Spiritual Authority – Lessons from the Life of Moses Spiritual authority Not: a. Civil authority: The powers that be are ordained of God. “Positions of authority in government” 1. over nations 2. over peoples b. Delegated authority: Like the policeman in the street. A. Ex. 3:5-10 God was trying to get Moses to focus on three things: 1. God Himself (He was calling Moses to lead) 2. The seriousness of the occasion 3. An enslaved nation’s desperate need a. We are not to focus more on our work, our vision, our calling, our leadership, etc., but the Lord who is calling us to do these things. B. Ex. 3:11 But Moses missed the focus; therefore, he expressed unbelief: 1. But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” 2. In this question, Moses is questioning God’s: a. Knowledge b. Wisdom of choice c. Abilities to enable the person that He has chosen to do the job. He expressed basic unbelief in the character & abilities of God. 3. Moses was focused on himself: a. I am Moses the experienced shepherd b. Who am I to do what I have not been trained to do? C. Ex. 3:13 – Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is his name?’ What shall I say to them?” 1. Who are you? 2. Not focused on God and the desperate need of the people. D. Ex. 3:14 - God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" 1. I AM – totally sufficient to meet every need that you have 2. “I only need your …” a. availability b. obedience c. faith in My ability to help you lead
E. Ex. 3:16 - "Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, 'The LORD … has appeared to me, saying, "I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt." 1. I’ve seen the need for a leader 2. They’re a needy people needing to be led 3. I, the Lord, have shown you this F.
Ex. 3:18 – “They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.’ ” 1. They will believe you. (They will listen to you.)
G. Ex. 4:1 – Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” 1. What if it doesn’t happen? (As you have already stated that it would.) a. Moses’s preposterous pride, an insulting question of unbelief 2. This question challenged the faithfulness, knowledge, power, faithfulness, righteousness, and justice of God. He is therefore doubting God’s integrity. 3. There is no room for “what if” when God has already stated that it will be so. 4. Moses did not understand the requirements of spiritual authority; how it operated or its results. 5. Moses was still totally self-centered, selfconscious, and only concerned with whether the people would believe in him, not in God. a. Leave it to God what people think about you H. God tests Moses Ex. 4:2-5 1. God wants to see if He can trust Moses with real spiritual authority a. Asks Moses: What is that in your hand? 4:2 b. A shepherd’s staff c. Ex. 4:3 “Throw it on the ground” 2. Staff represented: a. Obvious sign of ability and authority to lead sheep b. Strongest sign of whom Moses was – his role and identification as a shepherd c. Something to lean on: point of dependence d. A means of protection and defense for the flock and for himself e. An instrument for directing the dogs and the sheep – to point with it f. Means of clearing obstructions from the path g. A treasured personal possession (the last thing that he’d want to part with) h. A status symbol (I’m the top-of-the-line after 40 years of being a shepherd.)
3. Our “staff/rod” is what we are best known as: title or position, giftings, ministry, status 4. God told Moses to throw down the thing that represented position, identification, authority, and security — saying in effect: “Let it go! Release it to Me! Relinquish it! The spiritual authority that I want to give to you has nothing to do with these things.” 5. Basis of spiritual authority: Obedience to a. revealed truth b. the promptings of the Holy Spirit. • This depends on your friendship with God, on how much you are depending on Him. 6. “Thrown down the titles.” The staff was gone. There wasn’t a different staff — but no staff. 7. The staff… “became a serpent” – Why? a. The symbol of royal and divine power worn on the crown of the Pharaoh b. The symbol of the might and power of Egypt c. Also of what Moses ran away from d. The symbol of satan’s power e. We either exercise spiritual authority over it, or else we are overcome by it. 8. An enormous test of obedience & faith: Ex. 4:4 “Put out your hand and take it by the tail.” The most dangerous thing in the natural that he could do. It was contrary to his natural instincts for survival. Why did God ask Moses to do that? a. God will ask us to do things that are dangerous and difficult to test 1. our obedience to Him 2. our fear of the Lord. b. Receiving spiritual authority is dependent upon whether we will overcome the temptation of arguing with God, and whether or not we will obey Him. 9. Only when Moses obeyed totally did that snake become a rod. It was what God used as the symbol of his spiritual authority in leadership. 10. Ex. 4:10-16 One great difficulty that Moses faced was his lack of speaking ability: “Let Aaron speak.” a. Not God’s highest desire b. Moses’ conditional obedience limited his spiritual authority [Some speakers have an ability to entertain but have no substance. "Did this person say anything that challenged the people to act, or to change in some way to take a stand?"] c. Moses would have had more authority if he had spoken to the people stammering. 11. Ex. 4:20 The staff was a symbol of: a. Spiritual authority with men b. Spiritual authority over the enemy c. A display of the miraculous power of God d. A constant reminder of how much he had thrown down that now was replaced with his level of intimate friendship of God.
Steps of obedience and faith toward God are the ONLY means of bringing forth those four things. There are no shortcuts to obedience and faith. The desire for intimate friendship with God was Moses’s consuming desire - evidenced the amount of time he spent listening to God. Ex. 33:13 His passion: “Oh that 1 may know you; that I might understand your character; that I might understand your ways.” Ps. 103:7 “Moses knew God’s ways…” 1. “Massive amounts of detailed instructions…” 2. Ex. 20-23. Four chapters of instruction Moses got just from listening. He had to write down EVERYTHING that God spoke to him. 3. Ex. 25-31 Forty days and nights alone with God. Moses spent a lot of time listening. 4. Ex. 33-34 – Law-intensive personal dialogue with God that saved millions of people 5. Moses went up Sinai seven times in obedience to the call of God. 6. One time he waited seven days before he heard one word from God. a. How much do you want intimacy with God? b. If we don’t get to know God deeply, we will misrepresent Him on a massive scale. 7. Moses’ spiritual authority stemmed from the priority he gave to time alone with God. a. Listening to his voice b. Obeying what God said regardless of the consequences. Spiritual authority – other examples 1. Jesus carried the greatest spiritual authority on earth simply through intimacy with His Father and obedience. • What is your level of spiritual authority? 2. David as a teenager had no position. He had tremendous spiritual authority when he confronted Goliath and led an entire nation to victory in battle. 3. Elijah had no position when he arrived on the scene and announced that there would be no rain. And he spoke with authority on Mt. Carmel in confronting the prophets of Baal. 4. [Here is the example of Donald MacPhail, 15 years old who was converted in the Hebredis revival under Duncan Campbell. One day there was oppression when Duncan was preaching, and he called certain 4 men aside to intercede, but there was no breakthrough. Then he looked down and saw MacPhail, who was deeply "burdened for souls". Campbell saw that at that moment, as he humbly shared before the entire congregation, that this teenager was closer to God then Campbell was. He called up MacPhail to pray from the pulpit. When he prayed, (based on his reflection on Revelation chap. 4), the Holy Spirit swept through "like the force of a hurricane."] •
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K. Moses and Aaron in relation to obedience as to when they used the staff, their symbol of spiritual authority, and when they did not. The key was obedience, not magic: 1. Ex. 7:8-12 So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the Lord had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. God was demonstrating His authority (which was much greater than Pharaoh’s authority) by having Moses’s staff (now a serpent) swallow up the serpent of Pharaoh’s magicians. 2. 7:20 So Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that [was] in the Nile… 3. 8:5, 6 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the streams and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’ ” 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand 4. 8:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats through all the land of Egypt.’” 5. 8:20-29 – Moses warns Pharaoh about swarms of insects, and that God would make a distinction between God’s people and Egypt a. THERE WAS NO MENTION OF USING THE STAFF b. They did not carry out some particular religious ritual and formula. They listened to God. We must keep listening to God in each confrontation with the enemy in order to bring about His purposes in every situation and in nations. We need to wait on God, and obey God in these details. 6. Ex. 9:1 – Moses again warns Pharaoh a. AGAIN – no mention of the staff 7. Ex. 9:8-9 – Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of soot from a kiln, and let Moses throw it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 “It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and will become boils.” a. No mention of using the staff 8. 9:23 Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail 9. 10:13 Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt 14 “The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt” a. Moses obeyed. God did it. b. Scripture clearly mentions when the staff is used, and it is clear when it is not used c. Significance: waiting on God in detail, obeying in detail, and not presuming 10. 10:21 Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for 3 days.
11. 11:2 “Speak now in the hearing of the people that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.” 3 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. They obeyed. Staff not used. 12. Ex. 14 - Red Sea – 3 specific commands a. Tell them to go on b. Raise your staff c. Stretch out your hand Ex. 15:6, 7, 12, 16 No mention of the staff a. “your right hand” the source of power. b. Relatively unimportant whether the staff is used or not. Vitally important — obey God. 13. Ex. 17:5-6 Strike rock with staff 14. Ex. 17:9 Staff in hand, fought Amalekites 15. Num. 20:8 – 3 clear commands a. Take the staff b. Gather the people c. Speak to a specific rock in the presence of the people L. Seven specific sins that Moses committed. God had spoken to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. 1. Disobedience. a. Struck the rock twice (told to only speak to it) b. Never told to speak to the people the things he did 2. Misused the symbol of spiritual authority by doing his own thing. 3. He had become more impressed with the symbol of spiritual authority (rod/staff) than the source of spiritual authority 4. Unbelief in God’s ability to do God’s work in God’s way. (Get water only by speaking to a rock?) 5. He put the focus on himself and Aaron —not on the Lord. Num 20:10 “Listen you rebels! Must we bring you water out of this rock?” BASIS – PRIDE – the subtlest of all sins; root of all his other sins. Moses’ worst sin. 6. Angry and bitter toward the people a. F.B. Meyer: “Oaks do not fall beneath a single storm, unless they have become rotten at their heart.” b. Our strongest points can become our weakest unless we are constantly fulfilling the conditions for intimate friendship through understanding and walking in the fear of the Lord at all times. Moses was not then walking as the meekest man in all the earth. He is now operating in pride, unbelief, disobedience, anger, drawing attention to himself, and misusing authority. 7. He gave a distorted view of the Character of God – His holiness. Moses was an awesome person to be around when his face was shining with the presence of the Lord.
the greater the light given by God the greater the privileges and responsibility the greater the influence of the breadth of our ministry d. the greater the accountability • We have to be sure that we maintain in great diligence and great detail the conditions that produced: 1. The intimacy / friendship with God 2. The spiritual authority 3. The breadth of ministry. • If God has increased our breadth of ministry, have we obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit in revealed truth? • Have I gone deeper in depths of relationship with God? a. b. c.
M. Six horrendous results of Moses’s sin 1. Num 20:12, Deut 3:23-28 – God limited him in exercising his future leadership role in leading the people. He was not permitted to lead them into Canaan. 2. He had lost a lot of spiritual authority although he still had the ministry title and position. 3. He was not able to experience the intimacy that only comes from instant, total, joyful obedience to God. 4. He was never entrusted with the use of the staff of God again publicly. 5. Num. 20:23-27 He lost his partner in leadership (Aaron) – this was directly linked to their disobedience (esp. v. 24) 6. Dt.32:48-52 These sins precipitated the termination of Moses’s leadership functions and his death. “God directed Moses to go up into the mountain, Abarim, “Then die on the mountain because you broke faith with me in the midst of the sons of Israel, because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel.” a. “This is because both of you broke faith with Me ...” 32:51 b. “You will see the land only from a distance.” 32:52 N. Don’t give a distorted view of the holiness of God to the people around you. 1. We can terminate our lives, and the extent, the length, and the effectiveness of our ministry by our choices. 2. Don’t ever get fooled by what God has already done in you and through you, and the levels with which you have walked and talked with God. 3. None of us can coast (in our character). We need to be on the constant vigil. 4. Is there depth in my spiritual life? Is there intimacy of friendship with God?
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You worry about the depth (of friendship with God) and God will take care of the breadth (of ministry)
Some questions for reflection: 1. Do we DELIGHT in spending quality time alone with God just delighting in His presence and worshiping Him? 2. Are we comfortable with times of protracted (long) waiting on Him, listening to His voice? 3. Do we wait on God and seek His face in detail concerning the aspects of our ministry that we are responsible for? i. Leaders – Do we wait on God for getting vision and getting the program that would fit the vision? ii. Preachers / Teachers / Speakers 1. Are we sent by God with the word of the Lord at that specific time to share that specific message to that specific people? 2. Are you living out that message?