MESSENGER AND MESSAGE
Even before the fall of Adam and Eve Father God had always planned that a new species was to be born into the earth one day. He had planned for his Son to begin this new species, a Spirit species – God and man. God would set up a Divine force-field where immortality joined mortality for all of humanity for all time. Now was the time for Jesus to go to earth as The Father’s Son, to become the pain of what human life had become, and to walk the path of its lost hope, and...
MESSENGER AND MESSAGE
Even before the fall of Adam and Eve Father God had always planned that a new species was to be born into the earth one day. He had planned for his Son to begin this new species, a Spirit species – God and man. God would set up a Divine force-field where immortality joined mortality for all of humanity for all time. Now was the time for Jesus to go to earth as The Father’s Son, to become the pain of what human life had become, and to walk the path of its lost hope, and its sorrow, and to lift human life into a place of oneness with ‘The Three in One’. Jesus as the Son of the Father knew before the beginning of time that this was to be. He knew that it was the only way for the love of God to be known by humanity. Jesus knew that he would become the expression of that love in the most perfect way.
Age upon age had passed in what we call time, and finally the appointed time came to heal the earth. It was broken and bleeding, twisted and torn, and it could not help itself. Lucifer had planted suspicion and hostility into mankind’s mind about God, and humanity had become comfortable with keeping God at a distance, with people believing that perhaps God was watching them, and waiting to judge them. This is the sad state that religion can come to, people trying to appease and manipulate what they see as a distant God who is out to punish them. God was about to give humanity the perfect answer, not a religion, but Himself. Jesus, as God and as man was to make his transition from eternity into time, from heaven to earth, from pure Spirit existence to human flesh existence.
Holy Spirit was to become a partner with Jesus in the completion of this glorious plan. It was not just Jesus God who would inhabit the earth, but Holy Spirit would also become a person of this planet by sharing every moment of life with Jesus, and in that way, he too would experience human life. After Jesus had finished his mission on earth Holy Spirit would become the expression of God’s love to all of humanity. For the rest of time, he was to wrestle within the pain and confusion of human life to reveal God’s love to people and to bring them into oneness with The Three in One.
Father would send a divine seed of life from heaven, and he had chosen a young woman called Mary to receive that seed, which was to contain the full genetic potency of their love and goodness and truth. He sent an angel to announce this amazing news to Mary.
Gabriel entered the place where Mary lived, and startled and afraid she stared at the heavenly being. Gabriel told Mary that she had been chosen amongst all women on the earth to give birth to a child who was to be 'God the Son' and that she was to call him Jesus. She answered back that it was impossible and that she never been with a man. Gabriel told her that the birth of this Child would not have anything to do with Joseph, her betrothed, and that The Holy Spirit would shine his life over her and divine life from heaven would come alive in her womb, even though she was a virgin. He told her that this was the will of Father God, and of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit, for her to be the mother of this special child who would be the liberator of all mankind. Mary humbly surrendered her entire being to the magnificent will of God. Mary’s response to God through the Angel was ‘let it be done unto to me according to your word’ (Luke 1:38).
When Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they were married, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph was a caring and just man and did not want to put her to shame, so he decided to divorce her quietly. But as he was considering how to go about these things the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”(Matthew 1:21) All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet Isaiah: A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and his name will mean ‘God with us’.
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he married Mary but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
Soon after the angel’s visit Mary then made a two-hundred-kilometre journey to be with her cousin Elizabeth in Hebron. Elizabeth was an elderly woman and she and her husband, Zacharias, had never been able to have children, but now Elizabeth is pregnant as God had worked a miracle so they could conceive. Their child would grow up to be John the Baptist, the person whose role in life was to prepare the world for Jesus, and tradition holds that Jesus was born about six months after John.
The Christmas story of the miracle birth of Jesus includes the story of the miracle birth of his cousin, John the Baptist, whose father, Zacharias was a priest of the High Priestly line of Aaron, so John was of the same priestly line being the firstborn son of a priest (and a prophet).
The angel Gabriel had earlier been sent by God to Zacharias while he was ministering to the Lord before the people in the temple, and burning incense upon the altar. Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him, but 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. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for 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. 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 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.” (Luke 1:13)
And Zecharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” The angel said “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”
When Mary finally arrived at the home of Elizabeth, she was warmly greeted by her, and Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “Blessed are You by God above all other women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:42-45). Mary then praised the Lord in prayer.
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked on the lowly worth of his servant, and behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of lowly worth (Luke 1:46). Mary remained with Elizaberth about three months and returned to her home.
When Elizabeth’s baby boy was born the word spread quickly to her neighbours and relatives, and everyone rejoiced, and when the baby was eight days old they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They all assumed the baby’s name would be Zacharias, after his father, but Elizabeth said that he must be named John, and everyone was surprised because no one in the family was called by that name. So, they asked Zacharias, talking to him by gestures because he had been struck dumb by the angel Gabriel.
Unbelief had taken away the voice of God from the temple priest, Zacharias until John came into the world. That time of silence is a prophetic summary of the voiceless time that God’s people were experiencing in that day. They were in a time and place of silence and darkness, having been without a prophetic voice for four hundred years, and the world shared that silence. That silence would soon be over.
In these days in which we live, God’s people, and the world, are in a similar situation of uncertainty and disruption. We are living in a time when there is great darkness and disorder in the world. There are many opinions and many noisy words of judgement and contention being spoken in the secular world while a stark scarceness of wisdom and leadership exists at many levels. Many in the Church also prayerfully wait for the silence to be over, to hear a clear voice from God to the Church, so that there can be a clear Word from the Church to the world.
Within that faithful waiting in many hearts there is also a stirring that the Holy Spirit is doing a work of preparing a people of faith who will awaken others to turn their hearts to the Lord their God. Just as the angel said to Zacharias ‘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 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.’ (Luke 1:17)
Zacharias motioned for a piece of paper and to everyone’s surprise wrote that the boy’s name was to be John, and instantly he could speak again, and he began praising God. The silence was over.
Then Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy to his son John:
“And you, my little son, shall be called the prophet of the glorious God, for you will prepare the way for the Messiah. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. All this will be because of the tender mercy of our God`, and heaven’s dawn is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, and to guide us to the path of peace.”
When the silence ceased it did not mean that loud voices would be heard, but a clear voice and so will it be for us in these days ahead. The dove of the Holy Spirit will not clamour but will bring a clarity concerning the love of God for us all. The clear voice will not only come from dedicated church leaders but in some ways even more so, it will come from the soft and faithful hearts of God’s people who love God and one another. They will speak words of love and care and they will release acts of kindness into their world around them. This will allow that light to dawn upon a dark world that can be guided into a path of peace.
