Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of
Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.
I hope the following message challenges, encourages, and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
Turn with me to Luke Chapter 1. What we're going to do is I want
to start a series this morning, a Christmas series.
We're going to look at, you know, we, we talk about the wise
men. You know that you've heard of
the three wise men. Actually, Scripture doesn't say
there were three wise men. That's more tradition.
It may or may not be accurate. We don't know.
But that's not what I want to talk about.
I want to talk about the three wise women of Christmas.
There are three distinct ladies that are mentioned in the
Christmas story that are fascinating to me, and they
don't get enough press, They don't get enough emphasis.
Now, one of them gets a little more than the other, another one
a little more than the last one, and then the last one, she
doesn't get mentioned much at all.
So what we're going to look at over the next number of weeks is
we're going to look at the three wise women of Christmas.
We're going to look at, of course, Mary.
But before we get to Mary, we're going to look at Elizabeth this
morning. And we may not get all the way
through Elizabeth this morning, but you got Elizabeth, who
interestingly enough, was a woman well along in years
married. But Baron had never had
children. And so she was a woman that was
still married, but well along in years had wanted children and
never had children. So that was her state of
affairs. Then you have Mary, who was this
young teenager, a young virgin who had never known a man.
She was betrothed, but she had never, you know, she.
So we had this one who had a husband, had known a man but
never produced a child, this one who never had the opportunity.
She was betrothed. And then we have Anna, who was
well along in years and she was widowed.
So she, she had been married as a young woman was, we don't know
all the details to Anna's life, but Anna was a widow from her
very young years. And so even though she had been
married, she lost her husband early on and she dedicated her
life to fasting and prayer. It says she was a prophetess and
now she had dedicated all those years to prayer.
And I would propose to you that she had much to do with Jesus
birth as well. That all three of these ladies
had a role to play. And I don't want to get too far
ahead of us because we'll get into Anna later, but we need to
understand this, that Anna's decades of prayer paved the way
for Jesus arrival. When God moves, he doesn't move
in a vacuum. There is a human component to
every move of God. You know, we, we talk about, oh,
it was a sovereign move of God, a sovereign move of God.
I'm not really interested in the sovereign element of a move of
God. That's God's responsibility and
he will never shirk his responsibility.
You know, that we can count on him to fulfill his.
I want to know what our role is. What, what part do we play as
human beings? And Anna prayed for decades,
depending on the way you interpret her story, she could
have prayed up to 85 years as a widow or she was 85 by the time
this coming. She had been a widow from her
young years, but she had spent years.
So we have these, these three ladies in three distinct
circumstances, one who had gotten married, wanted children.
And we know that her and her husband Zachariah had prayed
because the Angel said the the Lord has heard your prayers.
The Angel came to them, came to him when he was in the temple.
And so you know that she got married, had all these dreams,
aspirations of a big family, wanted kids.
And now she's well along in years.
She's past her child bearing years and she's given up on
that. And that that's the circumstance
she finds herself. And we have Mary who's just
starting out this the the emerging generation and she was
the one through whom the Messiah came.
But we need to understand that these two anchor women, these
ladies who had gone before her, one who had been denied all
these years had had her hopes up and was denied.
And then the other who lost her husband and lived as a widow for
many decades but dedicated herself to fasting and prayer
and they had as much to do with Jesus birth.
There's a reason that Scripture talks about these two ladies,
because they had a part to play. If you read the Christmas story,
it's fascinating to me when you begin to read through this and
you realize on how many fronts the Lord is moving, there's all
these players in the narrative. I love Scripture and Scripture
is so poetic. And as you begin to read through
these stories, you begin to just, it's like good wood, fine
wood. If you begin to rub in the oil,
all of a sudden the grain comes to the surface.
These narratives, these stories in Scripture are just like that.
As you begin to just read over them again and again, all of a
sudden this, this emphasis emerges.
And the amazing thing is, depending on what the Lord's
wanting to speak to you and the time that you're reading it, a
different grain will emerge. And I've been just, I've been
polishing Luke chapter one for the last few days and just have
fallen in love with this story for the 1 millionth time.
So let's look at verse 5. Let's pray, Father, we just pray
this morning, God, that you would speak to us.
And Lord, I ask that over the next number of weeks that you
would drive home your ways for your people.
And Lord, I ask that you'd speak to us, that you'd encourage us,
You'd strengthen us, Lord, in our various circumstances, Lord,
that you would drive home the encouragement each of us needs
in Jesus name, Amen. All right, Luke chapter one,
verse 5, Listen to what it says. In the days of Herod, king of
Judah, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of
Abijah. Abijah.
And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name
was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and
statutes of the Lord. And so Luke is setting up this
scenario. He's kind of giving us the back
story, setting up the characters, and he's telling us
about what he's about to get into.
And he wants to make sure that we understand that this was a
righteous couple. They were walking blameless
before the Lord. And he even sets up the timing.
He says in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, he gives us
both the time and the place. The time was during the reign of
Herod. The place was in the Kingdom of
Judea. Now Herod that that's no small
thing when it says in the days of Herod.
Now those of you who watch a lot of news and are wringing your
hands and you lay up late at night worried about global
situations, I'm with you. I'm I can do the same thing.
I've got to be careful how much news I watch 'cause I can get
myself all worked up. My poor wife, she knows that I
don't watch TVI speak to the TV. So those of you that have a
spouse like that, pray for my wife.
This, this hour in which Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth and
Zechariah found themselves with was a very dark period of
history. You know, Herod was ruling over
Judea. Herod was not even really a
Jewish man. He was of the Hasmonean dynasty.
He was an Edomite and he was a politically savvy, ruthless
character. He was the one who built the
temple that we see now in Jerusalem, the Temple Mount.
If you go under the Temple Mount, it was fascinating.
When I was there a few years ago, we were down underneath the
Temple Mount and there were stones literally from here to
the other side of this room that were at least this tall to the
floor, 1 stone that were laid one on another.
I don't know how they did it, but they built this whole Temple
Mount. He was very savvy, but he also
built temples to some of the Caesars.
Herod was actually a friend of a Mark Anthony.
Now, he was an adversary of Mark Anthony's mistress Cleopatra.
But when Octavius, who would eventually become Caesar
Augustus, killed Mark Antony and drove, you know, conquered his
army, then Herod, being a very savvy politician, just pledged,
pledged his loyalty to him and even built cities after Caesarea
Philippi being one of them, you know, in in his honor.
And so he was a very politically savvy guy.
There was a saying with Herod that it was better to be his pig
than his son because you would live longer because at least you
would take the time to fatten his pigs.
And with his sons, you may not live very long.
He killed at least three of his sons and maybe more.
And the reason is because he felt threatened by his sons
being in his lineage. And so he'd just bump them off
so they couldn't take his place. The dude was nuts.
That era of human history. If you read about Roman history,
these guys were crazy. And this was the setting in
which the people of God in their promised land were occupied by
the Roman government and by vassal kings like Herod that
were ruthless people and they would crush any opposition
underneath them unless you wring your hands, you watch the news
and think, oh man, how what are we going to do?
Understand that this whole thing that called Christianity began
in a very dark part of human history, and it grew from there.
And so we have in the time of Herod in the in the the king of
Judea, there was a priest named Zachariah of the division of
Abuja and his wife had daughters from Aaron.
So Elizabeth was also, she was a cousin of Mary.
And we know that Mary and Joseph were both of the lineage of
David, whereas Elizabeth was in the Levitical line.
And so it's very likely that Jesus being born of those two
lines was of the priestly and the kingly line merging them.
We know he is the ultimate priest king in the order of
Melchizedek, the priest king. So just it's fascinating how the
Bible talks about all this lineage stuff because it really
does matter. God works generationally and so
we have this couple that have this They're from the priestly
line. Elizabeth is related to Mary,
who's of the Davidic line, and they were both righteous before
God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of
Lord. Why does the Bible mention that?
Because he wants to make sure we understand that because of
what's going to be said next. But there's a but in this story,
there is a however, in this story, the all the good things
that were happening. However, because Elizabeth was
barren both and both were advanced in years.
And so it says they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and
they both were advanced in years.
Now, I believe what the Bible says that it was Elizabeth.
But the fact is, and in ancient times, the women were always the
one who were to blame when when families had a hard time
conceiving a child, it was always just assumed it's the
lady. And so Elizabeth was barren and
they were both advanced in years.
So they had there was a double whammy.
There was a however, in this desire.
They were walking blameless, but yet she was barren.
And in the Jewish mindset, often those two things were at an
antithesis to one another. They thought that if somebody
wasn't able to produce a child, there must be something morally
wrong with them. They must be under a curse.
God must not be pleased with them.
But in this scenario, the Holy Spirit is very, very careful to
explain to us that they were blameless.
They walked before the Lord very righteously.
However, they had a double whammy.
Elizabeth was barren. She was unable to conceive.
And not only they had been praying that that situation be
overcome all these years, but now they've given up on that
prayer because now they were well advanced in years.
She was beyond her child bearing years.
And so this is the scenario we find ourself in.
It's very important for us to understand that often what we
look at as something, a defect in US or a demonic opposition
may find itself in the plan of God.
God ordained barrenness that God may have created something for a
purpose. Now let let me explain myself
here. Look at verse what is it verse 8
now while he was serving as priest.
So it says now it there there is nothing in Scripture that is
just by happenstance. OK, so every little word means
something. So when it says now in other
words, they had this long history of prayer of this they
they were married. You know, Zechariah, many even
even not religious rulers would counsel a guy to divorce his
wife if she wasn't able to produce children for them In the
Jewish world at that time, they would say, well, you're
defective. I'm going to find a woman who
can produce children for me. But Zechariah was a godly man
and Elizabeth was a godly woman. And they began to pray and years
of prayer. They prayed asking God for a
breakthrough. And now they find themselves
well advanced in years. And so they're beyond the child
bearing years. And but Zechariah is still
faithfully living with his wife and he's serving as a priest.
And then there was a point in time in which it says now there
was a moment in which they stepped into the destiny that
God had for them. And what we need to understand
about this story, and we're going to look at this in a
moment, is that the the, the barrenness was God ordained to
create something greater, you know, and Isaiah, it says many
are the children of the barren woman.
Sing aloud, cry aloud, You, O barren woman, for many are the
children of the barren womb. I would propose to you that not
only many, but great are the children of the barren room.
All through Scripture, we see these stories of couples who
wanted to have children and suddenly God intervened through
prayer and those children were great.
We need to ask ourself why. Why is it that there's something
unique about those children over and above the children that were
conceived in the normal ways? That's not to say that, you
know, I mean, David was conceived well, say, normal way.
It's likely David was conceived in an illicit relationship.
But there's something about these children that were born of
a barren situation. Why is that?
Well, let's read on here he says verse 8 while he was serving his
priest before God, when his division was on duty according
to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter
the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
Their their mindset, their understanding was that God would
choose the drawing of the lot. And that's why the last time we
see this happen was just before Pentecost when they were looking
for someone to replace Judas. After that, the apostles were
led by the Spirit. But before that they were
drawing lots saying, OK, God, we're going to kind of throw the
dice and you choose what you're going to do.
And God definitely orchestrated this.
It says that when the division was on duty, So there was the
now was marked by when his division was on duty and it was
according to the custom of the priesthood.
He was chosen by law to enter the temple of the Lorne and Bird
incense. And the whole multitude of the
people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
Now this is fascinating to me. Think about this, Zacharias.
He he he's had this whole long life living with this woman,
wanting kids and they've given up on that promise and he's
going through the motion, still serving God, keeping his heart
right. He's walking blameless before
the Lord. He's not not he's not allowed
himself to get bitter. They've not allowed it to come
between their relationship. They're living together.
They're serving the Lord. He's just I guess this is my lot
in life and I'm going to serve the Lord.
And he hits a now moment when all of a sudden his division is
chosen. There were, there were probably
15 to 1800 different priests. They, it was likely this was the
only time and it would have been rare for him to been chosen.
But that day he went into the presence of the Lord to burn
incense. Now incense, the incense burners
we know represented intercession.
It's the, the smell of intercession coming before the
throne. And it says that there were
people on the outside at the time of the burning of incense,
and Zechariah had gone into the temple to burn the incense.
So you had people outside praying.
And Zechariah goes before the Lord to pray, and all of a
sudden he's thrust into this angelic encounter with the Angel
Gabriel. And it says he was troubled and
great fear fell upon him. I imagine all these years he has
served faithfully. All these years he has gone
through the motions, being faithful, showing up, doing what
he's called to do. And the suddenly of God, he
crossed the line. And now you never know when
God's going to break in. You never know when God's about
to move. And what we've got to be careful
is that we assume that when we don't see the answer to our
prayer, when it seems like nothing's moving, we assume that
God's not heard or God said no. When in actuality, God was
moving this entire time. And there was an accumulation
literally of decades of prayer that we're going into what was
about to break loose. You said again, there was the
accumulation of decades of prayer that was invested in this
situation that was about ready to break loose.
And if we're not careful, we can become in bitter, disillusioned
or we can abandoned the request when God has been listening the
entire time. So Zechariah is standing there
and it says, and Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and
fear fell upon him. And the Angel said to him, do
not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.
And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall
call his name John. Let's just stop there.
I mean, that is those of you who are at that stage in life where
you know you ain't going to have any more kids.
Can you imagine hearing this? Can you imagine that would just
be, it would be terrifying. I I think there might have been
some fear that fell on him for more than one reason.
It may not just have been the Angel.
Can you imagine? I remember when we found out we
were going to have our youngest that's back there on the camera.
He was our, our, our final one. He's our surprise.
I was 40 years old when he was born.
I thought we were done. And it was a whole different
deal, man. He's, he's been, he's been the
easiest to, to be a father to. He's he's a great we.
Yeah. But man, I tell you what it was.
But we were still within our childbearing years.
We were just towards the end of it.
And Can you imagine hearing that now?
I would propose to you. I I don't, I I think there's a
reason that the Spirit of God instructed Luke to mention that
the people were outside praying when Zechariah went inside to
offer the incense of prayer. And that message of the Angel
was your prayers have been heard.
Now there's two possibilities. I, I very strongly believe it's
the there's two possibilities here to this prayer that the
Angel is alluding to it either that there he had been praying
all these years in spite of the fact that they were well past
their child rearing years. I doubt that that's the case.
I think what he was referring to is the prayers you prayed
decades ago, the prayers that you invested in this situation
all those years, they have never fallen to the ground.
They're still coming before the throne, and now is the time that
God's going to answer prayers you prayed decades ago.
Now, I don't know about you, but that encourages me.
Some of you need to be a little encouraged that there were some
prayers that you prayed decades ago that you already wrote off
as denied, that God is still working in those situations.
And often God doesn't work on our timetable.
And I think here's the thing, Zechariah had an encounter while
the people were on the outside praying.
I don't think it's in a coincidence that he had an
encounter when he was praying, but I think it very well may be
that what broke that Angel through in the encounter was
they were already they were all praying as well.
There are a lot of players in this narrative that are
mentioned by the the the writers of Scripture, and none of it is
insignificant. And so it was while the other
people were praying. Let me let me just land it for
you a little application here as your pastor.
I pray, but man, pray for me. I need those encounters for you
for your sake. I got away a few days ago or a
couple weeks ago for three days just to just to pray and and I
spent some time with the Lord. It was really good, but several
of you were praying for me and I appreciate that, especially as I
began to read this. I thought, man, isn't that
amazing that the author mentions they were all on the outside
praying while the priest went in to pray and he had this
encounter. I don't think that's just a
coincidence, something that's a side issue.
And there's a very specific reason that that Angel came at
that now moment at the time of prayer.
And he says to him, this, It puts a little fear of God on me
even to read this. Your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call
his name John, and you will have joy and gladness, and many will
rejoices at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord.
That's an interesting phrase, Great before the Lord.
The word there before the Lord is ENOPION Anyopon.
He says he will be great before the Lord and he must not drink
wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy
Spirit even from his mother's womb.
Almost as if there's some type of Nazarite vow this young child
will enter into and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even
from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children
of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go before him in the
spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
And what what the Angel is doing is he's drawing from 2 Old
Testament passages, one in Malachi and one in Isaiah and
saying, listen, the child that your wife is going to bear is
going to be the fulfillment of these two prophetic passages
that everybody has been waiting for.
It's an amazing thing to hear and it's interesting.
It says he'll be great before the Lord and he will go before
the Lord. And it's using the same word
because when someone is great before the the word, that word
means in the sight of or just before.
It's like someone you can see before you.
And so it's kind of a play on words.
He's going to be great in the sight of God when God looks at
him. God's estimation of John will be
this man is a great man. There are some people that God
looks at and and says that's a great man.
It's an amazing thing, but he would also go before the Lord
and pave the way for the Lord according to Isaiah.
And so he would be paved, he would be in the sight of the
Lord, but he's going to make away.
He's going to he's going to cut the path.
He's going to be the announcer that's going to go before the
Lord so that people will look for the 1 coming.
And Zechariah said to the Angel, how should I know this?
For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years.
And the Angel answered him, this is his answer, I am Gabriel and
I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you
and bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent
and unable to speak until the day of these things take place,
because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in
their time. He said, how can I know this
will happen? He really didn't answer the
question. He just said, you know who
you're talking to. I stand in God's presence.
And because you even ask that question, you will be silent.
I'm going to silence you so you don't speak your unbelief into
your wife's ear. There anybody else involved in
this situation. And he comes out and they're
waiting and waiting and waiting for Zechariah to come out and
finally comes out and he's motioning with his hands, but he
can't talk. And it said they perceived that
he had had a vision. They understood he had some kind
of encounter and lo and behold, his wife conceived after all
these years. It's an amazing thing.
And she it says that she for the first verse 24, for the first
five months, she kept herself hidden, which I wonder why.
I mean, is it was it that she was embarrassed at her age or
she, you know, she's hoping against hope, thinking is this,
is this real? We don't know.
But for five months she hid herself, and then finally it
says, look at verse 2026. Rather, in the sixth month, the
Angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee near
Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed. So for five months, Elizabeth is
hiding this thing she's not going on in public.
She's beginning to show. And she can't believe this.
All these years she's wanted a child, longed for a child, even
gave up praying for a child. And now she finds herself
pregnant. You know, she's she's part of
the season sisters group, but she's the only pregnant one in
the group. You know, she's like, what?
What group do I hang around with?
She's she's great with child 5th.
And it wasn't until she went public that the Angel then
visited Mary, her cousin. Isn't that interesting?
And the same Angel that visited her now visits her cousin.
And they both had a supernatural conception.
Both had a supernatural birth. There was the older one that
couldn't conceive. She she'd known intimacy, but
she we call it potency, we call it the Old Testament said the
first born son is the first sign of the father's strength.
So the ability to produce sons is a sign of the father's
strength in Jewish culture. And she knew intimacy, but she
didn't know power. She wasn't able to You conceive
and then you have this emerging generation, this young gal who
had never known intimacy. It's like the the emerging
generation in the church, this this older woman, she'd known
years of intimacy, but nothing had been produced.
And then this younger woman who she wasn't even married yet and
she was going to find herself with children.
Don't you find that interesting? Here's the one who went so much
longer than average. And this other one entered in
quick. She didn't even cross the finish
line of a wedding ceremony before she had conceived.
So what gives? And the Holy Spirit is obviously
connecting these two scenarios. They're cousins and as soon as
the Angel comes to Mary, he tells her what's going to happen
to her. The Holy Spirit is going to over
shadow you and you will be found with children.
And when Mary asks how will this be, she doesn't get rebuked like
Zachariah did. You're going to be silent.
He just explains to her what's going to happen.
Now we don't know if it was because of their their, the, the
posture of their hearts. Maybe Zachariah was cynical and
Mary was believing but questioning we don't know.
Or was it because Zechariah had more years in the faith and
shouldn't have been questioning? I don't know.
But he tags on to the end when when Gabriel talks to Mary, he
said, and he'll by the way, your cousin Elizabeth, she is in her
6th month and she hightails it over there to go see her cousin
Elizabeth. And when she walks in the room,
Elizabeth's baby jumps and her her baby is filled with the
spirit. And it's a picture of the
interaction between the generations of the faith, the
older generation who had gone before.
And here's here's a principle that's obvious from this
passage, that God will choose one generation that has to go
much longer than normal so the next generation can enter in
much earlier than normal. And what one generation paid the
price for the other generation got for free.
And what Elizabeth was carrying would actually pave the way for
what Mary was carrying because John would be the one who
prepares the way for the Lord, the one that Mary was carrying.
And there's this generational relationship in the body of
Christ that we need to understand.
And those of you who are older beyond those years where you're
having the dreams of the big family and all that, it may be
that may be a metaphor for some of the things you dreamed about
seeing your your life, God use you in such a way.
And now you're looking to think, well, I don't think that's going
to happen. Listen, it very well may be that
the reason those things didn't materialize in your life is
because your decades of prayer are actually being invested in
the next generation and together they're going to move into
something. And Jesus needed John.
John was the one that was prophesied that he'd prepare the
way for the Lord. Years ago, I woke up on a Monday
morning. Mondays are my day off and I was
just laying there in bed. So I grabbed my phone and pulled
up the Bible and I was reading and I was reading this story and
I read about how the Angel says that John will be filled with
the Spirit while still in his mother's womb.
Not amazing. My little brother was baptized
in the Spirit when he was six years old.
John had him beat way. He was he was a little human
embryo and he's in there, Shundai, he's having church
there. He was filled with the spirit in
his mother's. That's amazing.
And I remember reading that and I was just so, so struck by
that. And I didn't expect an answer,
but I said out loud to the Lord God, why don't you do that with
all of us? We could wrap this thing up by
Thursday, man, if you had a whole generation of John's that
we were all filled with the spirit from our mother's wombs.
What? Let's, let's see that happen.
And I just said it out loud to the Lord.
I didn't expect him to answer me.
And the Lord spoke to me and he said John was able to enter in
earlier than most because his mother and father entered much
later than most, that their decades of intercession over
their barrenness actually removed some of the barriers for
young John even before he was conceived.
Now, you might think, well, I don't know if that was the Lord.
You'll find out when we get to heaven.
I heard from God on that. So I got in my car.
I was, I was speaking at a, a ministry school out in Nebraska,
way out in central Nebraska later that day.
So I was driving out there and taught for did a couple
sessions. And then at the end I was just
praying over people and spirit of prophecy came on me and I was
prophesying over people. And this young man came forward
and I laid hands on him. And all of a sudden I felt led
to share with them that principle that I'd read that
morning. And when I began to share that
story with him, his jaw just dropped about hit the floor.
He said, I can't believe you're sharing this with me.
I always, he said my, my parents were always the oldest parents.
They wanted children for so many years and they could never have
a kid. And finally they were well into
their later, you know, that at the end of their childbearing
years, they've given up on ever having a kid.
And then I was born. I had these old parents and I
felt like the Lord had me share that with him as an
encouragement not only to him, but to me as well that there is
a principle. There are times where God will
birth a desire within your heart and then he will deny you longer
than most. But the reason for that denial
is there is a an accumulation of that intercession.
And there was something going on.
And if you look at you look at Samuel, Samuel was an uncommon
man. It says his words never fell to
the ground. He was the transition man
between the times of the judges and the kings, the David, the
Saul's reign to the Davidic house that still Jesus rules
from the throne of David to this day.
Saul was the man that was the pivot there.
He was that prophet, but he was the son of a barren womb.
You see it with Samson, you see it with John, these these
children that were born of unusual circumstances.
And what I'm saying this morning is this, that there may be times
you're praying for something and you see other people around you
stepping into things that you've longed to step into.
And it looks so normal for them. And it's like there's something
being withheld from you. And I want to encourage you this
morning that it just may be the hand of God because God is
investing the frustration and the intercession that's mounting
in something greater, a greater breakthrough.
And it just may be. There are times, we know from
Hebrews Chapter 11, that there are times where one generation
doesn't get to see the breakthrough, but it's visited
on the next generation. And when the Angel stood before
Zechariah and he said, Zechariah, your prayers have
been heard. That's an amazing thing.
A prayer that he had prayed decades earlier and given up on
was still coming before the throne of God, waiting for that
now moment so that God could trigger it.
And often we have our time frame and we can get disillusioned and
embittered or find all these excuses, feel like there's
something wrong with us. But in fact, God was
orchestrating something great. John, Jesus would later say, is
the greatest of the prophets. I believe one of the reasons
that John was able to do the things he did, why he entered in
so early on in his life, even as a child in his mother's womb, he
entered into the spirit filled life.
That's wild. He came out spirit filled.
I don't know, maybe he didn't cry when the doctor spanked him.
Thank you. And he had a real good attitude.
Thank you. I needed that.
You know, I'm just kidding. But I mean, just he was, he was
a spirit filled from the beginning.
But there were decades of intercession that preceded his
birth. And so the first of the wise
women of Christmas was one who had been denied for decades so
that God could mount something. And there these this
accumulation of intercession and prayer so that God could give
birth to a very unique man in human history.
You know, we, we read these stories, we think, oh, John was
a great man. I guess that was just God.
God just chose he'd be great. I believe God did.
But there was a whole lot of human interaction behind the
scenes. There were a lot of things that
were happening, and those are the things that you and I need
to understand. Amen.
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