We have been doing this series about “Walking according to the Spirit.” And I want to take a little sidebar for the Christmas season and talk about the Holy Spirit in relation to the Incarnation. Maybe you're asking: what is the Incarnation? It's the process by which the second person of the Trinity, the pre-incarnate Christ puts on flesh and becomes the son of God; He is the God- man.
And that putting on flesh requires a human vessel. God uses human vessels; weak people like me and you to accomplish His purposes on this earth. So, God requires a woman, a female who can give birth, who has the anatomy to conceive… But as to her qualifications, she needs to be a spiritual person, who has a relationship with God and who would act in obedience and submission.
God gives Mary the supernatural ability to conceive in her womb by way of a seed that's planted by the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with human flesh in order to bring about the supernatural.
I believe that God wants to birth something in our spirit. He wants to do it collectively as a body of believers and He wants to do it individually. He wants to plant something within our spirit…. to have a dream about what we could do or be in the Kingdom. What can we learn about what God has for us and how the Holy Spirit births that dream within us? Let’s look at Mary’s story.
Luke 1:28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
The angel Gabriel speaks to her and refers to her by a term she had never heard before - “blessed?” “Highly favored?” She had never considered that that potential lay within her; the Bible says in that verse that she wasn't so much surprised by Gabriel as she was surprised by what he called her.
She was this little girl, probably a teenager from small town Nazareth; 300 people on the best day of the week - farmers and a few tradesmen like her fiancé Joseph, living hand to mouth, day to day hoping to get enough to scratch by; limited education and humble means.
But because of her relationship with God, her submission to God, and her obedience to have the Holy Spirit work a miracle within her, she set herself up to be a potential candidate for the Holy Spirit to bring about something beautiful - the birth of the majestic Son of God.
When we make ourselves available to God to be used by Him as His vessel and we desire to live lives that are set apart to Him - the sky's the limit in terms of what God can do through us.
Join us in person on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. or via livestream by going to https://www.firstbaptistsudbury.com and clicking on livestream for “Birthed by the Spirit.”
Blessings,
Kevin
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