Prepare To Prophesy

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1154. Today's Devo is called Prepare to Prophesy. Hey there. We're the Alessys, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time.

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That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Well, good morning, everybody. Good afternoon.

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Happy Thursday. This is just a great day to listen and receive and dive into the word of God. My name's Gabby, and we are continuing just this idea of preparing ourselves for the holidays.

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And we're preparing ourselves for what Christmas is going to be as we look at the life of Jesus, the life even before Jesus, the days before he came. The last couple days, we've been talking about John the Baptist, because John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for Jesus. And so yesterday we talked about how he testified and when he would testify, he would prepare the way for Jesus.

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But there's a part right after. There's a moment right after John the Baptist was born that his father spoke a blessing, but he prophesied over John the Baptist. And I want to read this here. And I might not get to all of this, so I encourage you to go home, pull up your phone, wherever you're at, finish off this part of the

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67, verse 67, it says, Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.

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Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through his holy prophets, those of ages past. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham to grant us deliverance from hostile hands, that we may serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives. I said I wouldn't read it all, but I have to because this is powerful. Verse 76. And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give to his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the dawn will visit us from on high to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. This is such a beautiful couple of passages, such a beautiful story because what we see is that John the Baptist was born, he comes in and as any mother would know, I'm not a mother, but I've seen my sister do it. When my sister gave birth, she quickly started to take care of her daughter, right, take care of her son, do everything that the son needed. But what I think is beautiful is that as the mother takes care of the child, the father plays an interesting role. And what we see here is that Zechariah took the role of speaking over his son and prophesying over his son. Zechariah knew the power of words and we talk about it a lot on this podcast, how what we speak matters. So let us be reminded of it this Christmas season because Zechariah stepped into the role as a father to prophesy and speak over over his son, what he was going to do. He said, this child will prepare the way for the Messiah. And that's such a beautiful picture because you go on to see that that's exactly what John the Baptist did. And so for us in this season, what are we speaking over? What are we prophesying? What are we speaking to those around us? If you're a parent, what are you speaking over your child during this season? This is a very stressful season. We're trying to budget it right, we're trying to save the right money. We're trying to plan and make this the greatest Christmas season ever for our kids or for our family around us. And with that, there's a lot of stress. And when there's stress boiled up, man, it can squeeze out the bad stuff in us. When we're in like a pressure cooker, the bad stuff comes out so naturally. What are we speaking, what are we saying over our situation? What are we speaking to our kids? What are we speaking to our spouse? What are we speaking to our community? Are we prophesying which that means to edify and build up? Are we edifying people? Are we speaking over them? What people are going to do that you're healed, that you're set free, that you are saved? Are we speaking good things and life giving things or are we speaking things that just stress people out? And this is a great reminder because, hey guys, look, I'm a talker.

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There's a reason why they tell us to do these devos, because we're really good at talking by ourselves for five minutes. And as a talker, some days I will speak life, but most days I'll just speak what's on my mind. And that's just negative stuff. And so this is challenging me today of I gotta be mindful of what I speak. I have to remember that my words give life or death to circumstances. My words will build up or tear down. So just like Zechariah prophesied, just like he spoke over his son, which is what a father is to do, we saw God do it with Jesus. A father is supposed to build up and prophesy. Let us prophesy, edify and build up those around us.

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Whether it's people in your life or maybe it's for you, whatever it is, speak edifying words this Christmas season, prepared, prepare yourself to prophesy.

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Lord, we thank you for it. We thank you for the gift of prophecy. We thank you Lord, that we can speak life giving words over every situation. If we're in a health battle, Lord, if we are in a marriage battle, if we're in a family battle, Lord, let every word that comes from our tongue be life giving. Be life to our bones, God. Be life to our marriage. Be life to our children, Lord, let us build up the people around us. Let us build up ourselves, Lord, and not tear ourselves down. Give us the words to say, give us the mind and attitude to have as we prophesy and speak good things. And Lord, let us just see everything that we speak. Let it come to pass.

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Let us see it this Christmas season. In Jesus name we pray.

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Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.