Merry Christmas!
With Understanding
Part 3

By Iverna Tompkins
As edited by Jane Vaughn

In Parts 1 and 2 of this message, Iverna showed us that God knows where each one of His children is. He also knows exactly who each one is. Further, He knows what He's going to do in each life. We were encouraged to trust the fact that God is in charge - no matter what are our present circumstances. He encouraged both Mary and Joseph in their highly irregular cituation, and He does the same for us - if we have ears to hear Him. jzv

To Mary and Joseph, the message is: this Child coming…  The reason for the angelic visitation was far more than simply to get a young maiden to say, “Oh!  Be it unto me as Thou hast spoken!”  Far more than just to say to a group of shepherds…"Rejoice!"  Did you know shepherds were the lowliest of people then, socially speaking?  In their culture at that time, they were not at all acceptable – yet they are the first ones who received the message of Jesus’ birth from Almighty God Himself (Lk.2:8ff).  Is that not exciting?  That's for free, but still an important point.

The story is of a little maiden and a guy that’s engaged to a gal.  He’s got everything going for him and then – it suddenly looks crazy – and he has to do it anyway.  “Oh, man!  Marry her but don’t touch her.  Oh, sure!  This is a real fun walk!” :-)  Think it through in their reality. 

The “walk” isn’t always a real smooth thing.  We don’t always see the details ahead of time.  We don’t always understand God’s ways of doing things or His ultimate purposes.  We don’t always know how our little part fits into the whole.

But, what’s the big picture – of why Jesus came?  To reconcile the world to Himself! (cf.Eph.2:11-18).  For both Jew and Gentile – He came to become that bridge between God and man (1Tim.2:3-6; Heb.9:11-15).  He came to be the way of a cross-over – for “as many as would receive Him, to them He would give power to become the sons of God!” (Jn.1:12) 

We're going to read a large portion of Romans 8. In fact, it is so worth our while to read the whole chapter from Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome.  Don’t skip through this.  Read with your minds in tune and your hearts receptive to God’s personal revelation to you. Think about what you’re reading and rejoice in the fact that this passage includes you!  It’s specifically for you in your specific place in life – today.

Romans, chapter 8, from The Message Paraphrase:

1 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. 2 A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 3 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. 4 And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. 5 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God! 6 Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. 7 Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. 8 And God isn't pleased at being ignored. 9 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about.

10 But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms. 11 It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! 12 So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. 13 There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. 14 God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! 15 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" 16 God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

17 And we know we are going to get what's coming to us - an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! 18 That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. 19 The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. 20 Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in 21 until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. 22 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. 23 These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. 24 That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. 25 But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

26 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. 27 He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. 28 That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

29 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. 30 After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

31 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? 32 If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? 33 And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? 34 Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us - who was raised to life for us! - is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. 35 Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: 36 They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. 37 None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. 38 I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, 39 high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Oh, the power of the Word of God! 

Let me put all of this in a nutshell and we'll close.

All of earth groans, the King James says (Rom.8:19,22,23).  Yes, the earth is groaning today – waiting “for the manifestation of the sons of God” (vs.19).  Why?  What does that mean? 

I think –if only we would remember that earth was here in that moment – in that great Garden of Eden – only then can we grasp a little portion of the incredible miracle of this.  Earth was perfect.  Earth was beautiful!  There was not one negative to destroy anything God created on the earth.  All of the rivers were clean – no debris – no pollutants.  The oceans were gorgeous, rolling with great power and crystal clear waters!  The trees were strong and tall and majestic.  I mean – it had to be the most glorious thing we can possibly imagine.  All of Creation. Earth remembers it the way it was at creation. 

The stars were created by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Gen.1:16; Col.1:16; Rev.4:11) and He threw them into space and gave each one of them a name, the Bible Says (Ps.147:4; Isa.40:26).  So, when you go outside and look up into the night sky and it’s clear and you can see a multitude of stars – just look up there and say, “I wonder what that one’s name is… and that one… and…”  Did you know they all have names?

God placed the moon and the sun (Gen.1:16,17; Ps.8:3).  Everything He created… everything God created was perfect!  Earth now groans for a return of that perfection: “Oh, that we could be beautiful again!  Oh, that we could be filled with the glory of our Creator!”  Listen to them talk to one another, if you can.  It will happen – that perfection will be restored one day… when the sons of God take over!  When we learn to manifest the power and authority of God.

You see – this thing is bigger than just: “Hail, Mary.”  It’s bigger than what we’ve looked at.  He – set a pattern of what a “son of God” was to be – to look like – to act like – and put His Spirit in – and say, “You are holy!  You are different than all the rest!  And now I have a family!  You’re my kids!”  And God took Jesus back up and said to us, “You’ve got your pattern (Jn.13:15; 1Pet.2:21).  And I’ll send the very same Spirit to you! (Jn.14:16-21; Rom.8:11)  Now, walk as sons of God!” (cf.Rom.6:4; 8:1; 2Cor.5:7; Eph.2:10; 4:1; 5:15; Col.1:10; 1Thes.2:12; 1Jn.1:7; 2:6)

There’s going to be a generation who will get this!  Yes, there surely is!  When that happens… and I would be thrilled if it could be this generation, because I’m still here. :-)   But when that happens – when that generation really believes what they are and who they are – and when they begin to walk in the Light and in the fullness of all that God has planned – earth is going to be restored.  Because the Lord is going to return!  And when He returns – Hallelujah! – everything returns back to perfection!  The beauty of all that has ever been will return.

So – I’m saying this: the earth is pregnant – and so are you!  No wonder you’re miserable at times and excited at other times. :-)   We need to embrace the pregnancy.  Are you there?  We need to know: “Oh, okay – no wonder this happened to me today.  It’s a birth pang!  I’ve gotta bring it forth!”  (And men – you have to learn it too! If we’re “sons” – you’re the Bride! :-)) 

“I have to bring this thing forth!  I’m going to live in such a way, that I bring forth Christ!  And everyone who knows me will see only Him!  ‘He shall be great!’ (Lk.1:32)  ‘He shall save His people from their sins!’” (Mt.1:21).  Your whole testimony will change, my Friends.  Instead of it being all about you… Christ will be given His rightful place.  “He shall be great!”

Instead of it being like this – “If you serve the Lord, you’ve gotta give up this and you’ve gotta quit that and quit this…”  Why do you throw the law at people?  What Jesus came to do was to say, “You go out and set captives free! (cf.Lk.4:18)  Tell them that I’ve paid the price! (Isa.53:10-12; Mt.20:28; 2Cor.5:21; Tit.2:14; 1Pet.1:18,19).  And they can be free of their sin!  And they can just be free! (Jn.8:32).  They can live in a world of victory and peace and joy! (Rom.14:17; 8:615:13).  Not just to survive and get through this trial – but to thrive in Him! (Rom.8:1,2,5-9).

We have a testimony!  And I want you to know it when you go out tonight and when you go out tomorrow and when you say, “Merry Christmas!”  Let’s know what that means! Jesus is come to save us and He shall be great!