Prepare To Testify

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1153. Today's Devo is called Prepare to Testify. Hey there. We're the Alesses, 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. 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, welcome back. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

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Hope you guys are enjoying this week as we are preparing ourselves. And I hope you're kind of joining the spirit of preparation. And we are getting our hearts and our minds in alignment with the reason for the season, and that is Jesus Christ. I'm Gabby, your host. It's been a wonderful time to just be with you all and share this with you guys. And I've just been so even built with faith as I sit here in our holiday home because we're celebrating the holidays too. But I hope you guys are enjoying this. And again, since I am not in my usual or we're not in our usual studio, if you do hear some lawn guys outside or babies crying, please forgive us and just give us some grace. But nothing is more real than babies crying in the middle of your podcast. All right, let's jump into it. Today we're going to talk about preparing to testify and we're going to look at two parts of scripture, actually two books. So read along with

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57. And then we're going to actually jump over to John, chapter one. So let's read Luke

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57. When the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy and they rejoiced to her. This is actually kind of going off of what we talked about yesterday, but we'll continue. On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father, Zechariah. But his mother replied, no, he shall be called John. A part we didn't read from yesterday's reading to today's reading is that the Lord told Zechariah and Elizabeth to name him John, and that actually in the whole span of her pregnancy, the Lord actually muted Zechariah's mouth from speaking. And you're going to see how the Lord healed him of that and opened his mouth here. So his mother said, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, there was no one among your relatives who bears this name. So they made signs to his father because he was mute. To find out what he wanted to name the child, Zechariah asked for a tablet and wrote, his name is John.

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They were all amazed. And immediately Zechariah's mouth was open and his tongue was released and he began to speak, praising God. All of their neighbors were filled with awe. And people throughout the hill country of Judea were talking about these events. And all who heard this wondered in their hearts and asked, what then will this child become? For the Lord's hand was with him. All right, pause here.

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Jump over to John 1, 6, 9. And it says this.

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There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that through him, everyone might believe he himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light, the true light who gives light to every man was coming into the world. This is such a beautiful two stories, because you're seeing the beginning of John's life and just how the birth of John, John the Baptist, we're talking about his birth and his ministry, when he was walking around and how he was testifying, both of those things testified about the one to come.

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You see, when he was born, his neighbors started to question. They started to say, who is this young man? What is he going to become?

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Man, I know all of us have probably experienced that. You've seen a child that's really talented and, like, super mature, and you're like, man, this kid's going to go places. That was John. All of the neighbors were saying, man, if he could cause his father, his mouth to open, and his mom, who was barren, to conceive, then there's something amazing that this child is going to do. And then later you see that he came as a witness to testify about the light. What this just kind of encourages me in my heart is that if John, from the moment he was born, if he testified about Jesus Christ, if he testified about the Lord, have I testified about God?

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Have I testified about Jesus? What has my life said about Jesus Christ? Has my life embodied the light of Jesus? Has my life when people have looked at me, when people have seen what I've done, when people hear me talk, even and even you on this show, if you guys hear me, does my own voice, the things that come out of my mouth, does it testify about Jesus Christ, who he is, what he can do?

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And I think it's such a beautiful challenge for all of us that as we're coming on this season of Christmas, it's the time to testify.

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It's time to tell people about Jesus Christ. It's time to tell him about the light that he is. You know, Jesus sent him. He was the light of the world. He came to heal us, he came to forgive us, he came to save us. And we are in a season where people need and so how does my life testify about Christ? How does my life tell people about the light that is Jesus Christ? So my question to all of us today, my question to you. How can you testify about Jesus today? Basically, how can you tell people about him? How can you tell him tell people about the light that has the ability to overcome the darkness?

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Prepare to testify today. Lord, I just thank you. I just thank you that we have access to this story. We have access to the word of God that can remind us of the real reason why we're here and why we celebrate Christmas. God, I pray that you would ignite just a real bravery and conviction to testify about who Jesus Christ is. Basically all that means is that you would enable us and equip us to tell people about Jesus. You know, this is the time of year where people are open and they're open to the Christmas story because they all know it's about Jesus. They're all setting up mangers in their home and they're all going to a nativity. And so, Lord, let us take advantage of this season to really shed a light and open a conversation for someone to meet Jesus and have a relationship with him. God, it's time for us to testify and we step up to the plate in Jesus name, 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.