THE INN CROWD

PRELUDE TO THE INN CROWD

I spoke a couple of weeks ago about how God always steps in at critical times when God’s people are ready to come into a greater fullness of what God has prepared for them from the beginning. Just as he did with setting Israel free from their 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven he prophesied that in the last days before his second coming that Israel would be hated by all nations.                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Matthew 24:5 … you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake (happening now). And then many will be offended and will betray one another, and will hate one another (happening now). Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many (happening now). And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold (happening now). But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations (happening now), and then the end will come.
 
My prayer is that Australia will be a nation that will not hate Israel. It will mean a wake up call to our nation, which has failed in the last three years in curbing or disciplining the open displays of hatred towards Israel from their historical Middle East persecutors – and in our very own streets of Terra Australis – In 1606 the a Portuguese explorer, Pedro Ferdinand de Queros named the region La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo The Southland of the Holy Spirit - the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit. This may be a time when God is calling the Church to be in prayer for Israel.
I have looked at a couple of Scriptures over the years concerning the land of the South. I don’t have a revelation of this, but I ponder these Scriptures. I always come from a place of believing that nothing is written that does not have significance – I then ask God to reveal any significance in his time and in his way. I’ll submit these two Scriptures for you to look at. Jesus said 
Matthew 12:42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation (houtos – this or that) and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
That of course applies to that generation in the time of Jesus, but it also applies to the last days when Paul said that because of deceitful signs and wonders even the elect might be deceived (2Thessalonians 2:9). As in most cases the word of warnings apply to both Israel and the Church. (1Corinthians 10:11)
Also Zechariah 9:14 Then the LORD will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet,And go with whirlwinds from the south. The LORD of hosts will defend them;
And today, we find ourselves in a similar season of crisis in the earth when global darkness has never been darker upon a world of uncertainty, division, and spiritual disconnection. But in these times of empty-but-full silence, God speaks Suddenly - God’s people wait with hope as God is stirring the hearts of His people to hear his voice, knowing that God is never silent without purpose. Our silence can also be purposeful, and our waiting is with hope and faith that God is at work in reordering all things. 
God waits to speak.
Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you

THE INN CROWD 
Caesar Augustus as the emperor of Rome decreed that a census be held so that everyone in the empire could be taxed according to their property ownership and other possessions. They all had to go to their place of birth to be registered so Joseph who was of the house and lineage of King David had to take Mary to Bethlehem, to his family home. The Scriptures had prophesied that the true King of Peace would be born in Bethlehem at that very time, in a small village nearly five thousand miles distance from the palace of Caesar Augustus in Rome. And we read the amazing prophecy of Micah, over seven hundred years earlier that declared that Bethlehem would be the place of the birth of Jesus.

Micah 5:2. O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!” God will allow his people to become subject to their enemies until she who is to give birth has her son; then at last these fellow countrymen—the exile remnants of Israel—will rejoin their nation in their own land. And he (The Son) shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and his people shall remain there safely, for he will be greatly honoured all around the world. He will be our Peace. 

Joseph and Mary were sent to the right place at the right time for the birth of Jesus, fulfilling the seven-hundred-year-old prophesy of his birthplace, and becoming the King of Peace.
Joseph walked beside the donkey that carried his wife. He was getting weary, and the journey was tiresome for Mary, and he knew he had to get his wife to the place of his family’s household and out of the cold, and the time was getting close for her to give birth. They finally arrived at the family home where they were warmly welcomed and invited inside. The dwelling complex was the usual cluster of rooms surrounding a central courtyard and it became clear to Joseph that the house was overcrowded, and that all the guestrooms were occupied. The word for guestroom in the Bible is kataluma, and this is the word for ‘Inn’, as in Luke 22:11 which states in the narrative that ‘There was no room at the Inn’. So we are not talking about two travellers trying to book into a local tavern that had already filled its quota in such a busy season, and they did not have to go and look for a stable in some paddock up the road. What the story is saying is that Joseph and his wife would have to stay in the stable of the family home, downstairs, in that warm place where the animals slept and fed. 
Joseph saw the signs of the oncoming birth in the drawn face and the discomfort in Mary’s eyes and he settled her as quickly and gently as he could.  Then Mary gave birth to her child, and a baby cried its baby cry as it entered the world. Father’s joy in heaven would be echoed by Joseph in the earth, and he would now adopt the role of the child’s earthly father. 
On earth it was the natural and familiar scene of new birth. In the universe it was the most supernatural of any birth in history. It was also ordained that this birth would become the most celebrated event for all time, being celebrated annually by millions upon billions down through the ages, many of whom have scarce idea of what is really being celebrated.

Nearby, where shepherds were looking after their sheep upon the hills a huge shining star reached its zenith and was lighting up the entire night sky. The shepherds looked up in wonder at this light and suddenly the lights of shining angels dazzled them, and they became terrified and ran and huddled together. The Angel Gabriel appeared above them, sent to tell them of the birth of Jesus. He told them not to be afraid, and that he had great and marvellous news for them, for all the world to hear. He told them that they would find a child, the Newborn King of the universe, God the Saviour, wrapped in simple clothing in a nearby stable. Suddenly Gabriel was joined by a multitude of angels as the brilliant night sky resounded with their voices singing, and they listened enraptured at the magnificent words. “The glory of God is being seen in the heavens, and his love and goodness is creating a new era of peace for all mankind.” The angelic song about this new creation in the world was the magnificent sequel to the angels’ song of the first creation of the world as we read in the book of Job after God challenges Job and says ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? (Job 38:4,7,8).

When the angels’ singing had stopped, the shepherds were guided to the place where this extraordinary event was taking place in the earth. These simple shepherds became the emissaries to the world of the birth of this king of kings, this child, and all who heard them were astounded and amazed.

A great light shone upon a newborn child who would bring light into this world, to every person born into this world (John 1:9). And this light would be contested by darkness as always, but the conflict now rose to a new height. Time waited for the outcome, the verdict, the final encounter between light and darkness on a cross that would come one dark and stormy day. Time would wait until Father was ready, then this light would be released into the earth with the power to overcome darkness in every single life of faith.

God with us means more than just alongside us. It means he is within and through our being, and more than that, we are within and through his being. Jesus had declared this mystery of the human/ Divine intersection of life and being when he prayed to the Father in front of the  disciples “I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are— I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:22)
This Divine intersection of our being with God is how we get to ‘know God’. The Holy Spirit speaks into our spirit the mind and words of Jesus, and we ‘see and know’ Jesus in this way. Faith lets us speak to him as a person, person to person. 
1John 2:27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need to learn another person’s personal perception of God to know what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true.
This does not mean we disregard Scriptural teaching. This Scripture simply makes alive and real the personal and individual whisper of God into our spirit as the wisdom and understanding of the mind and heart of God that we need in any given situation and at any given time. That is what Jesus accomplished for us. That becomes the light to our path allowing us to express our unique and truest self in the best possible way. That is our faith.
Christmas waits to be truly celebrated within this understanding. We need to understand the story of the human beginning of Jesus. We also need to know the story of his redeeming work in the earth and we need to knowthe story of his death and resurrection, in order to know him and love him and serve him and become one with him forever. Amen.

Paul O’Sullivan  - pauloss@icloud.com