Faith Unlocks More Than Enough

Unusual Events And God’s Plan

0:08 SPEAKER_01: Unusual things happening because God had something he needed done. He needed to get his people back into Israel. And that was going to require some phenomenal events to make it possible. And these events could only occur as the faith of God was activated.

Faith Versus Sight

0:34 SPEAKER_01: Living by faith is a wonderful experience. Living by faith as believers, we have the ability to see what we believe.

0:47 SPEAKER_01: That is in contrast to people who believe what they see. When we know what God wants us to do, we're going to release our faith.

Enter Exodus 3

0:59 SPEAKER_01: So let's go into the third chapter, the book of Exodus, beginning at verse one.

1:07 SPEAKER_01: Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of Yad, even to Horub. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And he looked, and behold the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I'll now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

The Burning Bush Encounter

1:37 SPEAKER_01: And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and he said, Moses, and he said, Here am I. And he said, God said, Draw not nigh hither, put off your shoes, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. Can you imagine what a sight that was to have that bush just suddenly burst out in flame?

2:24 SPEAKER_01: And what was really interesting was the bush never consumed. Because God was speaking. And God has a plan.

Three Levels Of Provision

2:33 SPEAKER_01: Somebody said there's three spiritual levels or areas of provision that Christians can live at. One is the place of not enough. No matter how their life goes, there's just never enough. Not enough time, not enough what they thought they should have had. And then we've got those believers who live in that place of just enough. How are you doing? I'm just making it through. And then we've got those who live in the place of more than enough. And faith will take us to the place of more than enough. Moses was always God's man.

3:23 SPEAKER_01: God had chosen him. God had a plan for his life. Just like God's got a plan for your life. No matter who we are, God has a plan for our life. And that made him God's choice. And God, one of the great messages he wants to get through to us after we're believers, he says, I've chosen you. And if we were to stop and think just for a moment, what have I been chosen to do? Why should I be chosen? And quite often what goes through our minds is, I'm not worthy to do anything for God. Why would God choose me?

Chosen To Bear Fruit

4:06 SPEAKER_01: Jesus made it very clear in John's Gospel, chapter 15, verse 16. Jesus said, You've not chosen me, but I have chosen you. When we look at that word, when Jesus said, I've chosen you, it means I've chosen you out. I picked you out. This is what I want you to do. That's an awesome responsibility. If we had a responsible position, it's because we've been chosen for that position because of gifts and talents and abilities and many things about us that makes us the perfect choice for that job. Sometimes we think, I don't know if I can do that.

4:56 SPEAKER_01: You can do it because you've been chosen by God, and how you're going to do it is walk by faith. So he says, I've chosen you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. I find that so powerful.

Set In The Body With Purpose

5:20 SPEAKER_01: That is such a major statement. And when Moses was at the burning bush, this was a major encounter with God. You're going to have major encounters with God. The day that the Lord met you and convicted you of sin, the day that the Lord came to you and you felt that pull and that need that you need to be born again, Jesus said, You must be born again. And when we think about this, that would be a major encounter in our life. As you walk in what God wants you to do, you're going to often have encounters.

6:01 SPEAKER_01: And whenever we have encounters, it's going to require faith. When we come to Christ, we don't walk alone. That is such a key thing to understand. We are placed in what is called a body. And that body would be known as the body of Christ. And in Corinthians chapter 12, verse 18, but now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as is pleased him. This word set is easy to just read through, but it is a key to help us understand what this verse is about. That word set here, it means conceived.

6:48 SPEAKER_01: It means born into a placing.

7:00 SPEAKER_01: And you are a great man or a great woman. And Christ made us that way. And we move by faith. And when we do that which we have been punched in to do, we're going to do it skillfully. We're going to do it well. And do not doubt what God has done in your life, nor doubt what He's going to do, nor doubt and think that you don't have any gifting, skills, and abilities. Every born again believer has been placed into the body for a task. When our bodies were formed, the elbow was placed right and does its job, moves the arm of our body.

Supernatural Fire And Its Work

7:52 SPEAKER_01: And we cannot think for one moment that our calling and our position is of no consequence. And Moses had been fleeing, he had run, he was hiding, and he was a fugitive. And God found him on this field where this bush began to burn with fire. We're like a bush. When we come into the kingdom of God, we're like the tree that's planted by the waters. In Psalm 92, 13, it says, Those planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish. We're planted. We're going to be passionate. We have to stay on fire for God.

8:45 SPEAKER_01: We cannot for one moment walk around complacent or thinking that we're not able to make an impact. It says in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 2 that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. That fire was not a natural fire. The Bible says the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And that fire, I believe, was God Himself. That was the presence of God. I don't think it was any crackling because the bush was not consumed.

9:28 SPEAKER_01: There's a spiritual fire within us. In Luke 3, 16, John answered and said unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. This was a supernatural work of God, supernatural fire. And we know that this fire, the purpose of what it will do is that it will make us effective, and that fire will illuminate, that fire will consume, that fire will handle issues in our own personal lives.

10:20 SPEAKER_01: One of the things that fire does, it consumes. And have the old nature consumed. Because if we're going to be effective in the kingdom, we have to do it in the realm of the spirit. And so God was doing something absolutely supernatural here. God was making a leader who was now going to be unshakable because he was going to be facing a lot of things that in the normal would shake you to your roots.

Becoming Unshakable In Conviction

10:49 SPEAKER_01: As you and I begin to venture out by faith and find ourselves moving forward, we're moving into all kinds of spiritual activity coming against us. Demonic activity.

11:20 SPEAKER_01: During these times where we wonder what's going to happen next, what's coming against us, we're going to need people who will stand firm, who will stand fast, they will not be intimidated, they will not back down, they will not think for one moment that God will fail them. Unshakable in that conviction. And when we have that conviction, we're able to release faith in the same manner. When we release faith, we have to believe that God is speaking to us. We have to believe, just like Moses, that God is guiding us.

12:00 SPEAKER_01: We have to believe that God has a plan for our life. We have to believe that what we do makes a difference. That's how I think. As a man thinketh, so is he, the Bible says. And if you think that you're strong and unshakable, and you think that God is with you, it's going to happen. That wasn't the whole extent of what was going on. There was the bush burning, it was the Lord, and God is going to speak to him. It's going to go yet to another level. That's the thing about faith. When you start off, it takes you to another level every time.

12:44 SPEAKER_01: Just like Christianity takes you to another level. You grow in that.

Turning Aside: Now Faith

13:02 SPEAKER_01: And at this one pivotal moment in his lifetime, Moses said this. I will now turn aside and I'm going to focus and I'm going to put everything I've got into what's happening before me. I'm going to stop wrestling. I'm going to stop worrying. I'm going to stop running. I'm going to stop being consumed of all my failures. And I'm going to turn from that and I'm going to see, because God's got my attention. How many times in your life has God got your attention on something? When you walk with the Lord by faith and you walk strong in God, and the more sensitive you become, the more that you walk in faith, the more that you believe that God will talk to you and will guide you, you will focus on what He's got to say.

14:02 SPEAKER_01: What God has planned for you.

14:10 SPEAKER_01: We have to make an effort. Moses could have sat down by his sheep. He could have sat totally out of God's plan and purpose. And a lot of people try that. I have found that I have to make an effort. If I'm going to go somewhere, if I'm going to do something, if I believe that God speaks to me about going to a nation or whatever, I then make an effort and I start moving toward that. And so when he turned aside, the word turn here in the Hebrew, it means to depart. Depart.

14:52 SPEAKER_01: We're going to bring that thing to an end. Whatever it is we're involved in, we're going to bring that to an end. Whether some thought patterns that we have, we're going to depart from that kind of thinking. We're going to depart from that. We're going to make an end of that. And that is not going to happen anymore. When you give your heart to Jesus, when you say, Jesus, come into my life and forgive me of all my sins, and I make you Savior and Lord of my life. And what we are saying is when we make him Lord of our lives, that is, we're cutting it off, and we're departing from that, and we're now going to turn and we're going to walk in the way of the Lord.

15:34 SPEAKER_01: It sounds easy, it sounds simple, but there has to be an effort. And God was drawing Moses this day. And Moses said, I will now turn aside. A lot of times believers said, Yeah, I'm going to do that. No, now. That word now is so faith connected. That word now suddenly takes us from the place of could be, maybe, to shall be. Now. Hebrews 11 1. Now, faith is the substance. Now, faith. And this was his moment, and he could have refused. God's plan in life is for us to make those decisions now.

16:28 SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people say, I'm not worthy, I'm not that good. People know what I was like. Let me tell you something. This is what I have found. You've given your heart to Jesus and you're now walking after the Lord and you're going to live for Jesus. Believers know what that's about, but the world does not know. They have a hard time thinking. And I have found when I'm about doing the Father's business, God has got a great work for me to do and a great work for you to do.

Visitation And Deliverance

17:00 SPEAKER_01: And you can do it. Moses was 40 years being a shepherd. He was a rejected leader. He was a fugitive. He was crushed probably many days, guilt, confusion. And sometimes people, they have that, that keeps cropping up. And they're going to say, How can I do anything for God? God makes all the difference. When God encounters you, and when God comes to you and says, I've chosen you, that is an awesome thing to think that I've been chosen by God. You have been chosen by God. He called it a great sight.

17:44 SPEAKER_01: This means something of great importance.

17:49 SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be earth shattering or earth moving or earth impacting the world or the planet. But every time that you and I step out by faith and obey God, that's important. Every time that we move by God, God wants us to move, we're moved by faith, that's important. What was happening here? A major visitation. The wonderful thing about knowing the Lord, being a Christian, being filled with the Holy Spirit is that we can have a visitation of God. Some are more demonstrative than others. And this burning bush incident was extremely important.

18:36 SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 8. God said, I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the heavenlies, down onto the earthly realm where we live. I think that's phenomenal. I think that's tremendous. Why? Because Jesus came down, took on the form of man, God taken on the form of man, sacrificed himself so that we can be brought into the kingdom of God. And he's given his spirit, the Holy Ghost is still with us. God's spirit is still moving, his fire is still burning and delivering.

19:22 SPEAKER_01: It's not over yet, folks. It's not over yet. As long as you're walking in your place where God has called you and where he's placed you, it is not over. God said something to Moses that we might think as strange.

Submission, Perseverance, Faith

19:38 SPEAKER_01: Take your shoes off. That was quite a thing. Because remember, we're reading about the bush that did not burn. We're reading about the bush that God was in. We're talking about a place where a major move of God is taking place in a man's life. Sands would have been very hot. He would have been walking on the sand. Many Christians, before they'll move in faith, especially in those who always complain about never having enough, or those who are just satisfied with a little bit. But the ones who have got more than enough understand what I'm talking about.

20:19 SPEAKER_01: There are three steps to get him here. Number one, there was a submission. Would he do what God asked him to do to get close to the burning bush? Because he was caught up seeing the burning bush. But there was going to be something else. He had to get near that. The first thing that we have to often deal with is submission. People don't like submitting in the natural. When you get past submission, the next thing you're going to find is perseverance. Because it takes perseverance to keep pushing ahead.

21:00 SPEAKER_01: Because faith is like that. As you feel God drawing you, you're going to still keep pushing ahead. Once you submit and you keep pushing ahead, and you're going to find that when you push ahead, faith begins to manifest. Submit, persevere, and get into faith. And when that starts happening, you're going to see the results of God.

Closing And Resources

21:26 SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining me today.

21:28 SPEAKER_00: For more ministry podcasts, visit our website and subscribe to doncarpenter.ca.