The bible has recorded many actions and stories of great women. Stories of loyalty, obedience, disobedience, and disloyalty to God.

Recently, I portrayed the angel Gabriel in our church production. I delivered the news to Mary about her being with child and who this child was.

In this scene, One more time  we get the chance to see our Lord doing the extraordinary things through ordinary people.  Mary was a typical Jewish girl of the times. When Gabriel appeared to her, she was only 12 or 13 years old. She was engaged to Joseph a carpenter. I am sure the upcoming marriage was foremost on her mind.

When Gabriel, an angel appeared, Mary was scared and confused, she didn’t know who Gabriel was and didn’t know what he wanted. The angel assured her she was highly favored by God. The angel told her that because of  who she was, She had received God’s  unmerited favor.  He eased her mind and told her not to be afraid before he told her she would be the mother of the Messiah. He told her, She was going to give birth to the Son of God.

Mary because she was a virgin asked, “How will this be, since I know not a man?” The angel explained it to her and her response was belief and obedience.

Zachariah on the other hand when told by Gabriel, the angel, that  Elizabeth would bare a child doubted that this could be so. And because Zachariah did not believe the angel’s message,  he had to pay for the consequences of his doubt, so he remained speechless until his son was born.

Mary on the other hand when told the news by the angel Gabriel, was ready to serve her Lord. Her response was “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be as you have said.” She had the servant’s heart.  She was available for her Lord and was not concerned with her ability, for she trusted in God’s ability.

Mary was young and poor. She worked the fields and vineyards. She was strong physically and mentally. She was well versed in her scriptures and applied them in her life.

I am sure Mary used some of the women in the scriptures as her role models to help her get through God’s promises to her.

Mary did have wandering thoughts about what would happened to her because she had said “Yes” to the angel’s news that God had selected her to give birth to Jesus. She thought about it and wondered if she would disgrace herself, her family, and Joseph? Would Joseph divorce her? She also thought about the fact that she could even be stoned to death. I am sure she was not prepared to experience the agony of her son’s death on the cross.

Though Mary said “Yes” to God’s plan for her life, she was very human. She knew she would experience the daily joys and sadness of a mother and the uncertainty that accompanied doing God’s will uncertain of how, when, and how  God would provide. Imagine  for a moment that you were Mary, and the angel Gabriel showed up unannounced to visit you and Inform you that God had chosen you to be the Mother or Father of His one and only Son? What would your reaction be? What would you say? What would you think? Would you accept with gratitude the gift of being chosen as the Mother or Father of God’s one and only Son and experience the extraordinary? Or would you be like Zachariah and doubt the angel and refuse to believe that God would speak to you in this manner and give such a Supernatural promise? What would you do? What would you say? Would you reach for and seize the opportunity to allow God to interrupt your life and alter your plans or would you shrink back in doubt, fear and unbelief and choose to play life safe and stay the same?  Mary, undoubtedly had a destiny altering moment occur in her life because she was chosen by God and Highly Favored, but wonder how many times you too have had the chance to have destiny altering moments in your life because God has been trying to speak to you in and through your circumstances to give you the opportunity to experience the extraordinary through His interventions?

Mary was a willing servant of God.  She submitted to God’s plans for her to be Jesus’s mother.  She trusted God and obeyed his call. God looked at Mary quite differently than society.  He looked at her heart and saw the quality of her trust and obedience. He knew she would be a worthy servant.

Mary loved God. She was strong and she knew where that strength came from. She was willing to serve. Her love, availability, faith, and obedience are qualities our Lord looks for to do the extraordinary through ordinary people. Because of Mary’s obedience to God, we are now able to have Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, if we invite Him in our lives and accept Him. Wonder what would have happened if Mary said ~No and stepped away from God’s request?

What if your current circumstances are merely a backdrop allowed by God to set the stage for His ~Angel to appear in Your life to give you an opportunity to qualify for the extraordinary? What if your trials, your frustrations, your setbacks, your sickness, your brokenness, and your unmet needs and unmet expectations are only tests allowed by God to determine if you qualify for the “extraordinary”? If God were getting ready to select the next person to experience the “Extraordinary”, would you qualify? Would you pass the test with flying colors like Mary and be chosen head and shoulders above others or would God have to instruct His angel, to keep going past you and look for another because you don’t qualify?

You see, in life, there will always be problems that we don’t like, things we don’t agree with, stuff we don’t understand, and things that we want but don’t get but God is looking for those who can trust in Him and trust His abilities. God is looking for those who can endure regardless as to what the circumstances look like or feel like.  God is looking for those who trust without wavering, and accept without complaining and doubting. Those who fit these qualifications are vessels that God can use.  Are you the next one that God is looking for to do the extraordinary next in your life, or should He look for another?

If you want God to choose you to have the extraordinary manifest in Your life, or if you feel that you may have missed the mark to qualify for God’s extraordinary, Join us in this simple prayer;

Heavenly Father,
I want you to do the extraordinary in my life. I invite you to do the extraordinary in my life. Like Mary, I love you and want to do your will and help fulfill your plans and purposes here in the Earth Realm. I pray that you will choose me and do the extraordinary in my life.  If you have glanced in my direction and found or seen that I am unfit to be chosen for the extraordinary, I humbly ask you to create in me a clean heart, renew in me a right Spirit, forgive me of my sins, my shortcomings and my inappropriateness, blot out my transgressions and remember my sins no more. Like Mary, I want to be a history maker, a trail blazer, and extraordinary person used in the Highest possible way to bring you glory and to serve you in such a way, that I shall hear you say,”Well done, Good and Faithful Servant”, you have done good and been faithful with little, so now I will make give you much more and make you ruler over many so that You shall experience the ~Extraordinary – Matthew 25:23!

A. Fahy & “The WIN International Ministries Team”

http://peacewithgod.net/