I'm Expecting!!!!

I can remember all those years ago when I found out I was pregnant with my children. Both times I was surprised. But it was the emotions that followed those pronouncements that I was going to be having a baby that I remember most.

The anticipation, the fear, the excitement, the joy, the expectation, and a million other emotions all bottled up inside of me. Each day brought that longed for event closer and closer. And each day brought changes within my body that prepared me for being able to fulfill that particular destiny, the moment when I would actually giving birth, the moment I would see the culmination of every dream I had ever dreamed coming true before my eyes.

I read everything I could about pregnancy. If the doctor told me to stop something, guess what? I stopped. If he told me to start something, I started. I KNEW that it was not only ME any longer. I knew that I had taken on the responsibility of another life, and in order to give that new life the opportunity to be healthy I needed to take care of myself, I needed to do whatever was necessary to protect my growing child.

And I remember with the clarity that only a mother can remember with the moments of giving birth. I can remember the excitement that accompanied the pain, the overwhelming joy and the inexplicable love. I can remember the release and the relief when those lusty cries reverberated throughout the delivery rooms.

Working as an Obstetrical Nurse for as long as I did I had quite a few occasions to *catch* a new life in my hands. I cannot even begin to explain what that feels like. Nothing I have ever done in my professional career compares to wrapping my hands around such a miracle.

Micah 4:10 Being in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the and of thine enemies.

Isaiah 66.8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

When the church {ZION} travails children are born. And you know what, we may have to go out to our cities, we may have to seek them in the countrysides, We may EVEN have to go into the parts of town we would rather avoid, but GOD is calling to us.

Can you feel the excitement, the anticipation for what is about to take place? I can!

As I was praying this morning God spoke so clearly to me: "You're expecting."

I answered, "Yes, LORD, I am expecting."

I am expecting.

And I may have to stop doing certain things, I may have to start doing certain things, I will follow the dictates of the Word, because I understand the responsibility I have! I am part of Zion, and my time of travail is at hand. It is my responsibility to give birth. That is the whole point of my existence.

And as my time draws nearer, as the time of the church draws nearer, I am getting ready, preparing for the additions, expanding to make room for all that God is about to do.

Lord, I heed to Your call. I will go where You would have me to go, do what You would have me to do. I know that my time is at hand, but not only my time, YOUR time is at hand, isn't it Lord? Lead me, prepare me, use me. I want to give birth by reaching out to this lost and dying world.