The Expectation Effect: Why What You Believe Shapes What You Experience

Let’s go deeper, friend. Because this idea of expectation? It’s not just some spiritual theory floating around in the clouds—it’s real. It’s scriptural, and it’s scientifically proven.

You already know that faith includes expectation.

But what if I told you the world of neuroscience is finally starting to catch up to what God has been saying all along?

There’s a phenomenon in science called The Expectation Effect—and when I first read about it, I just sat back and said, “There it is.” Like finally hearing someone else say out loud what the Spirit’s been showing you in your spirit for years.

Let me tell you the story that drove it home for me.

A woman named Stephanie, a graduate student at MIT, was supervising a chemistry lab. Now, in this lab, there was a very specific experiment that every student had to learn: how to precipitate sodium acetate crystals out of a supersaturated solution.

Apparently, this process was notoriously difficult. Most students had to try multiple times. It was a known challenge—a sort of rite of passage for the chem students. Everyone knew it was hard, and that knowledge shaped how they approached it: with nervousness, overthinking, performance pressure… you get the idea.

But then came LaDon.

LaDon was a brand-new freshman. He didn’t know anything about how “hard” this experiment was supposed to be.

So he just walked in and did it.

First try.
No struggle.
No stress.
Crystals formed.

And then he did it again. And again.

Stephanie, watching from the sidelines, was stunned. She literally said, “He just has a knack for it.”

But that wasn’t it at all.

He didn’t know to expect difficulty—so he didn’t experience it.

The obstacle had no power over him, because no one had told him it was supposed to be an obstacle.

And the more I sat with that, the more the Spirit kept whispering…

“According to your faith let it be done to you.” (Matthew 9:29)

I need you to hear this:

What you expect will either usher in the grace of God or shut it out.

That doesn’t mean God is withholding. It means your own internal posture—your thoughts, your beliefs, your mental pictures—are either open to receive or closed off in self-protection.

And if you’re sitting in fear, meditating on how hard it’s going to be, repeating to yourself all the ways it hasn’t worked before, you may very well shut the door on the very thing you’re asking God to bring.

Not because you’re unworthy.
Not because God’s holding out on you.
But because you’ve already decided—somewhere deep inside—that it’s not going to happen.

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)

This isn’t just about “positive thinking.” Please don’t reduce it to that.

This is about spiritual law.

There is a law of faith that’s been given to mankind—built into the way we were created.
We were made in the image of a Creator God, and part of that image is that our beliefs have creative power.

Science has been catching glimpses of this. In Mind to Matter by Dawson Church, he breaks down several studies where expectation alone caused measurable, tangible, physical changes—everything from IQ test performance to medical outcomes. (Yes, that’s real. And yes, I’ll be unpacking more of that in future chapters.)

But for now, this is what I want you to get:

God gave you the ability to believe.
And what you believe—what you expect—matters.

It’s not just a thought. It’s a seed.
And if you plant it deep enough—if you water it with confession, if you meditate on it, if you visualize it in agreement with God’s Word—it will take root.

And when it takes root, fruit comes next.

Here’s what I want you to ask yourself today:

Am I expecting the thing I’m praying for to actually happen?
Or am I just hoping… while secretly preparing for disappointment?

Because if faith is the substance of things hoped for, and hope is positive expectation, then faith cannot live in the soil of dread.

You can’t walk in faith while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

If that’s where you are right now, don’t feel condemned. This is not about guilt. It’s about invitation.

God is saying:

Let Me rewire your expectations.
Let Me heal what disappointment has taught you to expect.
Let Me flood your heart again with promise, so you can believe again.

You do that through practice. Not perfection. Not performance.
But through meditation on the Word.
Through confession—saying what God says.
Through visualization—seeing yourself walking in the very promise you’re asking for.

This isn’t woo-woo. This is wisdom.

And the more you do it, the more your faith will grow.

Because faith doesn’t grow by wishing.
It grows by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
And when it hears the Word enough?
It starts to expect.

God didn’t make you to struggle endlessly.
He didn’t label you as weak, or unlucky, or unworthy.
The labels that have been placed on you by others—or by yourself—can be undone.

Because God’s label for you is:

Loved.
Healed.
Chosen.
Equipped.
Empowered.
Worthy.
Free.

So let’s agree to expect like LaDon.

Walk into the lab of life and act like the miracle is normal.

Because to Heaven, it is.