Birthing Promises

For many years there has been a facination with the story of Mary giving birth to Jesus, not as a nice Sunday school lesson but as a practical guide for God doing a work in our lives.  In John 1:14 we are told that "...the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory ...", Jesus was the Word became flesh.  In Luke the testimony of the angel coming to Mary and bringing the word of God, that she would give birth to the Son of God.  This is all a wonderful testimony but we can relegate it to a story, rather than God is setting a precendent for how He will also do things in our life.  Since Mary's response to the Word of God through the angel was "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."  (Luke 1:38), we see that she agreed by fatih with the Word of God and the manifestation came 9 months later as the baby Jesus.  I have several Scriptures on 3 X 5 cards that are promises I have been led by the Lord to speak out over my life that they would be birthed in me.  I also have a prophetic word about me that was given to me in 5/06 that I have not yet seen manifest in my life.  This prophetic word often feels like a dream because it represents a new me, freed from many of the bondages that have held me for many years.  Some times I feel stupid reciting promises that still feel far off, other times I strive for this because my heart so longs to experience God in this way, and other times I feel defeated in hopelessness of it ever coming to pass.  Yet in the promises of the New Covenant given to us at a specific time by the Holy Spirit have the power of God's Word backing them up, Mary did not try really hard to become pregnant with Jesus.  Since I am a man I do not have the birthing experience in the natural, although I walked with my wife through her pregnancy with our daughter and walked with her through the pregnancy in the spirit of our adopted son as she prayed him into being.  So I am a tad removed.  Yet I want to understand the journey and cooperate with the Holy Spirit in birthing the promises of God into me.  As it is says in 2 Peter 1:4 "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificant promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."  It is through receiving the promises of God that the Holy Spirit births the manifestation of that promise in our life (the Divine Nature).  Having something birthed in us does not mean that we are earning the promise since it is by grace through Christ's finished work. The promise became ours and it is by the grace of God by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit that He works in us to bring the manifestation of the promise.  Sounds technical but I am seeking to understand how God works so I can participate with Him.  Do we have a part?  Yes, if I don't put faith in the promise and the God who made that promise to me "in Christ" then will it come about in my life.  In 2 Corinthians 1:20 we are told "For as many as are the promises of God, in Him [Jesus] they are yes; therefore also through Him [Jesus] is our Amen to the glory of God through us."  I added [Jesus] to show what the previous verse says, that it is Jesus the Son of God by which the promises are yes and amen.  I am asking the Holy Spirit to highlight some promises in the New Covenant that He wants to birth in you, let us go on this supernatural journey.

In His Amazing Grace,
Bret