God Type of Heart series with Part Two—Moses
In part one, we examined the life and attributes of David that made him the person God said was a Man after My heart, Acts 13:22 “He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.'” The God type of heart is evident in people who are steadfast to do the will of God. The Almighty doesn’t care about social standing or outward appearances, and in fact, He constantly chooses the person who is opposite to those attributes. God chooses the servants to do His will based upon their heart. The person of the God type of heart does not care about what might be gained in the world, but transcends those desires and is constantly focused on the eternal. These people of the God type of heart might seem lowly in the world or average, but be not misled, for they possess deep faith and power in the Lord, and are not weak, but stronger than anyone can imagine. In the heart of such a person is a thunderous faith that can only be described as—The God Type of Heart.
Part Two: Moses — Moses grew up in a time where his people, the Hebrews, were oppressed by the Egyptians. His life was suppose to end at birth. The Egyptians, who feared the rise of the enslaved Hebrews sent an edict throughout the land that all newborn male Hebrews were to be thrown into the Nile and drowned. Moses, whose mother couldn't bare this outcome, set him in the reeds of the Nile hoping life would find him. And life did find him as he was discovered by an Egyptian princess, who took pity on him, and from that day on he was raised in the court of Pharaoh. As Moses grew he ventured out to see his people and witnessed the hardships of their life and the terror of slavery that they were under. In a moment that would change his life forever, he witnessed an Egyptian whipping a Hebrew man mercilessly, and seeing this injustice, he struck down the Egyptian and became a fugitive. He fled Egypt as a marked man and sought to carry on life elsewhere. Years later, God met him and revealed the plans he had for Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3 - 4). Moses was obviously a man who believed in justice and defending the weak for he would not have defended the Hebrew by killing the Egyptian all those years ago if not. He was a man of action and now God would use him to do great things. It is here at the burning bush where Moses is shown his purpose. The Lord tells Moses he will return to Egypt where he will perform many wonders and ultimately lead the Hebrew nation to the promise land. But Moses, upon hearing this command of God, immediately doubted his own ability saying to God, Exodus 4:10-12 “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. The Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.’" Moses was looking at his own outward appearance of slow speech and thus making a worldly assessment that he wasn’t good enough. How many times in your life, like Moses, have you had doubts about your abilities? How many times have the comments of others saying you aren’t good enough affected your faith and altered your life? If they have, that needs to stop now. As a child of God, you are beloved and endowed with many gifts. Gifts perhaps not evident to the world, but deep in your heart. You have to chose to believe in your failure or believe in the Almighty and the power in Him. One important point that Moses was quick to forget, is that once before, he had the strength in his heart to defend the Hebrews by slaying the Egyptian. He was a man of action and a man who risked everything to defend the weak, but forgot this and only focused on his inability to speak clearly. The mistake that many people make is that they think God will look kindly upon this humble unbelief when they are given a clear calling from the Lord. Remember this—God never deals with unbelief kindly. In every instance in the Bible God deals with unbelief with a rebuke. Unbelief is opposite of God and therefore abhorrent to Him. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Get this into your life right now—You will never be pleasing to God in your unbelief. Look at the reaction Moses received when he told God he couldn’t speak well. God reminds him that He is the one who created his mouth and that he will give him the words to speak. Moses still argues and then the Lord responds: Exodus 4:14 “Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, "Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do.” The anger of the Lord was the response that Moses got when he challenged God’s ability to cure his speech problems. Don’t do this in your life! Believe God. Too many times, even from fellow Christians, the seeds of doubt are sown on a daily basis. Even in the church today, many people will offer words of doubt masked as wisdom. For example, often times when a person is considering a short-term mission trip it is met with cliched religious phrases like this: “Make sure that God is calling you to do this. You need to wait on His timing. Have you really prayed about it? Seek the Lord and he will give you answers.” These, and phrases like this, are masquerading as wisdom and Godly speech, but are only seeds of doubt and emptiness. Search your heart and know what is right. The Word calls all to carry the message, so God already agrees for you to go. If you are afraid to step out in faith, even in the smallest things, your life will be filled with regret and condemned to the mundane. This not only applies to mission work, but whatever your calling might be.
Moses might have argued at first with the Lord, but deep inside him was a force to accomplish the will of God and lead the Hebrews to freedom as God promised. The Almighty worked through Moses in spectacular ways (Red Seas parted, Plagues of Egypt, Tabernacle built, Ten Commandments, etc...) and his name is remembered among those of the God type of heart.
Perhaps you have felt the calling in your life to do something more than just exist. Are you disillusioned by the way society dictates their version of happiness? (endless cycle of gathering wealth with no end game, preoccupation with social standing, pointless endeavours that yield no satisfaction). If so, you are ready, your burning bush moment is near! You can leave the things of this world behind and venture into a life filled with purpose. God searches for the heart of the faithful and those yearning for something more. He will meet you in a moment, maybe when you least expect it, and show you your purpose and ask, “Will you go?” This path isn’t for the timid or doubting, but to those who seize the moment—they will accomplish great and mighty deeds for the Kingdom of God. They will begin new movements, they will lead revivals, they will change the course of history and they will live a life beyond all comparison. Is this you? Do you have the God type of Heart?