MERRY TUESDAY WITH PARRIS
Zachariah replied to the angel, “Do you expect me to believe this? I’m an old man and my wife is an old woman.” Luke 1:18
Sunday morning while reading Luke, I felt the Lord really get my attention.
Lk.1:8 – “It so happened that as Zachariah was carrying out his priestly duties before God, working the shift assigned to his regiment, it came his one turn in life to enter the sanctuary of God and burn incense.”
A couple of things stand out here in this verse. For starters Zachariah was carrying out his duties and working his shift. By the way, some 15 million Americans have shift work! But that is how it happens doesn’t it? A Gabriel interrupts us and we are unprepared for the moment.
A. B. Simpson has lots to say about this. “Zechariah represented the priesthood of Israel, and his unbelief was just a type of the unbelief of the nation in the coming Messiah, and the judgment upon that priesthood for its unbelief. Israel was to be silenced as the messenger of God because she had failed to be true to her divine commission and to believe the gospel of which she had been made the trustee, and God was to put her aside and choose instead a new body of inspired messengers. And so God will silence every voice that fails to honor His well-beloved Son, and honor every voice that bears witness to Jesus Christ!” WOW!
But the angel said, “I am Gabriel, the sentinel of God, sent especially to bring you this glad news. But because you won’t believe me, you’ll be unable to say a word until the day of your son’s birth. Every word I’ve spoken to you will come true on time—God’s time.”
Isn’t it amazing how the Lord will shut us down, take away our voice, our vision, our dreams, if we don’t allow him to be on His timeframe?
Lk.1:57-64 – “When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she gave birth to a son. On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: No. He is to be called John. But, they said, no one in your family is named that. They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named. Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, “His name is to be John.” That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah’s mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!”
I believe that we will come full term with what the Lord has given to us! It will be in his time and we need to stay a mouthpiece for God and not let anyone or anything take away our dream or voice or vision. His name is John are such powerful words! Elizabeth became full term with her dream and said decisively HIS NAME IS JOHN! By the time it got around to Zachariah who had been pent up for nine months he was overflowing! He grabbed a tablet and wrote HIS NAME IS JOHN AND HIS TONGUE WAS LOOSED AND THE HOLY SPIRIT POURED OUT!
I don’t know whatever you are facing but I’m telling you the angel Gabriel has been sent to you and your response should always be……HIS NAME IS JOHN!