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!