In His Time and In His Place

God’s design for ministry occurs only as our plans die and His purpose is established.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2.

People of God are in places of strategic ministries today because they have allowed become acceptable before Him. However, there are many more who wish to be where He is working, but will not be until they have established themselves as living and holy sacrifices that are acceptable to God.

There are some things that must first be accomplished before God will use anyone. First of all there is a matter of faithfulness. In Acts 7:30-34 we find Stephen speaking about the events surrounding God’s direction for Moses.

"After forty years had passed, AN ANGEL APPEARED TO HIM IN THE WILDERNESS OF MOUNT Sinai, IN THE FLAME OF A BURNING THORN BUSH. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord: “I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC AND JACOB.” Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. "BUT THE LORD SAID TO HIM, 'TAKE OFF THE SANDALS FROM YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE ON WHICH YOU ARE STANDING IS HOLY GROUND. I HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE IN EGYPT AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANS, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM; COME NOW, AND I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.'”

By the time Moses was forty years old he understood his call but his time for work had not yet come.

What was happening that prevented Moses from becoming actively involved in what he knew to be God’s design for his life? Here are some things that may be very important to know.

We must understand that God does not give details until He is ready to do so. He gives us only one step at a time. For Moses there was the are the number of years that Israel must be in Egypt. 400 plus years had not yet been established and for them Moses would be forty years old when that time came. The Israelites could not see nor understand the entire picture of the hand of their God while in the pain of their suffering. The prophetic move of God would move 430 years after Abraham received the Covenant of Promise in Gen 12:1-3:

”Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

In Gen. 15:16 The Amorites were occupying the land of Canaan and before the Court of Heaven their sin was not yet severe enough to necessitate their removal. God was not yet ready for Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt nor remove the Amorites from the land they were occupying.

The Israelites could not yet understand that Moses was the one that was to lead them out of Egypt. Moses must receive the anointing of God and at the age of forty he was not yet prepared. Moses realized that he was not to free his people by his Egyptian schooling but he was to do so by the hand of Almighty God. Not until he reached the ripe old age of 80 and stood before the Burning Bush did God anoint him. Exodus 3:2-10;

The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob " Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt."

Moses fled Egypt in order to live, but that which he did not know was yet to come. He must die to himself in order to serve Yahweh and free his people from the bonds of Egyptian slavery.

The Apostle Paul also had to flee and die to himself in order to become the most influential writer in the history of mankind. His words, given by God, are the foundations upon which the platform of the Christian faith stands.

The people of God, Christ’s Church have themselves in the similar places for two thousand years. God has chosen to use them to do extraordinary things. But in order to have been in those places of accomplishment they must first be willing to offer themselves as being acceptable before God…much in the same way that Moses and then Paul did.