Carrying a Mystery
History is often shaped by those who have had dramatic encounters with God. If you've ever had such an encounter, you know it's the hardest thing to explain to others. You learn to live with things that not everyone will understand or like to embrace the unforgettable.
Y
ou may have had things happen to you in the presence of the Lord that puzzled you, yet you could find where
someone else in Scripture or history that has had such a similar experience. All of us have had an encounter to some degree. Yet, not one of us experienced what Mary did.
While the Bible is filled with people who had encounters, my hero is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her experience had no biblical precedent, as she was the first to become pregnant by God. I consider her to be perhaps the greatest revivalist in Scripture. Can you imagine the questions posed to her? She was called the mother of the illegitimate child her whole life. Not even her husband-to-be believed her. Until an angel visited him and revealed God's plan, Joseph planned on quietly breaking off the engagement. Mary possessed the requirement of a revivalist: she carried something that changed the world.
The angel of the Lord appeared to her and her response was, "How can this be? I don't know a man."
And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. For with God nothing will be impossible." Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:35, 37,38 NKJV).
Why is her response so profound? It's because we hardly find this response anywhere in Scripture: she embraced what she didn't understand.
She asked, "How can this be?" The angel said, "The Holy Spirit will come and overshadow you." Did that answer her question? It didn't, and yet her answer to God was, "If you said it, I want it." Mary treasured all these things God declared and pondered them in her heart. She put them in a safe place. People can marvel at what God says, but in this story, one out of a multitude treasured what He said. This is a distinguishing factor in the life of somebody who contributed to shaping the course of history. She embraced what she did not understand, and she treasured what God spoke.
Mary's relationship to the Word of God came before she met her Son, the Word made flesh. People who carry what God says even though they don't understand carry the fruit of the revelation from God that says, "Nothing will be impossible with God." The word "nothing" is actually two words in the Greek. No rhema (the freshly spoken word of God) will be impossible (without ability), which literally means, no freshly spoken word of God will ever come to you that does not contain the ability to perform itself.
"Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord (Luke 1:45 NKJV)."
