The word overshadow means to tower above or to cast a shadow over. 

Its Christmas and it is important to take another look at the Christmas story. I have read this story in the bible so many times, but this year something struck me and that is the word "overshadow". Luke 1:26-38 is an account of Mary's encounter with an angel who told her she would conceive and bear a son, whose name shall be called Jesus and he will be great and will be called Son of The Most High.

Mary then asked the question how all this events will take place because she was a virgin and the angel explained in Luke 1: 35:

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of The Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God"

Now here is my understanding, when there is a purpose to be birth, when God is set to carry out an assignment through one of his own, to carry out HIS assignment and purpose which supersedes every human comprehension, then there is a need for the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit! An empowerment from the Spirit of God! Just imagine,God needed for His Son to be birth in human form, the Holy Spirit came upon and overshadowed Mary to make it happen. Someone once said that overshadow means "to reduce the effect of your inadequacies, so that, that which you need to birth on earth can be done through the Holy Spirit"

I am reminded of the creation of the heaven and the earth in Genesis 1:2 "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" The word hover means "to suspend in the air", "to linger", "to tower over". What happened after this verse was that God spoke creation into existence, but there was a need for an hovering and an overshadowing!

Now this is where it gets really interesting, that same Spirit, that overshadowed Mary and Jesus was born, that hovered over  the surface of the deep and heaven and earth was created dwells on IN you and me!! wow!! we have something much greater! The power of creation dwells in us! isn't that amazing?. We need to live in the constant reality of this truth and exact the power within us!

My prayer is that this Christmas and beyond, The Holy Spirit will hover and overshadow us to birth God's will and purpose for our lives in Jesus name, amen.

Merry Christmas.

Yours in the Walk...