“That thou mightest know the  certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea a certain priest named Zacharias, of the house of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

And they had no child, because Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years (old).

And it came to pass, that while he executed (served) the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

And the whole multitude of the people were praying without (outside) at the time (hour) of incense.

And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth.

For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall neither drink wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 

And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 

And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby (How) shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife is well stricken in years.

And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew (show) these  glad  tidings,

And behold, thou shalt be dumb (mute), and not be able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall  be fulfilled in their season.”  Luke 1:4-20

I wanted to stop for just a sec, and tell you something, this is a great example of why we shouldn’t always be so quick to beat ourselves up when we sometimes struggle with our own faith.

Dude here, had Gabriel, the angel Gabriel himself standing there, coming on divine assignment from God himself and still he questioned the good news that he had been given, but in his mind, he just struggled with he and Elisabeth’s age, but again gives us yet another wonderful example that age is nothing to God, and impossible is a strictly human word, a word that is not in God’s vocabulary.

As we read, because of his doubt, because he doubted an angel himself, he would be speechless until John was born.

Luke 18:27: “And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

As it had been on my heart to do thirty days of the basics, the fundamental teachings and stories of Christ, because to be honest there are so many jacked up twisted versions of what they want to call the Gopsel being taught and spread that it horrifies me.

2 Peter 3:16: ” As also in all his epistles speaking in them these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned (untaught) and unstable wrest (twist) as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction.”

Two vital words there unlearned, which means untaught, and unstable. This is referencing those whom we have spoken of in posts past, that whether they even realize or even take it seriously, that by engaging the word of God and using his name and holding “services” completely unrepentant and in complete abomination to him is one of the most dangerous things any human being can do and if they go to far over that line, through their not even understanding his holiness, they could endanger their souls to the point of no forgiveness.

Who teaches us? God. God teaches us through his word and we now have access to even listen to the word being read, completely free online. it is so important to have a personal relationship with God so that he can  use that time to teach us what he would have us to know.

That is why we are taking a good look a John, the one God chose and consecrated  to come first to announce the arrival of the King.

A King must always have an introduction and a people must always know how to behave in the presence of a King.

John was given the Holy Ghost before he was born of his mother, think about that and think about all these abortions, John had already been given his very name, and sanctified and consecrated of the Lord, in the highest form before even leaving his mother’s womb.

I want to now share with you the rest of the story.

Luke 1:57_80: “Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.

And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

And his mother answered and said, Not so: but he shall be called John.

And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

And he asked for a writing table (tablet) and wrote his name is John. And they marvelled all. 

And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. 

And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad (word spread) throughout all the hill country of Judea.

And all that heard them laid (kept) them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, 

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: for he hath visited and redeemed his people.

And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began.  

That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us.

To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant.

The oath which he sware to our father Abraham.

That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear. 

In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

And thou child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.

To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission(forgiveness) of their sins. 

Through the tender mercy of our God: whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us. 

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.  

And the child grew, and waxed (became) strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing to Israel.” 

We can see so clearly through this account the seriousness and holiness of God’s commissions.

His name, the command that he could not consume alcohol, the details of his commission all given to his father before he was even conceived! Now that is powerful and that is God!

We will look at the arrest and execution of John in a later one of our thirty posts.

But for now, I want to leave you with Jesus word’s concerning John, and the job he did and the hope for all who truly love him and keep his word in truth and integrity.

Luke 7:28: “For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he is that is least in the kingdom of God is  greater than he.”

Thanks for reading, Love & peace till tomorrow!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2022/ Rev. N. Brown Johnson