Moses actually made God angry by his cop-out excuse-making prayers. He wanted God to send somebody else to do the job. God promised to send Aaron to help him. He gave Moses some impressive miracle-working powers (turning sticks to snakes, a hand to leprosy, and water to blood). Some times our prayers aggravate God, but He graciously answers anyway.
Exodus 4:10 - "And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue."
PRINCIPALS - "I AM"
Moses asked God His name, so he could tell the people. God said, "I AM." It means "the self-existent one." It also means, "the cause." Nothing else in the universe existed before God, and without Him, nothing would exist. His spirit nature is the primordial stuff - more elemental than atoms, particles, waves, hadrons, quarks, leptons and preons.God is the basis of all things.
Exodus 3:14 - "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
PRINCIPLES - "Fainting From Unbelief"
Unbelief is a killer, and it can kill otherwise great men. Double-minded men are unstable in all their ways. Either God is everything He says He is, or He is a liar. It is up to you to get a hold on the truth of the matter. Nobody else can do it for you. Tell Jacob that Joseph is still alive. Don't doubt it. Rejoice!
Genesis 45:26 - "And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not."
PROPHECIES - "Jacob the Prophet"
Jacob was a true prophet - a seer. He knew God's working in his own life, but he could also see what God was doing in his twelve sons. The forty-ninth chapter of Genesis records Jacob's prophetic pronouncements on each of the twelve tribes. Reuben will not excel. Simeon and Levi will divide and scatter. In Judah, sceptres, lawgivers, "Shiloh" (Messiah). Everyone received a prophetic word that day.
Genesis 49:1 - "And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days."
Jesus gave us power over all of the authority of the devil...
God's Discipline
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
– Hebrews 12:6-7
There's a terrible misunderstanding among believers today about God's method of disciplining His children. They'll point to some kind of disaster—a tornado or a car accident—and say, "I guess God sent that catastrophe to teach us something."
No, He didn't! A loving God doesn't send death and destruction on His children to instruct them. He doesn't unleash His bad dog to bite us on the leg, so we'll learn to wear our boots!
How does He chastise His own? With His Word.
Second Timothy 3:16-17 says, "Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness, (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action), so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work" (The Amplified Bible).
If you'll look in 2 Corinthians 7, you'll see an example of this. There the Apostle Paul talks about a situation in the Corinthian church that needed correction. That church had gotten out of line and had to be disciplined.
How did Paul do it? Not by asking God to send an earthquake to shake them up! He did it by writing them a letter. He wrote them a word of reproof that hurt so badly they would have preferred being beaten with a stick. It cut deep into their spirits and brought them to repentance.
Your heavenly Father loves you and because He does, He will chasten you. But He'll do it with spiritual, not fleshly tools. He'll use the spirit-power in His Word to chasten unbelief and purify your spirit in such a way that you'll come out strong, not weak and condemned.
So quit bowing down to disasters and start subjecting yourself instead to the Word of God. Yield to the Word. Let it correct you and trim away the flesh and the lusts that lead you astray. Remember, the sword of the Spirit is two-edged—one side is for Satan and the other side is for you. Let God use it to keep you in line!
Bible Study on Plans for Salvation
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