The Story of Zacharia, and the Angel

Have you ever spoken too soon, only to realize it was too late? I've been there entirely too many times, but it looks like I was in good company. John the Baptist had a father, Zachariah, who had his mouth shut by an angel for three months because he asked a question in disbelief.

The archangel Gabriel had just explained that Zachariah and Elizabeth were going to have this blessed baby, John....and Zachariah asked, How could this happen? To Me? Then snap, Gabriel shut his mouth until John was born.

When was the last time you opened your mouth, and you thought you were going to give an acceptable answer, and the wrong answer came out so fast you couldn't turn back? I know this has happened to me...but, poor Zachariah was even in the Temple! I have been close - right outside the church door, on Sunday morning, or talking to my family in my own home, or in the car with a friend. My mouth didn't get supernaturally shut - but it sure should have."These shoes are killing me," might have done it.

When we speak those words of unbelief, doubt and negativity about ourselves and our situations, wouldn't it have been better if our mouths were shut? So we couldn't say anything else to sabotage our progress? Zachariah's mouth was shut so he could not speak anything else against the wonderful prophecy that in his old age he and Elizabeth would bear a son, and his name was to be John. It was impossible for him to even whisper one word against the whole thing. John had to be born; Zachariah and Elizabeth were the chosen vessels that Father God had already established before time began. It was in the plan.

Here's a thought: What if we shut our mouths right after those times when we knew we'd blurted out the wrong thing...until someone asked us a question that we were absolutely positive about?

In Zachariah's case, after he had been stunned silent for over 9 months, and baby John was born, his friends came and asked him: Shouldn't the child's name be Zachariah, after the father? After thinking about it for 9 months, you know he finally had the right answer! He wrote on the tablet, "His name is John" and immediately his speech returned!

Now, let's wonder at what those nine months was like for him? What kind of testing did he go through during that time? When he was asked, he jumped at the chance to say the right answer. Do you think we could be silent on the issue until we prayed about it , and let God work it out in us? Somehow I don't think it would take nine months...

As we get older, and hopefully wiser, we tend not to react so quickly on things, but look at Zachariah. He was an old man, past child bearing years he said, and his wife, too. So maybe God was trying to tell us that we will always need to look to Him for our answers...not to rely on our own understanding. Maybe we need to be more accepting, and simply believe and receive. God wants us to have it - then if we just believe, we will have it.

But doesn't the word say, those things that we SAY, will come to us. So speak into the Universe what you want, in God's will...and in God's timing, it will come forth like a butterfly in a cocoon.