Hm, I thought this would work

Gemfile

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'rspec', '~> 3.1.0'

gistfile1.txt

> bundle install
> bundle exec rspec spec.rb
doing the thing thing
F

Failures:

  1) Hello does the verification
     Failure/Error: expect(hello).to receive(:do_the_thing).with('thing')
       (Double "Hello").do_the_thing("thing")
           expected: 1 time with arguments: ("thing")
           received: 0 times
     # ./spec.rb:17:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'

Finished in 0.00385 seconds (files took 0.05977 seconds to load)
1 example, 1 failure

Failed examples:

rspec ./spec.rb:15 # Hello does the verification

spec.rb

require 'rubygems'
require 'bundler/setup'
require 'rspec'
require 'rspec/mocks'

module Hello
  extend self

  def do_the_thing(arg1)
    puts "doing the thing #{arg1}"
  end
end

describe 'Hello' do
  it "does the verification" do
    hello = class_double('Hello')
    expect(hello).to receive(:do_the_thing).with('thing')

    Hello.do_the_thing('thing')
  end
end