Moses: Rejecting the Natural Strength and Ability to be Useful to God in Resurrection

In Exodus we see a complete view of God’s calling of Moses as the standard model of God’s servant. Moses was faithful to God in all His house. In his age God wanted to do something, and Moses was the one called, prepared, and trained by God to do His work.

In every age God desires to do something, and in this age He wants to gain His building, which is the mingling of God and man, the corporate expression of God, and the enlargement of God in man.

As God’s people we want that God’s heart would become our heart, and we want to be the Moses of today, those who are called and prepared by God to be His servant for the accomplishing of His purpose. We want to have God’s calling of Moses to be reproduced in us.

In order for us to be constituents of God’s building and builders of God’s house, and in order for us to be built into God and to have God built into us, we need all the details of God’s calling of Moses to become our experience.

In Moses’ life we see three periods of 40 years, and in each period of time God did something specific in him: in the first forty years of his life Moses developed his natural ability and strength to the uttermost, in the second section of forty years these were torn down by God until he lost all confidence in himself and when he was called by God he could be useful to Him in resurrection, and in the last period of forty years Moses was used by God for His building.

Today we would like to see how the case of Moses is the best one to illustrate the matter of rejecting the natural strength and ability. No other person in the Bible is as good as Moses in the matter of rejecting one’s natural strength, ability, and natural zeal.

Throughout the years many servants of God have seen something of God’s purpose, served Him faithfully, and yet did a lot of things in their natural ability and strength; therefore, there was a natural flavor to their ministry and the result was the establishing of a “Christian mission” or a denomination, another division in the Body of Christ.

May the Lord shine on us and bring us through death into resurrection so that we may be useful to Him in resurrection, being ready for His calling to be the servant of God today!

Moses was Useful to God when he Rejected his Natural Strength and Ability and Served God in Resurrection

Moses was a Hebrew, the son of a Hebrew family living in Egypt, but he was raised up as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and he was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, being powerful in his words and works (Acts 7:22).

The Egyptian culture was very powerful and vast, and Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, being knowledgeable in architecture, law, mathematics, war, organization, authority, etc. All these prepared him to be the one to receive the pattern of God’s dwelling place and God’s law and statutes, and lead the people of Israel through the wilderness toward the good land.

However, when he was forty, he thought that he was the one who would save his Hebrew brothers, and one day he tried to show them that he’s the one to deliver them out of Egypt. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and he struck him and hid him in the sand (Acts 7:23-26), thinking that his brothers would understand that he’s the one they’ve been waiting for. However, the word of this murder spread, and Moses had to run for his life.

Moses did something for God’s people not according to God in His timing but according to his own will, and therefore he had to flee in the wilderness where he was put aside by God for forty years (see Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:27-30).

Moses, a man who has been educated in the palace of Egypt, was forced by God to live as a shepherd in the wilderness, tending to his father in law’s sheep. As the years went by, Moses lost his confidence in himself; he lost his hopes for the future, his interest, and his goal (see Exo. 3:11; 2:11-13).

In Psa. 90:10 Moses admitted that when he was 80 years old he was ready to die…When God came to him to call him from the flaming bush, Moses responded to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh? I am slow of speech, I am unqualified…

In this same principle, everyone who is called by the Lord must pass through a period of time in which he loses his confidence in himself, he realizes his inability, and he considers himself good only for death. As Paul said in Phil. 3:3, such people become the circumcision, those who serve not by their flesh but by the Spirit of God, boasting in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the flesh.

Moses learned to serve God according to God’s leading and not according to his own desire or initiative; Moses learned to trust in God for everything (see Acts 7:34-36; Heb. 11:28). God didn’t destroy Moses ability; rather, his natural ability was dealt with so that it became an ability in resurrection.

God allows things and situations to happen to seemingly put us down and away for a period of time; in this time God wants to bring us to lose our confidence, realize our inability, and learn to trust in the Lord and serve Him according to His leading.

In Moses’ case, God Himself was wrought into Moses’ ability, and his ability was eventually full of God. God’s calling of Moses and taking him through this process is a pattern for our Christian life and service to the Lord.

Rejecting our Natural Strength and Ability and Being brought through Death into Resurrection to be Useful to God

Our natural strength and ability are NOT useful to God because they do not have the divine element. What matters to God is not only to get the work done; He cares WHO does the work, what WAY he takes, what are the MEANS, and what is the result. The 40-year old Moses in Egypt powerful in word and work could not deliver the children of Israel from their slavery.

Our natural strength and ability, having no divine element in them, act on their own and not according to God’s will. The natural strength and ability seek their own glory and satisfy their own desire. We need to develop our ability and enlarge our capacity, but in order for these to be used by God, they need to go through death and resurrection.

As seen in the pattern of Moses, we need to reject our natural strength and ability and have them pass through death and resurrection so that they may be useful to God. After our natural ability is dealt with by the cross, our ability becomes one with God’s move and can be useful to God to fulfill His purpose.

Whatever is dealt with by the cross has the divine element wrought into it and is brought into resurrection to be useful to God. We need to be open to the Lord as He brings us through situations and things, so that we may have our natural ability and strength dealt with and crucified, having the divine element wrought into it to be useful to God.

I was encouraged by a paragraph from the life-study of Exodus on this matter,

There is no point in pretending or performing. We can only be what we are. If you are like Moses smiting the Egyptian, then that is where you are. And if you are like Moses at the age of eighty, then that is where you are. One day we all shall reach the point where we consider ourselves good only for death. Everyone called by the Lord must pass through a period of time in which he loses his confidence, realizes his inability, and considers himself good only for death. Eventually, we shall have the same realization about ourselves that Moses had at the age of eighty. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 68-69, by Witness Lee)

Only the Lord knows where we are; if we are in the stage corresponding to the first 40 years of Moses life, we need to develop our abilities, study, and be educated the best we can; if we are in the second stage, we need to accept God’s dealing with our natural ability and strength, and He will have a way to call us at the right time in resurrection for His purpose.

May the Lord have mercy on us and take us all the way through the process of death and resurrection so that we may reject our natural strength and ability to be those qualified to be called and used by God for His purpose!

Lord, it is Your desire in this age to gain Your building, the mingling of God and man: we give ourselves to You for Your desire. Lord, we want to be useful in Your hands as the ones called out by You. Give us the experiences we need that we may pass through death and resurrection and have our ability and strength resurrected to be useful to You for Your building. Lord, save us from remaining natural and strong in our ability and zeal for You. We want to learn to serve You according to Your leading and trust in You for everything. Work Yourself into our ability and fill us with Your element!

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, Basic Lessons on Service, lesson 20, 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 (you can buy this morning revival book here via LSM and here via Amazon).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Little by little, / The Lord is cutting off all our natural life; / As we grow in Him, / He replaces us with more of His life divine. (New Song)
  # Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / I ask Thee, gracious Lord, / Oh, may it flow! / My trust in self o’erthrow, / Down from self’s throne I’ll go, / That living water flow / In spirit, Lord. (Hymns #846)
  # By this Person being formed in me, / I’ll a member of His Body be, / No more acting individually, / But with the saints. / More and more our Person He must be; / That our natural personality / Be eliminated thoroughly / Till Christ is all. (Hymns #1180)