Being Faithful

[00:00:00] You are now tuned in. Welcome back to the Prayer Is Breathing podcast. My name is Latoya. Be sure to check out prayerisbreathing.com. And today I'm going to jump right into the word, when faithfulness meets faith. That's a lot to say, but I'm going to say it again. When faithfulness meets faith. And so you can be faithful to God. You can be faithful serving in church, serving in ministry, and still lack faith.

[00:00:28] And we see this with the story of Zacharias in the Bible. And he was a priest before the Lord, but somewhere unbelief had crept up in his heart. And so I just want to encourage you to hold on to your faith, to not just do things out of routine, but to also make sure that in your heart you have faith because without faith, it is impossible to please God.

[00:00:54] All right. So let's jump into Luke chapter one, starting with verse five.

[00:00:59] So there was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth.

[00:01:10] And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

[00:01:17] But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years.

[00:01:24] So it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

[00:01:36] Verse 10. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

[00:01:43] Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

[00:01:49] Now, let me just pause and say, I love this because the right side normally represents power and authority.

[00:01:55] So you'll see a lot about the right hand of God in the Bible.

[00:01:58] Verse 12. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.

[00:02:03] But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard and your wife Elizabeth will be you a son and you shall call his name John.

[00:02:14] And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.

[00:02:23] He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.

[00:02:28] Hallelujah. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God.

[00:02:33] He will also 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 a people prepared for the Lord.

[00:02:48] Verse 18. And Zacharias said to the angel, how shall I know this?

[00:02:54] For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years.

[00:02:58] And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.

[00:03:07] But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.

[00:03:17] And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.

[00:03:23] But when he came out, he could not speak to them.

[00:03:25] And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.

[00:03:32] Now, one thing that I love about Zacharias is that he's a priest and he's serving in the house of the Lord.

[00:03:40] He's going to do his priestly duties.

[00:03:43] And the Bible speaks so well of him and Elizabeth that they were both blameless before God, walking in the commandments of the Lord, walking in the ordinances of the Lord.

[00:03:53] And so they were doing all these things, but Elizabeth was still barren and they had no children.

[00:04:01] And so then you see how Zacharias remained faithful to God, even though he was without child, even though his wife Elizabeth was barren, he was continuing to serve the Lord.

[00:04:15] And this day, the angel of the Lord Gabriel appeared to him to let him know that his prayer was answered.

[00:04:22] And I want to tell you that it's so easy to be faithful and to just do the routine things and really not have faith.

[00:04:31] And so the angel Gabriel tells Zacharias that he's going to be mute because of his unbelief.

[00:04:39] And so he pretty much says, because you did not believe me, you will be mute until the day that these things take place.

[00:04:46] And so what happens for us that we have to understand that God requires our faith.

[00:04:53] God requires for us to have faith because without faith, it is impossible to please him.

[00:04:59] But one thing I love about this story is that even though Zacharias did not have faith, the word of the Lord still prevailed.

[00:05:07] God still performed his word and God still allowed Elizabeth to get pregnant at the exact timing so that John the Baptist could come six months before Jesus, the Messiah.

[00:05:22] And when we understand the nature of God, we understand that when we are faithless, the Bible says in second Timothy, that God remains faithful.

[00:05:33] He cannot deny himself.

[00:05:34] He cannot deny himself.

[00:05:35] So even when you lack faith, God himself is faithful and great is his faithfulness.

[00:05:41] So we take into account that with God, all things are possible.

[00:05:47] And when you have unbelief in your heart, you really have to take that to the Lord in prayer and pray and say, God, help my unbelief.

[00:05:56] God, let me get rid of this unbelief.

[00:05:59] So one of the verses that we love to quote, and it's one of my favorites as well, is Proverbs 3, 5.

[00:06:05] And it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

[00:06:08] Lean not to your own understanding.

[00:06:10] In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

[00:06:15] And so Zacharias in this passage, he was leaning to his own understanding.

[00:06:20] And in his own understanding, he was saying that his wife was well advanced in years.

[00:06:26] And not only his wife, but himself as well.

[00:06:28] So he says in verse 18, how shall I know this?

[00:06:32] For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years.

[00:06:36] And this represents sometimes us leaning to our own understanding.

[00:06:41] But when God wants to do a new thing, it's not about the logic.

[00:06:46] It doesn't have to always make sense because God is God of the impossible and he can do whatever he wants to do.

[00:06:53] Okay.

[00:06:54] And so even as barren as Elizabeth was, as old as they both were, God had called them and ordained them to birth John the Baptist.

[00:07:04] And everything was fulfilled just as the Lord has spoken.

[00:07:09] So even when God does not fit into our timeframe, even when God does not fit into our logic and what we think makes sense, all we have to do is trust him.

[00:07:19] Now, I also wanted to add that Zacharias being a priest of the Lord.

[00:07:26] Verse 20 says,

[00:07:27] But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.

[00:07:37] And I believe that one of the reasons that Zacharias was muted, of course, was a punishment, but also because he held authority.

[00:07:45] And the Bible tells us that death and life is in the power of the tongue.

[00:07:49] Those that love it will eat the fruit thereof.

[00:07:51] And so we have power in our words.

[00:07:54] And I want to encourage you to not speak against the things that God is doing.

[00:08:00] Let me say that again.

[00:08:01] I want to encourage you to not speak against the things that God is doing.

[00:08:09] So if you only have complaints, if you only have unbelief, you have to quiet yourself until you come into agreement with the promises of God.

[00:08:20] Until you can open your mouth and speak into the promises of God and declare and stand in full agreement with what God has spoken.

[00:08:29] And so we see that even with Mary, if we go down a few verses, when Mary gets the word from the angel that she's going to have the son of God.

[00:08:38] And in verse 38 of Luke chapter one, then Mary said, behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

[00:08:47] And the angel departed from her.

[00:08:50] This is also a representation of what it means to not lean to your own understanding.

[00:08:56] And so she didn't lean to the fact that she was a virgin.

[00:08:59] She asked the same question.

[00:09:00] How can this be?

[00:09:01] But at the end of the day, she said, Lord, let it be unto me according to your word.

[00:09:06] And that's where we trust God.

[00:09:08] We trust God even when we do not have all the answers.

[00:09:12] Even when we don't know how God is going to fulfill the promise.

[00:09:15] We still have faith that he's going to do it.

[00:09:18] And all we have to do is come into agreement with what God has already spoken.

[00:09:23] And you have to declare God, let it be to me according to your word.

[00:09:28] And so this way you can receive the promise of God.

[00:09:32] So God is not asking you or requiring for you to figure it out.

[00:09:36] God already has it all figured out.

[00:09:40] But he desires our faith as we partner with him for what he already wants to do in the earth.

[00:09:47] So I want to encourage you because the Bible also tells us that God is faithful.

[00:09:52] He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

[00:09:55] And so as you diligently seek the Lord, he's not going to turn his back on you.

[00:10:00] He's going to fulfill everything that he's spoken and everything that he has promised.

[00:10:05] So you can continue to be faithful to him.

[00:10:08] And also as you're being faithful, make sure that you have faith.

[00:10:13] Make sure that you have faith.

[00:10:14] And if you do not pray and ask the Lord to fill your heart with faith.

[00:10:19] Pray and ask the Lord that you will not be turned over to unbelief, but that God will begin to soften your heart.

[00:10:27] That your heart will not be hardened, but you will understand that God is faithful to perform his word.

[00:10:35] I love Psalm 9 verse 10.

[00:10:37] It says,

[00:10:38] And those who know your name will put their trust in you.

[00:10:42] For you, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

[00:10:46] And I don't know if Zacharias felt forsaken.

[00:10:49] And at this point, he had no longer believed that very prayer that he had prayed for a son.

[00:10:56] And so there's times where you can feel forsaken.

[00:10:58] But I want you to understand Psalm 9 10, that the Lord will not forsake those that seek him.

[00:11:05] It's not in his nature.

[00:11:06] It's not in his character to forget.

[00:11:08] He remembers.

[00:11:09] He understands.

[00:11:10] He knows.

[00:11:12] And he has great things in store as we put all of our faith, all of our hope, all of our trust in him.

[00:11:19] So your service, your labor, you're seeking him.

[00:11:22] It's not in vain.

[00:11:24] Continue to seek him and seek his heart.

[00:11:26] And God will perform his word to you.

[00:11:30] All right.

[00:11:30] So let us pray.

[00:11:31] Father, I thank you right now for your faithfulness.

[00:11:33] I thank you that great is your faithfulness towards us.

[00:11:37] God, I thank you that you have given us the shield of faith that we can quench all the fiery darts of the enemy.

[00:11:43] And I pray for every person that is listening to this podcast that faith would arise.

[00:11:48] God, you said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed,

[00:11:51] that we can speak to a mountain and it must be moved.

[00:11:54] And so God, give us the faith to believe that you are who you say you are.

[00:11:59] You will do what you say you will do.

[00:12:01] You will finish what you have begun and you will perform your word.

[00:12:06] Everything that you set out to do, God, you will accomplish.

[00:12:08] And so thank you for your timing.

[00:12:10] Even when we can't trace it, even when we don't always understand.

[00:12:15] Thank you, God, that you do all things well.

[00:12:17] And Lord, you have it all figured out.

[00:12:20] And so, Lord, we love you.

[00:12:21] We trust you.

[00:12:23] And we give you all the glory, honor and praise in the mighty name of Jesus.

[00:12:28] Amen and amen.

[00:12:30] I want to encourage you to read the chapter of Luke chapter one.

[00:12:33] And many people, there's a challenge where if you read one chapter of Luke per day,

[00:12:39] by the time we get to December 25th, you will have completed the story of Jesus Christ, the entire gospel.

[00:12:45] And so you can get started with that reading one chapter of Luke each day.

[00:12:53] All right.

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[00:13:06] God bless you.

[00:13:06] And thank you so much again for listening.

[00:13:08] Thank you.