Before I start the message, I want to announce
another exciting new part of hope on the inside website :
MESSAGES FROM THE INSIDE. We have been corresponding with
several inmates who have a desire for Christian fellowship. One
of them, a man named Moses (how do you like that?) who had a
dynamic and dramatic conversion to Jesus before we met him, is
now working in the ministry under the covering of his pastor. He
is preaching the word of God to other prisoners—bringing them
Hope. We have his sermon right here on the web so that others
may hear and come to Jesus and be encouraged. Included in his
message is an amazing testimony of God healing a fellow inmate.
The link to this 2 part message is on the bottom of this page.
Tonight I want to continue with the Message that you were born
and called for a purpose.
Do you know what YOUR purpose is?
Jeremiah was called by God even before he was conceived in his
mother’s womb. And the, while he was still. Young, God told Him
his calling. He was to be a prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah 1:5— (AMP)
5Before
I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My
chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set
you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet
to the nations
But in verse 10, God told him his purpose:
Verse 10
See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and
tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
Just as surely as God called Jeremiah for a purpose, God has
called you--- for a purpose.
13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my
mother's womb. 14 I praise you because
I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I
know that full well. 15 My frame was
not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When
I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16
your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to be.
(NIV) Psalm 139:13-14
But, you need to find out what your purpose is and let God show
you how you are going to accomplish it—step by step.
Moses, had spent 40 years in the desert herding sheep. That’s
how God prepared him to shepherd the people of Israel. Then cam
the time when God was ready to change things drastically in his
life—to move him out of the desert and send him back to Egypt to
free his people. No situation is forever. There will always be
changes in our lives. We have to be ready for them.
After 40 years of what was probably a very monotonous life,
suddenly things changed. But always remember, it during that 40
years that Moses was changed from what he had been—a quick
tempered man who took matters into his own hands and committed
murder—to what he needed to be, a seasoned shepherd who God
called the meekest man on earth. Meek—not weak. Being
overbearing does not show strength—it shows weakness. Being meek
and humble can be the greatest show of strength there is.
It was the OLD Moses---tired, weary, and smelling like the
sheep he’d herded for 40 years out in the wilderness---that God
could use. He was prepared in the wilderness. The older Moses
knew the ways of the desert. After all, how could someone who
lived only in the palace help people who’d live in the desert?
*How to survive in the desert
*How families traveled and lived together in the desert.
*How they would work together in the desert
*He learned about God and Who He was
So, one day, while Moses is leading the sheep, he sees a strange
sight:
Now Moses was tending the flock of
Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the
flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the
mountain of God. 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. So Moses thought, "I will
go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn
up." 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." "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off
your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy
ground."Exodus
3:1-5
It can be very sudden. You can be going about your business like
you do every day and suddenly God speaks to you and tells you
the purpose He has for you. It may even be something He’s
already told you—something you thought was dead or hopeless. But
God tells you it’s very much alive. He has a plan for your life.
God tells Moses how He has heard the cry of his people who were
in bondage. The time for deliverance had come and Moses was
going to be the one God used for the deliverer.
(AMP)10Come
now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may
bring forth My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
Moses responded with But who am I?
11And
Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and
bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
God’s answer was to basically say: It’s not who you are, Moses;
it’s who I Am!And since I am with you—you will succeed.
12God
said, I will surely be with you; and this shall be the sign to
you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out
of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain [Horeb, or
Sinai].
Moses was not buying it.
Exodus 4:1 1AND MOSES answered, But
behold, they will not believe me or listen to and obey my voice;
for they will say, The Lord has not appeared to you.
And then:
10And
Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not eloquent or a man of
words, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant;
for I am slow of speech and have a heavy and awkward tongue.
And the conversation went on with Moses raising one objection
after another and finally saying SEND SOMEONE ELSE, until God
finally had enough. He got angry.
Have you ever argued with God when He wanted you to do
something? You might as well save your strength. God’s going to
win the argument.
But He gave Moses a helper—his brother who could speak well. As
it turned out though Aaron didn’t have to speak for Moses very
long. Moses would be doing the speaking—just like God originally
told him.
14Then
the anger of the Lord blazed against Moses; He said, Is there
not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know he can speak well.
Also, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he
will be overjoyed.
And so, Moses finally accepts the calling of God—goes and meets
his bother and after a wonderful reunion, takes his wife and
offspring and sets out to go back with his brother to Egypt. And
then, suddenly, God begins to reveal and deal with things that
Moses had been hiding and doing wrong.
When
God begins to really move in your life to bring you into your
purpose, He’s going to start revealing things that displease
Him—things that you may be hiding even from yourself. But these
things will have to be dealt with before you move into your
ultimate purpose. Of course you can say NO to God, but there are
always consequences—one of those consequences is that you won’t
move forward into your purpose.
That’s what happened with MosesAFTER he saw the burning bush and God had commissioned him to
go back to Egypt and deliver his people. Moses had not done the
most important thing for a Jewish father to do for his son—he
hadn’t circumcised his son. How could he deliver Israel when he
ignored the sign of the Covenant of God with Israel? He
couldn’t. And Moses almost died on the journey. I don’t know
what the story behind this was, but his wife Zipporah knew
exactly what was going on and she herself took a flintrock and
circumcised the boy. She called Moses a bridegroom of blood—so
she evidently knew all along and had opposed the circumcision
and Moses had yielded. But it wasn’t Zipporah that the angel
sought to kill. It was Moses. He was the one responsible—the one
in authority.
Genesis 4:24 (AMPL)
Along the way at a [resting-] place, the Lord met [Moses] and
sought to kill him [made him acutely and almost fatally ill].
25[Now apparently he had failed to
circumcise one of his sons, his wife being opposed to it; but
seeing his life in such danger] Zipporah took a flint knife and
cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it to touch [Moses']
feet, and said, Surely a husband of blood you are to me!
When Gideon was called as a deliverer, the first thing he was
told to do is get rid of his fathers idols.
Judges 6:25That
night the Lord said to Gideon, Take your father's bull, the
second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal
that your father has and cut down the Asherah [symbol of the
goddess Asherah] that is beside it; 26And
build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this stronghold
with stones laid in proper order. Then take the second bull and
offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Asherah which you
shall cut down.
Somewhere on the road to our destiny, we have to deal with the
idols and the uncircumcision of our hearts. We have to
acknowledge the hidden things that we’ve ignored till now. And,
that has to happen BEFORE you can do what you’re ultimately
called to do.
God will move in your life and that move of His Spirit will
bring repentance. Every move of God starts with repentance.
When John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus, he
didn’t say “hand out flyers and raise money”. He didn’t say
let’s sing and shout. He said “Repent and be baptized for
remission of sins”
Mark 1:4And
so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
5The whole Judean countryside and all
the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins,
they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
When we come to Jesus and we repent, His blood cleanses us and
makes us new creatures, but—BAD NEWS—we still have the old man
to deal with and we still commit sins. The way to deal with them
is to confess them and repent. Then we can get on with the next
step in fulfilling our destiny.
1 John 1:8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us.9. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us
from all unrighteousness. 10. If we claim we have not sinned, we
make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our
lives.
So guess what satan is going to concentrate on getting you to
do: cover up your sins, not even admit them to yourself, get mad
at anyone or anything that reminds you of your sins. Because he
knows that if you just acknowledge them—confess them to God—you
will be forgiven and cleansed and satan does not want you to get
rid of strongholds in your life. He doesn’t want you to be right
with God and he certainly doesn’t want you to fulfill your
purpose because your purpose is part of God’s plan to bring
people out of darkness into light—into God’s Kingdom.
Repentance is the key to every Move of God, personal or
corporate. The first sign of revival is not running around and
shouting “hallelujah”. It’s repentance.
And here are the messages
from Moses. I've been waiting all night to say that!
