Though I must admit there were many things that touched me deeply during the conference time in Poland, it was these words that took root in my mind and caused the Lord to finally win in wrenching open my stubborn heart. They are simple enough, right?
The cry of the Israelites was desperate and the eagerness of God was great, but the growth of Moses was slow.
In a conference centered on the first few chapters of the book of Exodus – chapters where all the things of the world are made to lie bare and naked before our sight so that we can see them for what they really are – these words actually seem in a sense, tame. Don’t you think? However, they are what the entire story of Exodus hinges upon, actually, they are the crux of the history of the children of Israel.
“How can this be?” you may be asking yourself… Well, let me tell you a story – a story of a man named Abram. Abram was this rather normal fella living in an idolatrous city on the other side of the big River. One day, God appeared to him and made him a promise. Leave this place, cross the river and I will give you and your descendants all the land that is before your eyes.
So Abram, now called Abraham, believed this God who appeared to him, and actually, they became really good friends, despite Abraham’s sometimes dragging his feet and other times being a little too anxious to get things done.
Time passed, generations were born and generations died, and things happened: all matter of situations and things – but God had not fulfilled His promise to Abraham, though it was reconfirmed time and time again. Rather, instead of things working out toward the fulfillment of this great promise, it seemed that the opposite had happened…
The children of Israel were under great duress in the clutches of one of the most beautiful, grand, topmost civilizations the world has ever seen, even to this day. And from this situation of slavery, their desperate cry for God – not only to deliver them from bondage but also to fulfill His promise – ascended to the heavens. Now imagine, let’s say you are this all-mighty, all powerful
One and your people, those whom you love, whom you treasure as a unique and peculiar treasure, who are more dear to you than the apple of your eye cry out for you to do what you have promised. Do you not think that this would touch your heart? Move your hand? Yes! God’s eagerness was GREAT. This was the grand opportunity for Him to come in and not only expose the situation of life in the world, but also to free His people into the promised good land.
The fulfilling of this promise however rested on the shoulders of a few lowly females. First, some Hebrew midwives. Second a daughter of Levi and her daughter. And third, the daughter of Pharaoh. Because they cooperated with God, He was able to raise and prepare a called one – Moses, the one through whom God was able to fulfill His promise to His people.
Well, that’s the story. Now, you may say, “yeah, ok. That’s all fine and dandy, but what does this have to do with me?” Well, though God did free the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, though God did make of them a great nation and for a time did give them the promised land, there was something more hidden deep in the heart of God.
Something that now in these last of days has been revealed to us in spirit. God is building up a group of people into a mutual abode, into a dwelling place for mutual rest. He is building up a group of people into a corporate warrior to fight against His enemy and to be His expression and representation on this earth. He is building up a group of people into His corporate Bride, His wife for full satisfaction in love.
This is what He has been searching for since eternity past. This is why we as human beings were created. It is for the fulfilling of this purpose that the people of God have been clamoring desperately for hundreds, even thousands of years. The cry of the people of God is desperate, God’s eagerness for His Bride is great, but where is this corporate Moses? Where is the one who has been prepared humanly to plunder the wealth of the Egyptians for God’s purpose? Where is the one who is willing to suffer the ill-treatment of the people of God, the one who considers the reproach of Christ greater than the riches of Egypt (Heb. 11:26)?
I will tell you where. They are here, this young generation, our second generation, in the throes of a crooked, perverted, evil, densely dark atmosphere on this continent of Europe. I will not minimize the struggles and hardships that we face as American young people, in some ways the cloying over-abundance not only in material matters but in spiritual matters as well pose its own difficulties and challenges that need to be overcome.
But in some ways, it’s almost like some of those plagues we saw that came upon the Egyptians, frogs, locust, flies. They are irksome, they hinder our daily going on, and eat away at our life supply, but they cannot compare to the dense darkness that came upon the entire inhabited land. A darkness so dense and so full that it brought all life to a complete and total standstill. There was no sign of life anywhere. There was nothing.
Saints, what I was touched with was not these specific plagues or our need to leave Egypt, nor even our need to grow. Please note: all of these are very important, and yes, we need them. But what impressed me to the core of my being was the need for “a few lowly females.” Not in the literal sense, but in type. A number of people willing to OPEN – yes, open to the Lord so that they would cooperate with Him to bring forth this corporate Moses.
On my way to the Poland camp, I happened to listen to a message on Ephesians 3, regarding Christ making His home in the believers’ hearts. Our brother sharing said something that thrust a spear through my being: we cannot remain superficial, shallow Christians. We cannot remain in our self, untouched by the Lord, still in our self, still in our offenses.
Who will allow Him to come into these specific areas of the heart and make His home there, set up shop there? Who will be willing to give Him the space, the room to come into THAT part of their being? To whom can the Lord turn to and trust with His innermost desire? We have hindered Him long enough. OH, LORD! At the Poland camp I happened to attend the time with the families and I heard a similar word: We offer the Lord our cooperation by opening to Him, opening every part, and even more specific parts of our being so that He can do in us and with us as He pleases.
So, the camp is over… And within there is only this:
Lord, I have seen Your purpose.
Lord, I have seen the need.
Lord, inside me there are no words, just a great weight, a burden to which I cannot but respond.
Lord, I respond by saying, Amen. Amen, yes, Lord make Your home in THAT part of my heart.
Lord, I respond by telling You that I cannot, but I believe in You as Jehovah, the Great I AM, the One who fulfills what He has promised.
Do it, Lord. Do it in and through and by us. Why not? Lord. Why not here? Why not now? Why not us?
Our cry to You is desperate. Your eagerness is great. Lord, cause us to open, that we may grow unto full maturity. For the preparation of Your bride and the fulfillment of Your eternal purpose.
[sharing by sister Maria C(USA/SP) from her topmost enjoyment as a serving one in the recent European Young People’s conference in Poland – become a fan on Facebook for more updates and sharings]
