Christian Living

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An Obedient Heart
Pastor Jarod Cruthis
Covenant Community Church of God



It amazes me how God speaks through His Word in so many different ways. One passage of scripture that you may have read all your life, suddenly takes on a whole new meaning. That is what happened to me last week. The passage to which I am referring is Luke 1:26-45. Many of you know that this passage is an account of the divine visitation by the angel Gabriel to Mary and the conversation between the two. The Lord revealed an amazing truth as I began to prepare for Sunday’s message. I had wanted to begin a Christmas series but the Lord had other plans. He began to take this very familiar passage and shine a new and exciting light on it. There is a lesson to be learned from Mary and her cousin Elisabeth, about obedience and faith. If you look back in this same chapter you will see another angelic visitation and prophetic conversation. The angel Gabriel tells Zacharias that his wife will have a child in her old age, and that this child will be filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb. This part of the story can’t be overlooked because we see this prophecy fulfilled later on in the same chapter. As you examine the dialogue between Gabriel and Mary you see several things. The angel begins to tell Mary that she has been chosen by God to give birth to a child who is the Son of God. During the course of the conversation, Mary is referred to as favored and blessed. I believe that the Lord chose Mary because of her devotion to Him and her willingness to live her life according to His statutes. Mary was a virgin, engaged to be married, and again the bible says that she was blessed so she must have lived a very holy and sanctified life. We see her devotion to God because of the way she ordered her life. Mary was still a virgin and waiting to be married. This doesn’t mean a whole lot to many people today, but it was and is God’s design for our lives. We see that Mary’s willingness to live her life God’s way caused God to choose her to carry out His divine plan; she was willing to be used. As the plan unfolds, Mary asks the angel a question, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” Notice that she never questioned God. Mary was asking the angel for more details. In other words, she wanted to know how God was going to accomplish this miraculous conception since she had done nothing to bring it about herself. Unlike most of us, Mary never doubted what the Lord had said. How many times has the Lord spoke a word into our lives and we immediately began to doubt that it would come to pass? We generally find every excuse possible as to why it won’t or can’t happen. As the story progresses look at Mary’s response. Instead of continually questioning how it could happen or doubting that it would happen, she simply said, “be it unto me according to thy word.” Mary then began to make preparations for her journey to see Elisabeth. What we see upon Mary’s arrival is amazing. As you read on in the scriptures Mary arrives at the home of Elisabeth. Upon her arrival, Mary “salutes” Elisabeth. At that very moment the baby, John, leaps inside the womb and both Elisabeth and her baby are filled with the Holy Ghost. This is a fulfillment of the prophecy which was given in Luke 1:15. Elisabeth’s unborn child would later be known as the forerunner of the Gospel. He would be the one sent before Christ to proclaim His deity and His coming. The last and final piece of this story has to do with Elisabeth’s reaction to this being “filled with the Holy Ghost.” She began to prophesy. Luke 1:45 documents her prophetic words, “for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her form the Lord.” Elisabeth knew that she had just come in contact with the power of God. She recognized the anointing that was on Mary and began to proclaim by faith, that the will of God would be accomplished in her cousin’s life. There are so many great lessons that we can learn from this story. The Lord wants us to live a life, like Mary, that is patterned after His design. When we live a life that is holy and acceptable to God then it puts us into a place that we can clearly hear from Him. Once we receive the Word that the Lord has for us, then we should readily accept it and set out on our journey. We have no way of knowing who we may be able to bless or minister to as we act on the plans that God has for us! Think about how Elisabeth and her child would have been affected if Mary had not paid her a visit. John would not have received the Holy Ghost that gave him the power and courage to accomplish his destiny. Let us be about the Lord’s business as Mary was and see who God will touch because of our obedience.

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