Christmas is about God’s sovereignty, mercy, and power. In the two previous articles, I talked about:
Let’s take a look at how Christmas is all about God’s power.
Again, the whole Advent study comes out of my book, “What Christmas Is All About.” You can get a copy for yourself on Amazon or here.
Read on your own Luke 1: 26 – 38.
This Scripture above helps us understand the importance of God’s Word and God’s Spirit as two combined concepts that can allow us to experience God’s Power.
First, an angel appears to Mary with a message from God. It’s God’s Word the angel is bringing to this young lady.
As we read this story in the twenty-first century, everything seems so perfect that we picture Mary smiling and saying to the angel: “yes, I can do it.”
No, that was not the situation. It was terrifying for Mary, given that she was only engaged to Joseph. She could not bear the idea of carrying a child when that was against the Jewish law for two engaged people.
Second, Mary is scared and thinks this message from God to her is like a “suicide mission.” In her mind, her future would completely be destroyed.
Is that not all that we experience in life, and daily?
We have the Word of God, but its application to our everyday living isn’t easy. Is it?
God’s Word in itself has not much power. What we need is what the angel would tell Mary in verse 35,
“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 the Son of God.” (NIV).
What the angel is saying is that the Holy Spirit will make it possible.
God’s Word + God’s Spirit => God’s Power
When there’s God’s Word together with God’s Spirit, three things happen.
- You become a new “You.” For us to become a new creation, we all need to be born again (read John 3: 1-8). Water represents baptism and Spirit, a new and empowered life as a result of God’s Spirit dwelling in us.
- God saves you. God, through Jesus, saves us from sin and everything else that comes with it. Salvation first gives us clarity. It also sets us free from all powers of darkness. Last, salvation grants us forgiveness.
- God gives us eternal life. God always makes a way where there seems to be no way. God still uses nothing to create something.
Salvation sets us free from the past while preparing us today to move into the future God has created for us!
Learn more from the book, “What Christmas Is All About.”
