The case of Moses
is the best one
to illustrate the matter
of rejecting the natural strength and ability;
no other person in the Bible
is as good as Moses
in this aspect:
The natural strength and ability
have no divine element.
The natural strength and ability
act on their own,
not according to God’s will.
The natural strength and ability
seek their own glory
and satisfy their own desire.
The natural strength and ability
become useful in resurrection
for our service to the Lord.
Moses was educated
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians
and was powerful
in his words and works.
Moses did something
for God’s people
according to his own will.
Moses was put aside by God
for forty years:
Moses, as a man
who had been educated
in the palace of Egypt,
was forced by God to live
as a shepherd
in the wilderness;
as the years went by,
he lost everything
—his confidence, his future,
his interest, and his goal.
Everyone called by the Lord
must pass through a period of time
in which he
loses his confidence,
realizes his inability,
and considers himself
good only for death.
Moses learned to serve God
according to His leading
and to trust in Him:
Moses’ natural ability
was dealt with,
so it became
an ability in resurrection;
the ability in resurrection
corresponds with God’s move.
Actually,
God was wrought
into Moses’ ability;
his ability
eventually was full of God.
The record of God’s calling of Moses
is longer than the record of His calling
of any other person in the Bible;
Moses was
the first complete, qualified,
and perfected servant of God
in history;
because he was
the first fully qualified servant of God
in the Bible,
Moses is
the standard model of God’s servant,
and God’s calling of him
is the standard
for His calling of all His servants:
The place of God’s calling
was the back of the wilderness;
to be at the back side
means that we
are discontented and dissatisfied with
our present situation.
When Moses came
to the back of the wilderness,
he came
to the mountain of God, to Horeb;
many times
the back side of our situation
turns out
to be the mountain of God.
In Exodus 3:5
God said to Moses,
“Do not come near here.
Remove your sandals from your feet,
for the place on which you are standing
is holy ground”;
holy ground in this verse
refers to land
untouched by man:
This indicates
that God’s calling
occurs in a place
where there is
no human interference
and no human manipulation or opinion;
if we would be called by God,
we must be in a place
reserved wholly for Him.
The fact
that God called Moses
from the midst of a thornbush
indicates that the place of God’s calling
is within us.
A person who is called by God
must see the vision
of the burning thornbush:
Everyone who is called by God
must realize
that he is a redeemed thornbush
—a redeemed sinner
who was under God’s curse
with a fire burning within him
and that this fire
is the Triune God Himself,
the God of resurrection:
The fact
that the thornbush burned
without being consumed
indicates that God
does not want to use our natural life
as fuel;
He will burn only with Himself as fuel.
We have to be hot in our spirit,
not in our natural life;
any hotness in our natural life
is strange fire to God,
and this brings in death.
The fact
that the thornbush burned
without being consumed
indicates that the God of glory,
as the holy fire,
should burn within us
but that we should not be exhausted;
if a servant of God
is exhausted,
it may mean
that he is using his own energy
to do something for God.
The memory of this vision
must have worked
within Moses
constantly to remind him
not to use
his natural strength or ability.
Through the sign
of the burning thornbush,
God impressed Moses
that he was a vessel, a channel,
through which God
was to be manifested.
Throughout the years
we need to be learning one lesson:
to work for God
without using the natural life as the fuel
but by letting God burn within us.
The record of the burning thornbush
is to be
a continuing memorial and testimony
to God’s called ones.
May this record of the burning thornbush
make such a deep impression upon us
that we never forget it;
this vision
needs to be stamped
upon our being.
The church is
a corporate thornbush
burning with the God of resurrection:
God’s ultimate goal
is to obtain a dwelling place,
to build up His habitation.
The church is
the Triune God
burning within redeemed humanity;
this is
the divine economy.
A person who is called by God
must have a revelation
of who God is:
The One who called Moses
was first the Angel of Jehovah:
The title the Angel of Jehovah
refers mainly to Christ, the Son of God,
as the One sent by God
to save His people
from their situation of suffering.
According to Exodus 3:2 and 6,
the Angel of Jehovah, the sent One,
was Jehovah Himself, the sending One,
and Jehovah is
the Triune God.
For the purpose of calling and sending Moses,
God, the sending One,
appeared to him
as the sent One.
The name of the One
who called Moses
was I Am:
The name I Am
indicates that God, Christ,
is the reality of every positive thing.
We must know
that the God
who calls us
is
and that we
are not.
The One who called Moses
was the God of his father:
The God of your father
denotes history with God.
In the eyes of God,
the Lord who calls you
is the God of your spiritual father.
The One who called Moses
was the God of resurrection:
We must know
the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob
—the resurrecting Triune God:
The God of Abraham
signifies God the Father
who calls man,
justifies man,
and equips man
to live by faith
and live in fellowship with Him.
The God of Isaac
signifies God the Son
who blesses man
with the inheritance of all His riches,
with a life of the enjoyment of His abundance,
and with a life in peace.
The God of Jacob
signifies God the Spirit
who works in all things
for the good of His lovers,
transforms man,
and makes man mature
in the divine life
so that man
may be able to bless all the people,
to rule over all the earth,
and to satisfy all the people
with God the Son
as the life supply.
A called one of God
must be in resurrection
and do everything in resurrection
for the building up of the church,
which is altogether in resurrection.
A person who is called by God
must know
the purpose of God’s calling:
The purpose of God’s calling, negatively,
is to deliver God’s chosen people
out of the usurpation and tyranny
of Satan and the world,
typified by Pharaoh and Egypt.
The purpose of God’s calling, positively,
is to bring God’s chosen people
into the all-inclusive Christ
realized as
the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit,
typified by the land of Canaan
flowing with milk and honey.
A person who is called by God
must know
how to deal with
Satan, the flesh, and the world:
Anything that we rely on
apart from God
is a hiding place
for the serpent.
Our flesh is
a constitution of leprosy
—sin, rottenness, and corruption.
The world
with its supply, entertainment, and amusement
is filled with
the blood of death.
A person
who is called by God
needs the experience
of matching and cutting:
A called one
must have someone
to match him
in the principle of the Body
for his restriction, safeguard, and protection.
A called one
must be willing to have
the subjective experience
of the circumcision
of his natural life
in order to become useful
in the hand of the Lord
for the fulfillment
of His eternal purpose
and to be prepared
to carry out God’s commission.
May every aspect of God’s calling
be our experience
in the Lord’s recovery today.
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7 replies on “A Complete View of God’s Calling of Moses as the Standard Model of God’s Servant”
Prophecy note, 19 April 2015
We can only be
what we are.
One day
we all
shall reach the point
where we
consider ourselves good
only for death.
Everyone called by the Lord
must pass through
a period of time
in which he
loses his confidence,
realizes his inability,
and considers himself good
only for death.
Eventually,
we shall have
the same realization
about ourselves
that Moses had
at the age of eighty.
To be at the back side
means that we are
not content with
our present situation.
For years
Moses fed the flock
on the front side
of the desert.
But one day,
discontented and dissatisfied,
he decided to go
to the back side
to see
what was there.
If you are dissatisfied
with your occupation
or with your marriage,
this dissatisfaction
may turn you
to the back side.
Every one
who has been called by God
can testify
that he was called
at the back side.
Both God and Moses
were traveling,
and they eventually met
at a certain spot.
God traveled there
from the heavens,
and Moses traveled there
from where he was living.
According to our experience,
one day
we came to
a certain place,
and there
we met God.
When Moses went
to the back side of the desert,
he “came
to the mountain of God,
to Horeb”.
Many times
the back side of our situation
turns out to be
the mountain of God.
Moses,
however,
did not know
that the mountain of God
was at the back side
of the desert.
Nevertheless,
as Moses
was slowly making his journey
with the flock
to the mountain of God,
God was already there
waiting for him.
God’s calling
always comes to one
who is
on holy ground,
virgin soil,
soil touched
only by God.
This means
that every genuine calling
comes in a place
where there is
no human manipulation
or opinion.
If we would be called by God,
we must be
in a place
reserved wholly for Him.
God does not want
to use our natural life
as fuel.
He will burn
only with Himself
as fuel.
We are
simply to be a thornbush
with the divine fire
burning within it.
As I Am,
God is everything.
God is the reality
of every positive thing.
This implies
that God
must be you,
even the reality
of your very being.
This great I Am,
the all-inclusive One,
is the One
who has come
to call us.
Day 6
Moses needed
the male help and the female help.
The male help
is that of matching.
This kind of help
balances us, restricts us, and humbles us.
Through his brother’s matching
Moses learned to let others do
what he was able to do.
Whatever Aaron did,
Moses was able to do also,
but he was restricted
from doing so.
In the church life
the Lord will often raise up
an environment
that forces us
to allow others to do
what we can do.
This should be
a principle of our functioning
in the church.
If a brother
is able to do a certain thing,
let him do it,
even if you can do it better.
This will humble you.
However,
I have seen many,
especially sisters,
who insisted
that they alone be allowed
to do a particular thing.
According to our natural makeup,
we do not want others
to interfere with
what we are doing.
Nevertheless,
we all
must learn to let others do
the very thing
we are able to do.
I do not believe
that Aaron
was more capable than Moses.
Nevertheless,
God sovereignly arranged a situation
that allowed Aaron to do
what Moses was able to do.
In the church life
we should not do everything ourselves.
Instead,
we should let others do
what we can do.
This does not mean, however,
that we should be idle.
On the contrary,
it means
that in a matching relationship
we are restricted, balanced, and humbled.
This restriction
is a safeguard and protection.
Nothing is a greater protection
in our spiritual life
than the brothers’ matching.
The more we are matched with others,
the more we are protected.
In Exodus 4:24-26
we see
that Zipporah was used by God
to cause Moses to be
a “bridegroom of blood.”
The matching is objective,
but the cutting is very subjective.
In the Bible
the male
represents objective truth,
whereas the female
represents subjective experience.
Thus,
Aaron’s matching
was outward and objective,
but Zipporah’s cutting
was inward and subjective.
If we would be used of the Lord
in His recovery,
we must bear a sign
of having been cut.
This does not mean
that we should talk about the cutting
we have experienced.
On the contrary,
it means
that we should silently bear
this sign.
Let others say
we have been cut.
In Exodus 4
it was Zipporah, not Moses,
who said
that he was
a “bridegroom of blood.”
Both in the church life
and in married life
we need to be
such a “bridegroom of blood.”
If a brother
is to be truly God’s called one,
he needs to be cut
in a subjective way.
We learn a great deal
through the cutting.
Sometimes
my wife cuts me
by restricting my eating.
This cutting
keeps me healthy
and prevents me
from indulging myself.
Thus,
the cutting keeps us
from living according to the natural life.
Only those
who are willing to be cut
can be useful to God.
Every useful one
is a “bridegroom of blood.”
Daily and even hourly
we need to experience
the circumcision
of the natural life.
It is not sufficient
merely to see
that we are sinful.
Our natural life
must also be circumcised,
either by those
in our family
or by the brothers and sisters
in the church.
We need to see the vision
of the burning thornbush:
the Triune God
burning
within and upon
His redeemed ones.
This is
the focal point
of the divine revelation
in the Scriptures.
Then
we need to know
who God is
and what God is.
Furthermore,
we must know
the devil, the flesh, and the world.
Following this,
we need
the matching and the cutting.
If we are willing
for the subjective experience
of the circumcision
of our natural life,
then
we shall live
by the resurrection life,
we shall become useful
in the hand of the Lord
for the fulfillment
of His eternal purpose,
and we shall be prepared
to carry out
God’s commission.
May every aspect of God’s calling
be our experience
in the Lord’s recovery today.
Day 5
Both on the negative side
and on the positive side,
God’s purpose in calling Moses
was very great.
Negatively,
God called him
to deliver the children of Israel
out of the tyranny of the Egyptians.
Positively,
the purpose of God’s calling
was not only to bring the children of Israel
out of Egypt,
the land of bondage,
but to bring them
into Canaan,
a land “flowing with milk and honey”.
In typology,
bringing the children of Israel
into the good land
signifies bringing people into Christ,
the all-inclusive person
typified by the land of Canaan.
Christ today
is a good land
flowing with milk and honey.
Both milk and honey
are products of a combination
of the vegetable life and the animal life.
Milk and honey
signify the riches of Christ,
riches that come
from the two aspects
of the life of Christ.
Although Christ is one person,
He has the redeeming life,
typified by the animal life,
and the generating life,
typified by the vegetable life.
On the one hand,
Christ is the Lamb of God
to redeem us;
on the other hand,
He is a loaf of barley
to supply us.
These lives
were combined
for the enjoyment
of God’s redeemed people.
I can testify
that I daily enjoy Christ
as a spacious land
flowing with milk and honey.
After we see
the vision of the burning thornbush
and after we come to know
who God is
and what God is,
we still need
the three signs.
The first sign
is that of the rod
becoming the serpent.
The subtle serpent
who poisoned Adam and Eve in Genesis 3
is exposed in Exodus 4.
This sign helps us
to know the devil.
It indicates
that anything we rely upon
apart from God
is a hiding place
for the serpent.
Through the years
I have learned
that whenever I trust in something,
the serpent is hidden
in that thing.
We have pointed out
that the rod
which Moses had used for many years
was a hiding place
for the usurping serpent.
However,
Moses did not realize this
until, at the word of the Lord,
he cast the rod to the ground.
Then
the hidden serpent
was exposed.
The second sign
is that of the hand
that became leprous.
This sign
is for knowing
the flesh of sin.
We are not only leprous,
but we are leprosy.
This means
that we are sin,
not just sinful.
When Christ died on the cross,
He not only bore our sins,
but He was made sin
for us.
Because we were sin,
Christ was made sin
for us.
Every called one
must have the subjective knowledge
that his flesh
is a flesh of sin
and that nothing good
dwells in it.
Our flesh
is a constitution
of sin, rottenness, and corruption.
Furthermore,
the called one
must realize
that the world
is filled with death.
This is revealed
in the third sign,
the sign of the water
becoming blood.
To the people of the world,
enjoyment comes from
the supply and entertainment of the world,
signified by the Nile
that watered the land of Egypt.
However,
in the eyes of God’s called one,
the world
is not filled with living water
but filled with the blood of death.
What the world has to offer
is not water
to quench our thirst;
it is death
that poisons us
and kills us.
As God’s called ones,
we must know
the devil, the flesh, and the world.
Paul had
this threefold knowledge.
Regarding Satan,
Paul said,
“We are not ignorant
of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11).
Regarding the flesh,
he said,
“For I know
that in me, that is, in my flesh,
nothing good dwells” (Rom. 7:18).
And regarding the world,
he said,
“The world has been crucified to me
and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).
Again we see
that what Moses experienced in type,
Paul experienced in reality.
Day 4
The One who called Moses
was firstly the Angel of Jehovah.
According to the Bible,
an angel
is a messenger,
that is,
one who is sent.
For the purpose
of calling and sending Moses,
God, the sending One,
appeared to him
as the sent One.
Only the One
who has been sent
can send out the sent ones.
For example,
the apostles,
the sent ones in the New Testament,
were sent out
by the Lord Jesus, God’s sent One.
The title the Angel of Jehovah
mainly refers to Christ, the Son of God,
sent to save God’s people
from their situation of suffering.
In Exodus 3
the Lord came
as the Angel of Jehovah
to call Moses
for the delivery
of the children of Israel
from bondage.
The second title revealed in Exodus 3
is Jehovah,
which means
“He who was, who is, and who will be.”
This title
is composed basically of
the verb to be.
Apart from the Lord,
all else is nothing.
He is the only One
who is,
the only One
who has
reality of being.
If we would be called by God,
we must know
that the calling One
is firstly
the sent One of God
and secondly,
Jehovah,
the One who was, who is, and who will be.
We must know
that the God
who calls us
is
and that we
are not.
God calls Himself,
“I AM
WHO I AM” [Exo. 3:14].
“I Am” denotes
the One
who is self-existing,
the One
whose being
depends on nothing
apart from Himself.
This One
is also the ever-existing One,
that is,
He exists eternally,
having neither beginning
nor ending.
As I Am,
God is everything
we need.
To the words “I Am”
we can add
whatever we may need.
In the New Testament
the Lord uses many things
to describe Himself:
“I am the true vine” (John 15:1),
“I am the bread of life” (John 6:35),
“I am the light” (John 8:12).
As I Am,
God is everything.
God is the reality
of every positive thing.
This implies
that God must be you,
even the reality of your very being.
This great I Am,
the all-inclusive One,
is the One
who has come
to call us.
The phrase “the God of your father” [Exo. 3:6]
denotes history with God.
When God comes
to call you,
He should not be
a stranger
to you.
When we were saved,
we gained
another genealogy, a spiritual lineage.
For this reason
Paul told the Corinthians
that he begot them
through the gospel (1 Cor. 4:15).
In the eyes of God,
the Lord who calls you
is the God of your spiritual father.
When God appeared to Moses
and called him,
He was not a stranger,
for He had been with Moses’ family
for generations.
The God of Moses’ father
was the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
In Abraham,
we see God the Father
who calls man,
justifies man,
and equips man
to live by faith
and live in fellowship with Him.
Genesis 12:1 shows us
the Father’s calling
and 15:6 reveals
His justification.
Isaac represents
God the Son,
the second of the Triune God,
who blesses man
with the inheritance
of all His riches,
with a life
of the enjoyment of His abundance,
and with a life
in peace.
In the life of Jacob with Joseph,
we see God the Spirit
who works in all things
for the good of His lovers.
This is based upon Romans 8:28,
which says,
“All things work together for good
to those who love God.”
We also see
that the Spirit
transforms man
and makes man mature
in the divine life
that man may be able
to bless all the people,
to rule over all the earth,
and to satisfy all the people
with God the Son
as the life supply.
Day 3
The thornbush
represents Moses himself.
The fact
that God called
from the midst of a thornbush
indicates that the place of God’s calling
is within us.
Before God spoke to Moses,
He showed him
the sign of a burning thornbush.
This indicates
that everyone who is called of God
must realize
that he is
just a thornbush
with a fire
burning within him
and that this fire
is God Himself.
Although God desires to burn
within us and upon us,
He will not burn us;
that is,
He will not use us
as fuel.
According to Genesis 3,
thorns signify the curse
that came because of sin.
This indicates
that, as God’s called one,
Moses was
a sinner under God’s curse.
Moses was a thornbush.
The fact that the thornbush
burned without being consumed
indicates that the glory of God’s holiness
should burn within us
but that we
should not be exhausted.
If a servant of God
is exhausted,
it may mean
that he is using his own energy
to do something for God.
God does not want
to use our natural life as fuel.
He will burn
only with Himself as fuel.
We are simply
to be a thornbush
with the divine fire
burning within it.
Through the sign
of the burning thornbush,
God impressed Moses
that he was
a vessel, a channel,
through which God
was to be manifested.
It is not easy
to learn
that we are simply a bush
for the manifestation of God.
Throughout the years
I have been learning
one lesson:
to work for God
without using the natural life
as the fuel
but letting God
burn within me.
The record of the burning thornbush
is to be
a continuing memorial and testimony
to God’s called ones.
It bears witness to the fact
that we can be nothing
other than thornbushes.
May this record of the thornbush
make such a deep impression upon us
that we never forget it.
In ourselves,
we are nothing;
we are mere thornbushes.
But God still treasures us
and desires to manifest Himself
as a flame of fire
from within us.
We should treasure His burning
by never putting any trust
in what we are
according to the natural man.
We all should be
called ones like Moses.
Sooner or later,
we all
shall behold the very sight
Moses saw in chapter three of Exodus,
the vision of a bush
that burns without being consumed.
This vision
needs to be stamped upon our being.
Then whenever we touch
the work of God
or the service of the church,
we shall be reminded
that we are nothing
more than a thorn-bush.
The day is coming
when we all
shall realize this.
We have seen some capable ones
who were hot in serving the Lord
in the church.
Gradually,
the more they served,
the more they brought in death to others
and mainly death to themselves.
They killed themselves
in their spirit
by their serving,
so eventually
they disappeared in the service.
Their priesthood was lost.
This is
altogether the real significance
of the death
because of offering strange fire.
We all
need to serve,
to function,
and to use
our one talent, our gift.
But we must be careful
not to serve in a natural way,
with our natural hotness.
Of course,
the Lord does want us
to be hot in the spirit,
not cold or lukewarm.
But we have to be hot
in our spirit,
not in our natural life.
In Romans 12:11
Paul tells us
to be “burning in spirit,
serving the Lord.”
Any hotness in our natural life
is strange fire to God,
and this brings in death.
Day 2
When by God’s sovereignty
Moses was set aside,
he must have been very disappointed
and he must have lost all hope.
A man who had been educated in the royal palace
was now forced to live as a shepherd
in the wilderness.
As the years went by,
he lost everything
—his confidence, his future,
his interest, his goal.
Eventually,
Moses probably reached the point
where he had no further thought
that he was the one
whom God would use
to rescue the children of Israel
from bondage in Egypt.
Moses might have said to himself,
“I must care for this flock.
But not even this flock is mine;
it belongs to my father-in-law.
I have
no empire, no kingdom.
There is nothing left
for me
to do
except to labor
in support of my family.
My immediate concern
is to find
fresh grass for the flock
and water for them to drink.”
But one day
God appeared to him
and called him.
At the age of eighty,
in the eyes of God
Moses was fully prepared and qualified,
and at the precise time
He came to him.
The record of God’s calling of Moses
is longer than the record of His calling
of any other person in the Bible.
In this account
we find all the basic points
concerning God’s calling.
Thus,
if we would know
the full significance of God’s calling,
we must pay close attention
to God’s calling of Moses in Exodus 3.
Moses was
the first complete, qualified,
and perfected servant of God
in history.
Moses is
the standard model of God’s servant,
and God’s calling of him
is the standard
for His calling of all His servants.
In principle,
we all
need to be called
the way Moses was.
According to Exodus 3:1
one day
Moses led the flock
to the back side of the desert.
This indicates
that we can be called
only when we are
at the back side of our situation,
never when we are at the front.
I believe
that Moses led the flock
to the back side of the desert
because he was looking for the best pasture.
He might have been dissatisfied
with the familiar places,
and he might have desired
a new place.
Thus,
he went to the back side.
To be at the back side
means that we are not content
with our present situation.
For years
Moses fed the flock
on the front side of the desert.
But one day,
discontented and dissatisfied,
he decided to go to the back side
to see what was there.
If you are dissatisfied
with your occupation or with your marriage,
this dissatisfaction
may turn you
to the back side.
Every one
who has been called by God
can testify
that he was called
at the back side.
Both God and Moses
were traveling,
and they eventually met
at a certain spot.
God traveled there
from the heavens,
and Moses traveled there
from where he was living.
According to our experience,
we one day
came to a certain place,
and there we met God.
When Moses went
to the back side of the desert,
he “came to the mountain of God, to Horeb”.
Many times
the back side of our situation
turns out
to be the mountain of God.
Moses,
however,
did not know
that the mountain of God
was at the back side of the desert.
Nevertheless,
as Moses was slowly making
his journey with the flock
to the mountain of God,
God was already there
waiting for him.
In verse 5
God said to Moses,
“Do not come near here.
Remove your sandals
from your feet,
for the place
on which you are standing
is holy ground.”
The “holy ground” in this verse
refers to land
untouched by man.
This indicates
that God’s calling
occurs in a place
where there is
no human interference.
God’s calling
always comes to one
who is on virgin soil,
soil touched only by God.
This means
that every genuine calling
comes in a place
where there is
no human manipulation or opinion.
If we would be called by God,
we must be
in a place
reserved wholly for Him.
Day 1
We surely need to gain ability,
but once we have the ability,
we need to be dealt with.
This was
exactly what happened to Moses.
The case of Moses
is the best one
to illustrate the matter
of rejecting the natural strength and ability.
Acts 7:22 tells us
that Moses was educated
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians
and was powerful in words and in works.
He came out
to work for God,
to rescue God’s people
from the tyranny of Pharaoh.
Moses did something
for God’s people
according to his own will.
He was full of assurance
that he could accomplish something,
but he was carrying out his will,
not God’s will.
God purposely and sovereignly
put Moses aside
for forty years.
In those forty years
Moses learned to serve God
according to His leading
and to trust in Him.
Moses eventually became a person
who did nothing
according to his will.
He always acted
according to the Lord’s leading.
The Lord led him,
and he followed.
He had no faith
in his ability.
Although he was very capable,
he did not use
his natural ability.
His natural ability
was dealt with,
so it became
an ability in resurrection.
The ability in resurrection
corresponds with God’s move.
After being dealt with
by the cross,
our ability
becomes one with God’s move.
Actually,
God was wrought
into Moses’ ability.
His ability
eventually was full of God.
Exodus 2 shows us
a natural Moses,
a Moses with his natural strength and ability.
That was
purely, solely, wholly, and absolutely
Moses without God.
Then after chapter three
we can see
another kind of Moses,
a Moses that was fully dealt with by God.
After chapter three,
God was in Moses
and whatever Moses did
in his acts and move
was full of God,
having the divine element.
The natural strength and ability
are useful
if they are dealt with
by the cross.
After being dealt with
by the cross,
they are
in resurrection.
Some brothers
speak in their natural eloquence,
but other brothers
speak with an eloquence
dealt with by the cross.
This is
the eloquence in resurrection.
Some who are short of experience
may ask
what the difference is
between the natural eloquence
and the eloquence in resurrection.
It is hard to explain,
but if you have the experience,
it is easy
to discern.
In resurrection
something divine
has been wrought
into our strength and ability.
Even some divine element
has been wrought
into our eloquence.
When we speak,
we need to have our eloquence
dealt with by the cross.
The cross
always works the divine element
into the person
it deals with,
bringing God
into him.
If you have never been dealt with
by the cross
in your eloquence,
that is
the natural eloquence
with nothing divine.
But if your eloquence
has been dealt with,
that kind of eloquence
is in resurrection
and is full of the divine element;
the “dealt with” eloquence
in resurrection
is full of God.
After being dealt with,
our strength and ability
become useful
in resurrection
for our service to the Lord.
There is
no point
in pretending or performing.
We can only be
what we are.
If you are like Moses
smiting the Egyptian,
then
that is
where you are.
And if you are like Moses
at the age of eighty,
then
that is
where you are.
One day
we all
shall reach the point
where we consider ourselves
good only for death.
Everyone called by the Lord
must pass through a period of time
in which he
loses his confidence,
realizes his inability,
and considers himself
good only for death.
Eventually,
we shall have
the same realization
about ourselves
that Moses had
at the age of eighty.