Note 4 at Lk. 1:38: Jesus is the Word of God (see note 2 at Jn. 1:1, p. 2). John 1:14 says, "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." First Peter 1:23 calls God's Word an incorruptible seed (Gk.-"spora" or sperm). When Mary humbled herself and received the Word of God here, she received Jesus into her womb and that's how she conceived. God's Word became the sperm instead of the sperm of a man.

God originally created mankind by speaking them into existence (Gen. 1:26). Jesus' physical body was created the same way. However, after the fall of man, God no longer had direct access to the affairs of men. He had given authority over this earth to mankind (see note 11 at Jn. 5:27, p. 98). Therefore, He had to find men who had physical bodies who would hear His voice in their hearts and then speak His word through their mouths.

No one man was capable of receiving all the revelation that God had about the coming of His Son, so it took thousands of years for God to speak everything that needed to be spoken to create the physical body that Jesus was to inhabit. But when the fullness of time was come (Gal. 4:4), God sent the angel to Mary to announce that she was the one chosen to provide the physical body for Jesus.

When she received God's Word, then the Holy Spirit took all the inspired words spoken about Jesus throughout history and implanted them in her womb, providing the sperm whereby she conceived.

We receive salvation in a similar manner. God has promises in His Word for our every need. When we mix our faith with a promise of God's Word, then that Word becomes a seed in our spiritual womb and we conceive our answer. After a period of time, we actually see in the physical what we were believing for. When we see it, isn't when we actually received it. We receive "when we pray" and then we "shall have them" (Mk. 11:24).