Good Morning Gorgeous,
It’s a brand new day. A fresh new start, and all things are becoming new!
It’s December 1st, and the Christmas Season is officially in full swing. The radios are blaring Christmas Music, the stores are filled with activity, and each day another house on my street puts up their lights.
Each year I write a blog post each day for Advent. This year I am going to read a chapter of Luke each day and write about it.
There are 24 chapters in the book of Luke so you can read one chapter a day, and that will bring you right to Christmas Eve.
The author of the book of Luke was a doctor. He was not a disciple of Jesus, but he spent alot of time with Paul as well as the disciples and others who had been with Jesus. He wrote the book of Luke from interviewing lots of eyewitnesses.
Luke also wrote the book of Acts which chronicles another precious birth, the birth of the church.
And being a doctor and one who set out to write what Luke calls, “an orderly account”, he includes details the other gospels don’t. He details the miracle of both John the Baptist’s conception and Jesus’s conception. He details the conversations both Mary and Zechariah have with the angel Gabriel when he announces what is about to happen to each of them.
The angel appears to Zechariah first. And what was supposed to be a common thing, the lighting of the incense and praying to God as part of his priestly duties, suddenly became supernaturally charged and his regular duty was now a place of powerful visitation.
Luke describes Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth as righteous and upright before the Lord. They were obedient to His Word even in the midst of the ache of not having children. Their hearts had not turned bitter even though they had been so faithful and yet remained without the blessing of children. In that culture it was a major stigma. It came with the assumption that there was some secret sin that led to a curse from God causing your barrenness. Yet, this couple remained FAITHFUL.
And we now know, God was not withholding blessing from them! He was waiting for the appointed moment! A moment that was planned before the foundation of the whole earth!
Their baby boy was to be the announcer for the LORD HIMSELF. He was to be the voice crying out, “The Lord has come. He’s here. Turn. Repent. Be ready to receive.”
What. An. Honor.
To raise the very child that would be the one to prepare the hearts of the people for the Lord Jesus and His message.
The Lord would select parents who were trustworthy to raise up such a honorable man. Parents who would train him up to revere the Lord, follow the special instructions from the angel Gabriel that he was not to drink anything alcoholic. This child was to be set apart and even his conception would be a miracle that would testify of the power of God. Even the way John was to be conceived to elderly parents would make the peoples’ hearts start to shift from complacency to awe and reverence.
So their wait was not God withholding FROM them, but instead holding something very special FOR them. A very unique assignment. And to have given them a child too soon would have been the wrong time for John’s supernatural assignment of preparing the way for Jesus!
Mary has to become at least child bearing age before John can enter the scene. John will be the cousin of Jesus and they will grow up knowing eachother.
The Lord has had His eyes on this family for a very long time, and the time for fulfillment of promise is….. finally here.
After Elizabeth and Zechariah conceive John, the angel Gabriel visits Mary next.
She has not been waiting for a child as Elizabeth has. Actually the timing couldn’t appear to be any worse for her than now. She is engaged to be married.
Nonetheless, she so beautifully surrenders to the plans of God and accepts the divine destiny to bear the Messiah. This means stigma, controversy, and loss for her. She’s a good girl. She has found favor with the Lord because she is pure in heart and she is most likely known to be a sweet, good girl. Her yes to the plans of God will change many peoples’ perception of her, her family, and her soon to be husband, Joseph.
People will talk. They won’t believe her. Her reputation will be ruined, and yet she says yes with almost no hesitation. Just childlike curiosity… how?
And the angel answers her question and tells her how supernaturally by way of the Holy Spirit, she would conceive.
She says the most amazing words of surrender.. “Let it be unto me as you have said.”
And just like that with those words she steps into the plans of God for her life. She is changed. Her family is changed. And her yes creates space for all of humanity to be changed.
These two accounts in Luke 1 can represent two challenging parts of our Christian walk.
1. The waiting season. (Zechariah)
2. Saying yes to the call of God on your life even when it may cost you everything. (Mary)
What is the Lord asking of you today? In what area is the Lord giving you an assignment and He is waiting for you to say, “Let it be done unto me.”
Your yes will usher in supernatural miracles! Your surrender is the key to the next part of your journey with Christ.
What regular duties are you doing today as you wait for breakthrough that can become a place of Holy visitation?
In the waiting season even when you’ve been crying out for your miraculous breakthrough, stay faithful. Continue to show up in what feels like ordinary. The Lord sees you. He sees you, and at the appointed hour, He will call forth your miracle.
Dear Heavenly Father,
What a JOY to read of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. You had this all planned out! You had it planned all along. The timing, the people, the moment the silence would be broken! And we praise You for the miracle of our Lord leaving heaven to come and be born the most humble birth in the most miraculous of ways! May we be in awe and wonder today! May we soak up these accounts in Luke and realize what a miracle working God we see serve!
In Jesus’s Name, Amen.
Blessings!
Vanessa Lynn
