What do we know about Nazareth?
It is a town in Galilee considered obscure (John1:46)
The city where Mary and Joseph lived (Luke 2:39-51)
Where Jesus was rejected (Luke 4:16-30) (John 7:41-42)
Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”
The interesting thing is that the Pharisees and the Sadducees thought that the expected Massiah would come from a wealthy and prominent family. They were in for the shock of their life.
Luke 2:39-51 tells us, when Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
The Boy Jesus in the Temple
Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware that Jesus was not with them. Thinking that he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I about my Father’s business?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Pastor Sara stated in one of her sermons, “now won’t let you go”. Luke 2:41. That means you are not released as of yet, because God needs to work in you and through you to prepare you for your calling to take place at the right time and in the right place.
Jesus was preaching in the temple, reading from Luke 4 where boy Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61:1, The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.
If Mary and Joseph had not returned to get Jesus
, he would have been comfortable with life’s conventions, growing up under incorrect instruction. Jesus would have been shaped by religion and the burdensome law that would have prevented him from being ready for his destiny. It was not the right time for him to step into his calling.
Can any good thing come from the children of God? John 1:46.
In our lives, we are born into a race, color, country, family, culture, mindset, way of living, and rules and family name: rich class, middle class, and low class. We have positive households, negative households, and whatever households. The words that are spoken over our lives can strengthen us, put us in our destiny, or destroy us to set us up for failure. We know the word states that we are as sheep and that we need a shepherd to lead us. So we will never arrive, but we are after holiness and excellence. If God placed us in our calling right away, do you think without preparation, equipping, and instructions, we would truly make it? I don’t think so. Just like Jesus, if he had stayed in the temple at a young age, he would have been in a place where it was not yet his time to do what the Father was preparing him to do. He would have stuck with old ways and followed the law. When his parents went to find him and he was in the temple, he told his parents that he is about his father’s business. However, he still went with his parents because it was not time for his reveling. He needed to be seasoned, prepared and released at the right time to bring grace to the world so that no one would be a slave to the law, but will flow with grace.
There is always a choice. Taking a risk and walking by faith is also a free-will choice. Now we can go astray and follow the footsteps of generational curses, or we can go against all that we were programmed to be according to traditions. We can damage our calling if we move forward with what we think is from the Lord and cause unnecessary bondage or stress. We need to spend time with the Lord and follow proper procedures of what the Father wants to do in us so the purpose of our calling will be aligned to go forth and produce. Do you want to be a child of God that is a follower, in bondage and manipulated? If you still hang out with individuals who may or may not be like-minded, you will eventually follow the law of their flow and not the grace of God. There is a time for everything the bible tells us. Let time have its perfect time. We truly need to understand what basking in his presence means. When we have an event in life that we want to attend, do we just get up and get to the event way before the date and time? Of course not! We have to plan and go through the preparation of making sure the date and time of the event is on the calendar, getting the proper attire, and having time off from work if parents have small children, they need to make the appropriate arrangement for a babysitter, and if you are coming into town for the event, you need to arrange for the plane tickets, hotel or staying with friends or family. When the day of the event comes, you have already been positioned because of the time prepared beforehand for what needs to be done to be present.
I am here to tell you that I rebuke the devil and his ungodly assignments off of all the children of the Most High God. He has no power and no authority over our lives. We want God to have his perfect time with us, so we can be prepared and ready to be released into our calling. Do not let the devil come against what you know to be true about God’s perfect timing. So, what good can come from the children of the Most High God???? I am here to tell all the children of the most high God to gather around because your time has come. You are called into his purpose, and he has made you from his image and likeness to fulfill his promises. He made us so wonderfully and beautifully that we can lack nothing. The only way we can think less of ourselves is if we let the enemy of our souls attack us in our minds. The power is within our hands. We have authority under heaven and earth to bind any and everything here on earth as it is in heaven and lose any and everything that is on earth as it is in heaven. We have dominion over all things. Good can come out of each and every one of us no matter what background and city or state we live in or even the neighborhood.
We are the seeds of Abraham, and we will have the promises of Abraham fulfilled in us by the word of God. Our God planted seeds in us before he sent us into time to bring the good news and the light of heaven. The gifts he installed in us will be passed on to the next generation. We are the solution for the human race.
There is a song that we used to sing at Faithfull Central Bible Church by Hezekiah Walker; I need you to Survive. We are all intertwined together like an umbilical cord. We need each other to survive or else it was all for nothing. We must stop looking at our brothers and sisters when they do something wrong and give them the cold shoulder as if we are better. We all have a lot of work to do before we can help anyone. Good can come out of all of us, because the one who made us, placed his goodness in us to perform it.
We are the good tithing that has come out from the ends of the earth chosen, handpicked by our Father to proceed with the plan that he set forth for us to take care of and complete. This is the mandate; if you accept it, get ready, get ready, and get ready because he will start with us before he releases the blessings through us that will change the atmosphere and the world.
Yes, there is a good thing coming from all of us. The power of God is helping us to leap over mountains and run through troops to bring forth the goodness of God that is in us. Psalms 18:29 and 2 Samuel 22:30.
Here is the acronym of Can Any Good Thing Come from Nazareth that God showed me.
Can- behold, becoming, hold on
Any- determiner
Good- to be desired or approved of having moral virtue
Thing- an object does not wish to give a specific name
Come- move, travel towards
From- a point in space at which a journey, motion/action starts
Nazareth- the place of our Jesus studied and prayed
Nazareth may come from the Hebrew netzer, which means “branch” or “shoot.” Sometimes when a tree is chopped down, a shoot will grow from the stump, allowing a new tree to spring up where the old one has died. That shoot is called, in Hebrew, a netzer. Why would the people who founded this village have called it “the branch.” Much of the Old Testament was written to predict or respond to Israel’s destruction. The northern half of the country was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. The southern half of the country, known as Judah, was conquered by the Babylonian Empire in 587 or 586 B.C. In speaking about Israel’s destruction and re-emergence, the prophets used the metaphor of Israel being like a tree that had been cut down but would sprout up once again. Israel would be led by a messianic figure called “the branch,” so Isaiah 11:1-4, 6 says: a shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse. We all know who that is, JESUS, our Lord and Savior. Our Alpha and Omega. Our Aleph Tav.