Bill Johnson - Mary's Response to an Impossible Assignment
And everything that God has intended to do in and through you is absolutely impossible if you’re not overwhelmed by your assignment. If you don’t see your assignment, what He intends to do is absolutely impossible. It is to put us into a place of absolute dependency so that He can work in and through us to display Himself as the God of the impossible. Today, I want to look at one part of the Christmas story that always impacts me. The only thing I don’t like about Christmas is that we tend to look at scriptures or sing songs that we only do once a year, and these themes are continuous throughout the year. Mary is one of the great heroes of scripture, and I’m inspired by her example— the way she responded to an impossible challenge in front of her. We’ll look at that in a moment.
The Holy Spirit came upon Mary; the natural, spiritual Holy Spirit came upon her, and she revealed Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes upon the written word, and Jesus is revealed. The Holy Spirit comes upon a surrendered believer, and Jesus is revealed. I do not want to lessen the significance of the role that Mary plays; she is called highly favored of the Lord, so please don’t misunderstand that. However, the miracle of Jesus being manifest in and through you and me is the same miracle: it is the Spirit of God coming upon the natural to manifest the eternal. Eternity is the cornerstone of all logic and reason. Anytime we lose sight of eternity, we are bound to come to temporary and false conclusions. It is seeing things from an eternal perspective that changes everything.
For example, Mary is called highly favored of the Lord. If you lose sight of eternal perspective, you look at her circumstances: Joseph wants to divorce her, not follow through with the wedding; Herod wants to kill her son. The scandal of her being a mother of an illegitimate child looks like anything but favor in your life. It will reveal issues in the people around you, and our ability to carry favor well is key to the increase of favor. We never owe anyone an explanation, nor should you ever apologize for favor. An apology for favor is an expression of unbelief that essentially says God made a bad decision by giving me favor. You never want to dishonor God with how unqualified you may feel with foreign assignments. I hope everybody in the room feels unqualified; if you feel qualified, you haven’t seen your assignment clearly.
The only possible response to seeing what God expects from our lives is the overwhelming sense that I could never pull this off, and that is the position in which the Lord puts every one of us so that He can demonstrate who He is. Good works are a critical part of the Christian life: feeding the poor, serving those without clothes or housing, or whatever it might be—fill in the blanks. The overall gamut of meeting the demand of human need is a huge part of the Christian life, but if we’re honest, we’ll realize that feeding the poor and all these other amazing and wonderful things can be done by people who don’t know the Lord. There has to be an aspect of our service before the Lord that only He can do in and through us. It has to cross the line into the realm of impossibility, or it has not adequately borne witness to the resurrection of Jesus.
There is in every one of us an inbuilt appetite for the impossible, that it would bend its knee to the name Jesus through our lips. It’s critical; it is vital that this is a regular part of our lives. If it is not, we have to come back before the Lord and find out why. Not for introspection, but to learn where we can take risks. The Lord is looking for people who will come into agreement with what He has said. There is an alignment— I almost hate to use the word «alignment» because cults use it—but we are called a cult, so maybe it’s all right! There is this agreement and alignment we make with the Lord. When people come into proper alignment or agreement with what He has said, there is the display of what God intends on the Earth. Let’s take a look at these scriptures, and then we will take some time to talk through them. It’s about 12 verses; we’ll take probably 20 minutes or so, and then we will spend the rest of the time sharing in communion together. It’s going to be two completely separate parts, but they’ll both be good. I hope!
All right, let’s go to verse 26. Did I tell you where—Luke, Luke chapter 1? Did I not tell you where? Oh well, open your Bible anywhere; it’s all good. Let’s just start reading out loud wherever you open to, and we’ll see how well this works. All right, Luke chapter 1, verse 26. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary, and having come in, the angel said to her, «Rejoice, highly favored one! The Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.» But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, «Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great; he will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end.»
Then Mary said to the angel, «How can this be, since I do not know a man?» And the angel answered and said, «The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.» Last two verses: «For with God nothing will be impossible.» Then Mary said, «Behold the maidservant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.» And the angel departed from her.
I love this story a lot; I actually return to this passage sometimes just to be refreshed. I like to read books of the Bible and go through them, but every once in a while, I’ll go straight to this and read through it because it’s so encouraging to me. Mary has an angel show up and make this announcement of God’s intention, and everything that God has intended to do in and through you is absolutely impossible, as I have already stated, if you’re not overwhelmed by your assignment. If you don’t see your assignment, what He intends to do is absolutely impossible. It is to put us into a place of absolute dependency so that He can work in and through us to display Himself as the God of the impossible. That is His intention, and He has designed it so for every person who puts their faith in Christ. It is not for a select few; it is the design of God for every person.
So the angel shows up to Mary and says, «Rejoice, highly favored one.» Typically, you rejoice after the baby is born; she was commanded to rejoice because it’s coming. There is not one situation that anyone in this room faces that you wouldn’t like to have a miracle for—that Jesus has not already settled the issue and paid the appropriate price so that that miracle could be accomplished in His name. There is not one situation He did not pay for, so you and I would leave it on the lot. Everything in our life has already been settled. The cross that Jesus suffered on was complete in its effect and in its work; there is not one thing anyone in this room could face that Jesus would look at and say, «Ah, I wish I would have thought of that before I died; I would have put that on the cross too.»
There are none of those things. Every single issue of life—in fact, not just in this life, but throughout all eternity—has already been settled. So when the angel of the Lord comes to Mary and says, «Rejoice, highly favored one,» it is because this thing has already been settled in heaven. If we knew how much was already settled in heaven, joy would be the natural response— celebration beforehand, because the reality is eternity defines every situation we face. I may be in the middle of a conflict here, but I’m also in the middle of a breakthrough here. I may be in the middle of a challenge here, because it’s necessary for faith to grow, but I’m also experiencing great breakthrough here. Every person in this room was designed to invade this realm called impossibility.