When your voice comes back - Day 17

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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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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello, hello, this is Jesse Morgan Devotions for
the Christian Heart Podcast.
Welcome, welcome.
This year I'm bringing my 25-dayChristmas devotional to life in
a new way.
Beginning on day 11 through day25, each devotional entry now
has a matching mini podcastepisode, a simple 8 to 10 minute
reflection designed to help youslow down and truly sit with the

(00:22):
story of Jesus' birth.
Each episode clearly follows thesame day as the written
devotional, so day 11 in thebook is day 11 on the podcast
and so forth.
My hope is that these dailyaudio reflections make the
journey to Christmas feel evenmore personal, peaceful, and
meaningful.
Thank you for being here.
Let's go.

(00:45):
When your voice comes back,episode 84, day seventeen, key
passage Luke one, sixty seventhrough seventy nine.
And it says, His fatherZechariah was filled with the
Holy Spirit and prophesized,Praise be to the Lord, the God
of Israel, because he has cometo his people and redeemed them.

(01:07):
He has raised up a horn ofsalvation for us in the house of
his servant David, as he saidthrough his holy prophets of
long ago, salvation from ourenemies and from the hand of all
who hate us, to show us mercy toour ancestors and to remember
his holy covenant, the oath heswore to our father Abraham, to
rescue us from the hand of ourenemies, and to enable us to

(01:30):
serve him without fear, andholiness and righteousness
before him all our days, andyou, my child, be called a
prophet of the Most High, andyou will go on before the Lord
to prepare the way for him, togive his people the knowledge of
salvation through theforgiveness of our s of their
sins, because of the tendermercy of our God, by which the

(01:50):
rising sun will come to us fromheaven, to shine on those living
in darkness and in the shadow ofdeath to guide our feet into the
path of peace.
So day seventeen When your voicecomes back.
So yesterday in day sixteen, wetalked about silence,

(02:12):
Zechariah's silence, and howthat season opened his eyes to
revelation.
Being silenced by the angelGabriel wasn't random.
It forced Zechariah to stoplistening to the noise around
him and start listening to Godwithin him.
Today for day 17, I want to talkabout what that silence actually

(02:32):
did for him.
Because sometimes the silence isthe breakthrough.
When Zechariah finally spokeagain, something had shifted.
His voice wasn't just restored,it was clarified.
His faith became clearer, histhought process became clear,
and the very first words out ofhis mouth were not about

(02:53):
himself, they were a propheticmessage about Jesus coming and
about John the Baptist, his son,preparing the way.
That kind of clarity only comesfrom a season of quiet with God.
And I'll be honest, most of usChristians spend a lot of time
being surface level.
I did.
For years I lived off of littlebits of faith here and there,

(03:16):
not really digging deep.
But these last two years of mylife, especially with everything
I um went through with mydaughter, God pushed me deeper
than I ever thought I could go.
I had to understand scripturedifferently.
I had to understand my salvationdifferently.
I had to look at my actions, mydecisions, the way I present
myself, the way I connect withpeople, all through the lens of

(03:37):
what God was trying to show me.
And that's why it's never goodfor us for just one person to
lead everything spiritually.
We need multiple voices,multiple perspectives, different
personalities, different ways ofconnecting, because God speaks
to all of us uniquely.

(03:58):
Zachariah basically shows uswhat happens when God sits you
down, quiets you, removesdistractions, 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 thenext steps of your walk with
God, the way he guides youtowards salvation, purpose, and

(04:21):
relationship.
His silence wasn't punishment, Ifelt like it was preparation.
And his prophecy wasn't aboutbeing powerful, it was about
being aligned with God.
So here's my question for youtoday.
How are you stewarding theprophecy over your life?
How are you handling it?
How are you showing what God hasdone for you?

(04:41):
And how are you responding tothe challenges that are shaping
your voice?
Because when God gives you yourvoice back, it always comes back
stronger, clear, and morealigned with what the heavens
are saying to you.
And the reason that I feel likethis is really important, and
imagine this like whole lessonin the midst of you know the

(05:04):
story of baby Jesus is the factthat Zachariah, his son, who was
born John the Baptist, is goingto align with God, and he is
going to prep people to beprepared for salvation when
Jesus comes.
And this lesson is all about theclarity.

(05:29):
And the way that we can haveclarity with God and what you
are possibly maybe going throughat the moment is you gotta be
quiet.
And you have to be quiet in away where you're not trying to
be around all the noise andeverybody's opinions, you're
just quiet, and you're waitingon God to give you the clarity
and the answers you need to moveforward, to represent Him, to

(05:52):
spend time with Him, to loveHim, and to figure out and to
basically know what the nextstep is in your life.
And if we understand that, whatblessings we could have, right?
And Jesus' birth is just anamazing concept of clarity.
Is God's gonna keep God's kepthis promise that he is

(06:16):
delivering his son, he'sdelivering the Messiah to save
his people.
And that is all God wants fromus is he wants us to accept
that, he wants us to listen tohim and to Jesus' birth and to
Jesus' story and not all thenoise.
Jesus is the clarity in this.

(06:36):
And I think that's what makesthis passage with Zechariah
praising God just so special.
Because what Zechariah did iswhat we all should be doing:
praising the Lord, gettingaligned with him, praising him,
being loud about Jesus.
That's the only thing we shouldbe loud about.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you somuch for this lesson with Jack
with Zachariah.
Thank you so much for the storyof John the Baptist's birth and

(07:00):
how it paves the way for Jesus'birth.
Lord, thank you so much for thestory of the birth of Christ.
Thank you for these amazinggospels that tell these stories
so perfectly in their own uniqueway, but it all sums up to the
salvation of Jesus Christ.
Father, thank you for thiswonderful holiday season.
Thank you for everybodylistening.
We love you and we praise you inJesus' name.

(07:22):
Amen.
Love you all till next time.
Thank you for listening.
This episode is part of myChristmas devotional series
inspired by my writtendevotional, 25 Days Till
Christmas, a scriptured-filledjourney preparing our hearts to
celebrate the birth of Jesus.
I invite you to read along andreflect on his story in a deeper

(07:43):
way.
Details in the show notes forthe written devotional.
And it also says in scripture,glory to God in the highest, and
on earth, peace, goodwilltowards men.
Luke 2, 14.
And don't miss the nextreflection in this Christmas
series by subscribing to thepodcast to continue walking
through God's Word this season.
And a little bit about me.
I'm Jesse Morgan, wife, mom, anddevotional writer and podcaster

(08:06):
who loves sharing biblicalencouragement and the hope we
find in Jesus.
Till next time, Jesse Morgansigning off.