When your voice comes back - Day 17

What if the quiet season you’re dreading is the very path to a stronger voice and a clearer faith? Today we sit with Zechariah’s journey in Luke 1:67–79 and discover how God uses silence to shape conviction, align our hearts, and prepare us to speak life with purpose. This is Day 17 of our 25-day Christmas devotional series, where we slow down, reflect deeply, and let the story of Jesus’ birth reset our focus.

We walk through Zechariah’s enforced silence and the moment his words return not as complaint, but as praise and prophecy. 

As we prepare for Christmas, we focus on clarity. Jesus is the sunrise that breaks the darkness, guiding our feet into the path of peace. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Devotional Series Introduction
• 0:45 Passage: Zechariah’s Prophecy
• 2:07 From Silence To Clear Faith
• 3:18 Multiple Voices, One God
• 4:06 Stewarding Your Prophecy
• 5:05 Quiet That Leads To Clarity
• 6:05 Jesus As The Promise And Clarity
• 6:52 Prayer And Closing Encouragement
• 7:29 Devotional CTA And Subscribe

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello, hello, this is Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast. Welcome, welcome. This year I'm bringing my 25-day Christmas devotional to life in a new way. Beginning on day 11 through day 25, each devotional entry now has a matching mini podcast episode, a simple 8 to 10 minute reflection designed to help you slow down and truly sit with the story of Jesus' birth. Each episode clearly follows the same day as the written devotional, so day 11 in the book is day 11 on the podcast and so forth. My hope is that these daily audio reflections make the journey to Christmas feel even more personal, peaceful, and meaningful. Thank you for being here. Let's go. When your voice comes back, episode 84, day seventeen, key passage Luke one, sixty seven through seventy nine. And it says, His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesized, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said through his holy prophets of long ago, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show us mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear, and holiness and righteousness before him all our days, and you, my child, be called a prophet of the Most High, and you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of our s of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven, to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace. So day seventeen When your voice comes back. So yesterday in day sixteen, we talked about silence, Zechariah's silence, and how that season opened his eyes to revelation. Being silenced by the angel Gabriel wasn't random. It forced Zechariah to stop listening to the noise around him and start listening to God within him. Today for day 17, I want to talk about what that silence actually did for him. Because sometimes the silence is the breakthrough. When Zechariah finally spoke again, something had shifted. His voice wasn't just restored, it was clarified. His faith became clearer, his thought process became clear, and the very first words out of his mouth were not about himself, they were a prophetic message about Jesus coming and about John the Baptist, his son, preparing the way. That kind of clarity only comes from a season of quiet with God. And I'll be honest, most of us Christians spend a lot of time being surface level. I did. For years I lived off of little bits of faith here and there, not really digging deep. But these last two years of my life, especially with everything I um went through with my daughter, God pushed me deeper than I ever thought I could go. I had to understand scripture differently. I had to understand my salvation differently. I had to look at my actions, my decisions, the way I present myself, the way I connect with people, all through the lens of what God was trying to show me. And that's why it's never good for us for just one person to lead everything spiritually. We need multiple voices, multiple perspectives, different personalities, different ways of connecting, because God speaks to all of us uniquely. Zachariah basically shows us what happens when God sits you down, quiets you, removes distractions, and resets your spiritual vision. That's when you start to see, you know, the journey of your own life. Not just future telling, but the next steps of your walk with God, the way he guides you towards salvation, purpose, and relationship. His silence wasn't punishment, I felt like it was preparation. And his prophecy wasn't about being powerful, it was about being aligned with God. So here's my question for you today. How are you stewarding the prophecy over your life? How are you handling it? How are you showing what God has done for you? And how are you responding to the challenges that are shaping your voice? Because when God gives you your voice back, it always comes back stronger, clear, and more aligned with what the heavens are saying to you. And the reason that I feel like this is really important, and imagine this like whole lesson in the midst of you know the story of baby Jesus is the fact that Zachariah, his son, who was born John the Baptist, is going to align with God, and he is going to prep people to be prepared for salvation when Jesus comes. And this lesson is all about the clarity. And the way that we can have clarity with God and what you are possibly maybe going through at the moment is you gotta be quiet. And you have to be quiet in a way where you're not trying to be around all the noise and everybody's opinions, you're just quiet, and you're waiting on God to give you the clarity and the answers you need to move forward, to represent Him, to spend time with Him, to love Him, and to figure out and to basically know what the next step is in your life. And if we understand that, what blessings we could have, right? And Jesus' birth is just an amazing concept of clarity. Is God's gonna keep God's kept his promise that he is delivering his son, he's delivering the Messiah to save his people. And that is all God wants from us is he wants us to accept that, he wants us to listen to him and to Jesus' birth and to Jesus' story and not all the noise. Jesus is the clarity in this. And I think that's what makes this passage with Zechariah praising God just so special. Because what Zechariah did is what we all should be doing: praising the Lord, getting aligned with him, praising him, being loud about Jesus. That's the only thing we should be loud about. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this lesson with Jack with Zachariah. Thank you so much for the story of John the Baptist's birth and how it paves the way for Jesus' birth. Lord, thank you so much for the story of the birth of Christ. Thank you for these amazing gospels that tell these stories so perfectly in their own unique way, but it all sums up to the salvation of Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for this wonderful holiday season. Thank you for everybody listening. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Love you all till next time. Thank you for listening. This episode is part of my Christmas devotional series inspired by my written devotional, 25 Days Till Christmas, a scriptured-filled journey preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I invite you to read along and reflect on his story in a deeper way. Details in the show notes for the written devotional. And it also says in scripture, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. Luke 2, 14. And don't miss the next reflection in this Christmas series by subscribing to the podcast to continue walking through God's Word this season. And a little bit about me. I'm Jesse Morgan, wife, mom, and devotional writer and podcaster who loves sharing biblical encouragement and the hope we find in Jesus. Till next time, Jesse Morgan signing off.