God Works Through His Servants, Part 2:

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

God reveals what He is about to do.  That revelation becomes an invitation to join Him.

        Reality 4: God spoke to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.

Exodus 3:2-8: 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up." 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." 5"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

Numbers 12:6-8: 6 he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. 7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

Note to self: I want to come to a place in my life where God sees me as He did Moses, and talks to me face to face!  Bring me there Lord Jesus.

Reality 5: God’s invitation for Moses to work with Him led to a crisis of belief that required faith and action.

Moses expressed a crisis of belief when he made the following statements to God:

• “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
• “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’  Then what shall I tell them’ ”?
• “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’ “?
• “O Lord I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, I am slow of speech and tongue,”
• “O Lord, please send someone else to do it”

Reality 6: Moses had to make major adjustments in his life to join God in what He was doing.

Moses’ crisis called for faith and action.

Hebrews 11:24-29:  24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. 29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea^a as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

Reality 7: Moses came to know God by experience as he obeyed God, and God accomplished His work through Moses.

As Moses obeyed God, God accomplished through Moses what Moses could not do in his own strength.  Here is one example in which Moses and the people came to know God as their Deliverer:

Exodus 14:15-17, 21-23, 26-27, 29-31:  15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.  21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.  26 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. 29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

Note to self:  This isn’t what the workbook would say about Moses and Reality 6, but I believe that the adjustment Moses had to make was to stop looking at himself and start looking to God for the strength to accomplish all that needed to be done!

This is what the book had to say about Realities 4-7 as they related to Moses:

Reality 4: God talked to Moses about His will.  God wanted Moses to go to Egypt to be His instrument to deliver the Israelites from their bondage.  God revealed to Moses His holiness, His mercy, His power, His name, and His purpose to keep His promise to Abraham and to give Israel the Promised Land.

Reality 5: Moses offered many objections.  He questioned whether God could do such a great work through someone like him (I wonder that about myself), whether the Israelites would believe God had appeared to him, and whether he was capable of speaking eloquently enough to accomplish the task (I can identify with Moses on this too!).  In each case Moses was really doubting God more than himself (And I must be too).  Moses faced a crisis of belief: is God really able to do what He says?  Moses’ faith is described in Hebrews, however, as a model of self-sacrifice and trust in almighty God.  Once God let Moses know what He was about to do, that revelation became Moses’ invitation to join Him.

Reality 6: Moses made the necessary adjustments to orient his life to God.  Moses had to come to the place where he believed God could do everything He said He would do.  Then he had to leave his job and in-laws and move to Egypt.  After making these adjustments, he was in a position to obey God.  (What adjustments must I make to be in a position to obey God?).  That did not mean he was going to do something all by himself for God.  It meant he was going to be where God was working so God would do what He had purposed to do in the first place.  Moses was a servant who was moldable, and he remained at God’s disposal to be used as God chose.  God accomplished His purposes through him.  When God does a God-sized work through your life, you will be humbled before Him.

Reality 7: Moses must have felt unworthy to be used in such a significant way (and so would I).  Moses obeyed and did everything God told him.  Then God accomplished through Moses all He intended.  Every step of obedience brought Moses (and Israel) to a greater knowledge of God.

Great Verse: James 5:17-18: 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Elijah was an ordinary man just like us.  He prayed, and God responded powerfully.  The people you generally see in the Scriptures were ordinary.  Their relationships with God and the activity of God made them extraordinary (I am ordinary, why shouldn’t I believe that God can act the same through me?).  Anyone who takes the time to enter an intimate relationship with God can see Him do extraordinary things through his or her life.  Henry Varley said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated (separated for/to God) to Him.” 

The world has yet to see what God can do with, for, through and in    John C. Mac Iver! God wants me to be me and let Him do through me whatever He chooses.  When I believe nothing significant can happen through me, I have said more about my belief in God than I have declared about myself.  I have said that God is incapable of doing anything significant through me.  The truth is, He is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person who is fully consecrated to him.

Don’t measure your life by the world’s standards.  By the world’s standards, a person or a church may look pretty good yet, in God’s sight, be utterly detestable.  Similarly, a person or a church may be wholly yielded to God and pleasing to Him yet be insignificant in the world’s eyes. 

Then everyone knows only God could have done something through them.  If you feel weak, limited, or ordinary, you are the best material through God Works.

Summary:

1. God reveals what He is about to do.
2. The revelation becomes an invitation to join Him.
3. I can’t stay where I am and go with God.
4. God is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person who is fully consecrated to Him.
5. God’s standards of excellence are different from ours. 

What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture I read today?:

God is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person who is fully consecrated to Him.

My Prayer is:

Daddy, I realize that you anything You please with one ordinary person. I am one ordinary person.  Please fully consecrate me to Yourself, and do through me whatever you please.  It is my desire that anything I do will be seen as only something God could do, so all glory and honor will go to You.  In Your Son’s Name I pray, Amen.

What does God want me to do in response to today’s study?

I believe God wants me to trust Him to work in my life.

The Memory verse for this unit is:

I am the vine and you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in Him he will bear much fruit.  Apart from Me he can do nothing.  Matthew 15:5