Sticks, Snakes and Truly Living

We are all on a journey in a quest to align with someone or something. As children of God, the apex of our journey is the moment we discern God’s will and begin to live in it; that is the moment we begin to count our lives as being truly lived. Lately, God has been teaching me a lot of things from the book of Exodus. And what you read here is part of what I have learnt in my journey to truly live. The point of this for me was that God wanted me to recognise the gift and grace that I am and align with him to bring it to pass. My prayer is that it will shed some light on your journey to more in Jesus name.

One of the ways we intentionally move in God is by the sound we make. Sound is an apostolic technology for growth.
What is a sound? It is our response to God or spiritual activity we engage in to enable us take delivery of God’s promises for our lives. Blind Bartimaeus had heard about how Jesus had come to destroy the works of Satan, he might have heard that he came that we might have life more abundantly; yet he was blind. That must have been the reason he decided that he was going to take delivery of that promise even if he had to interrupt God’s schedule and itinerary to make that happen.

He made a sound; he cried out to Jesus as he passed by, and the God of heaven stood still and asked the blind man a question; What do you want me to do for you? He replied; that I might receive my sight. The Lord gave him his sight and much more! He prospered him. He gave him the prosperity of his soul and from that point it is my belief that everything else he did prospered.
Today, the Word in my heart by the Spirit of God is that we need to intentionally take that which God has prepared and ordained for us to take by giving us the opportunity we have right now. It is time to decide if we would grab with both hands that which has been prepared for us, or wait hoping that somehow, someone will hand us something.

Exodus 3 begins with Moses’ encounter of the Burning Bush. His curiosity to see why the bush was burning yet not consumed opened the door for God to speak to his assignment and the destiny of over 2 million Jews in slavery. It was time to liberate them, and God’s candidate for that task was none other than Moses. By the time, the story gets to Exodus 4:1-6, God was clearly calling Moses out of exile to go back to Egypt at 80 years of age to begin to truly live his Purpose on earth. It seemed that up to this time, Moses just existed; he had achieved what in the human mind was extraordinary, but Moses had yet stepped into divine purpose, so he was yet to LIVE.

1. Prosperity is so we can truly live! God has us packed full with potential, he is constantly on the look out to give us the proper training and equipping so we can truly live! For Moses, it was preserving his life by handing him over to the enemy to look after. It was raising him in the palace for 40 years; it was exposing him to the pain of his people and stirring up righteous indignation within him. It was giving him the ability to step up and respond to that indignation and ultimately, it was sending him to the wilderness to learn life skills that the palace couldn’t teach him.
   At the point God showed up in Exodus 3 leading to the events in Exodus 4, Moses was ready. He didn’t even know he was still relevant, but the Lord knew he was ready! It was now time for Moses to truly live; it was the season for him to begin the journey of destiny fulfilment. And it all began with a question; what is that you have in your hand?
   I have heard this scripture preached before; I have heard it preached as a plea to give; today it is a plea to LIVE! As God said to Moses what is that you have in your hand? He was saying; Moses it is time to truly live. It is time to manifest the reason I put you on earth.
   I want to believe that we all are on a quest to really live. We all have waited for that day when we will begin to manifest how God wants us to affect and impact our world,and we have been waiting for that opportunity! Well, congratulations; today is the day when you can begin to truly live depending on the sound you make; depending on how you will respond to the question; what is that you have in your hand.
2. You Can Only Use What You have. It is funny how God asks questions even though he ought to know the answers considering that he is God and should know. Moses was now a shepherd in the wilderness, and he was out about his business; tell me what will he have in his hand? He is a shepherd for crying out loud, and shepherds have rods or staff. In plain English, he had a stick. Who would have thought that a guy’s capacity to truly live is dependent on a stick?
   Today the question isn’t different. What is that you have in your hand? For some of us; it is the ability to speak eloquently, for others it is that we can really clean house, or for some others, we are just good with numbers, yet others we know how to cook, and for others we wash clothes really well. Yet for others the only thing we have is that we can make others laugh, and yet others can care for those who can’t care for themselves, oh yes for some of us, we can be head strong or determined. For others,organising is all we have got…
   Ordinary everyday stuff! Not one of us can raise the dead! Hmmm, not one of us can interpret other tongues! Hmmmm, not one of us has the capacity to invent anything special… we all are just ordinary!
   Yes! And Moses also, had just an ordinary stick! Up until God,asked Moses it was just a stick! Even after he asked; it was still a stick. But then he already knew that, didn’t he? So like you Moses waved the stick in the air and said; Lord it is just a stick. Do you forget I left the palace in a hurry? Do you forget I left as a fugitive? I didn’t bring anything with me he thinks, but all he says is Lord all I have is my stick!
   God doesn’t need you to manufacture anything different or exotic to truly live, he wants you to recognise that ordinary stick in your hands. God has no use for the special skills and toys we pursue He just wants us to acknowledge our ordinary sticks and our ordinary talents, and our ordinary experiences!
3. Throw It Down. Then God says to Moses, throw your stick on the ground. Seriously! That is all you have got Lord? Throw it on the ground? What you have in your hand is ordinary and useless unless you follow the instructions you have been given concerning it. As a matter of fact, what you have in your hand is so common place,and it takes divine instruction to make it useful. It wouldhowever, have been really great if the instruction came with some special incantation and some special moves; it would have been special, if it didn’t involve throwing an ordinary stick on the ground. So the next step to truly living isn’t some exotic instruction to follow, it is a simple ‘throw it on the ground’.
   Yes, you heard right; throw it on the ground. For us,this is letting go; for God this is letting God. There isn’t anything special with what you have anyway, but can you throw it down for a moment? It is an ordinary stick I know, but can you throw it down for a moment? This isn’t about what will happen next, as it is what will you do? It was a simple instruction then and it is a simple instruction today, throw it down! It is about simple obedience. How hard can it be to throw down a stick right? Not hard! Just silly and stupid, at least that is what my mind tells me. God wants Moses to go deliver his people and all he has to offer was a stick and now he wants it thrown down?
   Lord you have sent me to the nations yet all you want me to do is write and publish a magazine that I don’t have money for; and I have been guaranteed no one will buy? Lord you want me to build schools yet all you want me to do right now is simply teach home lessons? Lord, you want me to start a TV station yet you send me to a church that cannot afford cameras? Lord you want me… yet you send me…??? Obedience guys, obedience!
4. Surprise. It is a Snake!–Finally, Moses throws it down, maybe even out of exasperation. Lord I don’t know what to do with you, I don’t know what to make out of all these! Right before his eyes, the stick becomes a snake! Wow! You mean that stick had the potential of a snake all this while? Wait or am I not seeing right? Is it truly a snake? Or… yes Moses, it is a snake! All that time you held on to your ordinary stick, it had a snake inside of it. There is no telling how far we could go, should we just throw down our ordinary! There is no telling what can happen should we just release our ordinary. We call it common talent and the world calls it potential. That speaks to what it can become. Take a look at your hands again. Yes, ordinary hands but have you wondered or imagined what can happen should you just put those hands in God’s hands? Moses did and oh, boy! It was a snake. Guess what? Moses ran. Even you will be surprised by what you have in your hand if you can just throw it down, let go and let God.
5. Pick It Up Again. God must be a drama director; as a matter of fact, he is, if you take into account that the world is a stage! As Moses made to run from the snake,God tells him to pick it up by the tail. Just like God to let us know how to do it. He didn’t just say pick it up; he said pick it up by the tail. Snakes bite, snakes are poisonous so you cannot go around picking up even your own snake by the head; it is always by the tail. Hmmm. There is a right way and there is a wrong way to pick up your own stick turned snake. God holds the formula, listen and he will tell you the specifics. Moses pick it up by the tail. God knows that even though the snake was once our stick, we need to get used to the idea so he allows us to go slowly, he allows us to take our time. Pick it up by the tail Moses.
6. It is a Stick Again. Moses obeyed and as he picks it up it becomes a stick again. Why? It should just have remained a snake. In my view, people will quickly give me what I ask if they see that I hold a snake as my pet or weapon. A snake is scarier than a stick is! A snake will just be fine Lord. But Moses picks it up, and it becomes a stick again. Our sticks become snakes to convince us we have what it takes. And then they become sticks again until the next person who needs convincing comes around.
   God didn’t want Pharaoh to see Moses the snake charmer or handler, he wanted him to see Moses the Prince turned fugitive turned shepherd who now thinks himself a deliverer. God loves disguise! David he gave stones and a sling so Goliath couldn’t get past his ‘ordinariness’. Gideon the weakling had 300 men so the enemy will not know what hit them. The widow had a meal of wheat and a jar of oil, even she didn’t know how the math would add up. Jesus came in the Manger as a Carpenter; the enemy expected a King in the palace.
   Your ordinariness is a gift from God. Those who know their God will be strong and do exploits. It is never about what you look like; it is always about what you know about you that others don’t know. We don’t need to ask others if they know who we are; we just need to be who we are now and when we need to manifest, God will pull the veil.

Conclusion

Samson had a great career; he started in Judges 14 and was an ordinary bloke with unkept hair. Samson’s snake was hiding in his hair; his hair was his stick and Samson did great until he became overly enamoured and carried away with what he could do with his stick. He was so carried away that he began to abuse what he had in his hand, even when God wanted to it leave as a stick Samson found a reason to manifest it as a snake.

This caught the attention of the enemy and Delilah was sent, Samson was so psyched by his stick and snake that he gave it away! Samson lost his ability and usefulness to God and mankind. Folks never give your stick away, don’t replace it with a fancier one, there is a power in the ordinary. Samson lost his anointing, his place and his power. He lost his sight because he lost his stick and Samson; the great Samson became a shadow of himself. But God thrives in the ordinary so even though Samson’s first hair was cut, new hair grew; his stick came back but because ordinary keeps us incognito until we are needed the enemy forgot that Samson’s strength was in his hair. They forgot that his snake and his stick were one and the same.

By the time, Samson manifested again, even though he had no eyes and was shackled, Samson did more damage than all that he did when he had it all. It was always the stick that made the difference, for Moses, his stick, for David, his sling, for Abraham (faith) for Paul (strong willed) for Jael an ability to drive tent pegs hard, for Peter his impulsiveness. What do you have in your hand that God can use?

Make a sound with it today then you can truly begin to LIVE. God bless you.