Three impossible babes...

Has God ever foretold you of the impossible coming to pass? If so, what was your reaction? I’ve experienced or witnessed everything from excitement to willingness to confusion to fear to anger to abject denial.

Did you ever wonder at the differences between Gabriel's responses to Abraham, Zechariah, and Mary...when they were each told of absolute miracles about to take place?  I've always wondered why Gabriel was angry at Zechariah and consigned him to muteness, when He was not angry at Abraham or Mary.  Their responses to the news of an ‘impossible child’ to be born seemed so similar..  All three questioned him (or God, directly) as to how these things could be, would be possible.  Abraham even laughed.  (It wasn't just Sarah.)

Abraham: “You’ve got to be kidding! Do you know how old Sarah is?” [Is this the human emblem of faith from Hebrews and Romans  laughing at God?]

Zechariah: “That’s impossible! Do you know how old I am? I need some confirmed data here."

Mary: “But how will this be, since I’m a virgin?”

So I finally asked the Father about it. (Why do I take so long to ask Him about passages in His Word that are confusing to me?)

One of the downsides of our current electronic communication, versus face-to-face conversations or phone calls, is that we can’t hear intonations or inflections or see gestures and facial expressions. The entire attitude and connotation of what we’re saying is affected by how something is said (as well as conventions like punctuation, currently missing in most texts.) For example:

“Really!?” 1:   You’ve got to be kidding! That’s ridiculous! I’m having trouble believing that happened. Are you making this up?

“Really!?” 2:  WOW...that’s fantastic!  I’m so happy! How did this/will this take place? [Laughing in astonishment]

“Really!?” 3: I don’t believe it for a minute. You’re really stretching it here. Your credibility with me is sinking fast.

“Really!?” 4:: Wow...that’s a lot to take in. My head is swirling here. 

Since we weren’t eyewitnesses of these encounters (wouldn’t that have been awesome?), we don’t know the tones of their reactions or the expressions on their faces. However, we can perhaps infer from Gabriel’s reaction, the attitudes of their hearts.

Abraham:  “Ha Ha! That’s outrageously, impossibly wonderful! But if He says it, it will happen! I just can’t fathom how....  Have you seen Sarah lately? And I’m, well, you know.”

Zechariah: “I’m sorry, I’m just not believing this. It’s impossible, since Elizabeth and I are older than the hills. Nope. Not happening. Where's your proof?”

Mary: “This is amazing! I am so honored and am the Lord’s handmaiden. But can you tell me how this will come about, since I have never been intimate with a man?”

I guess the real question for each of us is: What is our response to God when He tells us of, or calls us to, the seemingly impossible? Do we remind ourselves that He is the God of the impossible? That nothing is impossible with Him? That, despite what ‘know’ with our human brain and mind, He  is the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of the world and is able to do all things...that our one job is to trust Him? We certainly may, like Mary, ask Him how these things will take place, as long as we have the attitude that they will and that we are His handmaidens or handmen, as the case may be. [FYI...He may or may not answer the how question, either, but we are welcome to ask.  Sometimes the answer is, as He once told me, 'wait and see!']

Mary, and I believe Abraham also, was simply asking about the how, not questioning, as was Zechariah, the will be. Therein lies the cosmological difference. Let's make sure we're ready to jump onto the moving train of God's will be, rejoicing in what He is doing, rejoicing that we are called to be part of it, and questioning only where we fit into His Plan.

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.

18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”   --Luke 1: 13--15; 19-20

“Do not be afraid,Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

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

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”   --Luke 1: 30-38

Genesis 17:16-18 New International Version (NIV)

16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 

Genesis 18:10-12 New International Version (NIV)

10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[d] 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  --Romans 4:18-21

Looking for a good GP?

When we see a medical specialist, we are always asked the name of our General Practitioner, our GP.  This morning, while battling a throat virus, I was thanking God for being the Great Physician, another term which could be applied to the acronym.  However, it occurred to me that God isn't 'just' our Great Physician, He is the best of Nurses.  A doctor comes in, diagnoses, prescribes, and leaves. This is when the nurse (whether male or female) comes in to minister continual care, down to our most minor needs.

We may not see the doctor again until the next day, but the nurse cares for the nitty-gritty needs of our illness, perhaps even tucking us in at night and making sure we are warm enough and have plenty of fluids nearby.  If we have difficulties in the middle of the night, it is the Nurse who comes at our call.

Perhaps it is a greater tribute to our tender, ministering Father and to His Holy Spirit, to attribute to Him the acronym GN, even more than GP.  He is most certainly a General Practitioner, as well, however, since He is the answer to every need we have. 

In fact, He fulfills the total job description of ministry to our bodies, our souls, and our spirits. The next time He bends toward you, hands you a cup of living water, and brushes the hair from your sweaty, fevered brow, let Him know He is your Everything.

Should we be expecting a different one?

   Have you ever felt very sure of something you heard from God and then later wondered if you had gotten it all wrong? That what you heard must have come from your own thoughts and imagination?
John the Baptist had already baptized Jesus in the Jordan River and seen the skies break open and the Holy Spirit rest on Jesus in the form of a dove.  Talk about confirmation! Yet, here he was rotting in chains in a dank prison.  Could he have gotten it all wrong? Was that supernatural vision he saw just a figment of his imagination? Or perhaps the dove marked Jesus as only another great prophet, as some even now relegate Him.  Or perhaps the dove was real, but John had misheard God’s previous instructions concerning identifying the Messiah.

Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest man who’d ever lived up to that time. [Matthew 111:11]. Not Abraham, not Moses, not Elijah or Elisha...not even David!  Yet here he was, after confidently devoting his whole life to preparing people for the coming of the Messiah, not sure if he’d made a mistake.

When our circumstances; the things we can see, hear, feel, taste, and experience with our bodies...and even our souls; don’t line up with what we’ve perceived and apprehended through our spirit, what now? Do we assume we’ve misheard God or perhaps misunderstood His promises? If even John the Baptist wondered, how much more should we be aware that we, too, are subject to such discouragement?

However, that should never be the end of the story. It is by affirming our faith and our belief, despite what we see with our physical eyes, that we will see that which God sees, and see that which He desires manifested for us in our natural world. We must walk out our faith and belief in what God has said, with our ears plugged and our eyes masked to anything contradictory shouting at us from the sidelines,  until we see what He has said come to pass.  We musn’t assume that we’ve misheard God, that we’ve misunderstood His Word, or that He doesn’t want that healing or provision for us. Or even, as many think, that He doesn’t really care about us in that very personal way.

If the prison walls seem dank around you, and the fetid water is seeping through around you, know that He hasn’t forgotten you in the least, and that His desire and plans for you are for His Shalom of body, soul, and spirit. See what He sees in your ‘mind’s’ eye. Keep walking toward the door withevery expectation and belief in its opening when you place your hand on the locked knob and turn the
handle.
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*“...John the Baptist, who had been put in prison, heard what the Messiah had been doing, so he sent a message to him through his disciples asking, ‘Are You the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else?’ “ Matthew 11:2-3

“Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), being the proof of things not seen and the conviction of their reality [faith comprehending as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
—Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified Bible)

“Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.”  —Proverbs 3:5 (Amplified)