In His Presence
One of the greatest deliverance stories recorded in the Bible happens in the story of Moses and the Israelites out of the shackles of slavery in Egypt. As we ponder the magnitude of the task of moving over 3 million people from one location to another through the waters of the red sea, may be for one moment think about the questions that Moses asked in response to the command of God to perform this great deliverance.
In the book of Exodus 4, Moses' fear was not about the size or difficulty of the task but more about if they would believe that this was possible. The greatest obstacle to the deliverance story was whether the message of deliverance was believeable. My wife and i were reflecting on the logistics of actually moving our two kids from their beds to school as it compared to moving 3 million people through the wilderness for 40years. As tasking as the former is, it is in no comparison to the latter; yet, Moses was not concerned about the logistics - his concern was whether the people would believe that deliverance had come and that it was possible.
We find that God had to deal with Moses before He could deal with His people in bondage. Moses had to be set free from all that had him on the run from Egypt, the mental bondage and experiential slavery that had put him in the predicament of a wanderer in the wilderness. God knew that if He could fix Moses, He could fix the people; isn't this true with us today also? If God can just get into our thick skulls and stony hearts, He would be able to get us to minister more effectively to those that we are to lead - our businesses, our families, our ministries. God 'fixed' Moses in four distinct steps:
Step 1: God invited Moses to draw nearer to His fiery presence - we will not succeed in leading anything or anyone until we become comfortable with the presence of God. We must desire a red-hot relationship with God.
Step 2: God invited Moses to take off his shoes - this was more than sandals; God was calling him as He does us, to take off our dependence on human support systems. We will not thrive in God's work by social networking; as useful as that is, it can not be our root. Our root must be a reverential walk with God; Moses would have had to walk carefully on the hot sand or parched rocks in desert after he took off his shoes
Step 3: God revealed His plans to Moses - we must stay long enough in the presence of God to discover His heart towards His people. God loved David because David was a man after (looking for endlessly) His heart.
Step 4: God revealed His plans for Moses - we discover our purpose and the meaning of life and its experiences in the presence of God. We do not discover our callings or purpose online or in some self-help book; we discover ourselves in the presence of God.
So here we have it, the earliest and perhaps greatest deliverance story recorded in Scripture began with the presence of God. In the presence of God we discover that His commands and our believing in them is what empowers us to act even when the logistics for a somewhat impossible task ahead of us has little definition.
Spend more time in His presence!
