Sometimes When You Serve, It's You Who Gets Blessed.

Luke 1:5-17 "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. 


And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 


But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. 


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. 


And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. 


Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 


But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 




Zachariah was a priest in the temple, and the lot falls on him to go into the temple and burn incense to God on behalf of all of the people. So as he's doing this, this terrifying angel shows up, in the holy-of-holies, the place where no one else is supposed to be. The angel then goes on to prophesy to Zachariah about the son He's going to have.

What I liked about this is that Zachariah's main focus at the time wasn't on his personal walk with the Lord. He had already established a life of purity and righteousness, and this was his time to serve.

In serving the nation, the angel delivers a personal message that relates only to Zachariah's life.

Why didn't the angel deliver the message in a dream, or in his private devotion time?

I think the reason is to teach us that we can be individually blessed when we're participating in corporate service.

This is important for worship leaders to realize, because sometimes it's easy to fall into the extreem of "I only to get poured into during my personal devotional time and I'm only to pour out while serving the congregation."

This is only half the truth, as God likes to bless leaders when they are serving the body of Christ.

This happened recently with one of our worship teams. We were leading worship at a local youth group and a huge move of God came. The team started hearing angels, getting filled with joy, and experiencing revelations of God that hadn't happened in our practices leading up to this point.

With most kingdom truths, there's two extreems to avoid. You don't want to just seek God in public, and you don't want to just seek Him in private. I think the point of this story is that God will deliver a personal, practical, timely message to His followers in any situation.

Be looking for the boxes that we put God into. Make sure you're leaving room for the possibility that He will invade your life in unexpected places.

Are you ready to hear from God everywhere you go?

Please comment and share your thoughts!