(Note: The following message originally aired on Autism One Radio. To hear the broadcast at any time, please go to: http://autismone.org/radio/?archive=1574&bg=&FromA1
and click on the arrow above “Listen to Jack and Rebecca Sytsema.”)

THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, PART FOUR:
WHEN YOU’RE ALL ALONE AGAIN

by Jack Hayford

THERE’S AN OFT-UNNOTICED CANDOR in the statement, “And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:38). What is probably most often casually passed over as an unimportant, transitional footnote to the essential features of the story is actually an observation of a critical fact: Miracles conceived at high moments of faith still have to be carried through long seasons of waiting.

A Time of Questions and Doubts

First, be assured that the angel’s departure wasn’t an act of forsaking Mary. But it certainly must have set the scene for some lonely self-questioning.

I propose that Mary wondered things such as the following because all of us who have ever tasted even the slightest sweetness of God’s promises being begotten in us have wondered similar things. Once the angel is gone, when you are all alone again, thoughts such as the following are inevitable:

Did I actually hear what I think I heard? Or have I somehow talked myself into the belief that God is going to do something great in and through me?

If I’m really a loved and chosen person who is open to becoming as avenue of God’s grace and life-begetting blessing, why do I feel so unsupernatural now, and so alone?

What’s going to happen now? I was open to something wonderful, and did experience a genuinely wonderful beginning. But nothing wonderful is happening that I can see—not right here, or right now.

Have you ever wondered what Mary’s reaction was to the first sign she received, revealing that the miracle she was promised was actually happening—growing within her? From the most basic point of human observation, we all know this: Her first sign would have been no sign at all.

It may seem either too mundane to mention, or I might strike someone as making a too-human-to-observe comment, or possibly even a tasteless one. But Mary’s first sign would have been when her monthly cycle failed to arrive at its usual time; that is, “no sign at all.” That obvious observation should provide no surprise to us and what it suggests shouldn’t either. Because when the promise of any miracle is received and genuinely set in motion, the most common thing to happen is nothing—or less than nothing.

You received Christ at a church or group gathering, but the next day at home the absence of affirming people and the waning of emotion prompt a wondering. Did God really notice? Can this really be true—me? Forgiven completely? Saved forever? That signless morning after has even tougher ramifications at time.

• You are open to God’s promise that your marriage can be healed and your relationship can become strong, and a fierce argument erupts between you.
• You receive a stir of faith that persuades you with the certainty that your wayward child will be reclaimed, and he goes on a bender with drugs.
• You see a beautiful breakthrough in the worship life of your congregation, promising real revival, then a visitor interrupts your Sunday morning gathering with a fanatical display that sets the congregation back to its earlier reserve, disallowing warmth and expectancy.

This order of “the first sign is not sign at all”—or worse, the disappearance of what hopeful signs you ever had—may well have been the struggle for Mary, too. Consider this: Is it possible that missing her regular cycle didn’t assure Mary? Is it possible that instead of thinking, “Praise God, this proves the miracle is happening,” she might have been tempted to think something else?

Might she have thought, “maybe this whole thing is something I’ve simply convinced myself of. How long has it been? Two weeks since I thought I talked with that angel? And where is he since then, anyway?”

Is it possible she could remember conversations with her mother, her sisters or other women—ladies who knew that sometimes overexcitement can delay or interrupt a woman’s pattern of menstruation? “Maybe that’s it. I’m just worked up, excited, with no real reason to be, other than my own overactive imagination! (Incidentally, where are angels when you really need them?)”

Let’s not think it less than faithlike or saintly that Mary might have felt such feelings or thought such questions. It is an outright shame that the fallacy has ever been taught that people who have doubts can’t please God. That lying argument evolved from such texts as, “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23) and “For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (Jas. 1:7,8). But that’s not the whole truth. Remember also: Sarah laughed with semiskeptical wonder, and still conceived the miracle of Isaac. Gideon challenged, “I’ve never seen miracles in my time,” and God gave him wondrous victory. Peter sank in Galilee’s waters, distracted by doubt, but was lifted to walk in a wonder again.

Clearly, neither of the previous two texts, nor any others in God’s Word, dismiss any of us from miracle possibilities simply because we are tempted with doubt or questions. It is one thing to wrestle with doubts and another thing to submit to them, one thing to struggle with questions and another to answer them with human reasonings rather than God’s Word. Wherever miracle possibilities are offered by God, never forget this: Since it is His sovereign grace that has made the promise it will be His omnipotent power that is going to fulfill it.

We are the privileged vessels for such glorious workings and our openness is essential to their occurring. But we are neither the originators nor the finishers of such wonders. We are simply His beloved ones, who have chosen to surrender to His desire to work wonderfully in and through us. Mary didn’t become the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14 by repeating the promise over and over until she became convinced she had adequately claimed it for herself. (“A virgin shall conceive…A virgin shall conceive…A virgin shall conceive…Praise God, I believe that’s for me!”)

But on the other hand, let’s make no mistake: Mary did choose to receive that word when God Himself offered it to her. She did surrender herself to the Holy Spirit, who was present to initiate the power flow of holy grace that would eventually bring that word to fulfillment. Still, those commitments don’t dehumanize anyone. The whole of the Bible’s narrative about Mary reveals her vulnerability to doubt’s temptation at other times. There’s no reason to feel it demeans the sweet woman or her miracle to think she “wondered” about it herself. And nothing in the Bible requires you or me to become mechanical spouters of Scripture to have God’s Word fulfilled in our lives.

• Yes, we should declare God’s promises!
• Yes, we should address doubt with God’s Word!
• Yes, we should refuse to counter with our lips what God’s Spirit has revealed in the Scriptures and quickened in our hearts!

But never—never—become hopeless, condemned or defeated because doubts lifts its head or questions come to your mind. When you are carrying a miracle, there are times little or nothing is happening to verify your pregnancy. Or something may seem about to abort it.

Living with a Miracle in the Womb

Living with a miracle means far more than experiencing its conception. It means resting in God’s promise and power even when it seems the miracle isn’t going to be born. It means believing you really did hear God’s word to you, even “after the angel has departed.”

Living with a miracle still in the womb, as yet not manifest to anyone other than you, calls for a point of understanding greater than knowing God’s works and workings: simply knowing Him. Far beyond His power, He wants you to know His person.

• Knowing the truth of His Word, mastering it by the sincerest study, doesn’t attain this knowledge.
• Entering into the mightiest experiences of His Spirit’s gifts and power doesn’t achieve this intimacy.

Whatever wonders the Mary miracle is designed to introduce to, in and through our lives, these are not the primary objectives. The ultimate wonder is knowing intimately and increasingly the Wonder-worker. God’s greatest goal with any of us is to have us. His mightiness is not offered to make impressive displays through us (though He’s willing to avenue His grace through human vessels). And His power has never been promised in order to entertain human fancies by manifesting the miraculous for exhibition or excitement (though His workings are stunning).

Never.

Rather, we come to learn that God wants to work wonders because He is “wonder-full.” And more than anything else, He wants us to know Him, to desire His presence more than His power, and to seek His face fully, more than hoping to see is “force-fullness.” When a Mary miracle “kind” of thing begins in any of us, surely the time will come when we feel we are all alone again; a time when the Spirit’s presence, warmth and truth, which quickened the promise of God’s Word to our spirits, now seems long past—even subject to doubt.

But there’s a sure remedy for that “aloneness” because there’s a changeless certainty. Now, as with Mary, the fact stands unshakable. Whatever else happens, you are not alone. The promise is still true. And His power is at work within you. Take these three facts and let them move you from expecting a wonder to embracing Him who is wonderful. His angel may have departed, but He is always right there. All the way until His baby is born and beyond.

* * * * *
For Part One of this article, click here.

For Part Two of this article, click here.

For Part Three of this article, click here.

(This article is one in a four-part series we have posted on Children of Destiny's website. This material has been excerpted from The Christmas Miracle by Jack Hayford, © Copyright 1999, Regal Books, Ventura, CA 93003. Used by Permission.)

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