Can you say, Amen?

Luke 1:35-38 - 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. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

    Mary asked how this would happen and the angel answered; the Holy Spirit, that’s how. This will not be the result of the action of a man; it will be a result of the action of the Holy Spirit. Just the mention of the Holy Spirit should be enough to answer all of our questions. He will find a way; He will make a way to bring about the word and the works of God in our lives. He is ever-present in our lives to reveal the will and plan of God to us. Mary, the Holy Spirit shall come upon you as when He would come upon the prophets of old and they would work miracles or perform superhuman feats.

    The power of God shall overshadow you. Mary would not have known that this was the same word that was used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Genesis 1:2 – ‘The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters’. Moved could also be translated hovered or fluttered, as a mother bird would crouch and huddle over her eggs, or as the Latin Vulgate says; incubat. God incubates new worlds and He can incubate anything within us. Whatever we need can be incubated by a process of gestation commenced within us by the Word of God and the Power of the Holy Spirit. Mary was, no doubt, aware of the creation story in Genesis and similar language was recorded there. This may have given her a powerful image for her faith to grasp hold of; the original creation took place as the Holy Spirit waited for the Word of God to be spoken. God said…and it was so. He commanded and it sprang into being. The Word of God and the Spirit of God working together released the creative, constructive and explosive power of God resulting in the formation of our universe, a brand new world.

    For with God nothing shall be impossible – With God. Are we with God? Or are we with this world? The person we stand with is the person who will stand with us. If we stand with God then He will stand with us. If we stand with God then we can withstand anything. Nothing shall be impossible. Nothing! Not one thing! Not large and obstructive things or small and deceptive things. Nothing shall be impossible. Nothing shall stand in the way of God. Nothing shall stop the Word of God from coming to pass. Impossible does not exist with God; that word is not in His vocabulary. Is that word in ours? There are some words which hinder our faith and limit our ability to believe and to trust God. The word ‘impossible’ is one of those words. We must eradicate it from our thinking and from our speech. If we are walking with God and agreeing with God then there is no such thing as impossible. The word with is a very instructive preposition in English as well as in Greek. The Greek word is para, which means, among other things: in close proximity, near, or beside. With God; in close proximity to God, so near as to be beside him as His close companion. The word implies and suggests an intimacy with God. Wuest’s translation renders para, ‘In the presence of’. In the presence of God nothing shall be impossible. Possibilities become available to all those that walk in the Will of God, following the Ways of God and fully believing the Word of God. This is a powerful phrase as translated in the King James, but the Greek is even more powerful; ‘No word from God shall be void of power’. Every word of God has self-fulfilling power including this word to Mary, ‘You shall conceive in your womb’. If God has said it then it must come to pass, however, there is a part that we must play in cooperating with the purposes of God.

    God has chosen to limit Himself to the faith and prayers of His people. He comes and knocks on the door of our hearts and gives us an opportunity to open the door and grant Him access to our lives. Mary had to open the door of her heart and allow the Seed of the Word of God to be sown within her. Someone has said that Mary received the Word of God as seed in her spirit and it manifest by conception in her womb. God hid Himself and all of His power in the tiny seed and submitted Himself to the laws and processes of growth. Think of the tremendous trust that God showed to Mary and subsequently to Joseph. He sowed Himself into the human race and entrusted Himself into the safe-keeping and nourishment of the womb. God embedded Himself inside humanity. The Word was made flesh. God absolutely became a man.

    Be it unto me. I see the meaning of the word ‘Amen’ in this phrase. Dr. A.T. Pierson said that the word ‘amen’ means, not ‘let it be so’, but rather ‘it shall be so’. Amen comes from the Hebrew ‘aman’ as it is used in Genesis 15:6 and is translated believed. Of course Mary would have a familiarity with the story of their nations’ father, Abraham. He ‘believed’ God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Just like it was critical for Abraham to believe and to add his ‘amen’ to the Word, so it was also critical for Mary to believe and to add her ‘amen’. She is considered blessed by multitudes today because of her willingness to receive and surrender to the Word of God. Let’s follow the example of Mary and receive the Word of God into our hearts, believing it and adding our Amen to it! Nothing is impossible with God!

Three Vital Factors

Acts 24:25 - And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

   Paul was a master conversationalist. God gave him an ability to speak to men in a way that kept their interest. Jesus had said to Paul that he would stand before the Gentiles and kings, and in fulfillment of that, we read that he reasoned with Felix concerning three vital spiritual realities; righteousness, temperance and judgement to come.

   Righteousness is an often misunderstood subject. What is it? I have heard several definitions such as; an ability to stand in the presence of God without any sense of condemnation; right standing with God; right living and right ways. The same underlying word is used to describe someone who is just. Righteousness and justice then are related. God is designated as the justifier of the ungodly. Whatever our definition, one thing is for sure; we do not make ourselves righteous, we cannot justify ourselves. We need God to make us righteous and we need him to make us just. That is not in our nature; we must have a new nature from God; a righteous nature. Right standing with God results in being able to be yourself before the Lord. It is the sense of being completely accepted and therefore not needing to be false in any way. We can present our true selves to the Lord because that is what he sees anyway, righteousness simply enables us to do so without fear of reprisal. We have been made right through the work of Jesus on the cross; the shedding of his blood. The scripture even speaks about receiving the gift of righteousness; so, if it is indeed a gift, then righteousness can never be earned, it simply must be received and walked in.

    Temperance is an old English word which we do not really use much today, however, it is packed full of meaning that certainly applies to us. To temper steel is to make it pliable and flexible yet stronger and less susceptible to shattering. You would have to agree that we could definitely use some tempering. How many of us have been damaged simply because we have not been able to roll with the punches, so to speak? Many people who have been hurt in car wrecks are hurt because they tried to brace themselves for the impact and the jolt of it damaged their bodies. I have been told that people who are under the influence of alcohol and who end up in a car accident are less likely to be hurt because they are relaxed and flexible. To be tempered by God is to become like a shock absorber, continually adjusting oneself to the contours of the road. Somebody has once said, ‘Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken’. One of the things that is evident in life is the need to be tempered by God; to go through a process that causes us to have an adjustable demeanor, adapting ourselves to different circumstances and to varied people. I am definitely not suggesting that we let go of our principles but that we adjust our practices. My pastor used to tell us that when we faced difficult things it was important to respond and not react; response has the tempered feel to it; reaction seems much more rigid and tense.

    The word judgement carries with it mostly negative connotations; a critical, nit-picky boss who loves to point out all your flaws, an angry, heavy-handed man with a gavel in his hand eagerly passing out a sentence of punishment, or a mean-spirited church-goer who looks down his nose at everyone. However, from God’s perspective, judgement is always a positive thing. Everybody wants to be rewarded but there is no reward without judgement. Any contest or competition has a panel of judges who determine whether you win or lose, and even our schools have a system of judgement through examination and grading; no promotion without passing a test. We raise our children with a view to helping them learn to exercise good judgement and wisely choose the proper path in life. Judges preside over court rooms, listening intently as each lawyer argues their case, after which the judgement must be made. Judgement is normal to God’s kingdom; he is a judge and he will adjudicate his will in the Earth. According to the New Testament writings there will be a judgement to come, there will be an account given for how we have lived our lives, and how we have stewarded our skills, our time, and our resources.

    Be encouraged, friends, because of the Blood of Jesus and His amazing grace, we can continue to walk in the gift of righteousness, remain yielded to God’s process of temperance and stand confidently in the light of his merciful judgement.

The Inborn Desire to Praise

Luke 19:40 - And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out

           God will receive praise, He will get the glory due His name. His preference is that we would willingly lift up praise and adoration but if, for some reason we decide that we are not going to praise God then the rocks would cry out. The picture I get is when one would try to hold down water that is coming up out of the earth, if I press down in one place the water will squirt up in another. That is what is called hydrostatic pressure. It is when water is forced up out the ground because of the pressure created by water flowing from higher ground. This downward pressure creates an upward response. God is high above so, as long as we keep the relationship with Him in its proper place by acknowledging His loftiness, the water of praise will flow down from Him and will flow out of us. God by nature attracts praise, He does not need to force praise out of people, He will get praise; He will be praised. 
        In creation man stands at the pinnacle. He was created in the highest place of all created beings. However, if man does not take his rightful place of worship before God, then the lower levels of creation will fill his place. The rocks will cry out. The actual material earth senses the weight of the choice of the first man, Adam. It reels under the curse of sin and feels the burden of the fallen world. Romans chapter eight tells us that creation is groaning, longing to see the full and final redemption. All of creation was made to respond to its creator, even the rocks. Scientists tell us that material substances are made up of invisible molecules which in turn are made up of atoms. Amazing discoveries have been made regarding the tiny ‘worlds’ that exist in every molecule. God created these worlds and ultimately, they will praise Him. The rocks will cry out. 
         This cry is a cry of praise acknowledging God’s supremacy and it’s a cry for help, acknowledging man’s inadequacy.  It is a plea to the Creator God for deliverance. It is a cry of instinct. All of creation has an instinctive and innate desire to cry out to God. As we said, there is a groaning within creation. Man groans within, the animal kingdom groans, the earth also groans. That groaning is an inner longing, it is the built-in cry that will find expression no matter what may try to hinder it. Just as the branches and leaves of a tree will intrinsically grow toward the light so our spirits reach out to God and all of His creation reaches out for the light to touch the presence of God. We are created for interaction and communication. We are interactive spirits designed for relationship to our Father God; created for worship. 
         Don’t get replaced by a rock. Praise God!