Pastor Gary Wilkerson opens up the EXPECT 2011 Church Leadership Conference with a message about holy confidence. In an age when the media has headlines of pastors and leaders failing and falling, there is a temptation to muster up some spiritual gumption and declare that we won't mess up. This can be a prideful self-confidence worked up in our flesh. In truth, there was only one Shepherd that never failed — Jesus. It is through Him that we acquire the perfection required by God.

Pastor Claude Houde of Église Nouvelle Vie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada shares about "The Spirit of Expect." God's workmanship in us can only be accomplished by Him. He is a creating Spirit that wants to create something in and through us. Much of the modern church walks in so little of the Spirit. They have no spiritual inertia and are reduced to powerless imitators. In the end, only the supernatural works of God will survive.

In Exodus, Pharaoh shows us a picture of how our life and ministry can be limited by the boundaries imposed by ourselves and others. Sometimes we limit God to only the things we can accomplish with our own abilities, when God often desires to use us beyond our own strengths. Many of us learn to do ministry still wearing the chains of bitterness, anger, addiction, etc. — not walking in the full freedom of Christ. We'll often hold back if something seems too extreme, radical or fanatic. Some of us limit God by keeping our faith to ourselves or making it just about us. Many of us want to follow Christ, but aren't willing to make the sacrifices it often requires. It's time to break down the walls and stop limiting what God wants to do in and through our lives.