Date of message: 12 July 2002
Subject: What Is That In Your Hands?

Shalom, Boker-Tov ( good morning ),

Two weeks ago I shared about how the Lord blessed the fisherman Simon with such a large catch of fish that he was propelled to leave everything behind and follow Jesus. The Lord did not wait for Simon Peter to follow Him first before He blessed him. On the contrary, the Lord chose to demonstrate His mercy and grace and blessed Simon beyond what he can imagine. Last week, I shared the account of how Peter and John received so much love that they wanted to share that same love with whomsoever they met and healed the lame man at the Gate Beautiful in Jerusalem.

This week, I am reminded of the account of Moses having the dialogue with the Lord in the Sinai desert at the burning bush. Moses was a shepherd and after covering the grounds of the Sinai peninsula with his flock of sheep for forty years, the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush and commissioned Moses to lead the children of Israel out from Egypt into the Promised Land. In Exodus 4: 1 - 5, we read: -
1. Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"
2. The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff."
3. Then He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.
4. But the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail" - so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand -
5. "that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

Being a shepherd, Moses naturally had a staff with him. With this staff he would guide his sheep and lead them to green pastures for their grazing. God asked Moses to throw his staff, the only thing that Moses had with him at that point in time, on the ground and immediately the staff was changed into a serpent before his eyes. Notice that God did not ask Moses to produce something else for Him to use to demonstrate His identity and power. He only had his shepherd's staff with him and naturally, the Lord used that for an object lesson.
Moses went forth with his staff and performed many miracles before the Pharaoh and his sorcerers / wizards. He waved the staff in front of Pharaoh and the waters of the River Nile was turned into blood, frogs infested the whole land of Egypt, locusts invaded the Egyptian homes. Another time, he called forth hailstones to fall on the land of the Egyptians but not on the land of Goshen where the children of Israel lived. In total, the Lord caused ten plaques to fall on Egypt before Pharaoh finally allowed the children of Israel to leave the land together with all their belongings. Moses lifted the same staff and parted the Red Sea so that the children of Israel could walk on the seabed on dry land. With the same staff, Moses called forth water from the rock when he struck it with the staff. The staff of Moses became the staff of God.

Over the years, I have learnt that the Lord will only ask us for whatever we have for Him to use and He will take hold of that and turn it into great multipliers for His miracles and His blessings. Nothing is too small or insignificant for the Lord to use. As long as we are willing to allow Him, He will produce miracles with those same items. The Lord does not usually call forth something that is not there.

In John 2: 1 - 12, we have an account of Jesus turning the water in the six water pots into the best quality wine for a wedding couple in the village of Cana in Galilee. He could have spoken the word and the wine would have been created out of nothing and then the guests could consume the newly created wine. But our Lord did no such thing. It is not His modus operande. He would rather take something that we already have and that we have willingly given to Him and He, on His part, will honor us by causing whatever we surrender to Him to multiple and to bless us and those who were the intended receiving party
What do you have that you could offer the Lord for Him to use? Will it be time that you have for Him? Or do you have a desire to work with certain groups of people? Or do you have a gifting for creativity with your hands? Whatever it is, surrender to the Lord and He will prosper you with His bountiful blessings. As long as we give it to the Lord out of love and worship to Him for what He had done for us on the cross, He will take it and use it and we will enjoy the multiplication.
Maybe you have not yet received Jesus into your life. Why not take a few moments to pray this prayer to invite Him into your heart?
Our Father in Heaven, our Daddy Father, thank you for the great love You have for me in that You sent Your one and only darling Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to die for all of my sins. Thank you Jesus that You took away all the curses meant for me on Your body so that I can receive Your blessings.
Lord Jesus, I invite You to come into my life and make Your residence in my heart. Be the Lord and King over every decision in my life. Thank you that I am now forever forgiven, greatly blessed, highly favored, deeply loved and completely protected because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in His mighty name I pray. Amen.
If you have just said that prayer for the first time, allow me to welcome you to the Lord's family. You have just invited Jesus into your life and, rest assured He has come into your heart. If something were to happen to you right now, know for a certainty that you are now a Child of God and immediately you will be with the Father in Heaven.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 - 26

Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,

Andrew L W Lee
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