Welcome to Holy Spirit Untethered, hosted by Amber Beels. This podcast is an exploration of the Holy Spirit's role and His transformative influence in our everyday lives. Each episode, Amber, alongside a variety of guests, shares personal experiences, insights, and lessons about deepening our relationship with the Holy Spirit. We're just ordinary individuals, living our faith and learning what it means to walk hand in hand with the Holy Spirit. This podcast is a welcoming space for men and women who are hungry for a deeper relationship with the Lord. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, this podcast invites you to join us as we explore, learn, and grow together. Let’s untether the boundless wisdom and love of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.
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The Holy Spirit: An Introduction Course HERE: https://link.messengerx.com/HnHLLBBGKrkbSRJX9
Welcome to the Holy Spirit Untethered. My name's Amber Beals, and it is my job and my mission to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me, to help demystify who He is, what his role is, and to deeply encourage you to seek a relationship with him. Alright. Let's get started. Hey, guys.
Amber:Welcome back to the Holy Spirit Untethered podcast. My name is Amber. And today, I am so excited because I have a very special guest. I actually have my editor, the one that makes me sound so good on this podcast. Yes.
Amber:She has a name. Her name is Melissa, and her name full name, Melissa Velasquez. She's my best friend. So Melissa, say hi. Hi.
Amber:She's a little nervous. She's normally the one, again, editing, not the one speaking, but she is a very powerful person and the holy spirit is very strong in her. And so I'm very excited to have this conversation with her. This was her idea, so you can't be too nervous. It was your idea for this topic, so you kinda put yourself here.
Melissa:I did. I really stepped into this one. I just
Amber:Yes, you did. Yeah. So You
Melissa:asked you asked for a topic and I was like, oh, what about this? And you're like, oh, that's great. You're gonna be the guest. Yeah. I was like, oh, okay.
Amber:When you come up with a topic like that, then yeah, definitely. You're gonna be the one to speak on it. So Mhmm. But yeah, guys. So last week, I know I released an episode that was a little different than my normal episodes.
Amber:I released an episode of the sermon that I preached at Heart Church. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to that, go ahead and do that. It's a really good sermon. It's one of the ones that I'm most proud of of the ones that I've done. It was a very vulnerable topic, but it's about faith and hope bringing promises from the Lord, and it's a really good topic.
Amber:So if you haven't already, again, go check that out. But today with Melissa, we are gonna be talking about the Holy Spirit, obviously, but the Holy Spirit in the Christmas story. We are in, you know, Christmas season. Next week is Christmas. Next Wednesday, we are, I think, 9 days away from Christmas as we're recording 9 days away.
Amber:Yeah. It's just kinda crazy how fast it's coming up, and I think this story was really fitting. When you came to me with this topic, I was like, that's that's a great idea. You should talk about it. Yep.
Amber:So you're here.
Melissa:I am here.
Amber:But before we get started, let's go ahead and pray. So if you can and it's safe to do so, go ahead and close your eyes and pray with us. So dear heavenly father, I just thank you so much for this opportunity to have my best friend on my podcast, Lord. I just thank you so much for her and her life, Lord. I just pray that your spirit would speak through us, Lord.
Amber:I just pray that you would allow us to edify the people, your saints, Lord, your church. I thank you, Lord, just for this opportunity to be on here. And I just pray for every person listening to this podcast. I pray a blessing over them, and I just pray that you would prepare all of our hearts to receive this message, Lord. And we thank you for that.
Amber:In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Awesome. So, Melissa, what what do you have for us today? I know you wanted to start with some context about the the Christmas story, so why don't you take it away?
Melissa:So looking at the Holy Spirit in context of, you know, the birth of Jesus, most of us that grew up in the church, we all know the story very briefly. It's, you know, Mary gets pregnant. She's a virgin. Joseph is like, what? How is this possible?
Melissa:But then comes to believe her that it was a miracle. She's pregnant, and she's carrying the son of God. They go to Bethlehem due to a census, and Jesus is born in a manger in a stable and everyone is rejoicing for the king that's been born. Right? We all know the general, like, here's the Christmas story.
Melissa:Those of us that are in the church. But there's a lot of context specifically about the Holy Spirit himself in regards to this that I think gets overlooked a lot of the time. So I just kinda wanted to start with that. So if you look in your bible, if any of you out there in podcast land have a bible and you're looking at it, There's this page between the Old Testament and the New Testament right at the end of Malachi going into Matthew. And it usually says, like, the New Testament.
Melissa:Right? It's just a page that's there labeling that you are now entering the New Testament and leaving the world of the old. Well, there's something actually really interesting about that one page that was brought to my mind when I was thinking and praying through this. That single page represents 400 years of silence from God between him and his people. Yeah.
Melissa:And that's a long time. I don't know about you, but if
Amber:It is a long time.
Melissa:If I've prayed for something and 400 years go by, that's a long time. That's a really long time. But that's where they were living, that the the Jewish people at this time had not had a prophet. They had not had a real word from God in 400 years.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I can't imagine the state of their faith or their thought process at this point. That's several generations. That's multiple generations of never seeing another prophet, never seeing another sign from God. And and for those of you that are maybe less familiar with, like, prophets and signs and all these things, understand that before Jesus, before the birth of Christ, the only way people knew what God was thinking about them was through these prophets. That's how they were able to communicate with God, and the Holy Spirit would empower these prophets.
Melissa:But even the Holy Spirit couldn't stay on them permanently. They had to do a bunch of stuff or live a specific way and have a very specific lifestyle in order to keep the Holy Spirit there because he was too holy. And if they didn't follow things just right, then the holy spirit couldn't reside in them. Not the way that we are so used to talking about him right now where, you know, like you've mentioned on your podcast many times, Amber, the Holy Spirit is in us and that's what allows us to talk to God. He's still the way that we talk to God, and it was still true in the Old Testament.
Melissa:The difference being that it could only reside on 1 person or 2 people, and he couldn't do it to a mass the way that he's doing it now. So this this one tiny page is 400 years of God not really being able to communicate with his people and the people not really being able to communicate with him. That's a really long time. And in all of this time, they've had all the prophecies from the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Malachi, Habakkuk, you know, all these guys that had lived previously telling them about the coming messiah. They all were waiting, expecting, hoping.
Melissa:But at this point, now Rome occupied them, and they were under the rule of Rome, and all of them were, you know, antsy, to say the least. Yeah. You know? Like, they were they were going through a lot at this time, and they hadn't heard from God. No holy spirit.
Melissa:No no prophet coming to tell them what God was doing in all these years. And all they had was scripture and promises. Mhmm. Promises from what he promised Abraham, what he promised Jacob, what he promised David. That's all they had, and they held on to that.
Melissa:I also wanna note that if you read the Old Testament and the New Testament, you'll notice there's a significant difference in terms of people when as we know, as Jesus kind of grows up and lives, he is met with a lot of confrontation from people called the Pharisees Right. And the Sadducees. They did not exist in the Old Testament. That order wasn't around.
Amber:Oh, interesting.
Melissa:Yeah. You will not see a Pharisee in the old testament or a Sadducee. That happened during the 400 years of nothing. During that 400 years, the people were afraid. Right?
Melissa:In the past, if you've read the Old Testament, you know how many times the people of Israel strayed from God. Right? How many times they had kings that didn't follow God, or they walked away from God and, followed other gods, or married people from other nations that had other gods, and they they wanted their gods instead of the one true God. Right? And what happened?
Melissa:They got punished for it. Right? God would put them in exile. Every time. Right?
Melissa:They go into exile or the the some other kingdom would come and take them over and they were living under their rule. Right? So this happened repeatedly. Repeatedly. Right?
Melissa:There's cycle after cycle of this happening. Read judges. You'll see it happen, like, 500 times by the time you're done with judges.
Amber:Yeah. I'm in Jeremiah right now and, like, it's in the point of, like, God is not relenting. And he is, like, he is mad. He is big mad. And I was like, Lord, my goodness.
Amber:Like, you know, type things. So, yeah, I I've seen it.
Melissa:Yeah. It's it's if you read, you know, if you go through and read the old testament, you'll see it definitely. And he always brings them out of it. Right? Like, he gets angry.
Melissa:He's like, you know what? If this is what you want and a lot of times, it's them getting what they want, which is crazy. Right? We tend to think of God, especially in the old testament, is like, righteous. We're gonna punish all the people.
Melissa:But, honestly, a lot of the times, it's God being like, if this is what you want, here it is. You can have it. It's awful, isn't it?
Amber:Yeah.
Melissa:And then delivering them after a certain amount of years. Right? So much so many years go by, and then he delivers them, and he gets them out of it. And this happens over and over again. So by the time we're getting to the end of the old testament now in the books, it's Malachi, which is a prophet book, but, technically, chronologically, the last book if you're looking at time, like, you know, things going in the order that time happens, the last book that ends the old testament story is Nehemiah, I believe.
Melissa:Nehemiah, Ezra. The those two books back to back are really the end of the Old Testament chronologically in order of time. And that's when they were finally taken back to their land, and they were able to restart to rebuild the temple, and they were building a wall around their city. Because the king that was previously had them under rule, I think, let them go back and actually they got help from a foreign king to help go back to the land that God had promised them.
Amber:That's in Nehemiah. Right? I I I believe so. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. At the end of Nehemiah. So chronologically, if you're looking because the old testament has a lot of books, but there's a lot of, like, Psalms, prophet prophet books and stuff. But if you're looking at the story of the old testament from Genesis to the end before we get to Matthew chronologically, Nehemiah, I believe, is the the last one. So that book explains it that way.
Melissa:Right? And so there you start to see the beginnings of what what ends up happening in that 400 year period where they were trying so desperately to keep the people from, like, this time this time we're going to listen to God and we're not going to stray. And they started adding to some of the things God said. The wall that they built was not something God actually asked them to build, but that was something they did preemptively because they said, we need help. We if we just stick to what God gave us, it's we're gonna fail.
Melissa:And out of this 400 year period, somewhere in there, the Phariseaic and Sadduceaic order was created. And what they did is they basically took the law, the Torah, which is what the Jews read, you know, the books the first 5 or 4 books of the the bible. Right? And they they took that, and the Pharisees basically were learned men that studied this book intricately. And they would study the law that God gave Moses and gave them as people all their traditions and all things they were supposed to do and interpret it.
Melissa:And not just interpret it, but then say, okay. Well, what does it mean to rest and not work on the 7th day, right, on the Sabbath? They got it down to if you walk to so many steps on that day, it was then considered work. If you lifted something, a certain amount of weight, that was considered work, so you were not allowed to do that on the Sabbath. So they started going in and really kinda honing in on, we gotta make this more detailed so we don't fall, so we don't mess up.
Melissa:Right? But they're adding. They were adding to what God had originally said. Now granted, they were trying to do the right thing. They were trying to keep the people from, you know, straying.
Amber:They had good intention, but they went a little too far with it, it sounds like.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. There was that you can actually go look at at them. I I I don't know where online specifically, but they have, like, the phariseaic order writings that you can see they had things so so detailed down to what was considered work for the Sabbath. You know, what was lying? What was considered lying?
Melissa:Right? What was considered this? Taking all of those commandments, all of the traditions they had as a Jewish people that God had given them in the beginning and just really nitpicking. You know? Really talk about the devil being in the details.
Melissa:You know? Just really getting in there, and that was their job. They weren't rabbis. They were teachers, but their job was basically to study the scriptures and then make sure the people did it, make sure that they were following the scriptures the way that they thought God intended so that they wouldn't get overtaken again. And here they are now overtaken by Rome.
Amber:That makes so much sense.
Melissa:Yeah.
Amber:Yeah. I didn't realize that. Wow.
Melissa:And that little page in your Bible is what that signifies, that 400 year gap, all of that history, all of that change that happened. So by the time we get to Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth and Zechariah with all the beginnings of the birth of Christ, this is the life they were living. This is the world they lived in. They were overtaken by Rome where if you didn't pay your taxes, you could get killed or put in prison. Your children could be sold to slavery without your consent.
Melissa:Your stuff could be taken for any reason whatsoever. If you showed any sort of resistance, they crucified you. That's what the Romans did. This is the world they lived in, and having not heard from God in 400 years and still waiting and hoping for a messiah that would basically overthrow Rome and save them, that's what they all expected. This is the life they were living.
Melissa:This is what they were expecting from God is that he would come through on this promise of sending a messiah that would come and in their minds, overthrow Rome, become a warrior king, and take the land back for them.
Amber:Because that's what he's done
Melissa:in the past. That's what he did in the past. And
Amber:Yeah. That makes sense why they expected that.
Melissa:Yeah. And this time, they're waiting for the Messiah. Right? The king, the one king, the second David. Right?
Melissa:And that's why when it was a baby, not many people understood it. Yeah. So I wanted to preface that.
Amber:Yeah. No. I I thank you for doing that because I I did not realize that's very enlightening. I did not realize, like, where the Pharisees came from and, like, what their purpose was. And what's fascinating is that to this day, they still follow those rules.
Amber:Because when I went to Israel with Eric, like and it was a Sunday, like, no Jewish people were working in the hotel. It was all Muslims, and we could not we could not, like, make coffee. Like, they had to use a different machine because it wasn't like, it was less work, but really it seemed like more work. Like, I was like, this is so weird. Yeah.
Amber:Like, crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you for sharing.
Melissa:Yeah. It's still in play, and that was something that was really mind opening for me going into the story. Just god reminding me of, hey. Remember where these people are at. You know?
Melissa:What it's like to be them? Put yourself in their shoes in that time.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:And and then let's see what the Holy Spirit does because it will take on a new a new look and a new meaning. So I'm gonna start with chron we're gonna go chronologically because there's two accounts of the birth of Christ. It's in Matthew and in Luke. Luke is the much more detailed version. Matthew's kind of just a very brief, here's what happened.
Melissa:So I'd like to start in Luke chapter 1, and we're gonna look at the first time the Holy Spirit is mentioned. So remember, this is 400 years. No Holy Spirit, no prophet. And this is the first time his name is mentioned, you know, in 400 years, so to speak.
Amber:Right.
Melissa:So we're gonna be in Luke 1 13. And and to give a little context for this, this is Zechariah, who is the husband of Elizabeth, who is the cousin of Mary. They're old, cannot have kids, had given up on that hope and that promise of ever having kids. And Zechariah was part of the priesthood, so he of their local, little temple there, that town kind of had their own place that they would read the Torah and have a small temple as opposed to the big one in Jerusalem. And Zechariah was part of the priesthood that would go in and he basically drew they the way they used to to pick who would go in to basically commune with God, because only one could go in every so many I think it was only once a year or twice a year.
Amber:Yeah.
Melissa:So they would draw lots, which is essentially, rolling dice.
Amber:And he got yeah. Who gets to do that?
Melissa:Yeah. They they they did that a lot in the and to figure out who would do what because they don't believe that there's coincidence and that God knows how the dice fall. So that's why they would use dice because it's random random to us, but they knew God was choosing. So that was one way they would do that. So Zechariah got chosen to go into the temple.
Amber:Lucky.
Melissa:Yeah. Lucky. Right? 400 years. No no God, you know, communing necessarily in the same way that he had been in the past.
Melissa:So this is after Zechariah walks into the temple, and an angel appears to him while he's in there. And in verse 13, it says, but the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great before the Lord, and he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the lord their god, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
Melissa:So that is huge. Yeah. That is massive because they haven't heard from God in 400 years. And here, this angel appears to Zechariah and says, not only am I gonna grant your prayer and give you is God gonna give you a son, but this son is gonna be filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, and he's gonna walk in the power of Elijah, which was one of the greatest prophets that they had ever had. But if you notice, similar to other prophets, there was a condition, which was that he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Melissa:So as long as he didn't drink strong drink and didn't have wine, he would be filled with the Holy Spirit, which falls in line with what they understood of how a lot of the prophets were. They had to follow strict conditions to keep that Holy Spirit and that power. Right? So Mhmm. Praise God.
Melissa:Right? 400 years, no prophet, nothing. And here the angel shows up and tells Zechariah it'll be his son.
Amber:Yeah. I could only imagine. Like, an angel comes up and just tells you that news and you're like, what? And he's old at that point, like you said.
Melissa:Yep. Yeah. He's old. I mean, they were past the point of having being able to have kids. So in terms of age.
Melissa:Right?
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:So now, of course, does Zechariah believe him? No.
Amber:Because he's old. He says it.
Melissa:Yeah. He's old. You know, granted. I I do find this kind of funny. The angel then, declares his name.
Melissa:His name is Gabriel. And he says that he, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day of these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. So when Zechariah leaves this temple, he is mute.
Melissa:He's not able to speak. He has to sign language to the other priests to tell them what happened. They basically get the understanding like, oh my God, he had a vision from God. This is insane. You know, everyone's kind of it went around all over the town about it.
Melissa:By the time he gets home to tell his wife, she actually believes, Zechariah is still mute and stays mute until the birth of John.
Amber:That was probably a blessing for her, actually.
Melissa:Honestly. Yeah.
Amber:That God was doing her a favor.
Melissa:And I I find it very interesting that her response in verse 25 of Luke chapter 1 is this, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people. Her response was one of praise because she's finally not going to be looked upon as the woman who couldn't have a kid, who couldn't continue the lineage because that was huge back then. Women had one job in those days, and it was to have babies.
Amber:Right.
Melissa:It was have babies and continue lines, specifically sons. That was kind of their whole the whole thing, you know? Yeah. And here, God was taking that shame that she carried for many, many years and putting her in a place of honor. Her son would be up there with Elijah in terms of profit and power and what he would do.
Melissa:So this is the very first time chronologically that we get a sense that the Holy Spirit is coming back, that he God's gonna come back and do something among his people. And you have two examples. You have the ones that believe it, like Elizabeth, and the ones that don't, like Zechariah. It also is very interesting to me that God never told the angel to make him mute. That was the angel's idea.
Amber:Gabriel is having a bad day. I don't know.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. And but I I love that because it shows that even amongst his heavenly host, God has given them choice and a certain realm that he trusts them with.
Amber:Yeah.
Melissa:They're able to make decisions for themselves that they know would be in line with God even if God didn't directly say so. And it it shows a lot of free will and and and is a huge testament, I think, to how how much God actually holds free will as important Oh. For his people along with his his heavenly hosts.
Amber:For sure. Yeah. No. I I think he at least he's shown me that he's like, no. That that that's not how I work.
Amber:You have free will. You know, same thing.
Melissa:You get a choice.
Amber:So You know? What's what's interesting too, what stands out to me about that is, you know, when the Holy Spirit came, like, the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit fell, like and a lot of the apostles, sometimes they wouldn't get a direct word from the Holy Spirit, and it would just be like we it seemed right with the Holy Spirit. And and so I'm wondering if that's the same kind of it seemed right, you know, to Gabriel because, you know, I'm sure he has the Holy Spirit too. Right? I mean, the Holy Spirit's everywhere.
Amber:Right? And he's a holy being. So
Melissa:Holy angel. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really interesting. This is a tangent.
Melissa:I'm gonna go on a little bit.
Amber:That's okay.
Melissa:But I always found it interesting that people when they do movies about the birth and they have Gabriel, he always looks very human. But would you really be afraid of another human the way that these people seem to be afraid of angels? You know, where they fall down on their feet and they freak out?
Amber:Yeah. I just read today that, like, the number one command that is mentioned in the bible is do not be afraid.
Melissa:Do not be afraid. Yeah.
Amber:Do not be afraid. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. He must he must be a gnarly looking person.
Melissa:Yeah. A a huge misconception about angels is that they look like people. They don't. We are made in God's image. They are not.
Amber:Right.
Melissa:So they look very different, very different. And they don't all have wings either, which is another really interesting fact if you study angels and in the bible and kind of what they look like. A lot of them are described of having bronze skin. So it doesn't even look like skin. It looks kind of almost metallic.
Melissa:And, you know, anyway, side note, but I I just find it funny because we tend to think of like, oh, you know, a person with big feathery wings is an angel, but that's not really what they looked like. They must have been pretty terrifying. They've also been described as being around 9 feet tall. So it's pretty massive.
Amber:There's some of the angel descriptions of just, like, being a sphere with eyeballs all around it. Right? Like, isn't that technically an angel too? Like Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And you've got the ones that have, for animal heads and four wings and yeah. There there's a lot of different types. So it's very interesting to me that, you know, we we when you think of this angel showing up to Zechariah and him being this afraid, remember, they probably don't look like the movies portray them. They're probably much more frightening looking, and that would be a correct response initially until he mentions, hey, I'm I'm a messenger from God. Like, don't freak out.
Melissa:Get up.
Amber:And that's funny because Gabriel is the same angel that came to Mary too.
Melissa:Yes. And she was also greatly troubled. He had to tell her too, hey, it's okay. Get up, You
Amber:know? Yeah.
Melissa:And that's my next passage actually is when the angel comes to Mary and how he greets her and then what he tells her. So if you're good with it, we can jump on to Mary because her not only what he tells her and how the Holy Spirit is in is involved in everything that goes on there, but also her response.
Amber:Yeah. Her response is crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. In comparison to Zechariah, here we have Mary. Right? So Yeah. Also in Luke, chapter 1, and we're going to start in verse 26.
Melissa:In the 6th month, so in the 6th month referring to Elizabeth's pregnancy, so her 6th month, when she was 6 months along. In the 6th month, the angel Gabriel sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, oh favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
Melissa:And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin?
Melissa:And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the 6th month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
Melissa:And the angel departed from her. So
Amber:Different response. She didn't doubt it.
Melissa:Nope. Nope. She went with it. I found it really interesting what he said about the Holy Spirit in regards to her. He said the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you.
Amber:Overshadow.
Melissa:Yeah. It's very specific. And if you look up the original, Greek word for overshadow, that specific word overshadow I'm gonna butcher this pronunciation. I think it's episkiadzo. Okay.
Melissa:I probably ruined it, but that's an idea of what it was. It's basically, 2 different root Greek words put together. One that is upon, which is used previously. The holy spirit will come upon you, same word. And then shadow, which could also in English, we could there's several words.
Melissa:Shadow is the most common one. Shadow caused by the interception of light. You know? So, like, if you put your hand in front of a light source, right, and then you you see the shadow of it. An image cast by an object and representing the form of that object, a sketch, an outline.
Melissa:This is the image that this word is supposed to conjure, which is very interesting to me because it's essentially God coming over her. And this specific word or phrase is only used in the birth of Christ story and then the transfiguration when Jesus goes to I think it's right before they go to Jerusalem and the he takes the 3 with him, and he he goes up into the mountain. They see A mountain? A cloud. Yeah.
Melissa:There's a cloud that it describes a cloud that comes and overshadows them. It's that same word.
Amber:Mhmm. And
Melissa:then, again, I think it's mentioned in Acts, I believe. Yeah. Acts 5. And it's when Peter's shadow would pass over the sick, and they would be healed.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:So that was Acts 5. And so this that's the only time this specific word is used, this word overshadowed. It's only here in the the birth of Christ as used again in Matthew, in Matthew's rendition when the angel comes to talk to Mary, and then at the transfiguration in Mark, specifically Mark.
Amber:That's so interesting. And when Gabriel talks to, Zechariah, he says, your son will be filled with the Holy Spirit since birth. So being filled with, and then Mary has the holy spirit come upon her and the foreshadowing or overshadowing. Overshadowing. So
Melissa:Yeah. Over yeah. This is definitely a different thing. Right? Mhmm.
Melissa:It doesn't say that the holy spirit would be upon John the Baptist. It said it would be in, filled with. Right? Right. This is different.
Melissa:He's upon her.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:He's upon her, and God is overshadowing her because it isn't the Holy Spirit that's overshadowing her. It's God. The Holy Spirit is the one that's coming upon her, and it's gonna be his power of the it says the power of the most high will overshadow you. And if you read the same passage or the parallel passage, this because all of the gospels have, you know, parallels to each other. So if you read the parallel passage in Matthew, so that's Matthew 118 to 23, it says, now the birth of Christ took place in this way.
Melissa:When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph being a together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph being a just man, unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Melissa:All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. So in that, you can see the Holy Spirit is the reason she conceived. Right? The Holy Spirit's power is what made Jesus grow inside of her
Amber:Right.
Melissa:Without a father, you know, quote, unquote, God being the father in a in a sense, I guess. And you see that in Matthew more clearly than you do here in Luke where he talks about him coming upon her, overshadowing her.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:But I just thought it was really interesting that that word for shadow could also mean, like, a sketch or an outline. Right. Or, you know, an image cast by an object representing the form of that object. It's like a literal, like a shadow of what was. Right?
Melissa:And that is sort of his human when Jesus comes down to be one of us, it is a shadow of what he fully is. He's giving that up. The he's not not any less holy. He's not any less god. Right?
Melissa:He's still fully god, fully man. But in a sense, it's limiting that that power, that godness that he has in this human body that he's now being conceived in this woman, Mary. It's a shadow. It's a sketch. It's this outline.
Melissa:I don't know. I found that really interesting that this is how the holy spirit works, and this was the promise. This was the promise being fulfilled from those 400 years of waiting and expecting and hoping for the Messiah, for this savior. Here it is. This is the answer.
Melissa:And I thought it's very interesting that it's the Holy Spirit's power. He's the one that's creating what God said to be true. He's making it true. God said, I could promise you this. He promised it from, you know, 100 of years ago.
Melissa:And here the Holy Spirit is like, now we get to do it. Now we get to make it real. And similar to the creation account in Genesis 11, God said, let there be light, and light was. Right? When God says something, you have the Holy Spirit working with God to make that thing happen.
Amber:Right.
Melissa:And now you're seeing it here in the birth of Christ that, you know, God tells her, this is what's going to happen through a messenger, through an angel, and then the holy spirit comes upon her and is making that happen, starting to grow baby Jesus inside.
Amber:Yeah. So fascinating. I mean, the holy spirit is awesome.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. It's fantastic.
Amber:That he could do that. And and he was with Jesus the entire time, his whole lifespan, and Jesus and the holy spirit were 1. I mean, they he did life with him. Right? So not only was he there because of the Holy Spirit, but he did life with him.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. And then Mary's answer to all of this is not what Zechariah said, which is how can this be? I'm old, this and that. Here's all these excuses why this can't be how it happens.
Melissa:Right? Instead, she says, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:I find it really interesting she said your word. She's trusting in his word.
Amber:I mean, she does question a little bit. She's just asking this bee since I don't know a man.
Melissa:I don't know a man. Yeah. Like, how how is that gonna happen? And he tells her. He tells her how.
Melissa:Mhmm. Holy Spirit's gonna come upon you. I'm gonna overshadow you, and this is going to happen. Mhmm. You know?
Melissa:But she does say I'm a servant of there's a humility there. There's an acceptance of this is not how I thought the Son of God was coming to this world, but here we are.
Amber:Yeah.
Melissa:You know, this definitely wasn't in her plans. This definitely wasn't something she had accounted for.
Amber:That wasn't on her bingo card?
Melissa:Yes. Definitely not on her bucket list either. I'm sure. And and yet she had the humility to say, you know, let it be done as you as you're saying it to your word. And and she accepted it.
Melissa:She accepted that this is going to happen. She believed God. She believed the angel, and this could have very well meant her death, and she knew that. Especially being a woman in that time, you did you didn't get a say in things like this in terms of, you know, what Joseph was trying to do. That that shows a lot about Joseph as well, that he tried to divorce her quietly so she wouldn't be shamed and wouldn't be killed because that was what you know, being pregnant before you were married back then, you were killed.
Melissa:That was a that was the sentence, his death. And he didn't wanna he didn't wanna kill her, so he's like, what if we just did it quietly? He didn't necessarily believe her story, but he was also like, I don't want her to die.
Amber:Right.
Melissa:You know? So it shows you the kind of man he was as well as the amount of faith she had to know, like, I'm gonna become the pariah for this, you know?
Amber:Yeah. Which is funny because, like, Gabriel says you have found favor. They're gonna call you highly blessed.
Melissa:Favored one.
Amber:Yeah. Oh, favored one. And it's like, I don't feel favored right now. Oh, yeah.
Melissa:And and I'm sure watching her son die, those words came back to her thinking I'm the favored one. You know? She had to live a life of being a pariah and the one that had a child outside of what well, outside of wedlock, quote unquote. Joseph claimed him so that she wouldn't be killed, and they basically just admitted to, yeah, we kind of got ahead of things, you know. Mhmm.
Melissa:But still were looked upon as pariahs, as not they weren't favored in the town. They weren't, you know, they were looked upon as that sinful yes. Kendall, that sinful couple that couldn't wait, you know. So, yeah, that she knew she would have to live with all of that in that time, and she still was like, let it be done. And then we move on to when she goes to visit Elizabeth, and there's this tiny little verse here, chapter 1 verse 41.
Melissa:And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped within her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my lord should come to me? So here we get another view of the Holy Spirit in action, filling up Elizabeth and the baby, leaping when the son of God comes
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:Who's very, very small at this point inside of Mary. Right? Right. She's probably in her first trimester still. Yeah.
Melissa:But recognizing what was inside of her and reacting. And this reminds me a lot of when even today, when I hear a word from a pastor or I hear a song that really resonates with who God is, and I feel that joy. You feel that that holy spirit, like, yes, you know, that confirmation inside of yourself. That, yeah, that's that's Jesus. That's God.
Melissa:That's who we are. That he recognizes himself, and it it reminds me of I I'm not sure which verse it is specifically, but that Jesus would always bear witness to himself.
Amber:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:That they will witness about each other. Right? The Holy Spirit will always point back to Jesus. Right. And Jesus will always glorify yeah.
Melissa:That Jesus will always glorify his father. And you see this even at infancy.
Amber:Well, and the per the role of John John, John the Baptist Mhmm. The one that, you know, Elizabeth is pregnant with. Right? Like, his role is to announce that Jesus is coming. Like, he's preparing the way for Jesus.
Amber:Like, that was his purpose. Right? And so the fact that, like, even as a fetus in the in the womb, like, they are fulfilling their purpose of, like, being excited, like, when they're in the he's in the presence of the Lord. Like, that's his job is to prepare a way Yeah. For that one.
Amber:You know? And I find it very interesting that the Holy Spirit uses women a lot. Yeah.
Melissa:He does.
Amber:So, like, he uses Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the one that believed immediately. Right? And then he uses Mary and Mary had the humility to be like, let it be done. And he's using women to bring the savior into the world.
Amber:He didn't have to do that. Like, he chose to do that. And, you know, it's saying a lot when, like, our the main purpose of women back in the day was to make babies and have a lineage. But, like, there's a lot of glory in that. Like Oh, yeah.
Amber:Apparently, you know, he's using that. And not only in this context, but also, like, when Jesus died and he rose again, it was women. Women. We're the first ones to say the good news. Like, he appeared to them first.
Amber:And so it's it's really it's fascinating that he uses, you know, us to do that. And it's it's an honor, honestly.
Melissa:I think what a lot of people because we take for granted that nowadays we don't have to fight for basic things anymore in the same way that we used to. Like, we can vote. We are considered equals. We can own property. Our names mean something, you know, back then none of that.
Melissa:They had none of that. You were only worth as much as your husband or father or brother. Like the next closest male person in your family is what dignified your worth as a woman, which is so sad in the culture. Right? That's just how it was back then.
Melissa:But countless times throughout the bible, you see God using women because to him, he made both. He loves both. Right? He considers us equals in terms of between male and female. Right?
Melissa:There's no she can't own property, he can type of thing. Right? God doesn't look at it that way. And this is really, really of that. Even in the old testament, you see it with Rahab and, Esther and Ruth.
Melissa:Yeah. Right? These are all really powerful, strong women of faith and, you know, they and they weren't even like the the best women in terms of, like, reputation. Rahab was a prostitute, but she believed that the God of Israel was stronger than Jericho and knew they were gonna win. And so she's like, yeah.
Melissa:Hey. I'll I'll hide the spies. Just, remember me. That's all she asked for. Yeah.
Melissa:Remember her. And they promised her when the city would go down, anyone she had in her little brothel area would be okay. And so she made sure to have her entire family there.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:So Yeah. You have all these stories of, you know, really great women in the bible because God doesn't play favorites like that, not like people do. You know? And it it's such a great it's such a great testament, and and it's so interesting because the Holy Spirit, I I think, knows. And and, of course, people weren't looking for a baby.
Melissa:Remember, again, they were looking for this warrior king. I mean, it it's evident in the way that when you get to the Magi in Matthew, where did they go first? The Magi are the what, you know, most people call them the wise men. Right?
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:They they were the word used is magi for them, and they were from Persia. They came following the teachings of Daniel. So Daniel, who was, you know, way way back in old testament days, the guy that got was in the lion's den and captured, he stayed over there in the Persian Empire and was a really big important
Amber:figure.
Melissa:Mhmm. And his teachings, he left behind, and there were students. There's people that followed his teachings even though they weren't Jewish or, you know, Israeli. They were foreign people, Persians and other people that because he studied stars. He studied all these things, and he had a prophecy about the Messiah.
Melissa:And that's why when the star was up in the sky, these guys came looking for him because they knew the teachings and they were like, this is it. It's happening. You know? Yeah. That's why they were so excited, but they, again, were expecting a king.
Melissa:The gifts they brought were for a king. Right. And where did they go first? Jerusalem. Because they thought, obviously, that's where the king's gonna show up.
Melissa:Right? King of Israel, he's gonna show up the messiah. He'll have to show up in in Jerusalem. And it wasn't until they got there, talking to Herod who got really threatened by this king that was supposedly supposed to show up, that they talked to some of the the rabbis and and religious leaders there, and they said, no. It's it's actually prophesied.
Melissa:It's supposed to be in Bethlehem. And then the kings were like, oh, well, I guess we'll head on over to Bethlehem. You know? We got the wrong place. Sorry.
Melissa:You know? And and they show up. In the traditional Christmas story, a lot of people think it's the the shepherds and the wise men showed up at the same time, but the wise men actually showed up maybe a few weeks after Jesus is born. I think it was 2 I think Jesus was 2 or 3 years old when they went back to Nazareth because they went to Egypt first.
Amber:Right. That's true. So I
Melissa:think they showed up about a month later, around that time, I think, because they had to come from the east, and I think they came from Persia, Traveled from Persia to Jerusalem following the star, and then from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.
Amber:Got it.
Melissa:So it's it's a long it was a long time. It wasn't like at the same night that he was born, they got there. They got their time Yeah.
Amber:Not like the the movies to pick.
Melissa:Not like the movies. Yeah. It's just easier for movies because it's like we don't wanna have to explain all the the time and whatever, so they they just put it all in one. But they technically showed up after the initial birth. And then they're the ones that tell Mary and Joseph, don't don't go back to Jerusalem because Herod was looking for Jesus and wanted to kill him, which is another point I wanted to make make note of is through this entire story, you see the enemy and other people that want Jesus dead already, and he's barely born.
Melissa:And it doesn't work because of angels, the Holy Spirit, and God's protection. And at many times throughout Matthew and Luke, it'll say, this happened so that it could fulfill the scripture
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:Or this promise. And what when I was praying and kind of reading through all of this and thinking about the history, what kept ringing in my ears or ringing over and over in my head that I kept seeing is this happened to fulfill this scripture. This happened to fulfill this promise. And it really kind of ingrained in me this idea that God really keeps his promises.
Amber:They're important to him, for sure.
Melissa:Very. And it and it's not just this simple, like, yeah. I'll I'll do it. Right? It's this no.
Melissa:He goes out of his way, and the Holy Spirit's one of his primary functions as the power of God that empowers other people that goes into other people is to make these promises fulfilled. Mhmm. And that's a role of the Holy Spirit I never thought of. I think of him as a a comforter, the person I cry to when I'm upset, the person that is that a way for me to commune with God, right, a way for me to talk to God and and freely talk to him. But he's also the power.
Melissa:He's also the one that ensures that all the things God says happens.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:Jesus was a baby. Jesus wasn't doing this. He was literally an infant, a fetus. You know? Right.
Melissa:And god the father was still in heaven sending angels. Right? Holy Spirit is the one that is consistently on the ground. Mhmm. Consistently the one going into people's lives, changing lives, making sure that the evil one can't take away the promise that was given.
Melissa:Mhmm. He's the one that makes sure, okay. This person needs to be filled with the holy spirit. This person needs this power right now. This person needs to know this thing and goes out and is the one, like, you know, boots on the ground doing all of the things God said would happen.
Melissa:He's the one doing it actively.
Amber:Yeah. He's the one that, you know, when God said it in the beginning, the Holy Spirit made it happen. Yeah. It made it happen. The stars of the sky, the planets, all the things, like
Melissa:Yeah. And and that was what was so powerful to me reading about how much the Holy Spirit was present at the birth of Christ. Right? Oh, yeah. He's the one that's there that's empowering Mary.
Melissa:He's the one that's coming upon her, the one empowering Elizabeth. There's even a section in Luke where Zechariah when he gets his voice back when John is born and everyone's like, what are you gonna name him? And Elizabeth says, which this is also very telling of the time, Elizabeth, the wife, she just gave birth to her son and she says name him John and everyone questions her. They say, but no one in your family is named John. Why would you name him John?
Melissa:And what do they do? They ignore Elizabeth and go straight to Zechariah, who's a mute still, and say, what what is your son's name? And he writes on a tablet, his name shall be John, and then he can speak because now he believes.
Amber:Yeah. It's crazy.
Melissa:And then he prophesies.
Amber:Yeah. But there's a whole section on that after that. Right?
Melissa:Yeah. There's a whole thing where it it's called his his prophecy, Zechariah's prophecy.
Amber:Right.
Melissa:And he's prophesying over his son about who he's going to be.
Amber:You know, one thing that the the Holy Spirit has been really putting in my heart, and I talked about this in my sermon, but about believing and how important it is to actually believe it and not just in your head, but in your heart. Yeah. And today, I just read a devotional because, you know, I was struggling. I was struggling with the fear, you know, aspect of, like, being afraid and, you know, things not working out or me not being able like, with my pregnancy that I'm just using that as an example, but I was afraid. Right?
Amber:And the Lord was, like, you know, you need to not be afraid. You you know, gave me dreams. He gave me, like, people to say, like, you need to and I'm, like, okay. That's great. I don't know how to not do that.
Amber:Like, I don't, like, I
Melissa:I would just stop.
Amber:Yeah. And I'm just kinda like, Lord, what does that look like? I always ask that question. And so I'm like, I, you know, I tried giving it to him like I would with unforgiveness. Like, you know, okay.
Amber:I'm gonna feel it one more time, and then I'm gonna give it to you. That didn't work because the thing with unforgiveness is that it can be a one time thing. Once it's solved, it's solved. But, like, I could still be afraid even though I've given it to you. And so it's just kinda like, okay.
Amber:I'm continuously trying to give this to you, and it's an opportunity for me to give that fear again when it pops up again. But today, it really hit because the reason why he kept hammering in, I need you to believe in that promise I gave you. I need you to believe it. And in the devotional I read, it said, you know, I know you are prone to fear and the the antidote to fear is joy. And that hit me because you can only have joy when you fully believe the promise.
Amber:Mhmm. Like, you have to believe to actually have that joy to experience that joy, to give you permission to have joy, to be excited, to actually, like, you know, and and then I thought about anxiety how, like, I did an episode on anxiety. Like, if you are in a state of gratitude, you can't be anxious. Can't be anxious. You physically can't be, like, it's the same part of your brain.
Amber:Yep. And that, you know, fear is the cousin of anxiety and so joy is the gratitude in this situation. So if you're joyful, then you can't be fearful. And the only way you could be joyful is if you believe. And it, like, it clicked today.
Amber:I was like, oh, that's why you kept hammering that in. Okay. That makes sense. And so, you know, I I feel like faith is kind of like faith is in your head, like, you have to just trust that the Lord is gonna do it, but that hope is like the emotional part of it. Like, they have to go hand in hand for you to fully believe.
Melissa:Yeah. And I I would say that faith will lead to that hope. It's it's very rare that I would say it's the other way around.
Amber:Correct. It starts with faith
Melissa:for sure. Yeah. That that faith in your head of knowing because faith isn't without reason.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:You know, it it's not this blind trustful. There's trust involved and there's aspects you don't know, but there's a lot of proof and previous things God gives you like this story of I have been faithful. I I keep my promises. My my word is full of promises kept. There's a reason you can have faith in me.
Melissa:It's not for no reason, and it starts there. Like you said, it starts in your head of this understanding and this trust and then but getting it to the next phase. Right? Getting it to that deeper level of hope Mhmm. Of joy, of really believing with all of your heart.
Melissa:Right? And in the in in that very famous verse, trust God with all your all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength and all your heart. In the in the Jewish word for heart, they they don't link the heart with your emotions, which is really interesting to me.
Amber:That is.
Melissa:We do. We do. All the time. As as like Western, you know, we tend to link our we talk about our heart and we love you with all my heart and it's we typically talk about our emotions. But they didn't actually understand the human anatomy very well at the time, you know, in ancient ancient times.
Melissa:So the heart was actually more what we would call your gut. Yeah.
Amber:That makes sense too. Yeah. It got the butterflies.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah.
Amber:It's all there.
Melissa:Yeah. So when they talk about loving God with all your heart, it's actually talking about on a mental level along with, like, an instinctual level, like, with my gut. You know? Mhmm. And weirdly enough, I don't know why this is, but they tended to attribute the emotions to the kidneys or the stomach, because of the butterflies, because of, like, that's where you would feel sick to your stomach.
Melissa:Right? When you're lovesick, when you're so they tended to attribute emotions to that, which I found really funny. But, yeah, so loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and everything that if you look into those words specifically, it's very interesting because it isn't really the pictures we typically think of.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:And it opens that door to just how God kind of works with us and how he built us as humans. We need our brain to kind of understand and perceive things, and then the heart follows.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:You know, it's this, like, weird connection between head and heart that we're always struggling with us as humans. I know I struggle with it constantly. I'm a very logical person. I like to stay in my head. I don't like dealing with my emotions ever because I think they're too complicated and annoying, and I don't like it.
Amber:Yeah. They're they're a little confusing sometimes.
Melissa:Yeah. They they can be
Amber:confusing sometimes.
Melissa:They are. They are very important, and I I understand that on a mental level that they are very important. But it's it can be difficult for me to have that connection between head and heart, like you said to like, when you had that moment of, oh, I need to have joy, and I will have joy if I truly believe this. If I truly believe the promise, of course, my natural response will be joy because it's like someone it's like your parent telling you, I got you the thing you wanted for Christmas. Right?
Melissa:If you trust your parent and believe them, you're gonna be overjoyed. Are you gonna be afraid they got you something you hated?
Amber:Right. Yeah. That's true. Uh-huh.
Melissa:Right? You won't be afraid that they got you something you hated. They just told you they got you what you wanted. Why would you and if you believe them, instantly, you're like, yay. I got the the pony or the bicycle or the, you know, whatever that I wanted.
Melissa:Right. Instead of, oh my god. What if they're lying to me? What if they don't get me that thing? What if it's something else?
Melissa:That box ain't big enough for what I wanted, you know, instead of, like, sitting there wrestling with with that thought. But that's how we treat God a lot of the time. He tells you a promise. He gives you something and he has proven time and time again. And and at least I know in my life and I hope most people's lives that he answers your prayers.
Melissa:He he does look out for you. It's not always the answer you want, but it's always the answer you need.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:And it it's just funny to me.
Amber:And the the sermon that I did, I mentioned that life happens in between the promise given and the promise fulfilled.
Melissa:Yeah. There's that 400 years.
Amber:Yeah. Exactly. I mean and Mary and her promise, like, there's a whole second part that he's gonna sit on the throne forever Yeah. On king David's throne. That hasn't happened yet.
Amber:Yeah. The first part of the promise came. True. Yep. But not the second part.
Amber:And there's many promises that are it's not just for her. It's for for us too that he's coming back. And he will take the throne and it's gonna be awesome and I can't get here soon enough, like, you know, so it's like, yeah, they had to wait 400 years for us. It's been over 2,000, but, you know, that doesn't mean like, to him, time is whatever. Hey, like, God
Melissa:It really is.
Amber:Doesn't care about time. And so a lot of the times, it takes a long time for him to fulfill his promises, but it doesn't mean he's not going to. He he will, absolutely. If he said it, all his promises are yes and amen. That's what the scripture says.
Amber:So if we just have to believe it and believe it wholeheartedly, not just with our head, but with our heart and be humble about it like Mary and and Elizabeth were and, you know, be excited for it. Have that joy Yeah. And, you know, do what we can to not prevent it and not get in the way of it. Right? Away.
Amber:Yeah. So Yeah.
Melissa:The the biggest thing that I took away from reading this is just that quiet thought of what did he promise you? And do you do you, like Mary, say, yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna believe this. Or like Zechariah, am I more how can this be? How can that?
Melissa:How can this? How can that? You know? And and remember, you know, yeah, it was 400 years, but he did keep his promise, and the Holy Spirit will ensure the promise happens regardless of, you know, the phariseeic order that was in play and and how much we try as people to make ourselves worthy of it. Yeah.
Melissa:And we don't need to. No. If it's a promise, it's a promise. It'll be kept no matter what, and it's not something you need to be worthy of. It's something that's given to you.
Melissa:It's a gift, And that's that's the Christmas story, the gift. The gift that was Jesus that enabled us to all have the Holy Spirit now. Without Him, we wouldn't. We wouldn't be able to have the relationship we have with Him, and that was why he came. That was always the reason.
Melissa:From the moment he was conceived inside of Mary, he was it was all for one reason, and that was to die so that we could all have what he had with his father. That relationship with him, that we could be reconciled back, and we would no longer need prophets. We would no longer need to wait for some powerful person of God to tell us what's going on in his mind and what he wants us to do and how we can have a relationship with Him. We don't have to wait for any of that. We don't have to do sacrifices.
Melissa:We don't have to live by the law perfectly. It's fine. The Holy Spirit came and gave Jesus the power to do all the things He needed to do the first Adam couldn't, so that he can rule and reign and come back for us, but also so that we can have that relationship now.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:That Jesus says that many times in scripture that his kingdom is here, and that's what he meant.
Amber:Mhmm.
Melissa:You know, the kingdom isn't something in the future. It's already here. Part of it is already here, and that part is the Holy Spirit. The fact he's got free reign to go into all of us and connect us in a way that we would never be able to be connected and connect us to back to God in a way that we couldn't have had without him.
Amber:Right. Yeah. Powerful. Yeah. Well, thank you, Melissa, for yeah.
Amber:Yeah. That's true. It's not gonna be anything less than powerful. Yeah. But thank you so much for this topic.
Amber:It it's a it's a very good topic. It's a very good thing to to ponder on especially this time of year as we enter the Christmas season and think about how we can incorporate the Holy Spirit into it because he was there. He's there.
Melissa:He's absolutely there.
Amber:How we could recognize him and honor him and thank him for his part that he played in it by, you know, making all the things happen and Yeah. And how he continues to do that.
Melissa:Yeah. And we all have a reason to be happy this Christmas. We all have a reason to rejoice because that baby did come and was born. Not only was he born, he lived, died. We have a very good reason to rejoice and have that joy that you were talking about, you know?
Melissa:And Mhmm. I think that's it it definitely put my mind in the the season that I need to be in, you know, like, focused on the right thing. And it's not about the presence. It's not about all the family get togethers. You gotta make time for and rush around because holidays can be so busy.
Melissa:But just taking time Tell
Amber:me about it. Yeah. Right?
Melissa:Like, all the parties, all the things, and it's just like I gotta get presents for all the people. But in that in the stress of it remembering what is the things he's promised you, it's happening. It's already in the works. Mhmm. It's already coming.
Melissa:So you get to be 5 years old again and say, you know, thank you for the gift that's coming.
Amber:That's awesome. Best Christmas gift after. Right?
Melissa:Yeah. Yes. I would say so.
Amber:Alright. Well, thank you again. This was awesome. I think I I hope everyone listening to this podcast got a lot of value out of that, that they're blessed by this message, that they'll take this away and and really think about what she asked. Like, what promise has Lord given you that maybe you forgot about or something that you really need to take the next step and actually believe, not just in your head, but in your heart, and allow the Holy Spirit to work with you, come alongside you in that, and allow him to work in your life and allow you to experience that joy, give you that permission to have that joy and excitement that it's gonna come, that it's gonna be Christmas morning.
Amber:You can open it up. It's coming. Exactly. Alright, guys. Well, I do wanna mention that this episode, I was just looking at my calendar, was actually gonna be the last episode of the year because I am gonna be taking one more break.
Amber:I know I took one for Thanksgiving. I'm gonna take another one for Christmas because next week is Christmas. So I'm gonna take that off. So the next episode will be released on January 2nd, and it's kinda blowing my mind that it's this is the last one. But what an episode to end on.
Amber:This is this was great, Melissa. So thank you so much for ending this year with me on the Holy Spirit Untethered podcast. It's it's been awesome. And so I just wanna thank you guys, listeners, for such a great year. We started in I think it was June.
Amber:Was it June, Melissa?
Melissa:Yeah. I think it
Amber:was June. June. End of June that we launched this podcast and we're in over 10 countries now and, I get to see it grow just organically, and it's been such a blessing. So I just wanna thank everyone who listens to this consistently or if you're just a new listener. I just wanna thank you.
Amber:And, you know, a nice Christmas gift for me, if you if you can, is to rate this podcast. Give me a review and, share this episode or share just this podcast with anyone that you think would find value on learning more about the holy spirit and who he is and his role because I feel like a lot of people, they they just don't know what they don't know because we don't talk about him a lot. So that's the reason for this podcast. It's the reason why the Holy Spirit put it on my heart to have this podcast. So, anyway, I hope you guys have an amazing Christmas and New Year and all the things.
Amber:Eat all the food, open all the gifts, but just don't forget that the Holy Spirit is there with you opening up those gifts and experiencing that joy with you. Alright, guys. Thank you so much, and I'll see you January 2nd.