IT’S IN YOUR HANDS!

“So the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?

He said, ‘A rod.”—Exodus 4:2

Everyone was born naked.

But no one was born empty.

Sometimes, life can feel a little too much. To get to the heights of your dream, life will make demands of you that are absolutely mindboggling. You may look in the mirror and all you see is a tired, stammering, fugitive shepherd wrested from his heritage and wanted by the law, and God will call you to save a young shepherd with no military experience and no leadership portfolio, yet God will ask you to lead a nation.

Some people have made God look like an irresponsible, eccentric, power-drunk egomaniac who delights in making people’s live miserable. Like the third servant in the Parable of the Talents, they think that God like to reap where He did not sow. They think that He is a kill joy. Let’s be clear about this: God will never make a demand where He has not made a deposit. Indeed, the demand is proof that there is a divine deposit.

Let’s go back to the very beginning, in Genesis 1:28, when God stood on the shores of the new Earth and gave that instruction that has reverberated across ages and will continue to reverberate for generation to come: “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” God demanded the seemingly impossible from mortal man on his first day alive. However, you must look closely at the order of the instructions. First, God bless them. To “bless” is to empower to prosper. So, really, God empowered them first before He proceeded to ask them to fill the earth. God will never place a demand where He has not made a deposit.

Moses was a fugitive from justice in a strange land. There was a warrant for his arrest and preferred to stay in the backsides of the desert away from the prying eyes of Pharaoh rather than to be exposed, captured and executed like a common criminal. Just when he had settled into his comfort zone, God shook him up in the most dramatic encounter ever. Before Moses, the shepherd was in a bush that burnt but was not consumed. Out of the flames, the Lord spoke to him and gave him the most incredible mission.

“Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:9, 10

God sent one simple shepherd to confront a mighty king in order to save a whole nation. Absolutely ridiculous! But the rest, as they say, is history….

What instructions has the Lord whispered to your heart? What dreams won’t leave your heart? What visions agitate your spirit? Do they look or sound impossible? Do they curl the hair on the back of your neck? Do they sound too ridiculous to even share with your friends? Do you stay up all night wondering how in the world these dreams will come to pass? You are exactly where God wants you!

If you are going to advance in your destiny, you must first go to God. If God called, then He knows what you need to fulfill your destiny. He knows what relationships and resources you will need. Fortunately, many times, you do not have to look too far. God keeps those required resources closer than you think.

What gave Moses the confidence to walk up to Pharaoh, in the very courts of the Egyptian king, surrounded by the best trained army of his days, armed with only a shepherd’s staff and accompanied by an eloquent slave? He had met with God, and God had asked him the question that you must ask yourself today; “what’s that in your hand? (Exodus 4:2) This question was profound because Moses had with him the very instrument that he would use to convince Israel, defeat Pharaoh and bring glory to God. Whilst carrying the shepherd’s rod around, he had no idea that the stick in his hand could become a snake. He did not know that stick in his hands could part the Red Sea. He was just like you, with no idea what he could achieve with what he had in his hands right there and then.

What do you have in your hands? Your mental dexterity, your eloquence, you great singing ability, your business acumen, your love for numbers, your eye for detail,-- whatever your gift is, God is able to take it and do something with it that will impact our world. There are a million and one new inventions this world needs. There are services that will touch lives and glorify God that are yet to be created. There are things eyes have not seen and ears have not heard but God has revealed to your spirit. (1Corrintians 2:9)

You must understand that the rod was nothing until he brought it before the Lord. In Exodus 4:3, it was still the rod of Moses, but by Exodus 4:20, it was described as the rod of God! There was no way Moses was going to defeat Pharaoh with a stick, but as soon as the hand of God came upon it, it became a mighty weapon. Give over everything you have to the Lord and watch Him breathe upon it. Watch God empower the little you have. When God touches what is in your hands it becomes a world changing instrument. When you give God what is in your hands, He will magnify it to the extent that it will touch the world and impact lives.

It’s in your hands. Now put it in God’s hands and watch everything change.

You will advance beyond your wildest dreams. I am convinced that you will go to places you never imagined you would ever get to. You will touch lives and glorify your God. You will do great things. Just partner with God by putting what is in your hands in His. It’s a partnership that always works.

The world is waiting for you—don’t disappoint it.

You will do well!

Blessings!

Author:

Rev. Biodun Fatoyinbo

General Overseer of: Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA)