I Am Still Waiting… And Not Waiting

SAT., DEC. 4, 1993, 6:43 AM
FARM, STUDY

This sermon title is appropriate for the Advent season… the title Richard has chosen and the variation I, the Holy Spirit, offer. Advent is a time of waiting for the birth of the Christ, Who shall save you from your sins. So, historically, this has happened, but you wait, yet again, for it to happen. The story is told in old, familiar ways and in ever new variations.

The other side of the picture is that I wait for you, each human creation, to come to Me, willingly, as a servant and as a friend. This earth is a real, tangible realm, but I am Mystical Spirit… and also Jesus and Almighty God, the Father. So it is hard for many of you to overcome the realities of life and be comfortably with Me, the Ultimate Reality. When your body dies this becomes ever so clear, and most wonder why it was so hard, and why they were so reluctant.

For you, Bob Russell, I waited… and then I waited no more. I got your attention in what seemed to be a miraculous way. It wasn’t a healing, but it was an eye-opening experience, in a way. You were blinded to the presence of your manuscript, and when you were ready I opened those eyes. I was through waiting, and you were ready enough. But I had to test this judgment. Would you carry out your promise? Would you persist in an early morning practice that did not have a clear purpose?

I kept you waiting for Me, and I waited to see how you would carry out this commitment. Then at just the right time I came more directly and again I waited to see how you would react. If you hadn’t been accepting of My Presence, I would have accomplished this small mission in some other way. But I knew you would accept. So now I only have to wait for you to come, to hear, and to write. And you do… almost as often as I desire.

Yet your calendar tells you that Christmas is still 3 weeks away. Isn’t this too early to tell the story yet again? It is a familiar story to you, and hence the improbabilities are neatly ignored. The Son of God Almighty, Who has existed always and forever, is to come into the earth as a Jewish baby. This advent is part miracle and part not. There is no human father…only Me, the Holy Spirit, without any bodily form (at least none ever reported). There is a human mother, and she is young and a virgin. By your law I would be a statutory rapist, even as she faithfully but incredulously was willing for this pregnancy to be.

I was born in a natural birth, but in a stable-cave, for My Mother and her husband to be had no status as travelers. My birth was announced by angels to shepherds, who believed the angelic announcement and “came to see this thing that had come to pass.” Yet My birth also aroused a sense of threat in the king, and as a result many other babies were killed. My “step-father” was warned, and he believed, taking Us to Egypt without a hassle.

This story is told as an amalgam of Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of My entrance, as Jesus, the Son Who “always was.” For Mark this wasn’t important, and for John it was more vital that I be introduced as Spirit rather than as a human baby.