Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Fulfillment When Hope Was Lost
121 Plays4 months ago
In this episode, during the sacred season of Advent ( season of awaiting arrival ), we reflect on the miraculous story of two lovers of God, advanced in age, receiving the fulfillment of their deepest hearts desire; Zechariah and Elizabeth. Their desire for children was God- given , for such a moment as this. They were not forgotten, they were not withheld from. They were set-up for one of the greatest and most dramatic breakthroughs of all time. And they were saved, for a moment of receiving God's mercy and loving-kindness in an extraordinary way! Take time to reflect on their story in scripture ( Luke 1:5-25 ) and receive afresh from God's provision.
We are going TOGETHER: BREATHING UNDERWATER MEMBERSHIP
More on Breathing Underwater Memberships HERE
Join the Community and Newsletter: HERE
Email: margaux@permissiontoreign.com
Instagram: @permission_to_reign
Intro Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay
Image by Claire Fischer from Unsplash
Recommended
Transcript
The Quest for Spiritual Depth
00:00:00
Speaker
We were designed to hunger for the deep things of God, to thrive on faith and wonder, to seek out divine wisdom that defies human logic. We were designed to unlock the mysteries of God. This is breathing underwater.
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello, hello,
Introduction to Breathing Underwater Podcast
00:00:30
Speaker
welcome back to Breathing Underwater. This is a podcast where we are learning about spiritual wisdom, the deep things of God, hearing God's voice specifically through our night dreams, learning to interpret God's voice, know his character, hear his heart through the dreams that we have at night.
00:00:48
Speaker
but also just learning to walk with the Spirit in this life, learning how to be a spiritual being, talking about the ups and downs of walking with Jesus, talking about disappointments and being together in our waiting for promises fulfilled. This is a place where we also dig into Scripture and we love to learn what the Bible has to say about the spiritual gifts and and what it means to be prophetic, etc.
00:01:13
Speaker
So if you are hungry for those things and want a community to journey with as you figure this stuff out in your own life, in your own relationship with God, you are in the right place. You are in the right place.
00:01:26
Speaker
Today
Advent: Anticipating Christ's Arrival
00:01:27
Speaker
it's going to be brief and I just wanted to bring an encouragement because I've had something on my heart that I want to release to you. We are in this beautiful time of Advent. It's almost Christmas. And I would venture to say it's probably most of your favorite times of year. Probably not all of ours, but most of your favorite times of year.
00:01:46
Speaker
And I personally love Advent, the time leading up to Christmas because Advent is and actually means arrival. It means the arrival. This is the time where we are awaiting the arrival of Christ. Now, of course, we have already received him. We know that he has already been born.
00:02:04
Speaker
lived his life, died, has risen. He had done the work on earth that he came to do. And now he's reconciling all people and all things to himself. And we get to walk with him and be a part of what he's doing on the earth now. But
Personal Promises Awaited by Listeners
00:02:18
Speaker
so many of us are still waiting for specific promises to come to pass. Maybe it's a health miracle. Maybe it's a lost loved one coming home, coming back to Jesus. Maybe it's the promise of a child or a marriage.
00:02:32
Speaker
We're all waiting in some way, shape, or form for a promise that we have not yet seen. And that is what it means to await the arrival of the promise. So Jesus, as we know, He was the fulfillment. He was the fulfillment of the promise of God. I love in the the famous hymn, O come let us adore Him, the lyric that says, word of the Father now in flesh appearing. O come let us adore Him.
00:03:00
Speaker
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. We,
God's Intentional Orchestration in Life
00:03:06
Speaker
so many of us, if not all of us, we're waiting for that word of the Father to become flesh, to actually be made manifest in the natural world. Not just be a promise, not just be that energy of the Spirit, which is faith and hope and a promise, but to actually be made flesh and made manifest. I know I'm waiting for that.
00:03:31
Speaker
And this time of year, I always get encouraged because we're counting the story, the Christmas story, seeing how this insanely intentional sovereign God orchestrates all these different pieces, all these different people, all these different prophetic words from hundreds and hundreds of years past, how everything comes together in just the right moment, how he involves people who'd been waiting for him, how he involves people who didn't even know about him, who he involved,
00:04:00
Speaker
how he involved people whose will was even against him to bring his purposes about. It's encouraging to see and know how present God is in this process, how intentional, how good he is at orchestrating all of the pieces for things to come together at just the right time.
The Story of Zachariah and Elizabeth
00:04:21
Speaker
Every year, I resonate with a different person character character or even um kind of storyline, I guess I would say, from the Christmas story. This year, I cannot get away from Zachariah and Elizabeth.
00:04:36
Speaker
Now, just, I'm sure you know this story, but just a quick overview. Zachariah and Elizabeth were, they're older. They were of an older age. They were way past childbearing age and had been barren their whole life. Sarah had been, or I'm sorry, Elizabeth had been barren her whole life.
00:04:51
Speaker
But they were the cousins of Mary. And in this story, Zechariah and Elizabeth being Levites or from the tribe of Levi, Zechariah was actually a priest. And he was chosen by lot to be the one to go and minister in the temple, to go into the holy place and minister through incense to God.
00:05:10
Speaker
Now, this was chosen
Divine Encounter and Promise of a Child
00:05:11
Speaker
by Lot because there were so many priests at that time that it wasn't needed for a one priest to do this every day, every week, every month, every year. There weren't actually a enough there were too many priests, so they end up ended up actually being scheduled out where you might only do this maybe one time in your lifetime.
00:05:30
Speaker
And this year just so happened to be the year that Zechariah was chosen by lot, which is by chance. No, that is a lot that was orchestrated by God clearly to be the one to come into the holy place to minister to God. And while he's in there, as we know, an angel of God encounters him out of nowhere and says, Zechariah, yourre your, your prayer has been heard. Your wife is going to bear a son.
00:05:57
Speaker
And of course, he is like, what? How is this going to happen? And his unbelief, because of the circumstances looking so in incredibly impossible, because of his unbelief, he ends up being mute. But that doesn't stop the Lord.
00:06:13
Speaker
God still fulfills this word. ah Elizabeth gets pregnant and all through her pregnancy, Zechariah is mute until of course the baby is born and they go to name him and his tongue is loosed and he is prophesying and worshiping God. It's the most
God Fulfills Desires with Purpose
00:06:27
Speaker
beautiful story. But here we have Zechariah in this completely unexpected moment. I would imagine he was long past praying for a baby anymore. I would imagine he was long past thinking that would ever even be a miracle.
00:06:43
Speaker
that God would do. He wasn't even planning on being the one in the temple that year until, of course, they called and said, hey, it's your turn. All of these circumstances that God orchestrated without Zechariah knowing. And here he is in this moment having no real idea What it means for his wife to get pregnant and for him to have this this dream and this prayer fulfilled now I would imagine just to have that fulfilled just to be a father When you're longing for that just to be a mother when you've been longing for that your whole life is enough That in and of itself is the greatest treasure but of course that wasn't all they were actually going to give life to John the Baptist who would be the prophet and who was also prophesied about, who would prepare the way for Jesus, this integral person part of the story. And what I want to dwell on today and what I want to encourage you with, because I've been encouraging my own heart with this, is here's this moment where it seems that all has probably been lost for Zechariah and Elizabeth in this hope for a child. And this is the moment that that God chose to break through.
00:07:58
Speaker
This is where it's the intersection of God's desire for humanity and his desire for Elizabeth and Zechariah and Elizabeth and Zechariah's desire. This is so weighty to me this year.
00:08:15
Speaker
seeing how clearly God could have brought to pass his intentions, meaning there was a prophet that was born to prepare the way for his son, Jesus. He could have birthed that through any person, through any family line. He could have actually just made that happen out of thin air. He didn't even have to partner with people. Let's be real, right? He could have just created a man again with his own hands, but he loves to partner with us. We know that. He loves to work with us and through us.
00:08:43
Speaker
But he could have done this any way. He could have chosen a much younger recipient for this, kind of like he did with Mary and Jesus. But no, he decided that he wanted to use Elizabeth and Zechariah in this story, partially because of their family line. I'm sure all of that is is so intentional and God weaves all of those all of those details into his greater story.
00:09:07
Speaker
But these people had had this desire for so, so long that hope had probably been completely lost. And this is when he decides, well, through your desires, through me actually showing you how much I love you, what a delight it is for me to fulfill the desire of your heart, I'm going to birth the desire of my heart as well.
00:09:31
Speaker
This
Trusting God's Timing and Intentions
00:09:32
Speaker
to me just shows, hey, Zachariah and Elizabeth, that desire that you had for children, I put that there. I didn't have to put that there. There are some people who don't have that desire. It's true. It is the majority of mankind who feels called to have children, but that is not everybody. It is definitely not everybody. But Zachariah and Elizabeth, I put that desire inside of you, knowing how I was going to fulfill it. This is what I imagine God saying to them or feeling towards them.
00:10:00
Speaker
That desire wasn't wasted. That desire I wasn't withholding from you. I was waiting for this perfect moment to blow your minds with how intentional I am over your desires, over those things I've put inside of you, bringing those things to pass, to satisfy and fulfill a longing in you so that you see and know who I am and you experience that that feeling of of rightness and rest and wholeness.
00:10:28
Speaker
but also to birth my purposes, to birth his purposes into the earth through you. And what an exponentially greater gift to be chosen to be the one to bear this particular child, this particular person. I can only imagine their minds were just reeling over, wait a second, ah a child in and of itself is like, what? How is that even possible? But then this child, this is who you're giving us?
00:10:59
Speaker
How many times are we waiting, narrating our lives, going through all the disappointments, seeing how other people have received this promise before us, and narrating in such a way of like, well, maybe God just doesn't want me to have that. Well, maybe he forgot me. Maybe I'm just not as important. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe I messed this up.
00:11:19
Speaker
I have this desire and I'm still longing and aching and God hasn't fulfilled it yet. I feel ashamed of having this longing and desire. Other people have that fulfilled right away. Why hasn't that happened to me? I'm sure you can resonate with this. Just all of the questions and all of the the narrative that we start to build around having a desire and a longing that is not yet fulfilled and what that means about us and what that might mean about God.
The Co-authored Narrative of Waiting
00:11:46
Speaker
But here in this moment, we see that those desires were there for a purpose that God was intending to fulfill. And how often are we thinking, oh, he's just forgotten and it's not going to come around. But we're actually awaiting a divine moment, a divine timing, an intersection of God's design.
00:12:06
Speaker
and desire for our lives and our desire for our lives, when those things come together, when they crash into one another, it has the makings of something more extraordinary than we could ever, ever imagine. What if that is how we started to narrate these seasons of waiting What if that's how we start to narrate these desires when they come up? Not like, oh, this is probably wrong that I feel this. This is never going to happen. I feel hopeless around it. And instead go, God gave me this desire and he gave it to me to fulfill it. And it will be fulfilled in the perfect timing because he's doing something greater through my desire in my life than I could even know to pray for.
00:12:47
Speaker
He sees all. He knows all. He is in all of the details, all of the time. Zachariah and Elizabeth, they weren't any more special than you and I. Mary and Joseph, they weren't any more special than you and I. We all cost the same price to Jesus. He didn't pay more for one than he did for another. He doesn't love one more than he loves another. He doesn't honor or value or regard one person over another. He loves us all equally and the same. And if he does it for one, he'll do it for another. What is the story in your life that feels like it's still being written? What's the story in your life that feels like maybe the pen's been dropped and there isn't even a continuation of this story? What would it mean for you to sit with that in this moment, in this time with God,
00:13:36
Speaker
and invite him to show you or speak into that desire, that story, to show you his plan, to show you his desire and how it overlays and crashes into and undergirds and completely surrounds that desire in your own heart.
00:13:56
Speaker
I think he wants us to really know
Hope in God's Promise Fulfillment
00:14:00
Speaker
that he is faithful till the end, that he is going to fulfill everything that he said he was going to, perhaps in a very different timing than we imagined. That has certainly happened to me in my life, perhaps in a really different way than we imagined, but his character is one to be so thorough and intricate and so full of life to bring desire fulfilled for all of his people in fulfilling his own storyline all at once. So that's my challenge to you right now. If you're feeling maybe a little hope deferred, maybe you're feeling a little little heavy around promises, maybe this season is stirring up longings that have still not been fulfilled for you. Dig into the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth. Put yourself in their shoes.
00:14:45
Speaker
Feel the utter shock and surprise of being encountered by an angel and hearing that this this is going to be fulfilled after however many decades of waiting. Put yourself in the shoes of Zachariah and feeling that doubt. Put yourself in Elizabeth and and her experience of Who am I? Who am I that God would do this for me? Dig into this storyline because it can be your storyline as well. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and He is faithful for fulfill to fu fulfill what He's promised to you. He is faithful to bring into the flesh what He has spoken.
00:15:24
Speaker
And maybe this is the season. Maybe this is the season. Maybe this is the season for us to prepare him room to come and do exactly what he said he was going to do, maybe in a different way, but exactly what he said he was going to do. Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.
00:15:42
Speaker
Hold on to those words, my friends. Cling to God in this season and see what he has to show you and do for you. I look forward to being with you again in the new year. Don't hesitate to send me an email if you have questions. My information is in the show notes. I'm wishing you the merriest Christmas, the happiest new year, and of course, deep, deep, happy ah dreaming to you.