Victory Life KY

Be It Unto Me III

Episode Summary

As we continue our journey with Luke, obviously honoring the birth of our King. But our focus is actually on Jesus’ mom, her faith inspiring each of us to live our own life of faith.

Episode Notes

• As we continue our journey with Luke, obviously honoring the birth of our King. But our focus is actually on Jesus’ mom, her faith inspiring each of us to live our own life of faith.

• Remember Luke’s bold intro to his writing, “I’m writing this so that you may know beyond a shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you’ve been taught.”

• Luke highlights many wonderful truths from the Holy Spirit, starting with Jesus’ introduction to humanity.
• Think about Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem, to find themselves giving birth to the Savior of the world in a barn.

• And as we looked at last week, God told shepherds their sign would be they would find Him lying in a manger. And they showed up.

• And as Joseph and Mary go to fulfill the requirements of the law concerning a first born, Luke highlights another fulfillment of God’s word. In this particular case Simeon prophesies and confirms the written word becoming the living word.

• John 1:1-2,NLT- In the beginning the Word already existed.
• The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
• He existed in the beginning with God.

• Something else I love about God’s word is how He will highlight seemingly small incidents of everyday life for us; the Holy Spirit told Simeon he would get to see the Lord’s Christ before his death.

• Luke 2:29-32,NKJV- Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word;
• For my eyes have seen Your salvation
• Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
• A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.

• Matthew lets us know that once again an angel helps them, telling them to move to Egypt for a season— then returning they stop in Nazareth, once again to fulfill what was spoken, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

• Luke 2:40,52,NKJV- The Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
• And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

• This is His humanity yielding to His Spirit, His God nature.

• Here’s the thing, the realities of our Savior becoming King of kings hinged on this young girls crazy, radical faith, “be it unto to me.”

• One of our big take always from this talk is the fact that there will be times that our next step of faith my seem a little crazy, but just maybe, like Mary, God’s looking for a little crazy.

• Remember, all the days of your life were written in the book before your first day. The thing God has put on your heart, that dream, that crazy idea, the passionate desire, just remember who gave it to you.

• And just like our Master grew in every aspect of His reality, because everything about God’s Kingdom functions as if a man sows a seed, so will our faith journey, regardless of how crazy it might seem.

• Isaiah 55:8-11,NKJV- For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD.
• 9, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
• 10, For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,
• 11, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

• God simply wants us to believe in Him as much as He believes in us.

• 2 Corinthians 5:7,AMP- We walk by faith, not by sight, living our lives in a manner consistent with our CONFIDENT BELIEF IN GOD’S PROMISES.

• You see, living by faith, not senses, not emotions, not intelligence or experiences, will require divinely inspired trust.

• Because God has designed us to live by faith, we’ve got to get to the place where we allow what He says to shape and strengthen what we actually believe. How we actually live.

• Mary’s act of faith was going to change everything about her life.

• Like we said last week, it all started with her humble, submissive, yet courageous heart of faith. “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Be it unto me according to your word.”

• Can we be real for a second, everyone of us operate within the boundaries of our current beliefs. And I’m convinced God saw something in Mary’s heart long before He sent Gabriel to her.

• As a matter of fact, as we begin following Jesus, how many times did He tell people, “according to you faith, let it be so?”

• I can’t help but wonder how many of us would be as bold as Mary?

• Think about it, how often have you found yourself, not intending to, but none the less, find yourself in unbelief concerning something Jesus says simply because it makes no sense.

• Mark 6:3-6,NKJV- “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.
• But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”
• Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.
• And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.”

• Heres the thing, Jesus faced unbelief every where He went, even with those that walked the closest to Him. Repeatedly He asked things like, "How is it that you have no faith?"

• At the end of the day, faith is simply a decision, not based on intelligence or emotion, but 100% on what God’s says.

• Proverbs 3:5-6,MSG- Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
• Listen for GOD’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.
• Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to GOD!

• Faith sees from God’s perspective. In Joshua 6, He tells Joshua, “SEE! I have given Jericho into your hands.”

• This is why Paul wrote his Holy Spirit inspired prayer in Ephesians, “Lord, open my eyes spiritually that I can comprehend what You’ve already done for me.”

• Think about it, if He is the Great I AM, the Word from all existence, the Beginning and End, could it be that real faith is simply enforcing a reality from His world into this one?

• This is why Jesus makes radical statements like, “If you can believe, all things are possible.”

• This is the eternal reality Mary is acknowledging when she makes her bold faith statement, be it unto me.

• I can’t help but wonder if Jesus’ mom would talk to us like a mom today and she would tell us the same thing.

• A reality that continually stands out from Mary’s bold faith is that God didn’t give any of us these new lives in Him just to do our own thing until we go to heaven.

• Seriously, we’re made for the supernatural, the impossible. Think about it, like Mary, would God lead you into a situation you cannot accomplish without Him?

• 1 Corinthians 1:27-29,NKJV- But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
• and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

• Here’s the deal, as long as we allow our senses, emotions, intelligence to determine reality, we leave no room for faith.

• This is why Paul instructs us that we are to live our lives in a manner consistent with our CONFIDENT BELIEF IN GOD’S PROMISES. Or in the words of Jesus, “According to your faith let it be to you.”

• A big part of the life of faith starts with us seeing ourselves the way God sees us, in His class, made in His image, heirs to His Kingdom. Not a religious image but an in Christ image.

• I know I quote this scripture all the time, but we need this revelation.

• Galatians 2:20,NKJV- I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

• All He has, He has already given. All His promises in Christ are yes, and in Him amen. His life, His nature, His wisdom and provision. Remember, God, our Father wants to be the El Shaddai of our lives.

• When a Christian can get to the place where what God says is more real than circumstance and experience, that person’s faith will become the dominant force in our lives.

• The challenge for most of us is that we identity more with our natural world than our spiritual world.

• When we follow the life of Jesus, we’ve got to understand, He was on a short assignment from the Father. Listen to what He said, “I came down from Heaven to do the will of My Father who sent Me.”

• 1 Hebrews 13:8,NKJV- Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

• We live by believing and not by seeing.
• We live our lives in a manner consistent with our CONFIDENT BELIEF IN GOD’S PROMISES.

• This Christmas, as we celebrate and honor our Savior and King, as we enjoy the gift of Salvation, let Mary’s faith inspire us to take a closer look at our own life of faith, and follow her lead, “be it unto to me”