More...Christmas - Holy Spirit

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come

upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;

and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the

Son of God.   Luke 1:34-35

As we enter the Christmas season much attention is given to the Baby, to angels and to the manger.  But before we can have any of that the Holy Spirit must be present. The Holy Spirit is the workhorse of the Christmas story.  He does His work behind closed doors, out of sight, not drawing attention to Himself. Not at all unlike the way He continues to work today.  Let’s put the spotlight on the mightiest of entities in this Christmas story, but also the humblest.

I began my morning, as I often do, reading a short devotional study and the accompanying verses. Today I came across a couple phrases that made me stop in my tracks.  The devotional content was not Christmas (I haven’t started those yet) but suddenly the Christmas story was jumping off the page at me.

So, salvation and our free access to God’s presence is what

God has done for us through Jesus. The way we receive it,

the how, is through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The words of Jud Wilhite, pastor of Central Church in Las Vegas, in a short devotional shared on YouVersion Bible entitled Uncaged, took me whirling to these words from the Christmas story: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. (Luke 1:35)  What God did through Holy Spirit in bringing about the virgin birth is beyond comprehension!  It’s sensational, miraculous, amazing! There were no physical relations like you see echoed in Greek mythology (while those stories are fantastic, they don’t touch what God does in the Christmas story through the Holy Spirit!).

Holy Spirit is not physical.  Indeed, the Greek word Luke uses in the telling of this event is pneuma - wind or breath.  What happens goes far beyond physical comprehension.  It’s a miracle. One moment, no baby; the next, Holy Baby!  This is the same Spirit who was “moving over the surface of the waters” in Genesis 1 (Genesis 1:2b), the One who worked out God’s creative power in the creation of the universe.

This is the One who is at work in those who believe in the name of Jesus Christ today.  Luke uses the Greek words “eperchomi epi” which we translate “come upon” to describe to Mary how Holy Spirit will interact with her. This phrase literally means “to arrive over in a position of authority.”  The Holy Spirit was over Mary.  He is in us!

Think about this.  If God, through Holy Spirit is able to accomplish such a miraculous event as the virgin birth by the Spirit over Mary (as He was in Creation), imagine what He can do in us! Give yourself time to celebrate this amazing reality!

Mary surrendered to the Spirit and look what happened! Today let us all surrender to the Spirit’s work in our lives.  Ask Him to come in and do “greater works than these” (John 14:12) through us.  And believe.