Prophetic Gifts of Divine Visitation

With the birth of each child, great preparations are put in place. Pregnant women shop for all to make their babies comfortable on their arrival. Nurseries, gadgets, etc even hospitals these days try to brighten up their delivery rooms to improve the ambiance in the environment both to put mother at ease and to welcome baby. How sad and frustrating it will be for a woman who after having a birth plan and decorating her nursery has to deliver in a nondescript in the middle of nowhere.

 I had an experience where I was in a city looking for accommodation for hours unending, I just had a baby less than two weeks before and the whole city seemed to be filled up and tempers were short. This happened in these days of improved transportation and what have you. I had a taste of what Mary felt that night, seemingly stranded on a compulsory trip enforced by the government.
Luke 2: 7
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

We are probably all familiar with the nativity story. Each year at carols, the discomfort of the manger is portrayed by the producers of the story. In fact, I was very surprised not to find Joseph actually banging doors and having doors being shut on his face, because that is the earliest nativity story I was exposed to, lol, but after my experience trying to get accommodation in a strange land, if I have to do a nativity play, Joseph is going to be pounding a few doors just out of sheer frustration. He and Mary are going to be snapping at each other due to cold, hunger, being cramped etc. It will be one great play sharpened by my experience as is what I believe may have happened to the writer of my childhood nativity. Eventually, they had to make do with some stable and fancy cots had to give way to some manger! I mean Mary's husband was a carpenter for crying out loud, so if nothing, a fancy cot would have been expected or already made. All that was dashed by that trip on a donkey to Bethlehem. Why did it have to be that way? Well for one, the shepherds that were to be Jesus' first visitors needed a sign and all 'these' were the signs the angels gave to them. I ask, 'what is the significance of shepherds visiting baby Jesus'?

Two reasons were given to me.

First if Shepherds did not visit, a certain class of people may say Jesus did not come because of them. This class cuts across the middle class and the working class of the society. So they don't have excuse. Secondly Shepherds spiritually stand for Pastors, Priests etc, I guess this was symbolic as to the great commission God has for Men of God, and we see in vs 17 and 18 that they immediately became evangelists, proclaiming the birth of Jesus, creating the first awareness of the birth of the long awaited Messiah.
Second, if the Men from the east did not come to visit Jesus, another class of people will say Jesus did not come for them. The birth of Jesus in a manger is therefore all encompassing. Removing all barriers as to who salvation is meant for. The men from the east bore gifts of significance with them. Most importantly all these symbolic events were not lost on Mary vs 19. The nativity story would have been different if the import of the happenings were lost on her. We might have had one cranky new mother, hastening to get out of the shabby stable, snapping at her husband, not staying long enough for the visitation of the Shepherds or quitting the accommodation immediately after the Shepherds visit because she did not want the stigma of the Stable birth, thereby loosing the opportunity of the visit of the Men from the east and loosing the gifts of significance. The gifts in which the story of the life of Jesus was wrapped, the prophetic gifts for a discerning mummy.

Mary kept all these and pondered in her heart. I'm sure as Jesus grew, she would review his birth events and relate them with the pattern his life was following. Any station you find yourself, especially when things are not going according to plan, you need to pause, review the happenings and ponder in your heart. Are they in line with the word God has released concerning you? We all have plans but life sometimes happens, if you are observant, you will see God in the happening of life. This enables you to calm down enough to take the next right step. This helps you to smell the flowers as you go along. It helps you see God in the little things and maintain a grateful heart and an upbeat attitude till you reach your desired destination.

 Even in our unlikely locations, prophetic divine visitations will locate us because God would have given our destiny helpers signs with which to find us and if we aren't patient enough to hear what the spirit is saying we would have relocated from our divine accommodation in haste ahead of fulfillment of divine destiny. Always remember, it was right there in the manger that rich intellectuals from the east came to see Jesus, it was right there that hardworking Shepherds who turned evangelists came to see Jesus, your location is therefore not the issue, but the assurance that it is where you are meant to be for that season. Inquire your divine location for 2014 and stay connected. Keep your revelations in your heart or diary as the case may be and ponder on them. You won't go wrong.

Shallom.By Oludunni.