Bible Verses Confirm Unborn Children are Alive, Active in the Womb Before Birth

As I’m refining a book on women and prophecy, I’ve been pondering the remarkable figure of Elizabeth, older relative to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Luke records that Elizabeth, along with her husband Zechariah, was “righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord (Luke 1:6).”

This is a high commendation for Elizabeth, clearly a woman of spiritual excellence. But despite her steadfast devotion to God, the joy of bearing and raising a child has eluded this praiseworthy woman—and now she is beyond her child-bearing years.

Or so it would seem.

When Elizabeth’s equally elderly husband Zechariah takes his turn with temple priestly duties, the angel Gabriel visits him and predicts the birth of a son to him and Elizabeth. Zechariah reacts with disbelief, for which he suffers temporary muteness as a consequence.

But just as the angel predicted, the barren, postmenopausal Elizabeth conceives a child. Despite the double barrier, the Lord has lifted her disgrace at last.

Meanwhile, Scripture describes Mary receiving a visitation from Gabriel as well. After processing this most unusual and rather distressing encounter, Mary, unlike Zechariah, responds with faith.

Since the angel let her know what is happening with Elizabeth, Mary sets out to visit her relative.

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We may imagine the scene this way:

Hands clasped around her protruding abdomen, the woman glows. Her smile deepens the lines on her weathered cheeks, betraying an age far beyond that of most women in her condition. But her age only heightens her joy, for the Lord has done the impossible for her. 

‘Just like Sarah,’ she whispers to herself, ‘Yahweh has replaced my bitterness and disgrace with great joy and wonder.’ 

Lost in worshipful meanderings, the old woman startles as a visitor appears in the doorway, greeting her by name. At the sound of her younger cousin’s voice, the child inside her lunges with Spirit-quickened joy. He recognizes the presence of the One in the younger woman’s womb. 

Before she can process the moment, the older woman bursts into prophecy about this One. In days to come, her prophetic utterance would be included in the pages of Scripture.

Elizabeth cries out,

“Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed!  How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me.  Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her! (Luke 1:42-45).”

Elizabeth recognizes the profound reality of something going on in her womb because of the Someone in Mary’s womb. Her own son, who would be known as John the Baptist, responds physically to the presence of the One for whom he would act as forerunner in days to come.

Before he can see him, before he can talk to him, John already knows him.

Elizabeth is too spiritually astute to think her son’s leap of joy is simply a coincidence. She is prompted by the Spirit of God to speak prophetically regarding the identity of Mary’s son, an identity confirmed by her own child’s response.

For those in life-affirming ministry, this astonishing passage of Scripture bears pondering.

Luke 1:39-45 is arguably the clearest instance in the Bible of activity within the womb. This passage tells us preborn children are not only alive before birth—they can be spiritually sensitive enough to recognize and confirm what God is up to!

I am reminded of the words of a friend who once said, “Children may be small, but their spirits are not.”

These verses seem to indicate exactly that.

The pro-abortion world wants to ignore the spiritual aspect of a preborn child.

Although every human being develops from zygote to embryo to fetus before being born as an infant, our spirits do not necessarily “grow” like our bodies do.

They simply are.

Consider this: Elizabeth’s boy John could not see or hear his cousin, nor was he developed enough to consciously react to Jesus’ presence. It was not John who recorded this incident, nor would he likely have remembered it later.

Yet as a fetus, he leaped with joy when Jesus—who was even less developed—entered the room inside his mother.

How do we know that’s what happened? Because the Holy Spirit prompted Luke to record Elizabeth’s prophecy.

This entire incident has nothing to do with fetal development and everything to do with spiritual reality.

Think of this as you do this life-affirming labor of love. The tiny persons you are reaching out to rescue already have a functioning spirit.

They are alive. They are aware of more than we may realize. They are each created in the image of God, and He loves every one of them.

Father, help us see the preborn as You do—as persons who are not only being fearfully and wonderfully made in the womb, but also as those with spiritual awareness. May we honor and value their lives always. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

LifeNews Note: Susanne Maynes writes for PregnancyHelpNews, where this originally appeared.

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