Recently, I heard someone speaking these scriptures about Mary, and they arrested me.

Luke 1:28 – 31 (NKJV) And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth…”

The angel came to give Mary her calling and he preceded it by naming her ‘highly favoured one’, and declaring that she was blessed among women! In other words, out of all of the women in the world, she had been chosen for this assignment. The Lord had looked for someone to fulfil this assignment and He had seen Mary. She was truly the highly favoured one in His eyes, for this assignment. Mary was astounded to be called this and to be thought of this way. In fact, it troubled her. She didn’t know what she had done to deserve that description of her – nor the favour of the assignment. And she also didn’t know it could possibly come to pass.

As the realisation of what was really happening in this scripture hit me, I heard Holy Spirit whisper to me that I needed to tell the lovers of His heart:

Be prepared for the same thing.

You see, every single one of us is highly favoured and blessed above all others, when it comes to the calling and assignment that the Lord has for us. Yes, Mary was called to conceive and birth the Saviour of the world, and you are each called to conceive and birth something else, and it is weighty and significant and world-changing and important. No matter what the Lord is calling you to do, it’s the only calling in the world given to a specific person. Each individual on this entire planet has an individual calling and therefore is highly favoured and blessed among all others – the very one the Lord is looking at to fulfil His specific assignment.

He knows who will trust Him and walk with Him to do it. He knows how He has pieced each person together in their mother’s womb, so that they are fitted and prepared with the strengths – in Him – to carry each assignment. He knows the dreams He has planted deep in the hearts of each person. And He is telling us that even if you’ve forgotten it’s there, He hasn’t forgotten. In fact, even if you thought you were nearing the end of your life, you’ve only just started. Whatever has been planted in your heart is irrevocable. It’s not going to go away. It’s crying out to be birthed!

I believe that we need to prepare our hearts. You are going to be hearing the voice of the Lord in the secret place – or you may have already heard His voice there. You’re going to hear or have already heard ‘favoured above all women’ for this calling. The Lord is going to come and deliver assignments to you – and they’re going to be so profound in the context of impact in this world, that you are going to initially feel ‘troubled’, like Mary, wondering ‘what manner of greeting’ this is, and being tempted to think you can’t do it or you don’t deserve it. You are going to struggle to believe it, because it will be so weighty. You may find the fact that something has been conceived within you, unbelievable. But it’s true. For nobody is alive without a calling… a dream to birth, planted in their heart by God Himself. Each one of us carries a Holy Spirit conception on the inside of us. It’s in the secret place that we discover what that is, and we discover how to walk with Him to birth it.

The Lord is a big thinker. There truly are no small callings. Even if someone believes they’re ‘only’ called to be a Mum, they are really called to raise world-changers and if you are called to raise world-changers, that means you are a world-changer, and the Lord will ask you to demonstrate what it looks like to change the world, to your children, as part of their training. If you’re called to be an intercessor, He wants to give you high level, global-impacting assignments and you might be in your lounge room but you could actually be bringing down demonic forces on the other side of the world, which have held generations captive, and liberating His people! Everything is big with God, and I believe that even where you’ve felt you understand your assignment, the Lord is coming to expand it and to show you what it looks like from HIS perspective, and the significance that is truly attached to it. He’s going to teach you how to never think small again. Not EVER! For smallness defies His Life within us. Smallness says it’s about who we are, not Who He is within us. Smallness has no concept of oneness – it’s a mindset which says we can only do what we’re capable of because we don’t realise in the depths of our being that we are one with the One Who created the universe and holds the world in the palm of His hand!

So, He’s preparing us today… forewarning us so that we seek Him for how to carry the weight of significance that is attached to the assignments He wants to give us. Because they’re going to come. The Lord is awakening and gathering together the Lovers of His heart – the pioneers. He knows that you have the capacity to receive the big things and to believe that God in you can do them!

Be prepared, it’s coming your way. And when it does, do not be afraid. He wants you to be able to say, “Behold, I am the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”