Category: Devotions

God can use you

Luke 1: 26-28

“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

The most surprised girl in history was Mary. An ordinary girl who was visited by a mighty angel who had been sent by an extraordinary God.

The Bible is a history of God taking ordinary people and doing miracles through them. They weren’t special but they became special through what God did through them.

God will use people who say YES to Him despite their circumstances saying NO.

Everything around you can be saying NO, but it is what you say that matters.

Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph. It was a 2 year journey leading to the consummation of the marriage. The first year was as important as the second and the woman could only get out of it by a divorce. It was a fixed position. This announcement of a child would leave the circumstance saying NO.

God will use people who are chosen by Him. “…highly favoured” or uniquely privileged. No one in all of history is called or privileged to receive God’s grace except Mary.

Except …

“Highly favoured” in the original written language is used in the Bible one more time, in Ephesians 1: 4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” ‘Chose us’ is ‘highly favoured’. So the special greeting to Mary is the same that Paul uses for you and me.

You who are reading this devotion today are uniquely privileged, highly favoured and incredible chosen.

So today wherever you are and whatever you do God can and will use you, He just needs your YES. It doesn’t matter about the circumstance you are in, YES use me God is the answer, I am chosen by you!

Stages of the miracle

Luke 1: 23-25 “When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴ After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵ “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

 

When you journey through your miracle you will go through a few different stages.

1. You will feel isolated.

Elizabeth carried a miracle for 5 months in seclusion. Why?

Surely it was because she didn’t know how people would react. What would they say?

Perhaps it was herself who wondered whether she was able to carry the miracle to the fulfilment. Maybe she thought it would be best to not let people know, just in case.

Some would want the miracle-carriers to do the book tour and get onto the stages very early on in the 5 months. “Confess your miracle” comes the shout of the crowd. Ignore them!

So not only was her husband now silent, Elizabeth was now not seen. They were well and truly hidden.

2. You will feel imperfect.

This may last the whole time of carrying the miracle.

Her husband was still mute, a sign to the miracle that unbelief and weakness needs to be silenced.

It will not be perfect.

3. You will be inspired.

The month after a young teenage family member came to see her. Her name was Mary and she had some news also! God will always have people in the latter stages of your miracle who will come to strengthen you.

THE POWER OF THE MEANWHILE

Luke 1: 21-24

 ^“Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²² When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. ²³ When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴ After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.”

 

At the same time as you are doing what you are doing, whether you are in success or struggling when perhaps the centre stage is the whole stage and you see no one else or nothing changing, remember this word: Meanwhile.

Meanwhile … the people were wondering … and Elizabeth was waiting and in her waiting she was being prepared for Zechariah. God was working in her womb, making her fertile for the very first time, waiting for her now dumb husband to come home to her.

You don’t see it all.

You are only part of God’s story not the other way round.

In His story He has many people and He moves them into place.

You may have lost out.

You may be struggling in that place.

But it may not be how it is for much longer.

There are things happening right now that you do not even see or could possibly imagine.

Things are shifting, circumstances are changing for other people, preparations are taking place, do not give up hope.

You are part of the community of God who believe in this: THE POWER OF MEANWHILE.

Tomorrow, Sunday, social media will be alive of what God has done in many church services that day. Meanwhile at the same time in other places of the world Christians flee from their homes, Church buildings are being burnt and further threats to those who witness we being made.
Should we assume that God is in one place but not the other? No.
Should we be careful not to be too happy in one place out of respect for the other? No.
You see, MEANWHILE is just how life is and how God works.
God is working the story of this world.
In one place it is good, meanwhile in another place it is bad. However, God is in control of both. He is working His story on the earth. We will one day look back and see how He wove it altogether.
So what do we do? We rejoice with them that rejoice and we mourn with them that mourn. We realise that whatever is taking place we cannot generalise and say this is what is happening all over the world nor should it, for in the meanwhile, God may be doing something very different and maybe allowing something very shocking to take place as the chapters of this amazing life are being written.

At the same time the people were outside of the experience of heaven that Zechariah was having. He was inside and they were outside.

1. One man was having an experience and meanwhile the people were waiting.
2. One couple had prayed for years and meanwhile God was waiting till they were past all possibility.
3. One man had forgotten about the prayers of old and meanwhile God was choosing him miraculously to enter the Holy of Holies.
4. One man performed his duty as all the previous priests had done and meanwhile God was sending Gabriel to him.

Which part of the meanwhile are you in? Where are you?

If you abandon ship now because it doesn’t make sense then you have not understood THE POWER OF THE MEANWHILE.

Learn to be a sign for your miracle.

Luke 1: 20 “And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

 

Let’s not be too hard on this old, righteous and good man.

Zechariah asks for a sign that this amazingly great news and answer to a very old prayer of theirs would actually come true. Wouldn’t we? Yes we would.

So the sign is given. Where is the sign> Zechariah wasn’t expecting that he would be the sign! It isn’t a punishment, it is a grace. “You will be silent”.

Some miracles need silence.

Maybe we also need to shut up and stop thinking of all the reasons why something cannot happen and be prepared to be part of an amazing story.

Zechariah had to complete his duty in the Temple and then go outside to meet the worshippers. He then had to go home and sleep with his wife Elizabeth. This was not the Immaculate Conception. He would then have to wait the 9 month period. In all of this he needed to be silent. If he had kept voicing his concerns then it would have affected the story.

Shut up and do what you have to do.

Be a sign for your miracle.

The presence is everything.

Luke 1:18 “Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.”

Zechariah was standing in the holiest symbolic place of the presence of God but he wasn’t standing in the presence and it showed.

We can gather at many altars and perform a variety of liturgies. We can arrange our artefacts around us. We can position our Temple furniture and we can perform our duty of worship. Yet in all of that we can have let go of the old dreams, the prayers that are now not prayed and the hope that has disappeared.

You see, the answer is always the presence of God.

The presence keeps dreams new, prayers fresh and hope alive.

We need visitations from angels or people who have been standing in the presence of God.

Surround yourself with the presence of God.

The presence is everything.

You cannot imagine what God can do for you.

Luke 1: 14-17

7 faith statements:

1. What I ask for is always less than what He can give.

“Many will rejoice because of his birth”

2. When God answers my prayer the blessing will go beyond me.

“For he will be great in the sight of the Lord”

3. Whatever God gives to me belongs to Him.

“He is never to take wine or other fermented drink” (the Nazirite vow which consecrated Him to God)

4. God is always bigger than what I think I know and understand often leaving me wondering.

“He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born”

5. When God gives it is more about presence than protection or provision.

“He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God”

6. God never forgets the people of the past and the anointing of the present can be even greater than that of yesterday.

“And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah”

7. The purpose of God is to prepare for Him coming. It is all about presence.

“To make ready a people prepared for the Lord”

Luke 1: 14-17 “He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

They wanted a child but God would do more than anyone could imagine.

DO NOT BE AFRAID

Luke 1:13 “But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.”

We can stop being afraid. Gabriel tells Zechariah to stop. He wouldn’t command that if it wasn’t possible to do. It is possible. Fear can be stopped.

Fear needs to be stopped because it paralyses us from moving. Zechariah would have to begin to move because God was already moving.

Gabriel then shows Zechariah how to stop being afraid:

1. Know that God has heard the prayer you have prayed.

Which prayer? He has heard them all.

• The prayers of old. The ones said in your youth.
• The forgotten prayers. Those that now don’t seem that important anymore.

 

2. Know that God can.

What can God do?

• He can override the natural. He can embarrass common sense. He can make a mockery of the wisest most intelligent brains in the world.
• He can wait way too long so that the impossible (Elizabeth was barren) is now even impossible (she is now too old) and everyone who could claim they had a part to play in this prayer being answered has long gone, leaving only God Himself. The one left gets the glory.

 

3. Know that you have work to do

Fear is stopped when we know we are still part of His story.

• It is the work of grace. The work is to set apart what God gives you. Zechariah was to give his son the identity ‘Yahweh is gracious’. We need to set our lives apart for grace. 500 years before Zechariah there was a prophet of the same name. He was struggling to motivate the people to build the temple and so again an angel comes to his help with a message: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.  ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ Zechariah 4: 6-7. God works through grace and it is the work He wants us involved in. It is the only way.
• It is to let go of pride and control. Zechariah was not to call his son after himself, something that would lead to an argument later with other people, but John. His son would not be fashioned after him. He had to release him to follow a different path. Zechariah had to let go.

 

These are the 3 things that helped Zechariah be free of fear.

He has heard you.

He can.

He has work for you.

Gripped with fear

Luke 1: 12 “When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.”

Whenever Gabriel appears there is the same response. Whether with Daniel in 8:17 or Mary later in Luke 1:30 or here with Zechariah, each one were greatly afraid.

Daniel described Gabriel’s appearance in 10: 6 “His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.” Reading that we can understand how Zechariah was paralysed with fear.

Today everywhere in the world ordinary people will get the fright of their life.

The doctor will call them with news. Their boss will say “Come into my office, we need to talk.” The list is endless. The outcome is either that the startled listener will run away, bury their head in the sand and not want to think about it anymore or they will react and fight with all their might with a rage that reveals this life is unfair and there is no justice in the world. Those 2 responses are common and understandable. We would never criticise someone who reacts like that. But there is another way. It is to be gripped with fear.

If today you are simply in shock, you are frozen, unable to think properly or move normally, if you are in auto-pilot, gripped with fear, then perhaps you are perfectly positioned to hear God.

God needs to give Zechariah a message. God has a plan, it is audacious, the greatest thing that has and will ever happen, it is for mankind and it starts with a prayer that Zechariah and his wife held on to. How does God choose to communicate that to Zechariah in order that the message is not aborted by Zechariah ruining it before it has begun? He does it by sending Gabriel knowing that if He does, then Zechariah has a number of response options. Zechariah has the opportunity to run through the curtain and out of the Temple at top-speed or try and hit Gabriel with the seven-branched golden lampstand which is at hand or and as we know what he decides to do, to stop doing what he is doing, be overwhelmed with what is before him and above all to listen carefully to what might be said.

To be gripped with fear is to try and ascertain what is before you, is it friend or foe?

To be gripped with fear is to stop doing life at the speed you were doing it at.

To be gripped with fear is to pay attention to what really does matter right now.

To be gripped with fear is temporary.

To be gripped with fear in the presence of Heaven is okay because the first thing that will happen is that the presence will work with you to lift off this fear so that you can hear revelation.

To be gripped with fear in the presence of Heaven is the safest place to be.

To be gripped with fear in the presence indicates you have been chosen and appointed.

Do you get it? We worship, we pray, we long for the presence and the majority of times the presence comes with a kiss. But there are days when Gabriel comes and when he comes the kiss turns to fear. And that is okay. Presence is all that is needed. He is here. He is with you.

 

Heaven arrives.

Luke 1: 11  “Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.”

Zechariah has been chosen to go into the Holy of Holies of the Temple. He is alone, He is being careful to do all that the priest should do. He has poured the incense on to the fire. Symbolism is all around him. He has prayed and so have the people outside for the protection of Israel and for the coming Messiah. What he doesn’t realise is that all the artefacts around him have their central meaning in Christ, the whole of the Temple was a picture of Jesus.

Zechariah was before the altar of incense. The place symbolic of the prayers of people rising to God.

Today, all around the world Churches of every description who meet in huge buildings, small homes and under trees will gather together at the altar of incense and offer up their cries to God, they will worship Him and long for Him to come to help them. I will be there will you?

It is not beyond the impossibility that there will be strangers in that place with you. Where did he come from? I am not sure, he just appeared! Zechariah was clear that an angel had appeared, he even knew where he was standing, the detail will never be forgotten and (we will read later) his name is Gabriel.

Angels are not fat little babies with wings, they are full-grown adults.

They are stronger than us and they have greater knowledge.

They appear in bodies but also whole armies can be missed as in the case with Elisha’s servant.

They are worshippers as Revelation shows us.

They direct individuals, like Joseph in Matthew 1-2 and Philip in Acts 8.

They helped Christ after his temptations and they help us in impossibilities like when the apostles were in prison in Acts 5 and 12.

They strengthened Jesus, the apostles and Paul and they strengthen us too.

In fact Gabriel means ‘strong man of God’ or ‘God is my fortress.’

Gabriel appears by name 4 times; twice to Daniel interpreting his visions, once to Mary to tell her of Jesus and of course to this ordinary man to tell him of a son to come.

Today friends, wherever you are, God knows. He knows whether you are in exile far from where you should be trying to understand the times you are in and more importantly the dreams and visions you are having. He knows whether you are an ordinary girl who is just going about her normal duties. And he knows whether today you have been chosen to go into a place where most don’t go, the holy of holies, where death is possible and where prayers are on your lips and the fragrance of worship is rising. The fact that He knows where you are means He also knows what you need. If you need Gabriel then that is who will be sent. If you need the Spirit of God that is what will come. But He can come and He will come. Today. You don’t need to worry about tomorrow. You are here today, in this moment, at the altar, the fire is lit for today, the incense has been poured for today. That is enough. Today is all you need and here He is, He is here with you. Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord.

 

Will you go to the altar of incense?

Luke 1: 10

“And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside.”

He had passed through the veil into the holy of holies in the Temple. This was a no entry place except for this day, this moment. It is difficult for us to appreciate the hallowed atmosphere. It was possible to die here if you had the wrong motive (Leviticus 16:13). But it was here that God had said He would be met when the incense was poured out (Exodus 25:22).

Zechariah is chosen to go into the most privileged place, the presence of God. He is alone in the place of sacrifice. He longs for the Messiah to come but he doesn’t realise how close Jesus is. He pours the incense on the altar. The place is filled with a beautiful fragrance.

Moses had heard from God, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the Lord. Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people.” Exodus 30:34-38

The incense was not for the enjoyment of the people it was for God. But the beautiful smell was the signal that God was there meeting with them and it was then that they would pray. Maybe they thought the incense attracted God to them, a sign for Him to come?

Outside everyone is praying, the fragrance of the incense has reached them. Inside, alone, is a man chosen by God having the experience of sacrifice.

Maybe today you are having the experience of sacrifice?

You may feel alone, chosen, but facing a lonely path.

What you do, how you respond, your approach is crucial to this moment which is not only about you but about those gathered outside.

What I know is this: the moment is always bigger than you. A greater significance, a greater working of God. It is never only about now.

Of course we have a High Priest who has gone this way. He is our Shepherd who lays his life down for His sheep. He is Jesus. He is not in a Temple made by man but He has ascended to heaven’s Temple and is appearing on our behalf. (Hebrews 9:24) What is Jesus doing right now? He is taking the prayers of His people, yours and mine (Revelations 5:8). He was the sacrifice. He paid the price. He took the cup of suffering. He was obedient to God’s plan.

Today, Jesus knows the path of loneliness, of loss, of grief and of pain and he is praying for you and receiving your prayers.

For now, it is you, it is Zechariah, pouring incense, a sign of prayer, His presence, longing desire, worship, alone. He is being Christ-like even if he doesn’t realise it. It is what we are called to be. The world is watching and many are praying. What happens with you at the altar is crucial. It is never only about you, it is always for a bigger purpose.