By Carl Itaman.
It will be unfair to say that pharaoh’s daughter took in Moses only because she had compassion on him, although an act of compassion or compassion in itself is the nature of God in man regardless of who the man is. Every man walking on the earth today is sustained by the Life of God. The journey of Moses from the day he was born was designed and orchestrated by God, and so, Moses was raised in God’s predetermined agenda and He Himself (God) worked in Moses and through Moses for the deliverance of His people Israel.
A few lessons in the life of Moses will help us accurately align ourselves with God and eventually bring us to a place of total submission to the will of God. A man who is totally submitted to the will of God is one who really knows what the will of God is, and knowing the will of God produces an unshakable faith in God.
Moses identified with his own…
One day, after Moses was grown, it happened that he went out to his own brethren and looked at their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of Moses brethren. Exodus 2:11 (Amp)
[Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life. Hebrews 11:24-25 (Amp)
Moses identified with his own people regardless of their status as salves. He was a man who accomplished so much through the power of God as he diligently obeyed God. He was used so much of God because he identified who he was and saw his brethren as himself.
Identifying who we are in God is of paramount importance in our walk with God. To accept and identify who we are means we have accepted what God has said about us as individuals and as a people. It means we have read the promises of God and have come to believe by changing our thought patterns to align with the very same thoughts God has towards us. It also means we have said YES to all of the will of God for our lives and we are ready to swiftly obey his written and spoken word at every given time. It means we have said no to all that exudes from ourselves and we are truly saying to God at all times “not my will but Thine”. “I know the thoughts that I have toward you” God says. One of the reasons we are lagging behind in becoming all that God thinks about us is because many are yet to ask God what He really thinks. Yes, we have His promises written in His word but there are also His thoughts about us as to how and where we function in His purpose. The moment we find out then we become ALL that he has created us to be. This state of higher life then defines who we truly are and reveals our identity in God. [When Moses Identified with his brethren he was only able to identify with their sufferings but was yet to identify who he really was in God. He only did in the burning bush].
Moses identified with his brethren in becoming one with them but his identity showed forth when he met with God. We may identify with the body of Christ or the people who profess Christ; our true identity is revealed the very moment we encounter God. Is a seamless connection in the spirit with God.
Moses came to know his true identity in God. He looked at his internal structures and realized he wasn’t the same as the Egyptians, his DNA was completely different, although he was living in Pharaoh’s house something on the inside of him was not at peace. Moses mother who was hired as his nurse must have planted the seed of God inside of him and as that seed was springing up Moses had to accept and come to the realization of his true identity.
As an individual, what identity matters to us? Are you a South African or a Briton? Men take pride in identifying their nationalities especially those from the USA. But you only see it as a thing of pride to be called a citizen of the USA or a South African because eternity hasn’t taken hold of your heart. And many lament about their citizenship and desire to have dual citizenship. But we must begin to first and foremost realize that our citizenship is in Heaven, the earth will pass away and the day comes when our earthly identity becomes invalid. Is not irksome to take pride in your earthly citizenship but the realization of our true citizenship must first and foremost engulf our hearts. For we are strangers and temporary residence and exiles upon the earth (Hebrews 11:13)
Although Moses had a choice to reject his true identity but he willingly accepted what God has called him and his brethren, “a holy and set-apart people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a special people to Himself out of all the people on the face of the earth.(Deut 7:6)
The situation of his brethren never suggested they were a chosen people, it didn’t look like they were Holy unto the Lord but those truths echoed on the inside of Moses until he gave up his false identity to accept his true identity by identifying with his own, it wasn’t out of compulsion, it was rather the benevolence of God grinding into Moses who he truly was in God. The tender mercy of God doesn’t compel men out of their will, it is a godly compulsion that you cannot resist, and it becomes a sense of duty to carry out the will of the Father. (2 Con. 5:14).
And so, Moses stepped into his true identity. But the journey into the purpose of God for God’s people couldn’t take place until Moses identified with his brethren. He had to leave the kings house, he had to leave completely otherwise his identity would become a false identity. The issue of identifying with the brethren is one of the major problems that is ravaging the church globally. Men profess to be lovers of God but have no likeness of God to back up there claims. Ah, it becomes a claim when is not genuine. That is why Moses couldn’t help his brethren from pharaoh’s house because the things of God cannot be supported by the arm of flesh. Until Moses leaves Pharaohs’ house he was not going to be fit for the master’s use (2 timothy 2:21). For as long as Moses lived in Pharaoh’s house his desire to see his brethren free was never going to happen. He was going to engage in a battle which was going to get him killed. Many in time past entangled themselves in battles that had nothing to do with God and many are dead before their time. A lot are still into battles of life that have nothing to do with God and defeat inevitable.
Jehoshaphat the King of Judah almost died when he went to join himself with the king of Israel. It was a battle that God was not involved in but God was good and He saved King Jehoshaphat, although He rebuked him for joining himself to the wicked. It was a case of misplaced identity.
Jehoshaphat King of Judah said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. King Jehoshaphat equalled the people of God to the wicked but the tender mercy of God again saved him. You can read that account in 1 king 22.
Like Moses, many a people have come to realize there true identity in God and have identified with brethren in the same faith. But identifying who we are in God as individuals and a body globally is the first step to our deliverance and it brings us to a closer proximity into the purposes of God for our lives. Please note that becoming aware of who we are doesn’t mean we are fully in the will of God, it is the starting point, is a step into that journey in God that will be unfolding before us. Although Moses had identified with his brethren he was yet to be validated by God. Needless to say, many in the Christendom remain entirely in this position of knowing about the promises of God and who God has called them to be but never yielding to the will of God in its entirety. The will of God for yesterday will have to be built upon by God today for the furtherance of His purposes on the earth. It is a progressive journey in God.
Moses came to a realization of his true identity, and then was joined to his own by identifying with them. That realization brought an end to all that Moses had, the palace, the beautiful women, the career, and the hopes of even becoming a king someday. Like Paul in latter times he counted it all loss in other to gain God and be used of God (Hebrews 11: 25. Philippians 3:8). Until we begin to count our losses we need to check again if we have really handed all that we had or have to God.
Moses thought he could help his brethren..
He looks this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
He went out the second day and saw two Hebrew men quarrelling and fighting; and he said to the unjust aggressor, why are you striking your comrade?
And the man said who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, surely this thing is known. Exodus 2:12-14 (Amp)
When God began to move in the heart of Moses to go and be joined to his people, Moses went ahead of God and began to stand for his people and it boomerang. It doesn’t matter how good a man’s intentions are, if is not born out of the will of God it is of the flesh and it will always boomerang. It doesn’t matter how perfect the plan or intention may seem if God hasn’t commanded it will be a waste before God, men may applaud the goodwill; it still doesn’t count before God. Until a man becomes truly spiritual he has no right to act on behalf of God, if he goes ahead he might get injured in the process or labour in vain. Let’s not be men who are good in the eyes of the world only but let’s be a people who are godly before men and primarily before God. You see, Moses had accepted his identity; he did identify with his people in suffering, the people of God, but was yet to begin to operate in the will of God. We do not want to be like the kind of Moses who went ahead of God, but we want to be that kind of Moses who God said was the meekest man on earth. We want to be that kind to Moses who will say to God, I will not go unless your presence goes with us; we want to be that kind of Moses who prayed to God and said “show me your glory”. …Now these things happen unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition…. 1 con. 10:11 (ASV)
And the man said who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?
At this time some of his brethren saw Moses as a murderer, they still was seeing him as one who is not part of them. He was still at the palace enjoying the comfort but was posing as one who identified with their sufferings and anguish of soul. Of course he wasn’t accepted completely because our declaration for the love of God must be a COMPLETE expression of our life style. It reminds me of African leaders, they speak as those who know the pains and the poverty the people go through but they live in their palaces like gods. And so, Moses wasn’t accepted. But one thing comes to mind. And the man said who made a judge over us? Moses was yet to be ordained by God to be a judge over the people, he wasn’t given that mandate yet, and he was yet to receive that anointing from God. Without the validation of God over Moses position, Moses was going to get himself killed. You can’t not assume a leadership position on your own; the people won’t listen except they are under an evil spell. That until a man is anointed by God for a leadership position he can’t function and if he is functioning then he is functioning under a satanic deceptive spell. This is because anything that is not of God is of the devil. Let’s bring it to our experience, it also means that even in our standing up to share or preach, it has to be God who has authorize you under the leadership of the eldership to speak forth his Word to the body as he presses his words in your spirit. If it is not a seasoned word from God, it will be a fleshly believer at that moment feeding the soulish life of the hearers. This is because spiritual words or a message given to you by the Holy Spirit of God can only feed the spirit of the hearers and if what we are sharing is coming from us, our flesh, it is absolutely unable to reach or touch the spirit of the hearers. Therefore nothing is ministered, it means men are not changed although they are excited and that time becomes wasted because any time not captured by the sovereignty of God is a colossal waste. A colossal waste because we have hindered the almighty from doing what only HIM can do at that particular moment. Is really not a question of sharing thoughts, but if God is thinking through our thoughts that’s perfect, neither is it a question of bringing nice biblical fables; the most important question is if this message am about to share has been given by God.
Moses had a zeal to deliver his people and he began to use his strength. He was yet to realize that by the means of strength shall no man prevail, neither did it yet enter his heart at that time thatIt is also not by power nor by might but by the Spirit of God. Uzzah comes to mind each time the thought of men helping God comes to mind; Uzzah means strength and because the strength of man cannot help God Uzzah was killed for trying to support the ark where God was dwelling to represent His being in the midst of His people. I still am not able to get over religions fanatics who think they can fight for God. The thought of it alone is an abomination to the sovereignty of the one and only true God, the ancient of days.
Moses knew his identity and identified with his brethren but couldn’t step into his divine purpose because that encounter with God was yet to happen. You cannot step into God’s divine purpose for your life without an encounter with God, don’t even think of it because if you give yourself one as many do today you will quite what you have started yourself in the face of adversity. Many have corrupted their souls in a zealous bid to do something for God without an encounter with God; this has produced many false and corrupt churches with no power at ALL.
Read Paul:
Then after [an interval] of fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem. [This time I went] with Barnabas, taking Titus along with [me] also. I went because it was specially and divinely revealed to me that I should go, and I put before them the Gospel [declaring to them that] which I preach among the Gentiles. However, [presented the matter] privately before those of repute, [for I wanted to make certain, by thus at first confining my communication to this private conference] that I was not running or had not run in vein [guarding against being discredited either in what I was planning to do or had already done]. Gal 2:1-2 (Amp)
When adversity came to face Brother Moses, he ran away because he gave himself the assignment to deliver his people without being authorized by God. It doesn’t matter how noble that mission might be before your face, if there is no God asking you to go and bring glory to His name, you are a disaster waiting to happen. Men everywhere need to seek the face of God for a revelation from God before swinging into action especially when it comes to spiritual matters. Thank God Moses fled.
The Mandate…
When Moses fled the sinful pleasure of Egypt because he identified with his brethren, there was no more gap between that which he was saying and doing, his lifestyle was now same with his brethren. All privileges gone, everything was gone and he became as they were although free. He truly became one as his brethren. That’s the call of every one who professes to know Christ. You are required to love your neighbour as yourself, to become one with him. Until your neighbour finds freedom you have to refuse to walk as a free man although free.
Egypt wanted to kill him because you can’t serve two masters and some of his brethren rejected him. His brethren rejected him because it was impossible to lead God’s people at that time by self-imposition or by votes. They were God’s people and God had to show many dangerous signs through the one he is giving the mantle of leadership to, to make the people know He is with the man (Exodus 4:5 Joshua 4:14)
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed. Exodus 3:2
And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is HIS name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; and He said, you shall say this to the Israelites, I AM has sent me to you! Exodus 3:13-13
Moses didn’t know much about His God until this time. Although God was moving in his heart for more than 40 years and preparing his heart for the purpose which He created him for. At this time he was already a man who sees the pleasures of life as worthless compared to living in alignment with God. We need to realize that a man God will use must be stripped of all that has to do with this world (2 Timothy 2:21). Moses was stripped of all that had to do with the earthly and was found worthy to be among God’s people. It then behoves me to say, anyone who is not being used by the Lord has still got some earthly attachments to his life.
Moses attempted to champion the course of deliverance on his own until he was defeated. He was defeated because he didn’t know Gods voice. As soon as he met with God, he loaded his armoury with nothing but the voice of God and he brought down the kingdom of Pharaoh because of the encounter he had with God. The very moment a man encounters God the only thing he carries about from that day on is the very voice of God.
Read this to have an idea of what Moses was loaded with:
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is upon many (great) waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion (Mount Hermon) like a young, wild ox. The voice of the Lord Splits and flashes forth forked lighting. The voice of the Lord makes the wilderness tremble; the Lord shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the hinds bring forth their young, and his voice strips bare the forest, while in His temple everyone is saying, Glory! The Lord sat as King over the deluge; the Lord [still] sits as King [and] forever! The Lord will give [unyielding and impenetrable] strength to His People; the Lord will bless His people with peace. Psalm 29:3-11 (Amp)
I like to say that we are so ineffective for God because we do not know and have His voice. No man in history till date ever completed his purpose in God or was used by God mightily without having the voice of God. I get irritated when peoples say to me “do you feel God is tell you to do this and that?”. It is inadequate to say “I feel God is saying this to me” because when God speaks you are not supposed to feel but to know the very voice of your father. . The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon, is not a feeling my friends. Not knowing the voice of God is the reason men everywhere do not have faith because faith rises in a man’s heart the moment he hears the voice of God. Faith in a man’s heart comes alive as soon as the WILL of God is known. The heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 heard His voice and faith came alive. When peter walked on the waters, he heard the voice of the Master which bid him to come forth and his faith awakened.
Anywhere the voice of God is muted produces a lack of faith and a lack of faith means a man cannot please God.
Brother Moses obviously didn’t have faith that was why he fled for his life, but now the voice of God has come, faith is alive. He goes to confront Pharaoh and delivered his brethren.
Don’t you all think we really need to wait until God speaks? I don’t know about you but am definitely not functioning in my very best so am still sorting this things out as HE continues to shake and challenge me on the inside. The ONLY guarantee to function divinely is by hearing the voice of God. If God is your life and your length of days how can you not afford to hear Him? (Due 30:20).
Moses gave up and allowed God..
Like Moses, when are we going to give up and let God just do His work? When Moses fled he gave up everything including an attempt to free his people. He went away, got married and went about his daily business after failing to help God. Many years later God showed up and that was it. Until we give up our asking and let God do what He will we will not hear God. Because we go to God in prayers with things that we need and desire, we attempt at all the times to get God grant us all that we need and yet He is not our messenger, but we make it look that way. When are we going to just stop and say “speak Lord for your servant hears you” When are we going to give up and just let Him align us with his words. A true relationship is one that hears God and carries out the desires of God. We as humans can’t take our desires to God, if we will be allowed by God to take our desires to HIM it will be the desires He has implanted in our hearts. That’s the desire of the righteous, and because He is our righteousness our righteous desires are His. We must Give up and wait for that encounter with God.
Let us note that whenever God speaks, what he says is always about his purpose and call for us. Many build up personal expectations outside the Kingdom before God and it becomes a hindrance to hearing Him. He has asked we seek first His Kingdom, so His speaking’s comes from within His Kingdom and this Kingdom is within us. We look at external things, desires them and go into prayers BUT He is saying, look from within you I AM here, in you, shut down every voice speaking to you, close your eyes to the external for they are temporal, look within you and I will speak to you for I AM your sufficiency.
He makes us here him.
Out of heaven He MADE you hear His voice that He might correct, discipline, and admonish you; and on earth He MADE you see His great fire, and you heard His word out of the midst of the fire. Deu 4:36 (Amp)
Now the men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear [the sound of the uttered words of] the voice of the one Who was speaking to me [so that they could understand it]. Acts 22:9 (Amp)
Then prayed Elisha, Lord, I pray You, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord OPENED the young’s man’s eyes, and he saw, and behold the mountains was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 2Kings 6:17 (Amp)
When He spoke to Moses out of the burning bush it was Him who made Moses hear Him out of the fire. When He met Paul on his way to Damascus it was Him who made Paul to hear Him. Paul heard God’s voice but the people with Paul only saw the light that shined but didn’t hear any voice because He wanted only Paul to hear. When He spoke out of the fire in Deuteronomy chapter 3 it was Him who MADE the children of Israel to hear Him out of the fire. When the army of the philistines surrounded Elisha and his servant, the Lord opened Elisha’s eyes to see the chariots of fire but his servant couldn’t see until Elisha asked the Lord to open his eyes.
Is it not time we begin to ask him to MAKE us hear Him instead of worry him over things that He has given to us already, God is NOT an infidel. A man is delivered from the chaotic effects of mortality the very day he attains that seamlessness in the spirit with God. That tangible seamless union with God in the spirit is an escape into immortality while living in a mortal realm. And this can only be truly validated by the voice of God. Everything that is earthy dissolves when HE utters a word.
Dear Yoke Fellow, there are lots of lessons to be learnt from the journey of Moses, but if we must take just one thing out of this epistle. Let’s cease from our too many request and ask Him to make us hear Him, for that is the crescendo of a man’s life, to hear the sovereign God and obey Him. Let’s stop trying to make ourselves, let’s stop asking Him for things that we need to make us what we want to be. Let our prayers to our ever loving God be “you make me into the very man that you created me to be”. He is omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotent. It was He who made His disciples, but they heard Him and followed Him when he said “Follow me and I will MAKE YOU.” Let’s cease from trying to make ourselves and let Him MAKE us.
MAKE us Lord. That original intent you had when you conceived the thought of sending everyone reading from before the foundations of the earth was laid, MAKE us into what You alone want us to be. Help us to truly yield to You. Make us hear You even as You made our fathers hear You. When you do Lord, give us the Grace to obey every word You speak to us.
Amen.
