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Luke chapter 1, verse 67, and his father, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, and right after this verse, we have this prophecy from Zechariah about John,

his son. But the reason I want to lead us to pray according to this verse in particular is because

of this phrase, how Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit. There's eight times

where Luke uses that phrase in the book of Luke and then in the second volume of what he writes,

the book of Acts. Eight times we see that phrase and every single time we read about somebody filled with the Holy Spirit, it's connected

with prophesying or speaking the words of God. And whenever we see a pattern like that in God's

word, we need to pay attention. What is God making really clear to us? And the picture that we're

seeing here specifically in Luke's use of this phrase is that the filling of the Holy Spirit

empowers people in a unique way to speak God's word. Two other examples would be Acts chapter 2, verse 4, the day of

Pentecost. And the Bible says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues

as the Spirit gave them utterance. And then a couple chapters later in Acts chapter 4, verse 31, it says the place in which they had gathered together was shaken, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they continued to speak the Word of God with boldness.

Now I want you to think about how this applies to your life. As a follower of Jesus, you have been given God's word to share with others,

to obviously encourage other brothers and sisters in Christ with,

and to lead people to Jesus.

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