And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren... And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.[Luke 1:6-7,21-22]

Many times when The Lord wants to introduce any personality close to His heart, He begins with those glorious spiritual qualities that are uppermost in His heart because that is the angle from which He sees every other thing. The Bible here did not put verse 7 before verse 6, it put first things first. He revealed the righteousness of this couple (Zacharias and Elisabeth) before it spoke about their childlessness. In the same vein, when the Bible introduced Job in Job 1:1-3, it spoke first about the important, which is Jobs spiritual relationship with God before speaking on the physical possessions. It is therefore very clear that God has spiritual eyes, and as He looks, He sees all other things through the spiritual angle. If a life is not spiritually sound before God, then, the perspective from which God looks at that man will be blurred by sinfulness, hence such a life may be discarded. God will clearly see the physical issues of a man, and will be prepared to deal with them all, because the spiritual angle of the man is straightened up, giving God the clear vision or sight into every area of his life.

“THEY HAD NO CHILD …”

One would naturally believe that every spiritual engagements should automatically produce spiritual fruits. Could one be so involved in divine engagements and yet be fruitless? The Bible says that Elizabeth was barren. They were so stricken in years. They had put in so many glorious years of labour into divine service, yet, they had no fruits. What could be the problem? They had laboured in the service of The Lord so much but they had nothing to show for it. May The Lord bless His labourers with special souls like John. Amen.

”VISITATION FROM GOD...”

Many times, one can be so involved and engrossed in the service of The Lord wholeheartedly, and yet, something essential is still missing that demands a Divine Visitation. That a life is sinless is not enough yardstick to judge the height of spirituality of that man. Sinlessness is the absence or removal of what ought not to be there, which is glorious. But sinlessness alone is not all Christ came to accomplish, rather, it is the beginning of it.
Sinlessness opens the door, but there is so much in Jesus beyond the door. Jesus came to fill up with Himself, the space which sin created in our hearts (when sin left).
Jesus is longing to fill up with Himself and occupy all the void in our hearts. So where sinlessness ended is where Christlikeness actually began.
Zacharias service to God was great, yet, something glorious was still lacking, there was a barrenness that required a divine visitation. Though he became adjusted to this predicament, as far as heaven was concerned, service to God, activities and goodness could not make up for the lack of this divine fruitfulness. The issue required a Divine Visitation.

“And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple.” (Verse 21)

Many times when heavenly visitations are scarce, temple activities continue as planned, times allotted to specific functions are adhered to, and things go on normally. We pray, thanking God that “things went on as usual and as planned.” We think this is a glorious prayer even though God has been conspicuously absent. For those who are not waiting or hungry for divine visitations or spectacular experiences, such prayer is good. But, for hungry souls who always expect unusual visitations from heaven, they know that when God comes, He interrupts the order of events and manifests His presence.

Zacharias was in the temple, and today, God has come. He was expected to follow the due order. He was expected to adhere strictly to instructions and follow the order of temple worship. Time was allotted to every activity, and he was expected to have a wrist watch to guide him. Maybe there was an additional wall clock in the temple office to remind him every 30 minutes of the passage of time, with a loud resounding bang.

When God has not come, the wrist watch is our guide, everything is done by following a schedule, but with His coming, all human activities go to sleep and God takes over.
Life will continue as usual and everything will remain at status quo unless God shows up. For something new to happen, the presence of God is the trigger.
Many times, when we are so used to the regular and the common, our taste buds gets familiar will the nominal. Our bodies acclimatise to the frequent dryness, and our hearts are not yearning for something new. Routine works occupy the temple and we get satisfied with the ordinary.
There are many people who have never experienced God before, and they have never wet their appetites by studying past visitations of God, neither have they meditated on Scriptures for a renewed hunger for God. The present fruitlessness is all they know, and it appears okay to them.

Routine church activities are usual, church becomes what we come to do without a genuine thirst for the revelations of God. Singing becomes a performance, and not a release of power Preaching is just an event that time has been allotted for, and men are not longing for God. Even if God shows up in a little way, many are left out of it because they are not interested in giving God His place. Some men with small authority will even quench the fire of the presence of God and label it wrongly. To them, God is strange and should never be permitted to come.

The multitudes outside waited for Zacharias to come out, "what is he still doing there?...", many of them could have said. I discover that God could be present in a particular place, dealing and meeting with some broken men, whereas, there are several multitudes waiting to do the common rituals with no desire for the visitation of God. God could pass by our street powerfully, deeply touching some tender lives, whereas, there are some experienced men, old prophets, men full of mechanics, who have become experts in religion, they love routines, they believe in old time traditions, and the Lord simply passes them by.
Zacharias was in the presence of God, being dealt with, broken and touched, yet, multitudes were outside it, and God passed them by. The multitudes were not hungry, they were satisfied with ordinary theoretical temple worship without the power of the Holy Ghost in manifestation.
Of course, I am not talking about a cold pastor who ought to order church service from 8-10am, but decided to stretch his should-be 1 hour message to 3 hours in the guise that it is the Holy Spirit that is moving. If it was the Holy Spirit truly moving, men will never get tired in the presence of God, the joy of the Lord will be their strength, hours will pass and men will lose count of time. The pastor himself will have a full share of the divine touch. Himself may be on the floor somewhere, unable to stand or minister, but settling his age-long problem with God. There may be no choir singing, no organ playing, no ushers directing, no pastor preaching, yet, tears are rolling them the cheeks of men, and songs are flowing from individuals lips with awe the orderliness will be alarming and the voice of the Spirit will be reverberating in the hearts of men.

"...he tarried so long in the temple...”

When God visits a man, time is no more a factor. You do not decide the duration of time that God will spend with you. A man that is not willing to abandon himself unto God for divine dealings is not ready to seriously look for God for a divine visitation. When God comes for sincere seekers, hours will roll by in His presence, you will think that only minutes have passed. Time is an essential tool in Gods hands when He wants to deal with a man. Reading this account in Luke 1, one thinks the events in these verses took place within 5 minutes, but I am sure when Moses spent 40 days with God on the mount, it looked like 40 hours too. The beauty of Gods presence is a captivating bliss that erodes your thinking of a clear calculation of time. The glory is satisfying, it is like it should never end.

“...when he came out, he could not speak... they perceived ...he had seen a vision... he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.” (Verse 22)

When Zacharias came out, a new man ensued, God had dealt with him. Every encounter with God never leaves a man the same, it leaves him broken and dealt with. The wrongness he has been managing with up till now is deeply dealt with. God damages the pride and the ego, He removes something of man and puts God in its place.
Divine encounter is not just a monumental experience to put in your diary, it is a divine touch. God wants to be God and whatever rivals with His personality in man is expunged.

For Zacharias, his mouth was his problem. Of course his mouth was connected to his heart and whatever went wrong in his heart got translated to the outside. God worked on his heart and the boisterous, volcanic mouth became numb. The mouth that castigated and expressed unbelief died immediately. He became a subdued man, through whom the grace of God could flow. When he came out, God had sat upon his life. God had taken time to deal with him and a new man ensued. The man who went into the temple died in the temple, and a new man came out. Suddenly, the man whose asset was his mouth suddenly became dumb and could not speak. His highest point, that made him what men knew him to be, which took over Gods position in him, his mouth had been handed over to God. Now, "he...remained speechless".

The outcome of any divine encounter is to break our highest and dearest treasure which up until then had rivaled with God. That which occupied Gods throne in our hearts is brought under submission and death, so that Christ ALONE can dwell in His place perpetually.

A new Zacharias unfolded. The old talkative, faithless and argumentative Zacharias had died. The boisterous eloquent man, who had answer to every question with reasonable logic suddenly became the opposite. What made Zacharias to be who he was, a MOUTH not totally surrendered to The Lord, his dearest tie, HIMSELF, his vocal power, was ALL taken away by God.

When Jacob had that glorious encounter with God, what made him “Jacob” was severed from him. He lost his old identity, a supplanter became subdued the cheat became a giver. His strongest tie, which was his thigh (leg) was taken out of joint. He became completely damaged. What made him to be who he was, was what God put to death in his life. Now, since the old him existed no more, his name had to change too to correspond to the new man that has ensued. Jacob became Israel, The Lord had taken over.
For Saul of Tarsus, his highest points were his eyes, his strength, his knowledge and his associates/colleagues. God rendered him impotent in the might which he so relied and depended upon, he became subservient in a jiffy when he saw a more brighter light than he ever saw.

Anytime God wants to work, whenever He wants to visit, if He shows up at all, the first thing He does, is to deal with whatever rivals with Him in your life. He goes to the root of every problem, which may not be apparent unto man and He deals with it.

The fruitlessness of Zacharias was what everybody thought was his major problem, but God knew that this was not a problem at all. Immediately God dealt with the major issue, every other thing in Zacharias life became a non-issue.

"...they perceived..."

Normally, I expected that immediately Zacharias came out of the inner temple where he had overshot his time, people should have started yelling at him. They should have been calling him names, "holy holy...", "prayer warrior...", "are you the only one that can pray...?", The waiting priests who ought to have resumed their duties should have filed queries against him for keeping them outside. But immediately he came out to them, all their agitations melted when they saw the glory of God and presence oozing from him. He never told them of any angelic visitation, but by merely looking at him, THEY KNEW that something divine had rubbed upon him.
The divine inner working of God never remains hidden from sight. Even though it is an inner work, it will be very apparent and visible at the surface. Whatever God does within will immediately reflect without. God does not do an hypocritical work where the outward manifestation contradicts the inward revelation. If men cannot see a divine offshoot on the outside, then, let no man deceive himself, Gods work within is not yet done, it is still pending.
A deep work in the heart always displays a perfect beauty on the outside that men cannot miss. It will be clear, not by my much persuasion or publicity to convince men, but it will be a vivid picture that others cannot refute or gainsay.

“...he beckoned...speechless"

Beckoning made by gesticulations, is not as commanding or forceful as using the voice (or speech). For this man, God took something of the old carnal nature away that used to be forceful, and replaced it with something looking feeble before man, but which God Himself is the controller. Many times when God deals with a man, he becomes more tender, meek and surrendered. He does nothing now by human strength, but allows God to have His way. He looks feeble before men, but his outputs become more powerful, effective and convicting. The reason is because, the man who used to work has suddenly died, and God had now taken over.
It is no longer I (the boisterous self-centered man) that liveth, but Christ that liveth, worketh in me.