_______________________________________________________________________

It used to be that men were shunned from the child birthing place but in modern times that has greatly changed and I think that it is good for husbands to witness such an event. In preparing for the recent birth of our first child, my wife and I attended detailed birthing classes and watched videos and prepared ourselves as much as possible for what was to come. Looking back, I realize that the best two pieces of advice that I received were given here in our own church. When finding out that I was attending child-birthing classes, Bro. Hancock patted on the back and said, "God bless you." Turns out that I needed God's blessing even more than I thought at the time. And the other piece of advice was from Bro. Sergio who also patted me on the back and said, "just remember, nothing can prepare you for going through it for the first time." Now having passed through the valley of the birth of a child, let me respond publicly to their advice with a resounding "Amen and Amen!"

My wife desired greatly to try to have the child without pain medications and she made it over twenty-four hours, including an entire night of active labor enduring the agonies of childbirth the natural way. Finally, when it became obvious that something in her body was not responding, they had to give her an epidural and a C-section delivery. I shall never forget that night of travail -- neither will her parents who were in the room as bystanders. I held her hand and helped her with her breathing exercises as she squeezed the life out of my fingers with the contractions, but one of the more humorous things that came out of it was when I offered to pray for her and she looked at me and said "isn't it pointless to pray for something that the scriptures says was placed upon me as a curse from God?" Good point, and what do you say to a woman that quotes scripture like that in the delivery room? I trust God completely and His ways are much smarter than our ways, but I'll be transparent and tell you that a few times in that long night, I found my mind asking God "why did you put such a curse on woman that they would have to endure such agony and pain?" "Why would you, in response to Eve's sin, curse the entire female human race with having to suffer through such an ordeal?" Hopefully this message, will help to somewhat give some understanding in that area.

_______________________________________________________________________

I mentioned the agony in childhood endured by womanhood because we tend to forget all of what Mary endured that night in a Bethlehem stable. The scriptures sort of gloss over a long donkey ride from Nazareth to Judea. The scriptures leave out the six thousand times that she said, "Joseph, can we stop at this next bush so that I can use the restroom?" We forget the pain that she must have felt after such an ordeal at such an advanced stage of being with child. The scriptures just say "she brought forth her first-born child" and as we fly through the familiar Christmas story, we tend to forget the volumes of experience that those few words imply.

Mary had no cushioned seat of a car going a hundred miles an hour with shock absorbers and twenty pillows piled around her to get her to a modern-equipped hospital and birthing bed where she would be attended by monitors and nurses and artificial lighting that could be adjusted to her needs. Mary had no epidurals or i.v.s or birthing balls to help relieve the stress and pain of child birth. Lost also in our minds is the fact that Mary had never done this before, that this was her first experience with such an ordeal and that she was still in her teenage years when she arrived in Bethlehem.

No, Mary had the baby natural with no pain medications, with only Joseph as her companion. She had it in an sheltered area outdoors where the animals were kept. The next time that you walk through a barn or a barnyard, take a deep breath and look around you and then remember that such a place was the birthing room where our Savior came into the world. There was no doctor available if something went wrong. Joseph had never attended a birthing class and Mary had probably never even witnessed a birth. In the time that a woman needs the hand of support from another woman who has already survived the process, Mary had no such companion in her dark place of labor. Her mother and sisters were miles away and here she is on the backside of Bethlehem enduring this experience. The scriptures testify to her aloneness because "she brought forth her first-born son," and "she wrapped him in swaddling clothes," and "she laid him in a manger."

If my moments of witnessing childbirth is any indication, I think that the severity of what she had to endure shocked Mary. I think she was struck by just how difficult it was. By how long she had to endure pain. And I think that by the time the baby came, she was delirious from the cramps in her stomach. It was her first time, and as my brother said, "nothing can prepare you for just going through it the first time."

But I also think that there was a bit more to the surprise. I think that Mary was a bit surprised when the contractions began because of the unique circumstances surrounding her conception. Mary was the virgin prophesied of by Isaiah when he said:

A lot of other Israeli girls had tried to quote this scripture about themselves to cover their sins, but in Mary's case it was a true saying. She was not with child by a man in the natural sense, but had been visited by an angel who had told her that she had been selected to carry, deliver, and raise the Messiah, the very Son of God! The scriptures say that Mary did not doubt the announcement but only had one question:

What a miracle! Never before had the Spirit of God mingled with the seed of the woman. Take a gander through the Bible and you will find hundreds of references to the "seed of man" and the blessed lineages of men, but only in Messianic prophecies do you find the term "seed of the woman." The male creative element in this birth would be none other than the power of the Holy Spirit, and somehow Spirit mingled with the flesh of the woman and Emmanuel -- God with us -- was produced. The scripture says that Mary's response was:

And I believe that God was waiting only for her statement of faith giving her consent to be used of God in such a way. And that at the words of faith spoken by Mary, the deed was done and Spirit entered into her womb and the greatest miracle that ever happened took place and began to grow within her. I believe at this point, there was nothing but awe and joy in Mary's soul. No one had ever felt the Holy Spirit enter into them before and Mary experienced an exhilaration that the prophets of old never received. And as the power of God coursed through her body I think Mary left her home that day headed to Elisabeth's house with a skip in her step, with a song on her lips, and with her faith a million miles high in the sky! And as the baby began to grow inside her, I think that it was a joyous thing; one that brought great wonder and inspiration into her life. To be the carrier of such a miracle and the one person in the world whom God had chosen to usher in the Savior of the world! How exciting! What a miraculous conception.

But now, here in the stable outside of Bethlehem. As the contractions grew harder and the loneliness of her surroundings mingled with the great pain as such as she had never felt before. I think -- if Mary could have been interviewed and been able to think clearly to answer you -- I think that she would have told you that she was a little shocked. Because despite the miraculous conception; despite the supernatural origin of her child, God spared her none of the rigors of womanhood. Despite such a blessed thing being taken place, if you would have asked Mary during the process, she would have told you that she did not expect it to be quite so hard. That she did not expect it to be quite so painful. That she did not expect it happen quite like this. It was a very miraculous conception, but it was also a very, very natural birth. Mary felt all of the pain that a first-time, all natural child bearer feels today.

_______________________________________________________________________

There is a tremendous lesson in this experience of Mary for us today. I could not write as I prepared this sermon that "Mary experienced a feeling at her conception that none of us have ever felt," because many of us have felt the glorious experience of the Holy Spirit entering into our bodies and lives. If you have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost just as the disciples did in the Book of Acts, then you have received a taste of what it felt like for the Holy Ghost to overshadow Mary and do a work within her. We, the church, are the pure, bride of Christ and espoused to be married to Him one day. Like Mary, we have a birth experience that originates in the work of the Holy Spirit within our lives. If you have received the Holy Ghost, then you have received God's power within you, not to produce the Son of God, but to bring you to a new birth experience so that you become "a son of God." We are being born again! And it begins with a supernatural conception within our lives!

The seed is the Word of God and the enabler of the miracle is the Holy Spirit. It is a great miraculous conception. And the Bible says that the Spirit comes to lead and guide us into all truth. It comes to get us Rapture ready. It comes to make us more like Him! Paul wrote this:

He also wrote this about our glorious conversion experience:

The Holy Spirit comes in our life to do a new thing! It comes to let us be born again into the kingdom of God as child of the King of Kings! And, oh, there is no comparison to the joy and the awe and reverence that comes from receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I received it almost 20 years ago and it is still the highlight of my personal life! What a joy it is to respond to the commandment of God with faith and then in a moment and in a second suddenly feel His Spirit respond by rushing into your soul and filling you with hope and gladness! There is no high in this earth that can compare to the high of receiving the miraculous conception of the Holy Spirit for yourself!

But let me reveal to you something that is not often preached. When the Holy Ghost has done it's work, that is just the beginning of the process. Receiving the Holy Ghost is not the end of the process, but is the beginning of the development of your new man. Sure things feel great, but you are not completely transformed at the moment that you receive the Holy Ghost. There are still habits that are unlike God. There are still desires that need to be reigned in to be submitted to God's Word. There are still many areas that need to be ironed out and many crooked paths that need to be straightened. There are still memories that need to be indoctrinated with the true doctrines of God's commandments, and there are many lessons to be learned. You have received the seed of a new creature in your life, but it must develop. And -- dare I say it? -- what begins as a supernatural experience and conception becomes a very painful ordeal that must be endured. It is easy to in a moment to receive the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost, but it is hard to allow that Spirit to continue to work on you over the years until that perfect man like Christ is delivered into your life. In our lives as the Holy Ghost works, we too, have a miraculous conception and a very, very natural birth!

Before you call me a heretic for what I am preaching, you should know that it is supported by scripture elsewhere. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome and said:

Listen to what he is saying. Since sin has entered into the world, creation itself has been bound by decay, and Paul said "creation was subjected to frustration" hoping for the day that it is delivered from the effects of sin. Remember that creation was brought into existence by a miraculous conception at the spoken Word of God. And yet, it's process is a very natural groaning and paining until it becomes the new heaven and the new earth. Paul went on to say:

Paul said "it is the same with our bodies, we have the first fruits of the Spirit -- we have received the Holy Ghost -- but we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." In other words, the Spirit has come to make us a new creature, but we are not perfect yet. In other words, the Spirit comes to save us but just receiving it in a supernatural occurrence does not save anybody. Only "he that endureth to the end shall be saved," is what Jesus said. If the Holy Ghost is to save you, then you must allow it to work in your everyday life and that can be painful. It can be a struggle. It can be hard to allow God probe our hurts and hidden pasts and motives and bare them in the light of truth. In short, Paul was saying we had a miraculous conception, but now we are in a Bethlehem stable and it doesn't feel supernatural anymore, it feels painful! The touch of God has brought us into a very, very natural birth!

Hear this preacher today: Many have received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues and experienced the joy of a miraculous conception. But many have walked away when the Spirit and the Word began to identify things in their life that needed to change. In a sense, they aborted the plan of God in their life. They aborted the new creature that God had come to make them into because they were surprised at the persecution that they had to face, they were surprised at the bluntness of truth, they were surprised at the pain at having to address issues in their past and having to change the very core being of who they are to please God. In short, they enjoyed the miraculous conception but when the pains of child birth begin and the very natural decisions of having to give up some things and separate themselves from some things and the pain of having to deny themselves and take up their cross set in, they quickly decided that they wanted nothing of what God was doing in their life. And so they aborted the very plan placed within them by the Word and Spirit of God! What they had embraced in the thrill of the moment they have thrown away lest they have to endure a natural birth to something spiritually implanted.

It's hard, isn't it? God seemingly continually demands change and everything that was placed within your life of sin is pulled out of the roots and you have to deliver this new creature in your life that is in the image of God Himself. It's hard sometimes. But never forget that although the pain of the natural birth may seem unbearable at times, it is only for a night! It won't last for forever, Mary! And remember that the pain is the signal that you are so very close to holding the promise from God! The increasing pain is the sign that you are right there, in the few moments before you see for yourself the coming to pass of what God has said that He will do with your life. Don't stop. Don't faint now! You are there. It's time to press towards the mark! It's time to keep on keeping on. It's time to push through the hardness. You were surprised at how much it would cost you, now take a deep breath, and remember that although you are in the throes of a very painful and natural delivery, you are giving birth to a promise that was supernaturally created! It will be worth the pain, in the end! It will be your very salvation that you are delivering! Whatever you do, don't abort what God has placed in your life!

______________________________________________________________________

I've known preachers to feel the call of God to pastor a church and be all pumped up and excited about it and then two years later quit the ministry altogether and leave the faith, discouraged and weary. What happened? Did they not hear from God in the first place? Did not they receive a supernatural call to do something for Him? Yes, they did, but they were shocked by what it took to bring about the delivery of that promise. They received the promise of His calling so ably and wonderfully and it was a sweet moment of surrender to give in to His will, but they didn't see the natural birth coming! They didn't realize the magnitude of pain that they would have to endure at the hands of others to see their promise born. They did not foresee the amount of sacrifice and effort that it would take to actually hold that promise in their arms. And so they gave in to the pain and quit, aborting what God had so supernaturally placed within their souls.

And it happens similarly with saints of the most high God. As a preacher, one of my jobs is to increase your faith and usher you into a higher dimension and to challenge you to reach for and receive things beyond anything you ever saw possible. And the Spirit begins to move when your faith is increased, and the Word of God goes forth, and like Mary you eagerly respond "so let it be with me according to your word" and so you supernaturally receive a promise through the work of the Holy Spirit in a powerful service. As the Spirit moves upon you, you rejoice in what you have received and you leave the service with the full intention and joy that "I'm going to be a soul winner," or "I'm going to teach Sunday School," or "I'm going to win my school for God," or "I'm going to be a worshipper above all else," or "I'm going to teach a Bible Study." And you are excited about it. God has done a miraculous work. And yet I see some people in churches that are touched by the same message and receive the same spiritual spark over and over again so much so that they learn to respond correctly and they crave the supernatural experience of the overshadowing of God in a particular purpose, and yet they never actually hold that promise in their hands. They are always at the altar saying "I'm going to be this, I'm going to do this" and yet they never actually bring it forth.

What has happened? I'll tell you what has happened. They received willingly the miraculous conception of the promise, but they were shocked and ran when they began to experience the throes of the natural birth process. And so they wonder why they never actually hold that promise in their hands and possess it, but the reason is that between the moving of the Spirit in service, and the day you actually have the Promise is a process that is all too natural, that is all too demanding, and all too at times painful. The Promise may cost you everything to have, but at that moment where it seems the greatest sacrifice is taking place, is when you are the closest to receiving it!

_______________________________________________________________________

My wife looked at me the other day and said, "it is the strangest thing, because although I know that I had them, I could not even begin to describe to you what a contraction feels like." I have read the books, so I know that the brain releases a chemical in the woman that dulls the memory of the pain of childbirth. She physically cannot remember just how excruciating it was, or no woman would ever do it again! God has helped to dull the memory of what an ordeal it really was.

So let me preach hope to somebody today. I don't know what part of the natural birth process you are in, but I do know that I am preaching to people who are pregnant with the promises of God. You have heard the Word of God preached to you over and over again. Inspiration and anointing of God has mingled with the workings of His Spirit and you have received such an implantation over and over. Now what stands between you and the promise is the delivery of that promise and you are finding that it is a very natural process. At this point let me remind you to "keep your eyes on the prize." "Mary, when you hold that newborn baby, you will realize that it has been worth the pain and worth the price." It will be worth all that it took to get it here. And that is the glory of it. That is why we can endure such hardships for Christ. That is why we should be able to press through persecution because the glory of the promise far exceeds the price of delivery! So let me remind you again, it may be a natural delivery, but it a miracle from God that you will hold as a result of it. You cannot stop. You cannot run from what God has placed in your life. You must see it through to the end, because only in the end will it be worth it! What begins as a miraculous conception, comes through a natural birth, but will be an awesome promise from God! Stay with it!

_______________________________________________________________________

Think with me now of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. He has received the divine calling to redeem the world. And He has been faithful to such an agenda. But now He faces the cross directly and in that moment, His flesh does not want to die any more than yours and ours wants to die. It was one thing to under the unction of the Spirit proclaim His death to the disciples. It was even fun to point to His body and say to His enemies "destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." But now in Gethsemane, the task of giving into the suffering is nigh and at that moment, Jesus Christ is having to submit His fleshly will to the will of the Spirit.

The plan of God to save the world was miraculously conceived before the world began. It was manufactured in the mind of God Almighty in the heavens to come in flesh, and suffer as a human being suffers and to die for this lost humanity. What a grand plan! What a magnificent plan! What a miraculous conception. But here, in Gethsemane, we find that to follow through with it is an altogether natural process. God has become flesh, and that flesh does not want to have to endure the cross. And so we find Jesus praying and his capillaries near His skin began to burst from the stress of the struggle between flesh and Spirit within Him so that His sweat becomes bloody. As flesh and blood He cries out "if it be possible let this cup pass from me." And then comes through labored breathing the admission, "but nevertheless, thy will be done."

I have often been amazed at reading the story of how Jesus Christ simply laid down on the cross for them to drive the nails. I have been struck from the absence of cursing and guile that did not come from His lips as He suffered the greatest agony that a man could face. How amazing it was that He who could have called ten thousand angels to His deliverance would simply hang there and take such abuse and suffering and do it with forgiveness on His lips. And yet when I read about Gethsemane and His prayer there, I realize that Calvary was conquered not while on the cross, but in the garden the night before. The struggle between Spirit and flesh was won in the prayer meeting before the day of death. The resistance to God's will was subdued as the blood dropped from His skin onto the ground among the olive trees.

If Jesus Christ had to pray in order to bring about the redemption of mankind, then that tells me that without prayer, we will always abort what God is trying to do because we will give into the pain. Here this preacher: we will never receive what we want at the level of prayer that most of us are at. Ten minutes of causal prayer here and there a day will not cut it. Such a low level of devotion and consecration is not enough to subdue your flesh so that you can deliver the promises that God has placed within you. For the last few months, our church has been one of a utter lack of harvest. We have not had bad church. We have not been lacking in moves of the Spirit or faithfulness. But we have been lacking in souls brought in to the kingdom of God. And when that happens in a church, it always points to a lack of a full prayer life among the saints.

The preacher can on the strength of his prayer life, receive revelations of God that challenge and awe you and preach anointed sermons. On the strength of his devotion, he can usher you into the presence of God so that you can receive the miraculous conception of something great. But that is as far as the preacher can take you. The angel can just deliver the message, Mary, and bring you to a point of faith where you say "okay, I receive it" and the Spirit does the start. But the messenger cannot carry it and nurture it. And when we see Mary at the end, she is all alone with no angel to help her in her very natural birth. The messenger cannot help you bring forth the promise in your life. The natural birth is up to you.

So if the Spirit of God is moving in our services and we are receiving anointed promises from God in the preached Word, and we are responding to the messages and receiving a supernatural impartation of those promises and yet we are not seeing a harvest of souls or of fulfilled promises, then that means that the breakdown is in the saint's response to carrying the burden of the Word of the Lord. And if the saints are unable to endure the natural pains of the birth of a promise, then they have not had the Gethsemane before the pain to help them push through it. Without prayer and fasting on your part, this church will continue to be barren. Without your pressing through the natural process, this church will continue to be an empty stable.

We need to pray until a burden grips our hearts for the lost. We need to come in before services and truly pray that God's will be done and that we and everybody else will be ready to receive what God is about to do. We need to realize the seriousness of reaching our world and take that responsibility full on our own shoulders. We need to press through some persecution. We need to press through some fears. We need to push through and deny our fleshly will so that the will of the Spirit is done. But we will not make it until our Gethsemane is strong enough to conquer the cross in our lives. And without the cross, we will not see the resurrection.

This Christmas, we are in the stable of Bethlehem, pregnant with a miraculous conception, but in the throes of a very natural birth. It takes work to build a church. It takes great pains to see a harvest. But what will we do? Shall we cry out to God for help? Shall we seize the moment and surrender to Him in prayer before the travail increases to that point where we always throw in the towel? Will we press through to the point where it seems like the effort is much worse than we thought and then just walk away? Or will we stick with it and through prayer and much effort see a harvest of souls in this coming year? Will we keep our mind focused on the prize and this be the year that we hold the promises in our arms and embrace them truly?

And, oh Mary? Just in case you didn't know, the birth is just the first part, and now for the next few years, the work really begins. He is a holy thing from God and He was miraculously conceived, but there are still dirty diapers and feedings every few hours. There are still all the rigors of childhood to endure if the world is to have a Savior. The same stamina and effort that it took to bring Him into this world, will be needed in order to see Him grow and develop.

May our prayer lives become such that they not only carry us through the natural birth, but that they also keep our promises alive and developed! It was a miraculous conception and now there is a natural birth and the all too natural process of protecting our promise from the elements of this world. Don't give up, though, because the promise that you receive in the process will far outweigh any pain or suffering or effort that you have given. Don't give up. The effort means that you are close, so close to holding your promise. If you will keep pressing, you will soon see the face of God revealed into your life!