Can You Conceive Your Miracle This Christmas Series

Last week we talked about planting a seed in someone else’s life. Reaching out and touching them with the message of hope, coming alongside and being an impact player in their life by telling them of Jesus. I asked, how many of you could use a miracle this Christmas, and many of you raised your hands. Some of you have been hit by the recession. My son received his layoff notice from Boeing this week. It hits home. Others need a miracle in relationships, with their kids, in their marriage. There are others who are in need of a physical miracle, the wear and tear on the body has taken its toll, and others, it is an emotional or physical healing. And you wonder can God conceive His miracle in me.

Often times we can point to others who seem to have it better off than we do. And we grumble, I mean wonder, why can’t God do it for me. Probably every one of us in this room have a miracle need in the incubator, some longer than nine months. When you think it is time, you are disappointed with false labor. What can we learn to help us to bring our miracle to term at Christmas? The first thing you need to do is…

Believe

Looking at the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who experienced the greatest miracle at Christmas, the birth of Jesus there are some practical lessons we can learn. The Bible states in Luke 1:45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

Would someone ask for a miracle from God and not believe God would do it? Would you? An angel comes to Mary and tells her she is going to give birth to the Son of God. A one-time experience, Never before, never again to be repeated. To practical knowledge of anyone else ever having this experience. Would you believe it? Even when miracles happen in the lives of others there are always doubters. Mary was not one of those. She believed it. God said it that settled it. Don’t you wish everyone had that type of positive attitude?

Billy Graham speaking of miracles said: Jonah swallowed by a fish? I’d believe it if Scripture said Jonah swallowed the fish! It’s not difficult to believe if you believe in a God of miracles.

So if you are asking God for a miracle, you need to believe in God, that He is the miracle worker, and that He will work that miracle in you.

If you ask and don’t believe you have an aborted miracle.

In your notes there is a line for you to write down your miracle. Why don’t you take a moment to write down what you believe God for?

I Intercede

Intercessions in another way of saying pray. Pray with thanksgiving to God. Mary in Luke 46-48 said, Oh how I praise the Lord, How I rejoice in God my Savior! For he took notice of His lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation will call me blessed. Before the birth of the miracle, Mary is singing a song of praise before the Lord, believing before she was receiving.

Jesus said in Matthew 21:22 And all things you ask in prayer; believing, you shall receive.

It more than believes for a miracle, it is also asking in prayer, interceding, standing before the throne of God demonstrating your faith. Mary prayed a prayer of faith, a prayer acknowledging her belief in God’s miracle.

In the cartoon Ziggy, Ziggy is standing, looking up on a mountain, the sky is dark and she yells out, “Have I been put on hold for the rest of my life?”

In the darkness of the moment, in the hour of great need, you need to believe and you need to intercede before God in faith for your miracle. Don’t let doubt steal your miracle. Doubt results in too many still born miracles. Don’t let doubt dampen your day.

R relax

Tense people are not good recipients for a miracle. In Luke 2 we read of the census, of Joseph going to the city of his birth, Bethlehem, verses 5 & 6, along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. Let me back track a minute. The angel came and told her of the miracle, the Messiah she was going to give birth. The first thing she did was visit Elizabeth, her relative after she heard she also was pregnant, staying a few months to help her out. Then Joseph gets word of the census, having to travel a distance to Bethlehem, Mary, instead of saying I’m in pain, my belly is protruding, my back is giving me pain, desires to make the journey. We know the story of the innkeeper, no room, just a stinky manger overcrowded with animals. How many of you would have tensed up? Some do at the very beginning of this journey of conception. Mary seems unconcerned. Tension can lead to a miscarriage of your miracle.