How Can This Be?

“Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be….?’” (Luke 1:34a)

Have you ever posed this same question to God?

Have you ever cried to out to the Lord, saying “I do not understand!” or yelled out, “Why God?” when things were going on in your life that were far beyond your own understanding?

I venture to guess all of you reading this have been in a similar place at one time or another (maybe even right now).

I am by no means attempting to answer all the “why’s” of your life, but I do want to share with you a revelation I recently received about learning to move beyond my lack of understanding and trusting in the God who has spoken life over me.

It all began with a word from the Lord. He said to me, “Mary received from Me even when she did not understand. She conceived from My word spoken over her even when she did not understand. She only believed My word. Though there are many things you do not understand, BELIEVE and CONCEIVE and you will bring forth My promises by FAITH.”

As I meditated on this word, and had a mind-blowing conversation with a sister-in-Christ about it, I received the following revelation:

My understanding, or lack thereof, of God’s promises in my life does not change the word He has spoken over me. It is in me believing that what He has spoken is TRUTH (John 17:17). It is in me believing that God’s word is LIFE (Proverbs 4:22, Matthew 4:4, John 6:63). It is in me believing that One Who promises me something, HE IS FAITHFUL to bring it to pass (1Thessalonians 5:24, Hebrews 10:23). It is through my believing in WHO HE IS that I actually receive or CONCEIVE His spoken word. (FYI, this goes for you too!) And as Mary believed, she conceived, and eventually THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US! (John 1:14)

The word was brought to fruition. It came to pass!

We know from the scriptures that the Word of God is a seed. And there are different types of “soil” it can be planted in, but it is only in the “good soil” that the seed reaches its full potential. What is this “good soil?”

Jesus said, “But as for that seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word with a good and noble heart, and hold on to it tightly, and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15 AMP)

The “good soil” is the person who holds on tightly to the word of God.

Do you hold on tightly to something you do not believe is true?

Nope!

When you hold on tightly to something, you believe that it is important and relevant in your life. The action of holding onto the Word of God spoken over you is your CONCEPTION of the word. You received the seed and now carry it in your spirit. And it is through patience, which is the waiting period, that the word is “birthed” or brought to fruition in your life.

I want to take a moment right here to highlight an important aspect of the WAITING PERIOD. Just as in a natural pregnancy, the word of God, once conceived, goes through a growth process, and that process involves the passing of time. It is a waiting time.

The waiting period is very important. For the Christian, it is a time of preparation. It is a time of “character building” and spiritual “house cleaning” so that you are able to properly care for or STEWARD the promise of God once it is brought to fruition in your life.

It is during the waiting time that our faith in the word is tested. It is very important that we do not doubt the word of God or waver in faith resulting in the ABORTION of that word. Just as in a natural pregnancy, an abortion happens between conception and birth. It happens in the waiting period.

We can abort the word of God spoken over us when we walk in unbelief and doubt, which is also walking in the flesh. Manifestations of unbelief and doubt come through complaining, frustration, emotional meltdowns, anxiety, and fear. This is totally opposite of walking in belief and faith, which is walking by the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit, we walk in thankfulness, gratitude, praise, and peace.

Know this: It is by faith that we receive the promises of God (Romans 4:16, Galatians 3:14).

And the devil knows this. That is why we are often faced with difficult circumstances after having received a word or promise from God, and those difficulties actually come in to directly oppose what God has said.

For example:

God promises you a child. You are then told by a doctor that you cannot have children. This is when you decide how you are going to come through the trial. You can fall into unbelief and doubt regarding God’s spoken word and receive the bad report. Or you can hold onto the promise of God with faith, trusting to believe that the One Who promised you is greater than the difficulty currently facing you.

Let’s take a look at the scripture describing Mary’s experience with BELIEVING and CONCEIVING the word of God.

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:26-38 NKJV)

I love how the angel Gabriel just rolled in and dropped this revelation bomb in the middle of Mary’s normal day. He did some fast talking!

But seriously, the angel came on a mission and it was to deliver the word of God. There is no previous mention of Mary ever having received a word from the Lord in regards to His plans for her life. Therefore, it was very likely that she was not prepared for this angelic encounter. I’m sure a lot of thoughts and emotions hit her as the angel stood before her and spoke.

Yet, she did not fall into the tumultuous trap of her thoughts and emotions.

The angel spoke a beautiful but difficult word to Mary. This virgin girl was going to become pregnant without ever having had sexual relations with a man (Btw, these were the days before “in-vitro-fertilization”).

This would have been something difficult to understand, not just to Mary, but to any human being. This was beyond the natural way that humankind understood conception. This was a SUPERNATURAL CONCEPTION!

So obviously, Mary had some questions. In her lack of understanding, she asked the angel, “How can this be…?”

The angel Gabriel then told her generally how the conception would occur, but many of the details I’m sure Mary was wanting answered were not mentioned.

This is where many people tend to get “stuck.”

We are presented with a word from the Lord and we may have a general understanding of it, but the details are missing. At times we struggle at not knowing or understanding the “Who?, What?, When?, Where?, or How?”

This is where our faith steps in.

“Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].” (Hebrews 11:1 AMP)

If you jump down another verse, we see that “By faith [that is, with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God] we understand….” (Hebrews 11:3a AMP)

It is when we determine that it is necessary for us to know these details that we can begin to waver in faith. OUR HUMAN REASONING TRIES TO COME IN AND STEAL AWAY WHAT BY RIGHTS BELONGS TO US BY FAITH.

We must remember that it is by faith we understand the word of God and it is by faith we receive the promises of God.

Even the angel’s explanation to Mary of how she would conceive a child as a virgin was beyond natural understanding. Yet, this did not deter Mary. She accepted the word of God as is. She grabbed onto the spoken word of God by faith and said to the angel, “Let it be to me according to your word.” Approximately nine months later Mary gave birth to the one and only begotten Son of God.

There is sooo much more we can talk about with this topic, but I hope that this has helped encourage you right where you are at.

Whatever God has promised you, trust that He is more than able to bring it to pass. I will leave you with this scripture about another BELIEVE and CONCEIVE by FAITH example in the Bible:

“In hope against hope Abraham believed that he would become a father of many nations, as he had been promised [by God]: “So [numberless] shall your descendants be.” Without becoming weak in faith he considered his own body, now as good as dead [for producing children] since he was about a hundred years old, and [he considered] the deadness of Sarah’s womb. But he did not doubt or waver in unbelief concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and empowered by faith, giving glory to God, being fully convinced that God had the power to do what He had promised.” (Romans 4:18-21 AMP)

God bless you and keep you my friends💗