This week we have been looking at how God called Moses; the record of God’s calling of Moses is longer than of His calling of any other person in the Bible, and Moses was the first complete perfected servant of God in the Bible; as such he is the standard model of God’s servant.
The way God called Moses is the same way He calls us, and as those called by God we need to go through the same things Moses did (in principle) to be qualified to be God’s servant today.
As those called by God today we first need to see the vision of the burning thornbush, having a thorough realization that we are at best a thornbush with the Triune God of resurrection burning within and upon us.
Then, we must have a revelation of who God is: He is the God of resurrection, the great I AM, the Angel of Jehovah, and the God of our father.
After we see a revelation of who God is, we need to know the purpose of God’s calling which is, negatively, to rescue us out of the tyranny and usurpation of Satan, and positively, to bring us into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Spirit with our spirit as the reality of the good land.
As those called by God we need to know how to deal with Satan, the flesh, and the world, having the three signs of God’s called one.
After seeing and experiencing all this, we need to experience the matching and the cutting so that we may be fully equipped and qualified as God’s called one.
Moses was matched with his brother Aaron to go to Pharaoh, and Aaron spoke for Moses as Moses represented God. In our Christian life and church life we need to be matched with a few brothers and sisters in order to be restricted, safeguarded, and protected.
Furthermore, Moses was called by his wife “a bridegroom of blood” when the Lord met them on the way and tried to kill him – and she circumcised their son. As God’s called ones we need to be willing to have the subjective experience of the circumcision of our natural life in order to become useful in the hand of the Lord for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.
A Called One must have Someone to Match him in the Principle of the Body
In Exo. 4:14-16 Moses told the Lord that he is slow of speech (even though he used to be mighty and strong in speaking and work 40 years earlier), and so God provided Aaron, his brother, to be with him and match him, speaking for him as Moses spoke for God.
Moses lost all his confidence in his speech, so God gave him his brother Aaron to speak for him; Aaron would be his mouth and Moses would like God to him.
All the called ones of God must have someone to match them in the principle of the Body for their restriction, safeguard, and protection. When the Lord sent out His disciples He sent them two by two (Luke 10:1).
When we are matched with someone by the Lord for His work, we are restricted, safeguarded, and protected. We may not be matched by someone who is exactly like us in our temper; rather, the Lord will arrange for someone who is completely different from us to be matched with us for our perfecting, restricting, and safeguarding.
This means that we may be able to do something, but because we’re matched with someone else, we would let the other one do it. In the church life the Lord many times raises an environment that forces us to allow other saints do what we can do; they may do it “worse than us”, but we let them do it.
If we are able to do something, we need to be matched with someone and bring him into doing that particular thing. It is wrong to insist to do things by ourselves for the Lord in the church life; we need to be matched by the Lord in the principle of the Body so that we may be balanced and protected.
This kind of matching helps us be balanced, restricted, and humbled. Aaron was not as capable as Moses, but God allowed a situation in which Moses didn’t do much; Aaron was his mouthpiece, and Moses had to rely on him for this.
Nothing is greater protection in our spiritual life than being matched with another brother and allowing him do what we know we can do better.
On the positive side, as Deut. 32:20 says, one chases a thousand and two chase ten thousand; when we are matched with someone in prayer and fellowship, we can chase the enemy away much more than we would do it by ourselves.
Two are better than one; if one falls, the other will pick up his companion, and a threefold cord will not be quickly broken (see Eccl. 4:19).
May the Lord match us with companions in the church life to pursue Him and work for Him in the church, so that we may be restricted, balanced, safeguarded, protected, and helped in the principle of the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, save us from doing things by ourselves without being matched with the saints in the Body. Lord, match us with some saints that You know we need to be matched with in the principle of the Body. We want to be safeguarded and protected in the Body as we work for You. May we learn to allow others do things that we can do so that they would be perfected and we would be helped, balanced, restricted, and humbled. Oh Lord, may we do everything in the church life in the principle of the Body!
A Called One must be Willing to have the Subjective Experience of the Circumcision of his Natural Life
After the Lord called Moses and sent him to go and deliver His people out of Egypt, while Moses was on his way to Egypt, God met him in a certain place and tried to kill him. Zipporah, his wife, took a knife and circumcised their firstborn, and God left them alone; then, she called Moses, “bridegroom of blood” (see Exodus 4:24-26).
This story is quite shocking and interesting, and with the help of the ministry of the age we are able to understand what happened here.
Aaron was assigned by God to match Moses in his ministry, but Zipporah his wife was there to help Moses be cut in a subjective way. Aaron’s matching was outward and objective, but Zipporah’s cutting was inward and subjective.
All those who are called by God need to have someone (usually it is a spouse) that helps him be cut in his natural life, exposing him and helping him be circumcised in his natural being. All those who want to be useful to the Lord in the church life must bear a sign of being cut; we shouldn’t “talk about how much cutting we receive” but silently bear this sign.
Part of God’s calling of Moses was that he needed to be cut in his natural life, and his wife was there to help him do this. Only those who are willing to be cut can be useful to God. We shouldn’t just realize how sinful we are but we should allow the Lord to cut our natural life through our spouse, our family, and the brothers and sisters in the church.
If we are in an uncircumcised situation and our natural life and our flesh are not cut off, we are finished in the ministry of God. For Zipporah to call Moses “a bridegroom of blood” means that she realized that Moses was under the sentence of death; he was one who always died to himself and his natural life to live a life for God.
We need to be willing to have the subjective experience of the circumcision of our natural life in order to be useful in the hand of the Lord for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose and to be able to carry out God’s commission. We should not live by our natural life but by the divine life in our spirit.
Our natural life, strength, and effort need to be cut off; the Lord arranges certain people to help us with this, and we need to be willing to live a life under the sentence of death, dying to ourselves so that Christ may live in us.
Paul testified that he died daily (1 Cor. 15:31); he died to the flesh and to the natural life in a daily way. We should die one day at a time. We should enjoy the Lord one day at a time and die to our self and our natural life one day at a time.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those willing to have the subjective experience of the circumcision of our natural life so that we may be useful in Your hand for the fulfillment of Your eternal purpose and for the carrying out of Your commission. Lord, we don’t ask for the cutting; we simply want to go on enjoying You and allow the ones You put us with to help us be cut in our natural life and in our flesh. Lord, make us the Moses of today, those who see a revelation of the burning thornbush, a vision of who You are, how to deal with the flesh, Satan, and the world, and those who are willing to be matched by some saints and be cut in our natural life so that we may be useful in Your hand.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 9-10, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 2 / msg 2, A Complete View of God’s Calling of Moses as the Standard Model of God’s Servant.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In my knowledge and experience / I would not exalted be, / But submitting and accepting / Let the Body balance me; / Holding fast the Head, and growing / With His increase, in His way, / By the joints and bands supplying, / Knit together day by day. (Hymns #840)
# Serve and work within the Body, / This the Lord doth signify; / For His purpose is the Body, / And with it we must comply. / Serve and work within the Body, / Never independently; / As the members of the Body, / Functioning relatedly. (Hymns #913)
# I’m thankful that God has placed me / With you to build up His Body. / Christ in you is the hope for me! / You also need Christ lived in me. / I live, if you stand firm in the Lord. / You live, if I stand firm in the Lord. / My going on is for you, / Your going on is for me, / Not sep’rate entities, / I need you saints desp’rately! (Song on Serving in the Body)
We need to see the vision of the burning thornbush: the Triune God burning within and upon His redeemed ones. This is the focal point of the divine revelation in the Scriptures. Then we need to know who God is and what God is. Furthermore, we must know the devil, the flesh, and the world. Following this, we need the matching and the cutting. If we are willing for the subjective experience of the circumcision of our natural life, then we shall live by the resurrection life, we shall become useful in the hand of the Lord for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, and we shall be prepared to carry out God’s commission. May every aspect of God’s calling be our experience in the Lord’s recovery today. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, p. 120)
Many seeking Christians are looking for a church life that is heavenly in every respect. They want everyone in this heavenly church life to be an angel. I am not imagining this; I have actually met people like this. Many of these seeking ones have traveled from “church” to “church” in pursuit of such a heavenly “church.” If they find one, their heavenly “church” is soon exposed to be more than earthly. The way to determine whether or not a church is proper is mainly by the ground of the church, not by our measure of the heavenliness of the church. Today on earth there is not an angelic, heavenly church. Shortly after coming into the church life, you will find yourself in the midst of “thorns” and you will say, “I thought everyone here was an angel. But now I see that many of them are not angels but thorns. I cannot bear this.” Although I may be a “thorn” to you, you also are a “thorn” to me. Eventually, we “thorn” one another and love one another. This “thorning” helps us grow. During the past three years in Anaheim, this “thorning” has helped us to grow. If everything in the church were smooth and angelic, there would be no testimony of the riches of life.
(Life-Study of Genesis, Witness Lee, Living Stream Ministry)