Pregnant with Promise

Happy Mother’s Day!

Greetings…

It is so wonderful to be here with each of you, those who mean so much to me, praying for you, loving you all from a distance. It is a real pleasure and joy to be here with you.

So special thanks to Pastor and Sister McQuinn for all their hospitality and love, and if you don’t know… Pastor McQuinn is my son, without him today wouldn’t be possible, I wouldn’t be a mom. One of the greatest roles I’ve enjoyed now for over 42 years.

Did you know it takes three people to create a beautiful child and make a woman a Mother?

It takes a husband and a wife, or a man and a woman AND it takes Almighty God!

People tend to forget that fact… and without God in the picture the even loses all meaning, It is just a physical act that produces a child…. Life has little meaning… but put God in the mix and wow, things change completely.

Jer.1:4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own]; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Putting Almighty God into the mix… creates a hope… a great hope… that the child being born has built within him or her, great promises, great giftings that only God himself knows of.

The greatest joy is that of planning for a birth of a child…

We hope, we plan… we create the nursery, we look at baby clothes, then the great day comes when we find out we are pregnant… then the joy really begins, as God begins to knit the child in it’s Mothers  womb, creating every detail with care and procision. Building into that child personal giftings and a promise. and a hope that only that child possesses.

New King James Version
Jer. 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

One of the greatest families of all time had the same hope… a promise was given to elderly couple that they would have a son… we all know the story…

Sarah Laughs at the Promise

Gen. 18:9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked.

“There, in the tent,” he replied.

10 Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!”

Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent.

11And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

12 So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

13 And the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’

14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”

15 But Sarah was afraid, so she denied it and said, “I did not laugh.”

“No,” replied the LORD, “but you did laugh.”

Sara laughed, and well she should have… can you imagine if Bro and Sister Demerchant called David and Amy and said, “We have something to tell you… we’re pregnant?”

Talk about a stir that would create… and it did for Abraham and Sara life as well….in their family, and the whole community… this was a miracle of no small feat… everyone in Abraham and Saras community would have known about it.

Gen 22:15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

This was a promise, a promise second to none… Sara was pregnant with a promise, a promise of a son whose seed that would become a great physical nation, which included birth the Messiah to create a great spiritual nation – the church, the New Jerusalem, the mother of us all!

Two Covenants

Gal.4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are [g]the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

So within the promise to Abraham.. we have great  promises, the promised nation, the promised Messiah, the birth of a Church, the New Jerusalem, the premise through Abrahams seed that every family would be blessed.

Can you imagine the hope and joy when Sara was carrying that child…

Pregnant with Promise – Each Individual

42 years ago today I was pregnant… a 17 year old married to a 20 year old and we were thrilled to be pregnant.

The “adults” and those around us were so nervous and scared for us… but for my husband and I as soon as we knew we were to have a little one, we had this joy filled grin on our faces… we had great hope for the future, hope for a healthy child, hope with a joy that sustained us through the pregnancy.

I was huge… could hardly find any clothes to fit…but so excited… I had more energy than I knew what to do with and felt great.

A promise of a child will do that… bring hope… bring excitement… the unknown… if it is a girl or a boy… what their life will be like… to have the opportunity to love a little one unconditionally.

I’ll never forget the powerful moment I met my son for the first time.

The birth had been a long and tough…ending in a c-section, so I didn’t get a chance to see him the moment he was born… I was told later when he was put in to his father’s arms, that his father wept with joy, a nurse who had known me since I was a child said, “Lois, you sure have one of the good ones”, speaking of my husband. I said, “I know.”

We were so young, but we also had a deep powerful unconditional love for this son and child that was placed in our arms, he brought so much joy and hope… and within him the Lord had build special gifts and promises, unique to him.

At that time the Lord was just beginning to lead me to the place of repentance… and even at the moment I held my son for the first time, the spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and set me free from the abuse of expectation or the condemnation of failure.

The Lord spoke a thought into my spirit the moment I held that beautiful 10 lb 3 ½ ounce baby boy, he said this, “You can do everything right, and this child could turn out wrong, or you can do everything wrong, and this child will turn out all right.” At that moment there was no mother abuse, no expectation of motherhood perfection, no fear of failure, no… I was free… free to love this precious child unconditionally and to pour my love into him. Certainly, I would make mistakes, certainly, I would do some things right, but the results of who and what this precious child would become was up to him and to the Lord. He was his own person; he was free to become all he could be.

He didn’t have to perform to be loved, he didn’t have to be anything he just had to be himself.

Many times, we forget that the Lord loves us unconditionally, religion teaches us to perform but the Lord just rejoices in us “being” … when I held that precious baby… he was loved just by being… God loves us just by being… and the church loves those new spiritual babies just by being!

We as parents just had to create an atmosphere for him to develop.

So we rejoiced… the joy of watching this precious child grow was amazing, we celebrated every victory, the first time he slept through the night – I was so spoiled, he was 10 days old. The first time he smiled, the first time he laughed, the first time he sat up, and walked, the day he held his precious little sister… and then the first time he said no to his mama… that was a tough day for our little man, but he manned up and got through it. His dad taught him to love to work at the young age,  when he was carrying in a stick of wood for the fire and his Dad was praising him up… his little chest swelled up, he was a man.

We were blessed in our little family, the Lord got ahold of us early, I was baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost at the ripe age of 18, after having this beautiful baby and a wonderful husband, the Lord began to work on my heart, and just 4 months after his birth I took the bible study Search for Truth and ended up at a Pentecostal altar weeping for five night before the Lord filled me with the Holy Ghost and then I was baptized in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, my husband knew it was right but didn’t come for a couple of years, I received my call to the ministry and prayed and fasted until finally the family was united in salvation…the promise God build into me was now becoming a reality

Pregnant with Promise – Each Family 

Then the promises really started coming fast and furious, the whole family then became pregnant with promise, the promise of ministry, the promise of souls, the promise of revival, the promises of multiple church plants… the family was pregnant with promise… and we laughed like Sara at the thought of all that the Lord was promising to us… but guess what…. it happened, it all happened!

We were blessed to help start a church in NB, and to help with two church plants, we saw 40 people saved in one week-end in our first revival, we saw 70 people saved in the second wave of revival.

Pregnant with Promise – Each person has  a Personal Ministry to be Birthed

I watched as that precious baby boy taught Bible studies at the ripe age of 10 under the old crab apple tree, and see his playmates come to church and be baptized in Jesus name and filled will the Holy Ghost. I saw at the age of 12 him begin a bus ministry, saying to his father and I, “You get me a bus and I’ll fill it”.

You see his ministry was all beginning and it was pregnant with promise, the promise of multiple souls.

We saw the family’s promises begin to come to fruition as we left for the west to fulfill the call of God and see three churches started there and though the number of souls saved slowed, we remained faithful to the promises of God…

As we planted the church in Outlook SK , and we watched as the church as a whole began to received her own promises…

Pregnant with Promise – The Church and its Promise

The promise of a revival…

The promise that it would take a while but not to worry in its time it would come to fruition.

Hab 2:2 Then the Lord answered me and said:

“Write the vision

And make it plain on tablets,

That he may run who reads it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come,

It will not tarry.

The promise that their would be streams going out from the church, a promise fulfilled in our children…

As a family we saw the Lord continue the promises as our children left for Bible school and to create their own lives with their own promises and ministries.

We saw them struggle to find their own place, their own ministries, the promises and giftings that the Lord had placed within each of them were now beginning to be birthed.

Pregnant with promise… and for every promise there is a day of delivery, there is the first pains, the breaking of the waters, the outpouring, then the birth and the celebration of new life!

We watched as the call for our son and his precious wife daughter led to this place, at this time and for this revival.

Pregnant with Promise – The promise of a city…

This church then became pregnant with promise…

This Church, the New Jerusalem, the Mother of us all… has the biblical promise… just like Sara… just like every mother, just like the church the promise of life, the promise of a mighty powerful endtime revival..,

Is 44; 23 “Shout for joy, infertile one, you who have not given birth to any child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.

The key is to believe the Lord and believe the prophet and you will prosper a promise given to the Outlook church that we share with Sudbury…

New King James Version

So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

This Church has the biblical promise… just like Sara… just like every mother, just like the church the promise of new life, the promise of a mighty powerful end time revival… the promise of a birth…

Is 54;1“Sing, O barren,

You who have not borne!

Break forth into singing, and cry aloud,

You who have not labored with child!

For more are the children of the desolate

Than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

2“Enlarge the place of your tent,

And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;

Do not spare;

Lengthen your cords,

And strengthen your stakes.

3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left,

And your descendants will inherit the nations,

And make the desolate cities inhabited.

4“Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed;

Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame;

For you will forget the shame of your youth,

And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.

5 For your Maker is your husband,

The Lord of hosts is His name;

And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel;

He is called the God of the whole earth.

This church is pregnant with promise … this church is pregnant with as yet unborn spiritual children… this church says the Lord will have more spiritual children, get ready,

For more are the children of the desolate

Than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,

And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;

Do not spare;

Lengthen your cords,

And strengthen your stakes.

3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations,

And make the desolate cities inhabited.

That womb is contracting, and the promise is about to be birthed, that promise is coming out of the darkness in to the light, it is coming from a place of death if it stays there to a place of glorious life.

It’s time for the promise to be birthed, the Church, this Church, this city… is pregnant and ready to give birth…

I will Pour Out My Spirit

(John 14:15-26; John 16:5-16; Acts 2:1-13; Acts 10:44-48; Acts 19:1-7)

Joel 2:28 KJV And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

29And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

30And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

32And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

King James Bible