Elizabeth, Soul Mama

Wednesday, December 12, 2012 Posted by Katie

I was only a few weeks pregnant with my first child when it dawned on me that not only was I carrying a “bean” with a heartbeat, but I also carried a little something more. “I am carrying a little soul,” I told my husband. “It is a soul within a soul.”

Pregnancy can be a marvel.

It was a marvel when Elizabeth, in her older years, became pregnant with her son John. That would be John the Baptist; the one who would tell everyone, “after me comes someone more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John knew a thing or two about the Holy Spirit. He always had it, you see. An angel of the Lord told Zechariah, John’s dad, that “he would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born” (Luke 1:15) Before he even took his first breath, the Spirit of God was breathing within John.

Elizabeth carried more than a “bean” with a heartbeat. She even carried more than a “soul within a soul”. Elizabeth carried the Holy Spirit.

The scripture goes on to say that when Mary came to visit, expectant with the One who was a gift to us all, Elizabeth’s baby leapt for joy within her. Elizabeth was then, herself, filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41).

The growing life of the Holy Spirit can be a marvel. It is an expectancy unlike any other.

If we are believers, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are expected to unleash it on the world. It is a marvel, really. When you carry the Spirit of God within you, and then you unleash it, it takes on a life of its own. You will find yourself saying things you never thought you’d say. You’ll forgive people you never thought you’d forgive. You will find joy where you never thought to look. You will live like you never have before.

Did you realize that you were expected to do something with that Spirit inside you? Are you ready to deliver? I’ll warn you, it could hurt a little. But take comfort my friends, if you thought simply carrying the Holy Spirit inside you was marvelous, I assure you that delivering this Spirit, unleashing it to a life beyond yourself is downright miraculous.

May you experience the joy of such a miracle this expectant season!