The Process to the Promised Place: Your Birthing Plan
In the days and months leading to the day of birth it is a time of anticipation and expectancy of something beautiful for the family. The woman packs her carry bag, gets her birthing outfits, and prepares to take many pictures or videos. Some plan to give birth at home and others at the hospital. The birthing plan outlines all the desired wishes of the mother at the time of labor and after the birth.
Mary the mother of Jesus did not have an opportunity to plan her birth or how the labor went. She conceived by the Holy Spirit, she gave birth in an animal stable because there was no room in an inn, then once she gave birth her baby was sought out to be killed so she had to hide out for a season.
Some of us are having difficulty in giving birth because we thought the environment and the circumstance in which we are to birth would look better and feel better than it does. We thought it would be more joyous, more exciting, and less intense. But we are feeling the labor pains and we are saying Nooooo I can’t birth here, NOT here.
It may not be a convenient place where you are birthing, but it doesn’t negate the value of what you carry. The animal stable was inconvenient and uncomfortable, but it was still the ordained place in which Jesus was to be born. Mary went to Bethlehem for one thing (to be counted in the census of the region) and suddenly it was her time for birth. The scriptures say in Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Where you are may seem small, may seem insignificant, but it is the ordained place where you are to birth.
You may think your people won’t find you there or your destiny is detoured, but angels can be dispatched at any moment on your behalf to where you are. Mary was in an unusual place for birthing, but God sent angels to tell shepherds in the region of the good news of Jesus’ birth and wise men followed signs of the sky to where Jesus was in order to worship Him and bring gifts. God will make sure those who need to find you WILL and He will BLOCK the attempts of the enemy to destroy what you are birthing.
After Herod died, Herod’s son Archelaus was in rulership and out of fear for Jesus’ life Joseph went to Nazareth, which fulfilled scripture because Jesus was to be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23). Even though through trial Joseph settled in Nazareth a place where Philip asked “can anything good” come from a place like this, it was still fulfilling prophecy of Jesus’ life.
So, don’t be afraid to push where you are currently and set your mind to be more willing to birth. Don’t let your environment disturb how you feel about what you are carrying. Will God bring you this far and not allow you to deliver? (Isaiah 66:9) Sure you’d rather birth in better conditions, but it’s not going to always be like this. There will always be suffering as a child of God because that’s how we share in the sufferings of Christ, but the joy later won’t compare to what you are experiencing now. There is so much more ahead, but you have to birth this now!
A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ~John 16:21