Calvary Chapel Olympia

God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary who was engaged to be married to Joseph. Gabriel’s unconventional and seemingly inappropriate greeting troubled Mary. He had said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Why did this greeting trouble her?

Mary was a poor girl, living in a land controlled by a foreign power. Remember, women didn’t have a lot of rights back then. She wasn’t exactly at the top of the social order. Yet this messenger of God says that she’s highly favored and that the Lord is with her. She knew the Holy Scriptures. When the Lord is with people amazing things happen. The Lord was with her ancestor David. He didn’t have an easy life, but God stretched forth His mighty hand and did great things through David. God said to Moses, “I know you by name and you have found favor with me.” God spoke face to face with Moses. He used him to deliver His people from Egypt and to lead them through the desert. God gave the people of Israel His law through Moses.

We take the greeting out of context and think Gabriel is saying something really cool like, “Hey kid, God really likes you and He’s cheering for you. Make a wish.” Mary was not quite so naïve. Gabriel was foreshadowing something very powerful. The King of the universe was about to do something and He was going to do it through Mary.

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 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 the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

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 barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”
Luke 1:30-37 NIV

We serve a miracle working God. The incarnation was a miracle. The resurrection was a miracle. The born again experience is a miracle. As the Son of God was born in the virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit, so also Christ in born in us. This is a powerful miracle. Nothing is impossible with God.

The apostle Paul told the Galatians that he was travailing in birth until Christ was fully formed in them. I think that’s the way it is with us. We think that a person is either born again or not, and I’m firmly convinced that the scriptures do teach that, but that doesn’t mean that Christ is fully formed in us. When the body of Christ travails in prayer then Christ is manifest through His people and miraculous things happen.

The apostle Paul told one church, “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. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV).”

God works miracles. He heals the sick. He raises the dead. He enables His people to walk in love. He gives us wisdom. Nothing is impossible with God.

Prayer: “Heavenly Father, nothing is impossible with You. By the power of Your Holy Spirit You caused Your Holy Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. By the power of Your Holy Spirit cause Your Son to be fully formed in us. Enable us to walk in love and forgiveness. Teach us to serve one another.”