When the angel Gabriel came to Mary and announced to her that she was going to be pregnant with and give birth to the Messiah, Mary asked the logical question; “How.” In light of the fact that she had never been with a man, Mary was asking how this was going to happen. The angel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” When you read the first chapter of the gospel of Luke, you discover that it is filled with all kinds of miraculous, and spectacular occurrences. Visits from angels, prophecies, John the Baptist leaping in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice, Gabriel striking Zacharias silent for nine months so that he could not speak, etc. It is interesting to me that in the context of so many amazing miraculous things occurring that when Mary shows up at Elizabeth’s home, Elizabeth acknowledges that Mary is pregnant with the Lord, and yet the Holy Spirit chooses not to give us any glimpse of what happened to Mary when the Holy Spirit came upon her and miraculously caused her to be pregnant with Jesus. What a supernatural thing for the Holy Spirit to do for this young virgin woman. Yet, you would think there would be some record of the amazing encounter Mary must’ve had when the power of The Most High came upon her. Why doesn’t Scripture reveal that? Maybe one of the reasons is that God wanted us to know that everything the Holy Spirit does in and through our lives is supernatural, yet not always spectacular. Spirit-filled people living from the indwelling Christ live supernatural lives, and yet the supernatural life that Jesus lives through us by the Holy Spirit is more times than not lived in the context of blood and guts everyday life. It’s supernatural and miraculous to not get impatient, to love and forgive those who hurt you, to walk in peace when everything around you is falling apart, to know a joy unspeakable full of glory when darkness is surrounding you, and to wash the feet of the severely unclean. This is all the activity of the Holy Spirit, and yet it might not make your spine tingle. Because we are in Christ, we should expect as normal amazing encounters with the Lord that involves angels and what we consider signs and wonders and miracles, but it is important that we don’t make idols of those things or to think that somehow we’re not as spiritual as others because most the time we are manifesting the likeness of Christ in the holy grind of everyday living. It was obviously miraculous what happened to Mary at the moment she actually became pregnant with the Christ as a virgin girl, but maybe it wasn’t spectacular, just supernatural.
