How to Carry Your Promise
Mary had a promise delivered to her by an angel. Gabriel promised her that she would “conceive . . . and bear a son,” whose name would be Jesus (Luke 1:31 ESV). Right then and there, Mary had a decision to make: Would she receive the promise in faith, or would she dismiss it because of doubt or fear? The biblical account tells us she chose to receive it, saying, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 ESV).
Not only did Mary have to receive the word — literally Jesus, the eternal Word of God — in faith, but she also had to accept the invitation to partner with what God was doing. She had to carry the word (Word) full-term.
What about you? Do you have a promise? More than likely, Gabriel didn’t deliver a message to you from God, but a promise from God is, nonetheless, His promise to you. And I want to talk to you about carrying your promise to its fulfillment by walking through Mary’s story of carrying her promise to term.
Promise Defined
Before we go any further, I want to define promise for you as I’m using it in this article. A promise is the word of God that He is working in you and your life now to perform. The promise of God is the word from Scripture that God is highlighting to you. You could even say it’s the theme from God’s Word that God is accomplishing in your life right now.
So, what is God highlighting from His Word to you? What is He working in you? What’s your promise? Whatever it is that God is speaking and highlighting to you from His Word is being orchestrated in you and your life by the Holy Spirit. In other words, you are not the one solely responsible for it to come to pass.
You see, what is required for the promise to come to pass is not you knowing about the promise or you doing all the grunt work to make it happen. It’s the Holy Spirit working that promise on the inside of you. Like Mary, you must allow that promise inside you to develop, grow, mature, and begin to take on flesh, as it were. You work in partnership with the Holy Spirit to carry the promise to fulfillment.
Miraculous Provision Necessary
On the other side of every promise that God gives us is the need for His miraculous provision to bring that promise to pass. Second Corinthians 1:20 (NKJV) says, “All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” Jesus is the embodiment, then, and the fulfillment of all God’s promises. He’s the Yes and the Amen! He is the One providing wonder-working miracles in your life to bring your word to pass.
In fact, like Mary, God has given us promises that are so incredible that they require His divine intervention in our lives. And by the time our promise comes to pass, we should see a configuration of miracle after miracle after miracle that is the promise fulfilled.
The first part of God’s miraculous provision for Mary was her belief that she would receive the promise of a son, and not just any son — Jesus the Son of God! It was a miraculous gift of faith. The next miracle was the conception of the Child in her womb. Mary asked Gabriel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34 ESV). He answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35 ESV). Now, that was truly a miracle! Her conception was the work of the Holy Spirit within her. And it was only the beginning of His work.
Three Things to Do
While the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives to bring God’s promise to pass, we still have things to do on our end. I see three things Mary did to do her part to carry her promise to fulfillment:
1. She protected the promise.
2. She processed the promise.
3. She prophesied the promise.
You must protect your promise.
The apostle Paul told Timothy, “Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:14 NLT). Mary had to guard her promise. Knowing how everyone would probably respond to her pregnancy, she immediately went to the hill country of Judea to stay with her relative, Elizabeth. Why did Mary pick Elizabeth? Well, Mary had already heard from Gabriel that Elizabeth was pregnant. Elizabeth, who had been barren for years and had borne the stigma of her barrenness, was also carrying a miracle child. She was further along in her pregnancy, however.
Do you know who you need to go hang out with when you’re carrying a promise from God that is way beyond your ability to bring it to pass? What you want to do is get around somebody who is a little further along than you — someone who is a little closer to receiving their promised word and has some experience in holding onto that word. What you don’t want to do is get into an environment with people who are skeptical, cynical, or even practical. You need to get around someone who knows what it is to carry a miracle.
Mary had to protect the word, protect the promise of God. She had to be careful who she shared her good news with. You must be very careful who you share your word with. If you speak prematurely with others, they just may not respond to you in faith. As a matter of fact, they may respond to you out of their own envy, jealousy, or disapproving common sense.
Elizabeth had been carrying her miracle for three months when Mary came along. Elizabeth had spent decades of her life being mocked and ridiculed because she didn’t have any children. People probably accused her of having displeased God in some way. So, when Mary went to Elizabeth, she went to someone who could help not only protect her promise, but also show Mary how to handle the judgment and cruelty of the crowd. That’s why Mary spent three months with Elizabeth — she wanted to ensure that the promise was protected, that it was growing and developing more and more, and that she was prepared for its (His) arrival.
You must process your promise.
This is another reason for Mary’s running to Elizabeth. Mary knew that no one else could understand what she was going through like Elizabeth. Mary needed to be at a safe place, to be in an environment that would allow her space to process her promise. She needed to think about it.
When God gives you a promise, He is working the word deep inside you. He is working on your character, on your calling, on your identity. It won’t be an instantaneous work. It will take time and require a process. Indeed, the promise God has over your life is eternal, but the process takes time. And one of the reasons many people don’t see the promise that they sense God is speaking to them is because they lose heart in the process and abandon it.
We like instant everything in our culture, but the promises of God are not instant. They’re not microwavable. And there was a supernatural process that Mary understood would probably require nine months in the natural. And there was a supernatural process that required Mary to take the time to think about what the angel had said to her and what it meant for her life. She had to let the word soak into the depths of her being.
While the Holy Spirit was working the miraculous inside and around her, Mary had to meditate on the word. She had to chew on it. Psalm 1:1–2 (ESV) says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.” The next verse promises such a meditating, processing person will flourish like a tree standing on the water’s edge. Processing your promise will cause it to flourish. It will keep your promise from abandonment or abortion. It took Mary three months with a mentor to process before she was ready to go home for the last six months before she would give birth.
You must prophesy your promise.
What does that mean? It means you must speak the promise before it ever becomes a reality. I’m not talking about name it, claim it, I’ve already framed it. That’s cheap. That’s faithless. What I am talking about is letting the promise get so deep down inside you that you begin to speak in agreement about the things that God has already declared that He is working and doing in you. You’re not simply trumpeting out some words into the air. No, the word has gotten so all up and inside you that it just bleeds out of you. I mean, it’s like this: The word is being processed in you, and you are being processed by the word, and the word can’t help but come out of your mouth in faith, authority, and truth.
Look at what Mary did. It’s beautiful. We call it “The Magnificat” or “Mary’s Song of Praise.” She said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (Luke 1:46–49 ESV). In the middle of her “crisis” pregnancy, in the middle of her processing her promise, she prophesies in worship. She magnifies the Lord.
What happens when you magnify something? Basically, you put a lens on it, zoom in your focus, and crop out everything else so that you can focus on this one thing. You begin to make the details of that thing bigger and bigger. That’s what Mary was doing. She was magnifying the Lord — the very One she was carrying in her womb, the One she had not yet seen with her eyes, the One who was her and the world’s promised One. She was prophesying Jesus’ advent while she was carrying Him inside.
The antidote to fear of the future is prophesying God’s word into your future, not allowing the enemy to prophesy your future. Mary magnified the Lord, and ultimately, that’s what God wants. He wants to be magnified through us in the promise.
Finally, nine months were fulfilled, and Mary’s Promise was born. God’s word to her came to pass. Let that encourage you today. Whatever promise you’re carrying, remember to protect it, process it, and prophesy it until you see its miraculous appearance.
