4 Powerful Promises in the Prophecies of Christ’s Birth

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

Matthew, who wrote the Bible book bearing his name, confirmed this prophecy as pointing to Christ’s birth, defining this Old Testament name when he added, “which means ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).

Jesus embodies this truth in numerous ways. First, although wrapped in human flesh, He came to earth as fully God. But through His death and resurrection, He also provided us with constant and unending access to Him, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, from the moment we believe in Him.

On the night before His death, He said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

And in John 14:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:16-20).

According to this passage, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit reside with us and in us forever.

We experience the benefits of this reality by:

• Accepting it as fact, regardless of how we feel, because He might not always feel close. Truth, however, says He is nearer to us than our next breath.
• Learning to recognize His presence throughout the day, during our most challenging moments especially.
• Taking time to connect with Him through prayer, Bible reading, worship, and silence.

As we do, His Spirit gains influence within our soul, our spiritual ears grow more sensitive to His voice, and He quiets our hearts with His endless love.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Foto Duets

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders” (Isaiah 9:6a).

Scripture continues in verse 7 to tell us that the Messiah’s reign will never end and His everlasting kingdom will bring justice and righteousness. Upon reading this, our minds often conjure images of someone with political power ruling over all the nations. Although this isn’t an inaccurate view, it is an incomplete one. Christ, is indeed crowned “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:21).

Yet, this doesn’t always feel true when we look at our world’s dictators, tyrants, and crimes driven by the forces of evil. How do we make sense of this apparent contradiction?

We recognize that we live in what many refer to as the yes but not yet kingdom of God. This means that, at this moment, we possess all the spiritual blessings through faith in Christ. Yet, we wait for the day when Christ returns to defeat all of His enemies, including death, once and for all (1 Cor. 15:25-26).

In the meantime, we regularly reflect on God’s promise to use our every frustration, tear and disappointment for our good (Rom. 8:28). But in our hardship, spiritual wrestling, and confusion, may we remember Jesus’ words, spoken on the night before His death.

We rest in His constant, faithful, sovereign care and trust that He truly is greater than anything we’ll encounter on this present earth. This includes the most corrupt and domineering oppressors or nefarious lawmaker.

Finally, we remember that God’s kingdom reigns, first and foremost, within us (Luke 17:20-21) because the King of kings resides in our souls. His presence enables us to experience inexplainable peace in the midst of chaos.

This leads to our third promise: Our connection with Christ stills the fiercest storms raging within us.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/SDI Productions

“And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6b).

Jesus encapsulated these divine characteristics in an analogy He gave in John 10 in which He declared Himself our good shepherd. He then explained how this looks in our daily lives. Donning the attributes of an awe-inspiring guide and advisor, He leads us from danger and to wide open spaces. Although He is Mighty God and Creator of all that exists, He humbly died for our sins to neutralize the thief intent on destroying us, and enables us to experience vibrant and “abundant” life (John 10:10).

This doesn’t mean we won’t experience hardship and pain. But even in our most difficult circumstances, we can trust God to progressively bind all the broken places within our souls. He is restoring all things, including us, to the state of how things should be. This is the biblical definition of peace, shalom, in the Hebrew. Jesus’s gift of peace is less about the absence of conflict and more about a steadiness within that allows us to remain anchored in our Lord. It’s a process of increased wholeness that comes as we listen to our Wonderful Counselor, trust in our Mighty God, draw close to the Creator of all, and follow however our Prince of Peace leads.

Sometimes, He encourages us to seek counseling. Other times He heals us through a song, sermon, encounter with a friend, or His miraculous touch. Regardless of the unique path we traverse with Him, John 10:10 assures us that He longs to see us thrive. When the road ahead seems impossibly steep and unclear, may we take comfort from His words in Psalm 32:8, when He said:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”

The more we align ourselves with His unique will for our lives, the greater our peace. That doesn’t mean we won’t experience pain or hardship. Rather, Jesus told us to expect the opposite. Our external circumstances will likely grow worse before they get better. Such is the result of living in a world that is still invaded by darkness and pervaded by sin. But the Bible also promises us that our suffering on this present earth won’t last forever because we are destined for unshakable, unbreakable joy.

This leads to an almost hidden but oh-so-powerful promise, tucked within the first pages of the Bible.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/SbytovaMN

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

According to David Guzik from the Enduring Word, the first part of this verse indicates the increased animosity we would feel toward the devil. The second phrase points to Jesus, born of a woman, who would one day crush, or terminally wound, our spiritual enemy.

He inflicted His first blow when He died on the cross and rose again. Colossians 2:15 states it like this:

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." 

This is also, in part, what God meant in Isaiah 61, when He said the Messiah would “proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1c).

His death and resurrection liberated you and me, His followers, from our slavery to sin and propelled us to freedom. He also gave us authority, as His redeemed children, to resist the devil and make him flee as we await his ultimate sentence to the eternal abyss.

As you can see, Christmas is much more than a festive time filled with tinsel, ribboned packages and twinkling lights. Nor do our celebrations solely highlight an event that occurred some 2,000 years ago. Instead, every time we light our advent candles, sing carols filled with biblical truth, and gaze upon a silent, starry, wintry night, may we rejoice in all the beautiful gifts God gave us through His Son while maintaining hope that the best is yet to come.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/jchizhe