Did you know that God still wants to encounter people? He still wants to clothe himself with flesh and meet people where they are at? That is something I don't think we focus on enough at Christmas time. We always look back to his birth in a manger, but we stop there. We forget that he came forth to bring many Sons to Glory. Lets look at the Christmas story again, not as a History, but as a prophecy for us.
The story starts off with a crazy promise:
26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
How does this apply to us? Well, we also have been left some crazy promises that our carnal reasoning has failed to understand. The scriptures below are a small sampling:
Colossians 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Ephesians 3:16,17 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith....
Mary wanted to know how she could conceive a child when she had never been with a man. We struggle to understand how we can be vessels for the Spirit of Christ, because we've only been with men.
We have allowed ourselves to be defined by our natural surroundings. We have conformed to this world. We have made the Gospel into a message of self-help and discipling nations into political posturing. These things have polluted our wombs so that we can't birth heavenly realities and we limit ourselves to the "possible." How do we change?
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God....
37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
That last phrase holds the key. "Be it unto me according to thy word." Lets work back through these verses starting there.
Be it unto me according to thy word means letting our identity be defined by the Gospel. We lose ourselves in the Death Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul said I have been crucified with Christ, yet never the less I live; not I, but Christ lives in me. Something profound happens when we see the cross as something that happened to us, not just Jesus. We experience the freedom of that death. Something even greater happens when we see the resurrection as something that happened to us, we experience the power of that life. We then become a capsule for an encounter...
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God...For with God nothing shall be impossible.
There was a scene on the way out of Egypt where God tried to encounter Israel on a mountain. The Holy one "touched down" so to speak. He had come to establish a covenantal relationship with them. There was one problem.... he terrified them They were so scared in fact that they rejected the encounter and asked Moses to speak to God for them, because they thought they were going to die. In this demonstration of sheer power and "Godness" he couldn't convey his heart to the people. It was only in the ministry of the Son that the Father could combine his miraculous power with as Hebrews puts it "the express image of his person;" his heart of Love. This is what I feel is available to us in this season, the Father encountering the world again through his Sons as a Virgin Bride starts saying "be it unto me according to thy word."
The Bride of Christ has to develop a culture that incubates a God and God alone defined identity in the lives of the Saints. Merry Christmas beloved.
