Are You Pregnant With Promise?

It was the Christmas season of 1991.  Thousands of Foursquare youth were gathering from all around the nation to meet together for a gathering called Summit ’91.  It was an incredible conference filled with great songs, awesome teachings and new friendships!

I remember distinctly a workshop that I attended at that gathering.  The woman (whose name I don’t remember or I would give her a shout out!) talked about how Mary had been pregnant with Promise.  The Holy Spirit had divinely placed within her a part of God’s amazing, redemptive plan.

She went on to say that each of us is pregnant with something, too.  Each of us carries within us the unique calling and purpose that God has for our lives.  We each have our part to play in the redemptive story.  I remember being so moved by that!

God would go on to use that pregnancy analogy over and over in my life.  He has given us promises and spoken prophetic words to us repeatedly that carry this pregnancy theme.  He has placed dreams and callings within Craig and me that remind us of what He wants to do through us to further His Kingdom here on earth.  He has divinely placed within us things that will bring hope – that will point others to Jesus – that will bring new life to those facing spiritual death.

And He has placed those things within each of you, as well.  We are called to establish His Kingdom on earth in all aspects of life!  Maybe He has given you a new way to do business.  Maybe you have a creative idea for the entertainment industry or powerful ways to help other parents.  God has placed you exactly where He wants you to be and has redemptive things for you to do in that place!

I love how another phrase for being pregnant is that a woman “is expecting”.  Because there is A LOT of expectation about pregnancy, isn’t there?  What is the sex of the baby?  When’s the baby due?  What will it look like?  What will labor be like?

Maybe you are like we are – expecting!  Waiting for God to birth what He has placed within us!

And maybe you have been pregnant a long time.  We have been pregnant for 17 years!

As any woman who has had a baby will tell you, the longer you are pregnant, the harder it gets.  Your body gets bigger.  You feel pain and discomfort.  It is challenging to do the things you could easily do before.  You are so excited, but so tired!  You just want the birth to come, already!

Maybe you are feeling that in your life.  You have dreams and hopes that God has placed within you.  But you may feel like a woman who has been pregnant a long time.  You are uncomfortable and in pain.  The waiting is hard, even disappointing.  You feel tempted to give up on what God has put in your heart.

I was feeling this way very distinctly back in 2007.  I was reading a magazine and happened upon an article that would change my perspective completely.

Heidi Baker, who runs an incredible ministry called Iris Ministries, wrote an article about being pregnant with the promises of God.  Here’s what she wrote:

“The Lord spoke to me recently about the church and said, "No more abortions." No more aborting His promises or prophetic words.

No more aborting what God has placed inside us.
He told me to ask the church: "'Who will carry that which I've placed within them to full term? Who will allow Me to stretch them and break them and mold them and cause them to be inconvenienced? Who will allow Me to utterly transform their lives by the shape of the promise within them?'"
I hope and pray you will. I believe carrying a prophetic word is like being pregnant with a baby: The way you walk, talk, move, everything is totally transformed. That has been my experience. It was Mary's experience too.”

When we give up on the God-given dreams and promises that He has placed within us, then we are spiritually aborting what He wants to birth through us – whoa!

Though it can be so very difficult to wait, the beauty of the timing of pregnancy is what it produces in us.  We are enlargened in our capacity.  We are stretched beyond our own selfishness to give our very lives for God’s purposes in our lives and for those He has called us to share His love with.  Much happens in the pregnancy process that makes us ready for birthing a promise!

Because it’s ultimately about surrender, isn’t it?  Trusting God’s word is true, trusting His timing, trusting He will do what He said He will do!  And trusting Him, even in the face of all that we will face along while pregnant, just as Mary did.  She did not allow fear of the repercussions of what God had told her to change her answer.  She would carry what God had placed within her.

She said yes to being pregnant.  And yes to giving birth.

If you are discouraged on waiting for God to fulfill the dreams in your life, and are weary of still being pregnant with promise, remember this truth from Isaiah 66:9:

“Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the Lord.  Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.

Don’t give up!  God will bring to pass all that He has placed within you!

Reacting Versus Responding

You know those times when you've had a bad season?  Life has just taken it’s toll – bad day at work, too many bills, stress at home - you are weary and tired and everything just gets on your. last. nerve.

So when we're in that bad place and someone just sends us over the edge with their words, we no longer think before we speak. 

With our emotions raw and our sensitivities on high, we REACT.  We don't take the time to think through an appropriate response.  We just blow.  (Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s done this!)

Let’s be honest.  We know this broken reaction never brings peace.  It always makes the situation worse.  It makes an already weary heart even more burdened by creating additional drama and problems.  Things do not get better when we merely react.

Friends, I think the Church in America is in a bad season  We are continually in opposition to all our society values.  We are facing discrimination we never thought we would see in America.  It is hard not to be fearful of how much worse this is going to get.

So for many, in their fear, in their hurt, in their pain, the actions of A&E to suspend Phil Robertson for his comments got on their. last. nerve.

And a lot of people who say they love Jesus. . .reacted.

Did it make anything better?

I agree that these are frightening times that we live in.  But what are we doing with that fear?  What are we doing with how we feel when we hear about judges who are approving discrimination against Christian businesses or read stories about the continual stripping away of Christianity from schools, holidays and government properties?

What if we brought our very real fear, anxiety and pain to Jesus?  We can pour out our deep fear before Him and take in His love and His words.  Would we respond differently?

Could we let Jesus give us His perspective on our culture?  Could we allow Him to bring peace to our hearts as we keep our eyes on Him instead of our gaze focused on the chaos of this country?

Could we RESPOND in the wisdom and love of God instead of REACTING out of fear and anxiety?

Here’s what Jesus tells us to do in Matthew 10:26-22 (The Message):

“Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

Don’t be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.”

Church, I think it’s time for us to realize that things are not going to go back to how they were. 

So instead of longing for the old days, what if we ground ourselves in reading the Word of God and find out how to wisely walk in the days we are in?

We can’t hunker down, safely within our church walls and hide.  We were sent for this, meant to love in the midst of this hate.  

Just as Jesus did.

But we can’t react.  We must respond with the heart of God.

Favor With God

Whenever we move toward the Christmas season, my daughter Kelsey and I LOVE to watch the movie, “The Nativity Story.”  It’s a live-action version of the Christmas narrative.  There’s something very profound about putting flesh and blood on the stories we read in the Bible.  Words on the page come to life when we remember again that these were people – just like you and me – living out the stories we are so familiar with.

I am always amazed by Mary.  An angel appears to her, telling her that she, a virgin, will bear a child – and not just any child.  She will give birth to the long-awaited Messiah, the one who will save her people.

The angel delivers this news and Mary says yes.  Quickly.  Right away.  She didn’t hmm and haw.  She didn’t “get back to him after she’d thought about it a while”.  Mary’s immediate reply to what God sent the angel to say was, “I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38).

That just amazes me about this young woman.  Mary simply says yes.  She doesn’t allow the implications of what God has said to give her pause.  Because believe me, there were implications.

Mary lived during a time when women could be stoned for being found pregnant before they were married.  So she could face death, at the worst.  At the least, she would face rumor and gossip, being ostracized for this pregnancy.  She would face being misunderstood and doubted.  And she had to face her family.  And her fiancé.

God’s will was going to require everything from Mary.  It was going to cost her physical comfort (all the mama’s out there understand that one!)  It was going to cost her emotionally, socially, relationally – her whole life was about to be hijacked by God.

But ALL of that paled in comparison to saying yes to God.  She wasn’t ruled by fear of what man would think or say.  She was overwhelmed with the honor that God had chosen her.  And she immediately decided her life was God’s, to do with as He pleased.

There have been times in my life when I have known that the Lord has called me to do certain things.  When He has directed me in areas of obedience I need to take or things He’s wanting to accomplish in my life.  And in that moment, I wholeheartedly will say, “Lord, I give You my life.  Do with it what You want.” 

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m praying that prayer to surrender to God’s will for my life, I’m surrendering to what I think God will want me to do – or what I’m hoping He will do in my life.  And that usually includes pretty fantastic things like having enough money to be able to give to people in need or God using me in a significant way in someone’s life.  You know – something grand.

But when I pray those prayers of surrender, God takes me at my word.  And He uses my life. . .on His terms, not on mine.  And sometimes – many times – grand things don’t happen.  At least not right away.  In fact, sometimes it seems like the path becomes filled with difficulties.  Just like Mary must’ve felt.

Rejection, loss and pain were all a part of Mary’s experience as God was using her life to so beautifully bring forth the Savior of the world. And that pattern is pretty consistent throughout the Bible.  People, like you and me, who said yes to God also said no to themselves – their own will and their own comfort.

It’s ultimately a tragedy that we have bought into an idea that when God is at work in our lives, it should look so easy.  We long for the lack of conflict and worldly success.  We think that if God’s in it, things should just fall into place.  Troubles are kept far from our path.  Doors just open. 

But favor from God does not look like a perfect life.  Wealth, worldly success, everyone else’s opinion of us – these are not necessarily the signs of God’s favor.

I’m not saying that there are times when those things do happen.  But I think if we were to ask Mary what God’s work in her life looked like, she would say many difficulties came with becoming the mother of the Messiah. 

In Luke 1:30, the angel told Mary that she had found favor with God.  He was about to bestow a precious responsibility upon this young woman, and He knew she was a woman who would say yes to His plan for her life.  He also knew what He was asking of Mary would require a lot from her.  Yet He asked it of her anyway, knowing His will and His plan were ultimately the best thing for her – and ultimately for the whole world. 

All the difficulties she would encounter were not a sign of not having favor with God.  In fact, she was facing all that she did BECAUSE she had found favor with God.

And it’s funny (and by funny I mean NOT FUNNY AT ALL) how when we take steps of obedience to what God is calling us to in our own lives, our lives can begin to exhibit things that seem the very opposite of favor.

Sometimes it’s that we have said yes to being the kind of man or woman God has called us to be. We’ve committed to loving our spouse the way God loves us.  We’ve determined to respond out of love instead of anger with our kids.  We’ve chosen to be a light in a dark workplace.

But then, somehow, we face rejection for standing for truth.  We try to be patient with our kids, only to have them respond badly (and usually in public!).  We set the alarm to get up early and spend time with the Lord before heading off to work and then face persecution with co-workers who don’t know God.

The difficulties we face each day can seem to be the opposite of the great things God has said He wants to work in our lives. God told Mary she would bear His Son – but then she had to ride a donkey for days on end at 9 months pregnant and give birth in a stinky barn.

If you’re having a donkey, stinky-barn kind of season in your life, then be assured, my friends – you’re in very good company.  Mary, Paul, even Jesus Himself all had days like this on this earth.

Sometimes we need to pause and ask the Lord to remind us that He is at work in our lives.  Difficulties don’t mean God isn’t with us.  And it doesn’t mean He’s not up to far greater things in us than we could even imagine. 

Each of us has found favor with God.  And when we say yes to His plan and our plans falls apart, we need to remember that truth way deep down in our souls.

In fact, like Mary, God may want to birth something through us.  More on that in the next blog…