Gabriel Appears to Mary And in the sixth month (not the sixth month of our calendar, but the sixth month of Elizabeth s pregnancy), the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph... (They were already engaged to be married.) of the house of David; and the virgin s name was Mary (vv. 26-27). It was the same angel, just six months later. The last time Gabriel had been sent down on a mission was at least 400 years before, and now he had two jobs in six months. Business was picking up! When he came to Zacharias and Elizabeth, they were old and were barren, but at least they had two to tango! Now he s sent to a virgin, to tell her she s going to have a baby before she and Joseph get married and consummate their marriage! So the impossibilities have gone way up in magnitude. Zacharias was having a hard time believing, but at least he had a male and female together! 2 And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that are highly favored, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be (vv. 28-29). Again, it is normal to be troubled when an angel comes! It is a normal human response to a supernatural being of such greatness and majesty. The word troubled means she was perplexed or confused, not troubled as in unbelief. Consider that she s not a priest, she s not a Levite, but a young teenage girl engaged to be married. She cast in her mind, or she considered: What is he talking about? I wonder what he means? The angel said to her like he had said to Zacharias: Fear not, Mary:
for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be seeing I know not a man? (vv. 30-34). Zacharias had said, How do I know this is really true? After all, I m old and my wife is old. But Mary didn t say, How do I know this will happen?, but How is this going to happen? I don t have a husband. There is a big difference! She didn t say, How is this possible? Her promise was even more impossible than Zacharias and Elizabeth s. He had three well-documented examples: Abraham and Sarah, Rebecca and Isaac, Manoah and his wife, all miraculous conceptions, and he wouldn t believe. As far as I know, Mary only had one little verse in the whole OT that might have given her an idea that this could be true. Isaiah 7:14 says: Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. Out of 23,214 verses in the OT, Mary, at best, had one. If she knew this one little verse that said a virgin would bear a son and would be called Immanuel (God with us), she believed it! All she wanted to know was how it would happen. Just like Manoah wanted to know, How are we to raise this child? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible (vv. 35-37). This must have been almost more than she could comprehend: The Holy Ghost is going to come upon thee, the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Can you imagine the imagery in her mind trying to imagine how it was going to happen? You will have a son, and will be the Son of God. Be lt Unto Me! What must have been going through her mind? But what did she say? Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word... (vs. 38). She said, I believe! I don t understand it, but I believe it! It s way beyond my ability to comprehend, but I believe, and let it be! She did not say, How do I know this is true? The angel said, With God nothing shall be impossible! She thought, I can believe that! If God created man out of dust, and then He took a bone out of his side and created a woman, I can believe He can create a baby in my womb 3
without the aid of a human father! She knew that if God said, From the seed of a woman shall come my Messiah, she could believe it, so her response was one of absolute faith: I am the Lord s handmaiden. In other words, I m ready to serve. Here I am. Use me, do what-ever You want. I m Your handmaiden. If she did not truly believe the angel, her answer would probably have been much different. She may have said, Excuse me, do you realize what you re saying? Do you understand what that would mean for me, even if it is possible, like you say, that I could get pregnant, and not by a man, and I m a virgin, and I m unmarried? They could stone me. Do you think they d believe me when I say that I m a virgin, and I m pregnant of the Holy Ghost? If they don t think I m crazy, they will think I m making this up to cover that I ve been messing around. And Joseph my fiancé, ah, I don t even want to imagine what he s going to say if I tell him this preposterous story! Do you expect that even if I believe you, all these other people are going to believe it? You are asking an awful lot of me, and I don t think I can handle that much pressure. That s asking way too much of me, a nice little Jewish virgin girl. Excuse me, but I didn t sign up for this. No! She said, Here I am. I m ready to serve. Let it be unto me according to thy Word, and then she acted on it. Two Pregnant Women With the Holy Ghost And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into the city of Judea, and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth (vv. 38-39). She didn t waste any time. She got right up and made her journey. She said, Elizabeth is pregnant too! Oh my gracious, we ve just got to get together. Now Zacharias great adventure is increased: There are two pregnant women in the house! When Mary arrived, and Elizabeth heard Mary s voice, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost just like Gabriel had said, This child shall be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother s womb. And she spoke out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord shall come to me? (vv. 42-43). Elizabeth was her cousin and much older than her, but spiritually, she was not looking at her as her little cousin. She said, You are the mother of my Lord! You re the mother of the Messiah, and you ve come to me! Oh, what a blessed day! Oh, happy day! I ve got more joy than I know what to do with. She s speaking in tongues and rejoicing, and Zacharias is sitting in the corner writing down his thoughts. He s got three more months to go before he can rejoice out loud. Mary and Elizabeth are singing and dancing and speaking 4
in tongues, and Elizabeth said, As soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy (vv. 44). The Key is to Believe! Now comes the key to Mary s blessings: And blessed is she that believed. For there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord (vs. 45).When you believe, there shall be a performance! Mary, this young girl, was so overwhelmed she said, My soul does magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour For He that is mighty has done to me great things; and holy is His name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation (vv. 44). This is not a priest, this is not a Levite, this is not a girl that went to Bible school. Yet, listen to the gracious words that came out of her mouth, and compare them to what came out of Zachariah s mouth! He has shown strength with his arms; He has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their seats and has exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he had sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy. As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever (vv. 51-55). What words of wisdom and praise and glory to God that came out of her lips as she rejoiced. I believe we have a tendency to overlook her beautiful character and strong faith, and I understand why, because of the way one denomination has put Mary on a pedestal as a mediator. She was apparently blameless and righteous, or God wouldn t have picked her. But we cannot put her on a par with Jesus Christ, and pray to her and say, Will you go to Jesus and ask Him this. We don t have to ask Mary We can go to Jesus ourselves! Unfortunately, because of this, we go the opposite extreme and basically ignore Mary. We don t give her the credit she s due. If you have followed this story, compared her to Zacharias, you see that she immediately responded in faith and in praise to the angel s words. So in this regard, we should esteem her highly, and say, Blessed is Mary amongst women. We can learn a lot from her. At the first miracle that Jesus performed, turning water into wine, Mary said to the servants: Whatever He tells you to do, do it. This teenager had become a woman of great faith (Ref. John 2:5). A Cynical Heart I want you to see Zacharias unbelief versus Mary s faith. We need to answer this question: What was the problem with Zacharias? I may have that problem, and you may have that problem, so we need to know. Years and years of not getting his prayers answered, had made his heart hardened and calloused, and he didn t even know it! Proverbs 13:12 says, Hope deferred 5
makes the heart sick. When you feel like I have prayed and prayed, and it hasn t happened, if you re not careful, your heart will start getting hard. That s what happened to Zacharias, until he was praying a prayer he no longer believed God was going to answer. So when God finally showed up in a supernatural way, he was cynical: Yeah, right. Sure I m going to see this. His heart had become hardened. Recently I heard a story about a father who was a Christian, but he didn t have a real fervent relationship with the Lord. His five year old son would always tell him how when he would go in his room, an angel came in and talked to him. The father just smiled, Uh huh, alright, okay. You know how we humor our kids, because we think they have such cute little imaginations. But this little boy insisted, I see my angel. One day the father was walking up the steps, and the little boy was in his bedroom. The door was open, and he could see him sitting on the side of the bed, looking up at someone, and heard him talking and having a conversation. So he looked in the room and said, Are you talking to your angel again? The little boy said, Yes, and the father said, Well, ask the angel why I can t hear him or see him. The boy said, My father wants to know why he can t hear you or see you? Then the boy answered, Because years of doubt and unbelief have hardened your heart. The father said, Oh my Lord, and my God!, because he knew there was no way that a child made up this answer! He realized then his child really was talking to an angel, and he began to cry. He said, Ask the angel will I ever be able to see and hear him? His son said, Yes, but you have to get the layers and callouses of unbelief off your heart. When I heard that story, it hit me in my spirit, and I wondered if that could ever happen to me, because a prayer didn t get an-swered the way I thought it would, or be-cause I thought that maybe it would never get answered. So I have been praying everyday God, get out Your scalpel. Your Word is like a sharp two-edged sword, able to divide asunder the thought and the intent, even as the surgeon divides asunder the bone and the marrow (Ref. Heb. 4:12). Lord, I give You permission: Cut away the layers of hardness! Cut away the callouses of unbelief, skepticism, and cynicism from my heart! When you get a callous on your finger or your foot, you have to get a file or razor blade to cut it off. You can t feel it at first, because it s dead tissue; until you get down to where the living flesh is, and oh, then you feel it! If we have similar callouses on our hearts, and we come to God like this, we re praying with our mouth, but our hearts are constricted. There is no sense in God sending an angel to us, if we re not going to believe him when he comes. God knows our hearts, and He knows if we have callouses of unbelief on them. We may not even know it, and may 6
even go around talking all the right Scriptures. It s great to talk the faith talk; that s a good start, but it won t do any good if we don t get the skepticism and the cynicism out of our hearts. That s why Jesus said that we have to have the faith of a little child, a child who prays a prayer and is absolutely certain of the answer, and who believes God s Word. The Mary kind of faith that will say, Let it be unto me according to thy word. There is one thing that God demands from anyone and everyone who comes to Him for any need or any purpose, and that one thing is faith. Hebrews 11:6 declares: But without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Faith is the offering which pleases God. Put simply, faith is our spiritual money, and if one desires to receive anything from the Lord, the Lord demands that he have faith. I have heard people say, and you may even be thinking to yourself, But, Bro. Hardy, I don t have faith. Yes you do! Paul stated in Romans 12:3, God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith! You have faith. Everyone has faith! But someone might reply, But Bro. Hardy, I only have a small measure of faith. Faith is so powerful that you don t need a lot! In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Child of God, faith is something you 7
have. You have what it takes to please God and receive from Him whatever you need. Just like in the natural realm you can purchase the thing that you desire when you put your money down. When I first started preaching this, it was popular to shop from catalog showrooms and choose the item or items you wanted from the catalog. You placed your order by catalog number, put down your money at the cashier, then picked up your goods, and go on your way. Well, God has listed in His Catalog over five thousand promises for every thing we will ever need that pertains to our life and godliness. Not only that, but His storehouses are always full, and never out of stock! Just open up the Faith Book, and you will find everything that you need! There is a catalog number to cover every need and every circumstance in your life, including moving mountains out of your way! God Is A Rewarder! In order to obtain these promises, whether salvation, healing, deliverance, prosperity, or moving mountains out of your way, the Scripture says that we must come in faith, or believing that God is. In other words, we must come believing that He is God, that He His omnipotent, that He is able to supply all our needs, and nothing is impossible with Him! We must believe that He is sovereign, and He can grant our requests. If one does not at least believe this much, then there is no use in coming to God at all. Why ask God to do something you don t believe He can do? Even when we have recognized God s power to do anything, and believe that there is nothing too hard for Him, this is not enough to receive the promises. The second part of this verse qualifies that we not only must believe that God is able to but we must believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. In other words, when we come to God in faith, we must have confidence that God will reward our faith by giving us what we need. Not only to believe that God can but that He will! Making the Faith Connection We know that God s storehouse is fully stocked with everything we need. We know that we have the necessary medium of exchange to please God and to receive anything we need from there, even our faith. God has given us the measure of faith, the spiritual money that we need, so now we must put our money down on the counter, so to speak. We must release our faith! I want to give you a Bible example to help you to set the time when you are going to release your faith. There was a little woman in the Bible who had been sick for over twelve years with an issue of blood. She spent all of her money on doctors, and instead of getting better, she grew worse. But she heard about the man called Jesus and of the mighty healings He performed. Maybe she heard how He had healed the cripple at the pool of Bethesda, or of His opening 8
Blind Bartimaeus eyes, or the raising from the dead of the widow of Nain s son. Because faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). She said to herself, This is my time! Jesus has the power to heal my sickness. He has what I need to be made whole, and I am going to get it. I am going to release my faith, that measure that God gave me. I am going to touch God, and He is going to give me what I need. So she set the time, and she said in her heart: When I touch the hem of His garment, I will be made whole right then! She set the time to release her faith. She already had faith that Jesus could heal, and that He could heal her, but she knew it was up to her to release her faith, and she set the time to release her faith when she touched the hem of His garment! Now there was a great multitude of people around Jesus, and she could not press her way through the crowd, but her faith undaunted, she got down on her knees and made her way to Jesus. How do I know this? Because, she was focused on touching the hem of His garment! Jesus never saw her touch Him, but He felt her touch of faith! Because when she was close enough to Jesus to touch the hem of His garment, she released her faith, that measure that God gave her, and she was made whole that very moment! Faith won t take No for an answer! When Faith has its eye on the goal, it won t let anything stop it from receiving its reward. That little woman had her eyes fastened on the hem of Jesus garment, and all the while as she made her way through the crowd, she said to herself, When I touch the hem of His garment, I ll be made whole. And when she had come within reaching distance of Jesus, she reached out and made the faith connection, touching the hem of His garment. At that very moment that she released her faith, the healing power went out of Jesus and into her, and she was healed instantly. Jesus said to His disciples: Who touched me? They answered Him, Master, you see the multitude thronging thee, and thou sayest, Who touched me? Jesus responded: Someone has touched me (with faith) for I perceive that virtue (Greek is DUNA- MIS which is reproductive power) is gone out of me. Finally, the little woman who had hidden herself, came trembling to Jesus and declared before all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately. And Jesus said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace (Matt. 9, Mark 5, Luke 8). Faith is the Extension Cord I want to point out a couple of important points from this great healing-faith lesson. First of all, there was no healing power in that garment. The virtue or healing power went out of Jesus. The hem of the garment served as a point of contact when she was going to release her faith. When she touched His garment, her faith jumped out, spanned 9
the gap, and made the Jesus-connection. When her faith connected to Jesus, she tapped into that healing power that was in Him, and it flowed out of Him into her, and immediately, what the doctor s couldn t procure, and what all her money could not buy faith received instantaneously! The second thing I want to point out is that Jesus has not prayed for that woman yet! In fact, He did not even know that she was coming to Him to be healed. He had to ask Who touched me? You see, one does not have to pray a long prayer over someone to be healed. There are times and circumstances when it would be physically impossible for the servant of God to pray lengthy prayers over crowds of thousands, etc. But God has fixed it so that the servant of God is to be full of the power. Jesus was full of the power, and I say this humbly, but I believe that I am full of the power. Like I ve preached in other messages on this subject, I stay hooked up to the dynamo, and Jesus is that dynamo that I am connected to, and when I reach out in faith, and He throws on the switch, the power of Jesus is going to flow through this vessel like a hot line, and if I lay hands on you, I expect you to get healed! My Three Greatest Desires Over fifty years ago when God called me into the ministry, there were a lot of aspiring preachers and evangelists at that time who were striving to have the biggest church or the biggest tent ministry. Just like now, everyone wants the biggest T.V. ministry. But when I would seek the Lord for my calling, I would always say, God, I want you to make me these three things: First, make me a mule like Balaam s. You see, that donkey never did go to Bible school, and he never learned to speak the Hebrew language. All he knew was mule talk. But that mule could see the angel of the Lord standing in his path, and that mule could hear the Word of God, and that mule could speak the Word of God when God spoke out of his mouth! The prophet of the Lord, Balaam, was supposed to be able to see and hear supernatural things, but he got so blinded by unrighteous gain that he could not even see the angel ready to kill him! Then when that mule spoke to him, he should have known that the mule couldn t speak Hebrew, and that it was God speaking! But he was so consumed with his lust for money that he no longer recognized the voice of the Lord, and he beat the donkey for running him into the wall when it tried to save him from the angel! I said, Lord, I want to be Your mule. I want to testify as David did: The Spirit of God spoke by me; His word was in my mouth. Then the second thing I asked God to make me was a heel. It seems to me that everybody wants to be the head, but the Word of God says that Jesus is the head! And I want to be the heel, because I read in the Word where the Father said to Jesus, Sit thee at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool (Heb. 1:13). He explained, You shall 10
bruise (or crush) his head, and he shall bruise your heel (Gen. 3:15). Well, I want God to make me the biggest heel He can! Then I am going to stomp the devil every chance I get. Sometimes when the Spirit of God gets to moving, some people think I am dancing in the Spirit, but that s not all I am doing: I m stomping the devils! And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet (Rom. 16:20). The third thing I prayed God to make me was a hot extension cord, and this message has given you my reason why. Today, much of our country s energy is fueled by atomic plants, but in order for that power to do you and me, the consumers, any good, there must be a line to bring it through to our homes. Then we must have a line to plug our various appliances into the power source. We might have a brand new toaster that could really toast, but first we must plug it into the power source! God wants you and me to plug into the spiritual power source by faith. Jesus is seated on the right hand of the Father in a position of complete authority with all power in heaven and earth. When He walked the earth in His flesh-walk, He was an extension of the Father. He was a hot socket that was alive with the power of God, and that little woman knew that. She knew that if she could just plug into His power source, she would be healed! Her faith made the connection and plugged into Jesus! I asked God to make me a spiritual extension cord like Jesus, that His healing power might flow through me, and I believe that He has honored my prayer. Through the years, I have seen thousands healed by the power of God through the prayer of faith! Jesus is the source of the power, but I want to be an extension cord plugged into the powerhouse, into the healing dynamo! If I am plugged into that power source (and I spend time in prayer and fasting to ensure that I am), and you, by faith plug into my power source, I believe that you will be healed, delivered, and set free by the power of God! The power is running: All you have to do is by faith plug in. Now, the woman used the hem of the garment as her time to release her faith, and her point of contact, but to everyone of you who will write me and request one, I will send an anointed prayer cloth. If you need a miracle, whatever it is, you are going to use the measure of faith that you have and upon receiving that prayer cloth, you are going to release your faith and receive your healing, deliverance, peace, financial blessings, and all blessings! Remember, it was the woman s faith that made her whole not Jesus garment. As I have exhorted you by the Word of God: You have the measure of faith that you need to receive your miracle. Even a mustard-seed measure, the smallest measure, can move a mountain out of the way (which is symbolic of a physical impossibility). And I believe that God can use me as an extension cord into the Powerhouse. All you have to do is release your faith and make the faith connection! 11