Elizabeth's Place

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. -Luke 1:56

Elizabeth’s place was a place of sanctuary, a place of refuge before Mary had to go back and face her reality. It had people who believed her and believed in her. It had people that were doing things differently, walking by faith and not by sight. It had 2 clearly visible miracles in the house - the one of Elizabeth’s birth and the one of Zechariah’s mute-ness; both awe-inspiring signs from the Lord.

What was one of the keys of Mary’s pregnancy? Be around others pregnant with a vision. It is important to be around others who have also been called by God for a work. This builds faith and encouraged everyone; another sign we were never supposed to do life alone! 

An angel showed up and told Mary what would happen to her. Every day for 9 months, she struggled and fought the what ifs, the condemning stares, the people who thought she was obviously a liar. Every day, she had to wake up and go through life where the reality of what she saw with her eyes didn’t match the reality of what she was told by the angel. She had pain, difficulty, and uncertainty, but her time with other believers of vision helped her. Whenever she hit rock bottom, God would send people to believe in her; first Elizabeth and later Joseph.

So what was the order? The plan came from God, then was given to Mary. It was encouraged by other people with the same calling but of different locations. After she had to go back to her circumstances, God sent her the team (Joseph) that would actually carry out the plan.

I can actually see the same thing with Equip Mozambique… It wasn’t our plan to go back; in fact, we wanted to go anywhere except Mozambique! God initiated. Then we got all of our intercessor friends together and we all prayed about it. We were lifted up, encouraged and blessed, but it was just us that had to get on that plane and actually live out the vision.

While we were here though, the vision was still forming. We didn’t yet have a team of people who had been called for the same mission as us. Slowly but surely God started forming the team. He put the right people in the right places and though they weren’t the ones that were pregnant, they chose to marry the vision and connect their destiny with ours.

Lord, teach me daily how you work. Show me your ways, and help me be an encouragement in the lives of others.