Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel”. = God with us.
Luke 1:26-45 “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end.’
‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’
35 The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’
38 ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her.
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!’”
There are 4 main characters here:
· Zechariah (priest) and Elizabeth (an old and barren woman)
· Teenage Mary and Joseph
The Bible tells us it had been over 400 years since anyone had encountered God or heard His voice. God had been completely silent!! So, when Zechariah went into the temple, like all the other Priests, he was not expecting to encounter God or any other heavenly being. He like all the other Priests, was only going through the religious rituals! He was not expecting anything miraculous to happen. They had all stopped expecting God to meet with them…What are you expecting?
Like Mary and Elizabeth – Both favoured, both conceived and both went on to deliver breakthrough! They were prepared to conceive and were empowered by God for all that was to come as they became parents to Jesus and John.
When God calls you to do something so incredible, He overshadows YOU, He enables and empowers you to be able to carry out all He created YOU to do. God does not expect YOU to do everything on your own. What are the words God has spoken over your life? Have you received them? Are you still expecting them to come to fruition?
How many of us refuse to believe we are favoured? How many of us have not conceived the new things God wants to release to us? How many of us have missed the opportunities to bring breakthroughs or to pray through with a burden God has laid on our heart. How many around us have missed out because we have not been willing to receive, conceive and birth what God has for us?
PRAYER - Lord we pray for the Church that no longer hears your voice or senses your presence. We pray that we would raise our expectations, that we would be like Mary and Elizabeth, willing to receive all you wish to release to us. We open our hearts, minds, and bodies to conceive divine ideas and strategies, business and medical breakthroughs. Lord like Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph we make ourselves available to you to bring major breakthroughs, to be vessels of change. We thank you Lord that you will provide us with everything we need to complete the call you have given each one of us. Amen
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