 |
| We understand that we have been appointed to bear fruit |
However, like so many, service and the performance of moral duties in his life did not mean he understood the season he was in or the new thing that God was about to do!
He needed a revelation of the tremendous shift in the spirit that was about to take place during his time.
Think about it. He has been carefully prepared for an entire year to carry out this one duty in the holy place. He has been through all the drills and has learnt all the procedures involved.
Each step of the process has been carefully revised. The stage is set, everything is in place, and the program is about to commence.
He knows how to perfectly move from one task to the next. So with a body of tradition in his mind, dutiful experience on one hand and procedural training on the other, he steps through the veil. He starts the preparations.
Suddenly, right in the middle of his activities…
Each step of the process has been carefully revised. The stage is set, everything is in place, and the program is about to commence.
He knows how to perfectly move from one task to the next. So with a body of tradition in his mind, dutiful experience on one hand and procedural training on the other, he steps through the veil. He starts the preparations.
Suddenly, right in the middle of his activities…
WHOOOSSH!
Without warning, a heavenly visitor interrupts his carefully laid out program. Fear and apprehension grip him as he suddenly realizes he is literally in contact with the supernatural!
This visitation and the message he receives is so radical, it blows away his preconceived ideas and layers of man-made tradition. The angel stands at the right side of the altar of incense (symbolic of prayer) and from there begins to communicate divine agenda.
Essentially, his message to Zechariah is as follows (my paraphrase): This is not about God’s place in your program. It is about your place in His. This is not about what you have been planning to do for Him. It is about what He prepared to do in your generation through your life. The message contained the impetus of a new beginning. It was news that this weary man, advanced in years, was going to become productive. The tide was about to turn and his life was going to become fruitful again.
Essentially, his message to Zechariah is as follows (my paraphrase): This is not about God’s place in your program. It is about your place in His. This is not about what you have been planning to do for Him. It is about what He prepared to do in your generation through your life. The message contained the impetus of a new beginning. It was news that this weary man, advanced in years, was going to become productive. The tide was about to turn and his life was going to become fruitful again.
Faith and Discipline
It was not easy for the priest to connect with this fresh revelation. It set in motion a battle within his own soul. The new message was competing with years of tradition and established views of reality that were so entrenched that his reaction was to disbelieve Gabriel.
Today, we may not be walking into a temple in Palestine to burn incense like him. There may not be a glorious archangel presently opening up the spirit realm to us. Yet our lives can somehow connect with Zechariah. We have to some degree walked in his shoes. We know we are not on this planet just to exist or survive. We know we are not merely spectators or bench-warmers in the church. We have a calling. We understand that we have been appointed to bear fruit. We may have even received a revelation of how it is going to come about whether through a vision, dream, or prophetic word.
But there is a preparation involved. The sensitive nature of the incubation process is such that it needs to be protected. The reaction of the priest was similar to how our old nature responds to Heaven’s agenda. It is always risky to introduce the delicate process of Kingdom birthing in a life that is ruled by the Adamic nature.
So Zechariah’s mouth is not shut out of punishment, but out of preservation. Thereby, doubt was unable to interrupt the faith process that was taking place with negative confession. This event was a sign because there is a Zechariah in our living today who tends to see things only from the natural point of view. What we hear, think and speak, even concerning ourselves is to be brought under the discipline and order of the Kingdom.
So Zechariah’s mouth is not shut out of punishment, but out of preservation. Thereby, doubt was unable to interrupt the faith process that was taking place with negative confession. This event was a sign because there is a Zechariah in our living today who tends to see things only from the natural point of view. What we hear, think and speak, even concerning ourselves is to be brought under the discipline and order of the Kingdom.
A New Separation
There are many who after a while of having breakthroughs in prayer, entered a season when the friends or relatives they used to meet and share with are no longer closely involved in their lives. There arose a separation from those they previously were acquainted with.
Others realized as they went deeper in the things of God, other activities that used to occupy their time and attention began to be fade in significance. Yet when they see into the spirit, they recognize that something new had been implanted and was awaiting germination. The separation was necessary, otherwise the incubation process would have been tampered with and the vision altogether aborted.
Others realized as they went deeper in the things of God, other activities that used to occupy their time and attention began to be fade in significance. Yet when they see into the spirit, they recognize that something new had been implanted and was awaiting germination. The separation was necessary, otherwise the incubation process would have been tampered with and the vision altogether aborted.
The subject of receiving a burden in the spirit is hardly new. Prophets in the Old Testament often bore the burden of a particular nation or group before interceding or releasing a divine word. In every true call, separation precedes manifestation.
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel (Luke 1:80).
As they ministered unto the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. (Acts 13:2).
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. (Luke 4:1)
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I may preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them who were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia...(Galatians 1:15-17).
This separation is important as we shall see, in understanding our calling as a royal priesthood. Priests were the consecrated ones, which means they had been separated to the Lord.
A New Positioning
God will use human agency on earth in order to accomplish His objectives. He will position those who are compliant in such a way that they can deliver according to His purpose and timing. There are human conditions that need to be in place before His perfect will for us can take full control. This is why He directed certain changes in the positioning of those who were to be involved as pioneers fulfilling a divine cause.
Abraham had to change his address. Jacob had to be taken out of the comfort zone. Moses had to have new grounds of operation. None could fulfill the plan of God fully in the conditions they were in before they found their purpose.
This means certain preparatory phases had to be in place in order for them to participate in what Heaven was bringing about for their generation. Their lives needed to be positioned. This positioning meant a new change in their way of life.
This means certain preparatory phases had to be in place in order for them to participate in what Heaven was bringing about for their generation. Their lives needed to be positioned. This positioning meant a new change in their way of life.
Those who will be used to release the fruit of the Kingdom on the earth must also be ready to sacrifice and be in the right place and setting. This does not come easily (as numerous Biblical accounts reveal), but it does mean that if we obey, we will then be engaged in the most fulfilling mission on earth - to walk in the purposes of the King and to be involved in accomplishing them as heirs of His Kingdom.
