, to hear themselves, to say, I have checked a box today. I prayed today, I I was in communion with the Lord today, but really were you because, like I said, this uh a couple of episodes ago, prayer we have to part prayer is a two-way communication, two ways. Okay, it's not just us speaking, us talking, us talking, and not stopping to hear what God is saying to us. That's number one. It's communication, just like you communicate with your spouse, your children, your friends, your co-workers, your boss, you say something, they say something. You say something, they say something. It's a conversation that goes back and forth. Prayer is not just me giving God a bunch of commands or a list of things that I need or or or anything like that. No, it is communicating with the Lord. So whether you take time out at the beginning of your prayer to get a download and receive from the Lord, or at the end, as long as there is some point in that prayer that you have given the Lord his time and space and opportunity to communicate with you, okay. But there are so many times where people just get up 10, 15, 20 minutes, whatever the case may be, and that whole entire time they're talking. But moving past that, I want us to get to a place to where our prayer reflects faith. I'm I'm guilty, I'm guilty, and y'all know I'm transparent. I I'm and I'm gonna be transparent because God brought back to a remembrance of mine. Um, because our title is praying boldly with the expectation. And I want to let you know if there's no expectation from the Lord or on the behalf of us expecting something from the Lord, guess what? There technically is no faith, and I don't it it was years ago, it had to probably be about four or five years ago. I had gotten a slunk, sort of kind, and I'll be a minute, I'll I'm transparent, and I it happened, it had to be Facebook because I wasn't even on TikTok at that point, um, but it could have been YouTube, I'm not 100% sure. But I came across a video, and the man talked about how our expectations of the Lord, our expectations of God, and if your expectation is just big enough to fill a teacup, not even a coffee cup, but a teacup, guess what? That's as much of a blessing, or that that's what God is going to pour out. A teacup worth of whatever. If your expectation is big enough to fill a swimming pool, guess what? That's all that's going to be filled on your behalf, a swimming pool. But if you have the expectation, glory to your name, Jesus, hallelujah, the size of an ocean, there is nothing that can be willed that will be withheld from you. And I had to ask myself after watching that video, I literally promise you, I just believe God gave it to me for a reason. Because at that moment I had no expectations of God whatsoever. And I'm being honest with you, I had no expectations from the Lord because, and I'm we're gonna talk about that in just a second, but because people had let me down, had failed me, had broken promises, had you know, all of these things of people, I had this ideology, not that God had ever failed me, not that the Lord had ever let me down, but I just didn't expect anything from him either. I literally was walking around with a mindset, and don't get me wrong, I've always prayed for God's perfect will. But here's the caveat I would also say if I prayed for something and it didn't come to pass, oh, that must have been God's will for me. No, I was not truly praying with an expectation of God to fulfill it. Now, here's, and again, I have to be honest and transparent, I would pray with an expectation for someone else, for their healing, for their deliverance, for their miracle to come through the door. I would pray fervently with their act for God to meet them, and I had a high expectation, but when it came to myself, when it came to myself, because um of me, not because again of anything that the Lord had done, because he is wonderful, he is marvelous, he is excellent in all of his ways, but because people for the majority of my life have failed me, have let me down, have said they were gonna step up and help me in certain areas of ways and then show up, um, and to be honest, family and friends, um, because you know, whatever I promise you, I had an incident, oh my god, that was in 2011, 2011, I I think. Um, so that's 15 years ago. But because of this incident and how people lie, I mean, you're in a court, a court of where you're supposed to be telling the truth, and people lie, and what was truthfully I should have uh won that court case, I lost. And again, because of all of these things in my life, um, I just did not expect anything from God. So when I would pray for something, um, I would pray, but I would have that mindset must not be God's will, or you know, if it happens, then that was God's will, and that's not how that goes. Going back to the scripture, it says if things that you ask for in prayer in accordance with God's will, but here's the caveat believe with confident trust. There has to be an expectation that that prayer is going to happen. There has to be an expectation again. If you know you're praying God's perfect will for your life, I'm just missing me, not his permissive will, but his perfect will, then there should be a level of expectation. And after watching that video, I realized I'm not gonna lie to you, I probably didn't even have a teacup worth of expectation because of people. I had taken my focus off of God Himself, what his word has shown me time after time after time to be true. He himself, if you look at my record, I may have failed, you know, certain people over the years or what hadn't. Not on purpose, because life happens. But if I look at God's record, if we were going back and look at how the Lord came through on our behalf, he's never failed us, he's never left us, he's oh glory, hallelujah! And so my focus had been shifted off of him and onto what people had done. So I had no expectations whatsoever. And then again, at the end of that video, there was that correlation: no expectation, no faith. Woo! When I say the biggest wake-up call of my life, the biggest wake-up call of my life. You can't sit here and tell me that you have faith in your prayer that you just prayed, but you're not expecting it to come to pass. No, that's the oxymoron. It's the two can't go together. You cannot put that in the same sentence. Oh, I'm praying with faith, but I don't expect an outcome. I had a conversation with my cousin a couple of years ago. Mind you, I watched this video probably about five years ago. Was having a conversation with my cousin about two years ago. Um, at this point, about two years ago, and I had to bring again back to him. This this that I learned five years ago, I was able to bless him with it two years, and I pray it's a blessing for you today. You cannot sit here and say, because he was praying uh for the Lord to make a way for his son, um, sons, if I'm not mistaken, both of them, to come live with him, but he had no expectation because I'm I want to tell you something. When you have an expectation of your prayer to come to pass, glory, hallelujah, you begin to move. Okay, we know faith is action, right? So when I'm praying, what when I'm walking daily active faith, glory, hallelujah. There are things that I am doing, right? Faith is action. So if I'm praying with faith and expectation, guess what? There's some things that I should be doing, preparing to receive what I just asked. Oh, glory, preparing to receive what I just prayed for and asked God for. In his situation, he was in a three-bedroom house, but he was not preparing the bed, one of the bedrooms, to receive his children. If I'm not mistaken, it was both sons, it could have been just one, the youngest one. But I that's neither here nor there. But still, he was not preparing to receive his children. You got a third bedroom that's empty. There's no bed, there's no curtains, there's no furniture, there, there's no expect, there's no preparation. Oh, glory, to receive that expected prayer that you just prayed. Where's your faith? And that's what we have to do. We have to shift, we have to shift. Glory to your name. When we when um our expectations of God will shift our outcomes. I'm not joking you. Our expectations will shift our outcomes. No joke, promise you, because now that you're praying with faith and that expectation, God's now gonna move on your behalf. Glory. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. I I just believe that with my whole heart, there is a difference when we pray and have that expectation attached to that prayer. Because again, we're now walking in faith, we're now living in faith, we're now moving in faith, and we're now preparing because we already pray with expectation, so now we're preparing. No joke, I give this testimony all the time, and and this is a whole nother different, but I give this testimony all the time for years and years and years and years and years. When I say people have truly taken advantage of me and my husband over the years for a lack of knowledge, did not, I don't know much about real estate. I've learned so much more, did not know much about real estate. We didn't have bad credit, we just had no credit. That was the problem. Not bad credit, no credit. Because when I say I believe credit cards are the devil, I believe it's the devil. That's just my thought. So for years we would go paid, you know, thousands of dollars to these programs to help us get a house. I remember doing this twice. I won't say that I remember the two different incidents. Um, Beyond Housing was one of them. I can't think of the name of the other one, but anywho, paid all this money, all this money to these programs to help us get a house. No house. No instructions. Oh, well, you just gotta build your credit, but not telling us how to build our credit and in a good way, in a good way. So 2017, I'm like, Lord, something gotta change, something gotta change. And me and my husband, seriously, we began to pray together, Lord, show us what to do, send us to the right people. God sent us to Jody Talek, and now when I say God ordained, send us a Jody Talek. And in January 2018, she told us exactly what to do. But we prayed, God sent us to the right person. I believe He did, and we followed the instructions because again, there's an expectation, God, I want a house, I want you to move on our behalf. She gave us instructions, and again, we followed those instructions, but my faith in action was let me prepare now for my move. Mind you, did not have an approval letter just out of the process of trying to do what she said to do, but I began to pack my house because there was an expectation that here, because she told us six to nine months, okay, but and then within this year, we're moving. I'm not until I get that approval letter and then begin to go look for a house to start packing. No, let me show you, Lord. Hallelujah. Let me show you. So I began to pack my house in January when we first started talking to her. Well, I think we started talking to her in December, I apologize. But anyhow, I started in January, started packing my house. By September, by July, we had our offer letter. By September, we were in our home. But I promise you, there was literally that's preparation for the expectation. When we shift our expectation, there comes an alignment of preparation, and I believe that shifts the outcome of how God is going to move up and show up on our behalf in our lives through that prayer for whatever that thing you're asking for. There's a preparation. We know a woman who, when she finds out she's pregnant, depending upon when she does, but when she finds out she's pregnant, she has about 40 weeks to prepare for that baby. 30, I'll be nice. 30 weeks to prepare for that baby. She don't wait to week 35 to go get a bassinet and play pen and clothes and and all. No, Lord forgive me. Jesus, forgive me. Those of us who prepare, we're gonna start preparing probably in the second trimester. Once we got over the hurdle, and you know, in that second trimester, we begin to prepare because hello, there's this baby coming. There's an expectation when this baby comes, it needs clothing and diapers and wipes and bottles or or what have you. It needs birth cloths, it needs all of these things when it gets here. So, what are you doing to prepare for glory? Hallelujah! What are you doing to prepare for that prayer that you have prayed for? If you pray with an expectation, what are you doing to prepare to receive it? What are what are you doing to prepare to receive it? I'm telling you, praying with faith and expectation shifts the outcome of how God is going to move. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, telling you. Oh, I'm telling you. I'm just being honest with you on today. Oh, hallelujah. I pray that something was said today to really encourage you and shift your focus off of people and back to God. Shift your focus off your problems and back to God. Shift your focus off your current situation and back to God. Because when I tell you, I got some great news in the past week, and I got some not so great news in the past week. And yesterday was a really, really hard day for me. And it was it, it just was a hard day. And I had to sit there, God, I'm giving it to you. Hands off. Hands off. I'm giving you this situation, whatever the outcome, because God, you know what I told you I want it. I ain't even a need. You know what I told you I want it, and you're God, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. Hallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just, and God knows what I have endured, God knows what I have gone through, God knows, hallelujah. And again, He is set up for a reason. It's a set up for a reason, and I put it in God's head. I said, God, I'm not gonna worry about it no more. I'm giving it to you. Whatever the outcome, I know that is your perfect will for me, and I'm not using as a cop-out. God hears me, I'm not. When I say there's nothing I could do about it, but God, you God, you're the God of the universe. All things, the earth is yours and the fullness thereof, everything is in your hands. And when I say I gave it to God, I'm not about to worry about it, I'm not about to stress over it. Lord, you your will, your perfect will be done. You know what I have endured, you know what I've gone through, you know what I've had to, you know the headache that this has caused me. But God, again, I worship you, I praise you, I glorify you, and your perfect will be done. I had to just take my hands off, and I'm being so serious. Just being honest. But I want you to do something for me for your faith challenge of this week. If you realize after listening to today's episode that you have been praying without expectation, I hope you also understand you've been praying without faith. Okay. I need you just to take a moment and do a self-reflection. Have my prayers been prayed without expectation of the Lord? And if so, shift. Shift, shift your prayers to ignite faith into action. Shift your prayers, oh glory, to ignite you to prepare for the blessing, for whatever it is that you've prayed for. Shift. That's all I'm asking you to do do a self-reflection and then shift. Now, if you've been praying with the expectations and faith all along, God bless you. Now, my challenge for you is to encourage others. That's my challenge for you this week. To encourage others. Okay? And as always, I never want to end any episode, any podcast, anything that I do without saying who wants to give your life to Christ. We are truly living in the last days. Truly living in the last days. And it's not by design. It's not, I'm sorry, it's by design, glory to your day. Forgive me, Lord. It's by design that you've seen this episode today. It's by God's perfect will that you come across this and you're listening to this on today. And while this may this is going up on April the 7th, it may be May 7th that you're listening to this or watching this or hearing this. But whenever God allows you to hear it, it's not by accident, but by his perfect will. And if you realize that you're not living for the Lord, if you realize that you once walked with God and you walked away, I'm telling you, um, now's the time to come back. We don't have too much too much longer to go. We really don't. We do not have too much longer to go. So I want to say this time and this space and this opportunity. Who wants to give your life to Christ? Please leave it in the comments and I will reach out to you. DM me. I will reach out to you and pray with you. Pray for God. First of all, that that's something you can do within yourself. Just Lord, forgive me and you know, repent, true repentance, true repentance, and ask Him to become your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But let me pray with you that God will send you to a Bible-based church. Not one that's sitting here and more concerned with your butt in the seat and your money in your pocket than your soul. No, we want God to send you and direct you to go to a church where you can be planted and grow and you can help build the kingdom of God. All right, Lord, we just thank you for the lesson of today. Lord, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you, Jesus. I hear you. Glory to your name, Lord, and I just thank you, I thank you, I thank you for not just giving me an episode or a lesson for others, Lord God, but also speaking to me. Glory to your name. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus. Let there be a shift in their lives, let there be a shift in their prayers, let there be a shift in their focus, realign them, hallelujah. Glory to your name, Lord Jesus. Realign, realign right now, Lord, realign and Lord. I just thank you. I thank you. I ask that you be with each and every person that has, hallelujah, rededicated their life or dedicated their life to you, Lord. Cover them in a special way, Lord Jesus. Be with each and every person, Lord Jesus, that has watched or heard this episode. Be with them in a special way, Lord Jesus. Hallelujah, as we begin to shift. Oh, hallelujah! Hallelujah, as we begin to shift and realign our focus to the appropriate person, and that's you, Jesus. Glory to your name, Lord Jesus. I just thank you. Hallelujah. I worship you, I honor you, I glorify your holy name. And I thank you, I thank you, I thank you for this assignment. I thank you for this assignment. I thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy. I thank you for your many, many, many, many blessings. Hallelujah, and I thank you for what is still yet to come. Hallelujah, because I have an expectation and I'm standing on your word. The eyes have not seen, ears have not heard that you have in store for me. Hallelujah. I know what I'm expecting, God, and I know hallelujah. You shall exceed my expectation. Hallelujah. Glory to your name, Lord. Thank you for reminding me. Hallelujah. Thank you. Hallelujah. Glory to your name, Jesus. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And it's in Jesus' mighty name that we pray. Amen, amen, and amen. Hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to your name, Jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord. Hey, glory to your name, Jesus. Join me next week. Hallelujah. It will be our last episode of season two. And then I'll take a little short break and be back with season three. I'll give you more information on what to expect in season three next week. But join me for episode 10. Living it out! A lifestyle of active faith. You guys have a blessed day and a wonderful week. God bless. Thank you for traveling with me today on Faith Finder. Every mile we take together strengthens our faith, sharpens our vision, and reminds us that God is guiding the road beneath our feet. If this episode encourages you, make sure to follow the podcast, leave a review, and share with someone who's on their own faith journey. Until next time, keep trusting, keep growing, and keep moving forward. Because faith isn't just something you have, it's something you live. This is Faith Finder, where faith becomes your roadmap.