A PREGNANT SILENCEMany times, God has spoken after long periods of silence. There were 400 years of silence after the prophet Malachi spoke in the last book of the Old Testament, and then John the Baptist and Jesus were supernaturally born into the earth. there were also 400 years of silence during the time of Israel’s slavery in Egypt under Pharoah until God spoke to Moses to set his people free and prepare to journey into the promised land. The number 400 in the Bible speaks of these seasons of Pregnant Silence, which can be described as a time of silence when all communication is suspended and that time feels both empty and yet strangely full, filled with anticipation that something important is about to be spoken or revealed. For about four thousand years after Adam when Jesus was born the earth had suffered under the weight of its brokenness. Humanity was lost, unable to heal itself. Suspicion and hostility toward Father God, sown by Lucifer, had led to a distorted view of God in the earth, and many saw Him as distant and judgmental, and even Judaism opposed itself from within through doctrines of legalism and hypocrisy and pride. This distancing of Israel from the love and grace of God caused Jesus to tell them at that time that they had ‘missed their day of visitation’ (Luk 19:44). Galilee of the Gentiles was the battlefield of good against evil and of light against darkness, as Isaiah had prophesied concerning the birth of Jesus as the light out of darkness and the new birth of life out of death.In Galilee of the Gentiles the people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light.Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. (Isaiah 9:1-2. God had a greater answer—not a set of rituals or rules, but Himself. Jesus, as God and man, would bridge the gap between heaven and earth. He would step out of eternity and into time, exchanging pure Spirit existence for divine/human existence as the first New Creation Being in the earth. In this great mission, the Holy Spirit played an essential role. The Holy Spirit partnered with Jesus, sharing every moment of His earthly life. This partnership ensured that the Holy Spirit too would intimately experience human existence. After Jesus completed His mission, the Holy Spirit would continue the work of revealing God’s love - and drawing humanity into communion with the Divine so that we too could become a New Creation in Christ. To begin this new chapter, God sent a divine Spiritual seed into the earth, choosing Mary, a young and humble woman, to receive it. The angel Gabriel appeared to her, announcing that she had been chosen to become pregnant and bear the God-child Jesus, and he reassured her that this was God’s will. Although Mary was initially confused, having never been with a man, Gabriel explained that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and she would conceive a child by divine power, and Mary, in faith and humility, responded, “Let it be done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary was betrothed to a man called Joseph and in the cultural context of Mary and Joseph, betrothal was a formal, legal agreement between families, often formalized with a written contract (ketubah) and the couple was considered legally married, but if there was a breach of honour to that contract, either party could initiate divorce proceedings.  When Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant with child, he was deeply troubled, but he resolved to act with compassion, planning to quietly divorce her (Matthew 1:19). However, the angel Gabrielle also appeared to him in a dream, telling him that Mary’s child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would save His people from their sins. Joseph obeyed the angel’s command, and he took Mary as his wife. Six months earlier a priestly prophet named Zechariah was told by the same angel Gabrielle that his wife Elizabeth who was beyond the age of childbearing, would also supernaturally give birth to a child and