THE PROCESS OF THE PROMISE
Mark 4:26-29 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground,27 “and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.28 “For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.29 “But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
1. You need to have a word from God. Luke 1:28 The angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” Luke 1:31 Listen: you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).
2. You need the agency of the Holy Spirit. God had to perform a miracle. Luke 1:34,35 Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. "Ah, Lord God, behold! Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee" (Jer. 32:17). Before any of us could be born again God had to work a miracle. Make no mistake on this point; regeneration is the direct result of the supernatural operation of God. The new birth is an act of God’s creative power, the impartation of spiritual life, the communication to us of the Divine nature itself.
3. Third, you need to believe. Luke 1:38 So Mary said, “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these words, pondering in her heart what they might mean..
• Kept - suntereo, from Greek 4862 (sun) and Greek 5083 (tereo); to keep closely together, i.e. (by implication) to conserve (from ruin); mentally to remember (and obey) :- keep, observe, preserve.
• Ponder - sumballo, from Greek 4862 (sun) and Greek 906 (ballo); to combine, i.e. (in speaking) to converse, consult, dispute, (mentally) to consider, (by implication) to aid, (personally) to join, attack :- confer, encounter, help, make, meet with, ponder.
• Heart - kardia, prolonged from a primary kar (Latin cor, “heart”); the heart, i.e. (figurative) the thoughts or feelings (mind); also (by analogy) the middle :- (+ broken-) heart (-ed).
Matthew 12:34,35 For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.35 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
4. There will be opposition and conflict in producing the promise. Two areas – flesh – doubt and unbelief – devil – opposition.
5. God has a set time for the accomplishing of His will and the fulfilling of His word. Nothing is left to chance. Nothing is contingent on the creature. Everything is definitely fixed beforehand by God. "For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him" (Gen. 21:2). Mark how this is emphasized by repetition—"But my covenant will! establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year" (Gen. 17:21); "At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son" (Gen. 18:14). So also we read in another connection, "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak" (Hab. 2:3). Compare Galatians 4:4.
A promise from God always requires a process. God is more interested in the journey than the destination, Israel through the wilderness to Canaan. However God does want us to arrive in the right place at the right time. Do you have a promise are you going through the process? Then let The Holy Spirit be your cloud by day and fire by night, let Him lead you to your destination.
