How Mary Carried Baby Jesus with Promise

e were once like Mary, walking through life until God breathes into our life a radical purpose that reshapes our destiny. As we begin to walk out this newfound purpose through being born again, sometimes it’s hard to define what our purpose may end up looking like. Sometimes, all we have to work off of is that we feel something is different within us.  

One of the things I love most about Mary carrying baby Jesus is that she was not left with just a promise from the Holy Spirit because she actually gave birth physically and spiritually to the promise of God.  

In the same way, many of us are pregnant with the promises of God over our lives. Mary gives us the road map on how to birth those promises and fulfill our God-given destiny.  

“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,[a] who was with child.” (Luke 2:4-5)

Joseph and Mary were in a very strange position. The first chapter of Matthew gives us the complete back story and the images of the virgin Mary. Joseph and Mary were to be married, and while Joseph is off building a house for his future wife, Mary is off getting pregnant. The bizarre thing is that it’s not Joseph’s baby. When Joseph sees Mary next, she’s pregnant, and it’s showing. 

Mary’s Pregnancy of Promise 

This brings up an important point if we are going to give birth to the promises of God over our lives. Our “pregnancy” must be showing. Those closest around us should start to notice something that we are carrying is different. If your “pregnancy of promise” is not showing yet, maybe that’s because it is not growing.  

We know that a baby cannot be born until it reaches the proper time and weight; it must be nurtured before it can begin to start showing. If your promises with God isn’t showing yet, then maybe it’s because it’s not being fed with the right amount of Scripture and faith in God.  

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” (Luke 2:1)

The registration that occurred by Caesar Augustus means that Mary and Joseph had to take their pregnancy out of their homeland. They were commissioned to take the journey to Jerusalem. This begs the simple application in regards to giving birth to the promises of God over our lives. In order for your pregnancy to go full term with God, you may need some “pressure.”  

Sometimes, it is the pressure of life that will get you to react and depend fully on God. Scripture is filled with heroes of our faith that first had to go through some pressure in order for their divine purpose to be fulfilled. 

• Before God could make Joseph the ruler of Egypt, he had to move him out of his own country. 
• Before Jonah could preach to Ninevah, he had to get on the boat
• Before Abraham could birth a great nation, he had to leave his homeland. 
  

Sometimes God will use the pressures of life to move you into a place of destiny. Why? Because the promises of God are not born out of dependency on man. They are born out of a couple of dependence on God.  

Inside Mary Carrying Jesus 

God will use the uncomfortable times in our life in order to increase our comfort in Him thought the Holy Spirit. For Mary, this time of discomfort would last a full nine months.  

Professor James F. Strange, a New Testament and bible archeology professor, says in this article, “It was a fairly grueling trip… In antiquity, the most we find people traveling is 20 miles a day. And this trip was very much uphill and downhill…Mary, because of her pregnancy, probably could only travel 10 miles a day.” 

For Mary and Joseph, the trip would take place in the winter, when temperatures would drop down to the 30s in the day, with the foretaste of much rain.

The grueling and rigorous experience Mary had traveling on the road of promise represents for us what it takes to birth our destiny in God. When God moves us, he moves us for a purpose.  

Carrying Our Promise Through Difficulties 

In order for the promises of God to be birthed in our lives, we have to carry them through times of difficulties. 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

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References:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-59/on-road.html

https://www.travelujah.com/stories/in-the-footsteps-of-mary-and-joseph-the-nativity-trail