Spiritual Gifts: Gift of Healing

By Hayley Boud

 

How many spiritual gifts are there?

I Corinthians 12:7-11
1. wisdom
2. knowledge
3. faith
4. miracles
5. prophecy
6. healing
7. discerning spirits
8. tongues
9. interpretation of tongues

There are nine spiritual gifts and all the gifts that you might know you have come under these headings. 

Healing
1. Who would like to have the gift of healing?
2. Why?  To be seen by others or to help others?
3. What is the gift of healing?

Healing isn’t only about physical healing but it is also spiritual and emotional and bringing healing comes in many forms.  To have the gift of healing you need to be compassionate, merciful and encouraging.  A verse can bring healing, a hug, saying the right thing at the right time, listening without judging, singing, music (suggest to the person to play some worship music), making the person’s dinner or lunch, bringing them medicine, taking them to the doctor.

Proverbs 16:24, “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

To have the gift of healing doesn’t mean you will see the person healed instantly from cancer.  It means you genuinely care for those who are sick and you put yourself in their shoes and you pray with sincerity and you won’t forget about them, they will stay in your mind all day for months until they are healed.  You’ll be genuinely concerned to the point that you ‘ll ring them to find out how they are going, you’ll visit them, send a card or give them support like taking them to the doctor or buying them medicine.

4. Do you need faith to heal someone or to be healed?

Yes, as Jesus Himself said, “your faith has made you well’ but you only need a small amount of faith, you don’t need to have a big faith because Jesus said the faith needed is only as small as a mustard seed.  We must all have that amount of faith, even more, because we all accepted to serve Jesus whom we have never seen.  That takes a lot of faith so we all must have at least a mustard seed amount of faith. 

 

Therefore, if someone isn’t healed immediately, it is not because of a lack of faith on our behalf, it is simply God’s will for the healing to take time.  It is a very bad philosophy to blame someone for not being healed and tell that person it is because they lacked faith.  It doesn’t depend on a big faith, it only depends on God and He knows the right time to be healed and how to be healed.  Healing is a process of slowly being changed.  We don’t know what is happening on the inside, we might be seriously ill on the inside without even knowing it and God is healing that first.  You might have a headache and you think that you have had that for several days, when is God going to heal you but maybe you have a tumour and God is healing you from the inside out.

 

Proverbs 3:7-8, “Don’t be wise in your own eyes but fear the Lord and turn from evil.  It will be healing to your body.”

 

To understand this verse we will look at the story in Mark 8:22-26 where a blind man was brought to Jesus and entreated Jesus to touch him.  Jesus took the man out of the village, spat on his eyes, laid his hands on him and said, “Do you see anything?”   The man could only see men walking around like trees, he couldn’t see clearly but he didn’t say it like a complaint, he said it like this is an improvement.

 

People forget to give praises to God when things improve.  They only want to get whole healing so they don’t thank God for getting better.  We have to acknowledge the improvement in the same way the blind man did and we have to praise God for that.  First we have to feel better than what it was before and the more you feel better, the more things in general get better and this is the way with God’s healing.

 

The blind man told Jesus what he saw, he told him about the improvement and then Jesus touched him again and that time he had a clear picture.  After feeling better tell God, “things are better, please touch me a second time”. 

 

When the man was brought to Jesus, he was completely blind and Jesus led him outside of Bethsaida instead of healing him straight away.  Jesus said nothing, he was quiet and we don’t know for how long they walked, it might have been days walking without saying anything and Jesus giving the appearance of ignoring the problem.  Sometimes we pray and tell God our problems and He sees but he says nothing and He leads us in a different direction.  You can have a headache and someone rings you with all their problems.  It’s leading you somewhere else while you have a headache.  You might be praying for years and years but God is leading you without responding to your needs.  He leads you outside and touches you but you only see a small change and it’s not complete and God will ask you, how do you feel now?

 

Sometimes God gives a taste of healing, a taste of the solution but it’s not complete and it doesn’t respond 100% to the problem.  The power bill is $100 but you only get $20 and it feels disappointing because you expected it all at once but only a small portion is given which isn’t helpful.  You might have a headache and you find codeine works but only 10%. 

 

The blind man respected God because he followed Him and accepted to be lead outside of the village where he was familiar.  Because he accepted to follow Christ, he discovered healing in a different place and way than what he expected.  He was now in an unfamiliar place.  God removed him from his village where he knew the roads and shops and houses well and he knew as a blind man how to walk by taking two steps forward and turn the left and take three steps forward etc.  This new area was unfamiliar and as a blind man he could not have walked around this new place as he didn’t know it.  God is taking us to a new place.  For example, Hayley used to sleep until 11am but now she will wake up at 7am and everyone will be surprised because she has changed to something else.

 

After Jesus touched the blind man for the second time, He told him not to go back to the village.  Don’t go back to what you were familiar with, don’t go back to your problems.  E.g. Hayley don’t go back to sleeping until 11am.  I used to have reactive hypoglycaemia which meant I couldn’t eat sugar without passing out or going temporarily blind.  After I was healed I was too scared to eat sugar even though I was healed and I knew I was healed.  I wanted to go back to my old village where things were safe.  I had to take courage to eat the first biscuit but once I did I never went back to the old village.

 

So getting back to the verse in proverbs, many people believe they are wise, they believe they have the right strategy and know how to bring healing but we have to remember that everything comes from God.  The blind man entreated Jesus to touch him.  I imagine that was with shouting and begging because he knew this might be his only opportunity to be healed.  Maybe people around him were telling him to be quiet but he needed what others had.  Those that had sight were telling him to be quiet and all he wanted was to have what they have.

 

Those that have will think us stupid when we complain.  Those that are healthy will say to the sick, “it’s too much now, we are sick of your stories, it’s always about you” because they have what they need.  The wisdom of man is to think others don’t have what they have because they are stupid or because they don’t know how to get it or look after themselves and what they are facing is the consequence of their stupid actions.  The wisdom of God is like this story of the blind man where Jesus heard the man crying for help and Jesus came close and gave him sight.

 

Those that already had sight didn’t admire what they had, they took it for granted but when the blind man received it, he was extremely grateful and now he is written in the Bible for the whole world to receive a big message. 

 

The wisdom of man doesn’t consider what God has given them, they think it is normal.  For example, I type up the message on Sundays and for me it is easy and normal and I don’t really understand why others think I’m so good for being able to do it.  It just seems normal to me.  There are things that you do and I can’t and when I say, ‘wow, you are amazing,’ you think to yourself, ‘no, not really’.  But we forget that there are many who can’t do what we can, many without hands or without intelligence.  We can’t mock others for not being as clever as we are.  Others deserve what we have but they don’t get it and we judge saying it is their fault and sometimes we even tell them, ‘shut up, it’s too much now’.  It’s like Work and Income who tell those on a benefit to get a job while there are many with qualifications who can’t get work but Work and Income treats the jobless as though they are zero and it’s their fault for not having any work. 

 

For God it is different, those that have zero will glorify God when they get it.  For example, those in hospital can’t even sit down and we can sit down without thinking about it and we think with that annoyed tone, ‘oh, just sit down’.  God gives you something and it’s very important but we don’t recognise how important it is and others don’t have it and suffer for years and they glorify God when they get it be we who have it, don’t even care that we have it.

 

Like the blind man who cried for help, people around us are asking for help but we just think they are complainers.  How would you feel to be that person?  People ask us to pray and we think, “again” and we are sick of that same prayer and we complain in our heart so that our prayer is dead. 

 

Maybe with our human wisdom we think we deserve it but God doesn’t give according to our sin or our greatness.  He gives however He wants.  With our human wisdom we think we know how to get healing but we need God’s wisdom and when he moves us out of a situation we can’t go back…that is wisdom that brings healing.  E.g. if you are healed from smoking, don’t go back to cigarettes because He has already pulled you out, why go back in?  You have been shown the direction but you want to go back and then tell God, “forgive me”.  The blind man had all his friends and family back at Bethsaida but was told to not go back.  You can have all the things you like in the past life but don’t go back to them.  Unfortunately, many people make two or three steps forward and go back again believing they can ask for forgiveness. 

 

If we are wise we will fear God which means we will live like a restricted person.  To fear God is to accept all His instructions and don’t go back to old life.  Restrictions for God is different to the restricted licence.  The restricted licence allows a person to drive but not after 10pm so you are restricted only in some areas.  For God, when there is a restriction it is a complete restriction.  If He says to not go back to alcohol it doesn’t mean you can have one glass with your meal at dinner, it means no alcohol full-stop. 

 

This is to have the wisdom from God that brings healing.  Healing from God is gradual and we have to be grateful for the changes.  We are very forgetful but I think we can all look back and see changes.  I used to be so sick that I could only walk to the end of the street but now I can walk for hours if I want to.  I used to get four sinus infections per year, last year I didn’t have one.  Mum couldn’t wear shoes two years ago and had to suffer through winter with jandles but now she can wear sneakers for short periods.  We can all say that we are better than what we were. 

 

Let’s praise God now  because we are better than what we were.  Tell God the areas of improvement like the blind man did.  Then if you need healing pray for God’s wisdom, pray you will fear God and obey His instructions and not go back to your old life.

Communion message

Communion message

 

By Odon Bulamba

 

Mathew 26: 2; 24:26,

Who should we believe?  Jesus before he left, he picked up the bread and blessed it and then broke it and said, “Remember this, this is my body.  Do this in remembrance of me.  This is my cup, do this to remember me”. 

 

Because we forget sometimes, Jesus tells us to come to communion to remember.  Because people sometimes invite us to the wrong place and say Jesus is here, we get mixed up and that is why Jesus tells us to come to communion to remember.  Sometimes we read the bible and we don’t understand it and it’s because we forget to remember the signs God gave us.  That is why Jesus tells us to come to communion to remember.

 

Luke 24: 2.  The disciples of Jesus were walking and suddenly Jesus was walking among them and they could not recognize Him because their eyes were covered. When the men with Jesus reached their home, it was time now to have dinner.  He took the bread and blessed it and after blessing it he broke it.  After breaking it, small pieces fell off from the bread and at that moment their eyes were opened.  They recognized Jesus and remembered their lord. 

 

You have to remember how Jesus blessed the bread and how he broke it.  The way Jesus broke the bread was unique and that is why those two disciples remembered Him.  They remembered the way He broke bread.  What do you remember? Do you only remember Jesus sitting at the table?  That is not enough because sitting with Jesus was not enough to recognize Him.  It wasn’t until the bread was broken.

 

1 Cor 12:27.  We are the body of Jesus.  “Lord I want to be broken, break me as you broke that bread, break my arrogance, my attitude”.  When you break the bread, you can see the inside which looks different and soft compared to the outside.  It also smells good and tastes yummy compared to outside.  Many only eat the inside and not the outside because flies can land on the outside.  When Jesus breaks you and me, this is what should be seen.  Ask your lord now to break you if you are a part of the body of Jesus.  It might hurt because some types of bread are really tough and hard to break but tell Jesus you want to be broken.

 

Then Jesus disappeared, and the bread was broken only in front of two not thousands.  Jesus may only choose to reveal the true meaning of bread to some.

 

Then the disciples said He was alive but many thought the body was stolen from the tomb.  Thomas testified the Jesus that we broke the bread with today is a different Jesus to the one we saw before the cross.  He is an “alive” Jesus and not a dead Jesus.  If I am a part of this body, I am alive with him.  Because Jesus is not a part of the dead, I should also not be a part of the dead.  I should be alive with Him. 

 

This is the body given to you in order to be broken.  The body that you have, has to be broken.  That is why Paul says in Corinthians, if you are a sinner do not eat the bread because if you do, you might become sick or die.  Let’s pray for God to make us ready first.

 

Then Jesus said the wine represents His blood, take it in order to remember.  The blood of Jesus is to remove our sins.  The blood of Jesus.  Imagine if I said brother Peter, we have to eat your flesh and drink your blood.  The police will come and call us cannibals.

Can you eat flesh of brother Peter?  No I will run away.  But for Jesus, He approaches us to say this is just a symbol and you have to understand the meaning of eating my body and drinking my blood.  The world may misunderstand/misinterpret it and think it is crazy but there is power behind it to bring healing from sin.

 

Before Jesus broke the bread, He blessed it first.  Even if you are going through hardship with problems, God has made you sick, or poor or rejected, remember He blessed you first.  Although I am going through this, I am blessed, although I am suffering I am blessed.

 

Ask God to break you.  Galations 5: tell god which fruit of the flesh you have and ask God to break those from you.

I will do something

By Odon Bulamba

Looking at your faces I can see the glory of God shining.  Many people today are trying to put their names down on the plastic surgery list believing they need a new nose and want to repair their face because they want to look attractive.  But to whom do they want to look attractive to whom? To God? I doubt it.  We want to look so attractive to human being so people can say wow and comment on how beautiful we look and that makes us feel so good. 

 

We just sang a song and the words said, “Let the weak I am strong”.  How often do you feel weak in your life?  Have you crossed a situation in your life where you feel weak? If yes, then this message is for you today.  The words of the song said, “Let the poor say I am rich”.  Do you sometimes feel poor in life, and you feel everybody possesses what they need except for you and you ask, “why only me God?”

 

In I Samuel 3:11, the Bible says, “then the lord said to Samuel, behold I will do something in Israel which will make both ears of everyone who hears about it tingle”.  God is saying, behold I will do something in Israel.  Wait a little bit, look, I will do something.  What is this something?  We don’t know what it is, it’s just something, something we don’t know or define but God knows what it is and God is going to do it, just wait and behold; look at it.

 

How did this story start?  Hannah was so beautiful and attractive that she didn’t need plastic surgery and was married to Elkanah who also didn’t need plastic surgery.  Hannah was working hard to please her husband, family and community.  People would say, “wow that man got the right woman”.  I believe Hannah fits in the Proverbs 31 description of a perfect wife as she had everything that we could say is perfect BUT she had an issue – she couldn’t give birth. 

 

Her husband knew she was so beautiful and worked so hard but because she couldn’t give him any children, he decided he would have to marry a second wife in order to have offspring of his own.  Imagine you offer everything you can but the person turns you down because you can’t offer exactly what they are looking for.  Imagine if someone tells you that you can have this job because you are perfect but you can’t have it because you are not capable of doing something so they turn you down.  Imagine if the reason for turning you down is because they require you work on Sundays but you can’t because you need to go to church.

 

So the husband picked up a second wife who gave birth to many children in a short period of time and while she was pregnant she would come next to Hannah talking about the pregnancy and Hannah will feel this it was so hard and say, “Lord why this?” and start to cry.  The second wife would mock her, “you believe you are someone but you are no one”.

 

Have you crossed that situation where you have loved someone but that person goes for someone else or something else?  For example, for some men money comes first before the wife.  Have you crossed a situation where you have been offering what you should offer but you are turned down because what they got from you wasn’t what they were expecting to get?  How will you feel to share what you believe belongs to you with someone else? 

 

Hannah was in pain every day.  Each time the second wife gave birth, Hannah would feel in her heart that she wished the baby was hers.

 

In your life satan has told you, “you can’t make it, you can’t change the situation, look this has been the Samuel way for the past ten years, how can you change it”.  You feel satan pressing you down and you are asking, “where are you God?” and God is just looking at you and you feel depressed for one situation in your life and you know what that situation is that kills you and you look around and no one else has that hard situation.  Sometimes your marriage, life, problems, job will mock you.  You complain to God but God says, yes that is the way I created you.

 

Hannah prayed while she was crying and telling God about her situation and the priest Eli saw her talking and believed she must be drunk.  Have you come across a situation where you are really crying and you need comforting and people say, “oh we know Odon, he cries over nothing, that is just him.”  While that person is crossing a serious situation which is killing their mind and heart and others are just mocking them…”oh she loves crying.”

 

Hannah knew she could never give birth but God answered her request and she found herself pregnant.  How did the second wife feel now?  How will people feel when they were mocking you yesterday and they see the answer to your problem on its way.  Hannah gave birth to Samuel and she said, God this child is yours and she took the child to the temple and gave him to the Samuel priest who believed that she was drunk: “When I was praying that time and you thought I was drunk, this is what I was after and this is what God gave me”.

 

The child (Samuel) was in the temple learning to be a servant of God and one night God came down and called him but he didn’t recognize the voice because he didn’t know God.  Even though he had been working in the church for years doing the rituals, he didn’t know God.  Many people around the world wear a cross and kiss it when they want to do something but they don’t know God.  Many people put verses on the walls of their houses and they take their Bibles in their bags when they have a job interview and people try to come on Sunday and work in the church like a routine but after the service they go home and they don’t know God. 

 

90% of people don’t enjoy the job they do.  If they were given another chance they would prefer to stay home but they are forced to go to work.  They have a routine which they now find hard to do but when they first got the job they praise God and were excited but after two weeks they feel it’s hard.  This is the Samuel with salvation, the day you were saved you jumped for joy and wanted to pray and read Bible and be with God every time but six months later you feel lazy to go to church or too busy and week after week you have excuses.  Satan tries hard to pull people out of church and no one forces them but they make a decision by saying, “I’m not coming today, I have a lunch” or “I’m meeting my friend today” and after a few times the person is dying and they lose their relationship with God completely and then become a Christian of ritual and not know why they are at church.

 

Samuel told Eli, “why did you call me?” but Eli said, “it wasn’t me go back and sleep”.  But after the third time Samuel came to Eli saying, “Why did you call me?”, Eli thought, mmm this person is God and told Samuel to go back to your place and give this answer, “speak to your servant who is listening”.  Are you at the right place every time when God calls you?  Where is the right place?  Sometimes a song takes you to the right place with God.  Sing for God and you will come next to him and feel the spirit of God filling you and that is the right place for you.  Sing that song for God that you know helps you come close to God and continue to praise Him and feel the tears coming from your eyes and feel the power coming from God and that is the best time to talk to God – that is the secret of God’s presence, the secret to get the power back and to hear from Him.

 

Some say when I read a verse from a Bible, that makes me feel God.  If you have a verse that makes you feel God’s presence then go to that verse.  You need to know the right place to meet with God and that is spiritual growth.  At first God’s people met Him on a mountain, then in a tent, then in a temple and now we are the temple, so you need to know where to go to meet with God.

 

Samuel came and told Eli, “the man called me and answered”.  Now God told Samuel, “behold, I’m going to do something”.  If God tells you that, how will you feel?  Scared?  Maybe you will wonder if God is going to destroy you or your family or whether God is going to rescue you.  God today is telling you that He going to do something, you have been mocked for so long and people have been making your life tough.  God wants to change things and He will do something and that result will be what you don’t expect.

 

Recently an elderly woman I know had an answer to prayer. She waited for more than 30 years for the answer. How long will you be patient?  God promised that woman all those years ago but many years passed and now something is being done.  When you are going through a hard situation and people might tell you there is no solution, it is impossible: God tells you that He will do something for you, so call on God and ask for Him to do something and tell Him, “because I can’t find solution but You are here.”  Your solution won’t come from anywhere else.

 

A friend of mine worked for many years volunteering for an organization and they were happy to use that man’s skills and experience and he was capable of changing situations but when he applied for paid jobs within the organization, they turned him down.  He felt they were just using him.  Maybe in your life you have also been used.  Your boss uses you and they take all the credit and you are given harsh words to prove you are useless and you feel pressure and you might even get sick and you ask God, “why this?  Is this really the job you chose for me, for how long will I live in this situation?  They mock me every time and you don’t intervene”.  You have been working for years but they prove you are nothing.

 

One time I had a very proud boss who knew nothing but she was always trying to prove to me that I was the one who knew nothing.  Sometimes your family doesn’t have knowledge of who you are.  You have a husband and you need support but he goes out with his friends to enjoy soccer practice and you cry, “oh God, where are you God, how can I look after these children on my own” while the husband gave promises on the day of marriage to be there for you.  Where are those commitments today? 

 

Finally, Hannah gave the child away to do the work of God and God started to use Samuel to transform the temple.  Every day you come to church and you pray and put chairs around and God says, “I’m sick of your rituals it’s now time for me to use you” in the same way that Samuel used to work for God in the temple, doing rituals but a time came when He decided to use Samuel to transform lives.

 

God wants to use you…He may fix all your problems, give you joy etc but are you ready to receive from him?  How many times last week did you quarrel with those you love?  You need the man to help you and he says, that is your job.  He comes home for food and you have to find him food.  Or you tell someone about your situation and they don’t care and you feel they are annoyed by you.  Have you crossed that, you need help but others tell you that you are the wrong one. 

 

For example, you go to your friend, and she says you that you are wrong.  People tell you that not because you are wrong but because they are more attached to that person than you and they make you feel very terrible and satan makes you kneel down and you have to go back and confess you are wrong and you put yourself in the net of satan and let people use you.  Many people believe they have wisdom from God but that wisdom is from satan in order to destroy the peace and joy in the lives of others.

 

For example, the wife comes home and she starts with the cat, ‘Husband, did you feed the cat?’ and he answers, ‘on no’.  The wife becomes annoyed, ‘but you should feed him’ and the husband says, “you haven’t asked if I’ve been fed” and a big quarrel starts from nowhere. 

 

God can fix your problems.  You don’t need plastic surgery to fix the problem, you don’t need to find a solution on your own.  For example, you might not be able to give birth so you think to yourself, “I’ll a adopt a child to please myself” but we should start by asking God to do something. 

 

Ask God to do something in your life this morning.  The something that has been troubling you, tell God you want Him to do something.  Tell God to help you so those that mock you will see an answer. 

 

Our problems will only be fixed when we discover who we are.  Ask God, “who am I?  What was your purpose God to create me?  Tell me God, why did you create me?  Is it to come through this mess or to live this type of life, is it to be mocked by the world or was it so that your name can be glorified as with the blind man?” 

 

Samuel discovered who he was because Hannah was praying for him.  Maybe you have been praying for your people and your prayers will change the world and have an answer.  I’m so happy to have women among us this morning.  God loves women so much.  When He created Adam He used mud but for women it was different.  He didn’t use mud to make something precious...he used a bone.  I’m sure the woman (Eve) looked so attractive because Adam said, “flesh of my flesh come here baby”.  He never said that to God although God created him in his image.

 

Women are special to God and that is evidenced by the fact that it is a woman who is able to become pregnant.  God puts the precious life of a human being and allows the women to protect it because He knew if He trusted man with that job, the man might not be careful enough.  When women pray according to Jeremiah, the prayer is every time responded  and something has to be done.  In general, when men pray, the prayers are not the same as women who kneel down and pray with power and satan feels, oh leave me alone.  Men in general worship with less fervor than women and are generally lazy to worship.  Men who really want to worship, they should look at women and discover how they are ready to worship without fear or pride. 

 

The church is the wife of Jesus Christ because if you understand the role of the women you will understand the role of the church.  Learn from women and your body (temple of Holy Spirit) because women know how to work hard while the man is resting and eats the most and after eating the women has to clean the house.  If I learn how to become a servant of my own life and soul, God will do something with me but we don’t do it, if we don’t cook for our souls how will we be able to cook for those souls that surround us.  Are you really a temple of God?  What is a church?  I’m the church.  So are you really the wife of JESUS?  What is the role of a wife and women?  The biggest shame is that most women don’t use what God has given them, they don’t like to pray, they don’t go to the meetings.  Satan brings small traps like being invited to lunch but don’t fall into that trap.

 

When God called Samuel and he didn’t have the right answer, God didn’t speak but when he gave the right answer, that is when God spoke.  God is the only solution.  People can discourage you in life but those people have arthritis in their brain because their brains can’t work properly…their job is to discourage.  For example, “Molly, I need your help, can you please talk to Heidi” and she refuses and says that is your fault without even knowing what is going on.  You ask someone to pray for you and they answer, you always have the same problems it’s your fault.  It wasn’t Samuel’s fault that he had to do all the rituals in the temple because he put his trust in  Eli.  Put your trust in God not the prophets or pastors.  Eli could not hear the voice of God while Samuel could hear but couldn’t understand it but praise God that Eli could give the right advice to Samuel.

 

What do you do when you hear the voice of God?

 

My dream last night: I was walking along the river and following a small ball and I was walking on water and then I saw a brief case in the water and it had Bible verses so I threw them in the river and when I picked them up they were transformed into bank notes and those that were sitting on the edge of the river started to collect money by swimming into the water.  Very often we think about the Word of God when we need money or support from God to fulfill our needs and we can pray and fast for something material to be given. 

 

As I was throwing money, many people came and they were happy and I was surrounded by a big crowd.  When do I use Gods’ word?  Is it only when I need something physical but never spiritual.  God is waiting to do something for you.  Are you ready to get it?  If yes, let’s pray and ask God to do something in my life, my family, my job, my studies, my neighbors, my problems, my weaknesses.  You have been waiting for years and crying everyday but tell God this morning that you want to see a change.  My mum says the mercy of God is enough.  Tell God that His mercy is enough for whatever your issue is and tell God to do something today.

Identity Crisis - Acts 7:35

By Odon Bulamba

 

Any single person in New Zealand may hold an identity in order to be able identify yourself.  When the police ask me to identify myself they will say that telling them my name is not enough because they need more, they will ask me to provide proof that the person I say am is correct.  In New Zealand, a driver’s license is enough to prove your identity.

 

In my country of origin (Congo) a driver’s license doesn’t exist and many people don’t have a passport so to identify myself I will tell you my father’s name, my grandfather’s name, my tribe and where it is located and the chief of that tribe.  This means that in Congo you have to know your roots to clearly identify where you are from because anybody can steal your passport.

 

The true identity can never be changed.  An identity crisis is to forget who you are and in the Bible we have such stories where people don’t know who they are. 

 

Acts 7:35, “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.”

 

This Moses who was a human being was told in front of his brothers, “who made you to be a ruler and a judge?”  But of course, we know that Moses was called by God to be a ruler and a deliverer.  I’m reading this verse because of what was said the last Sunday service where I talked about the nest and said, “you should never die in your nest”.  In your nest the eagle chicks are just there to wait for their mother to do everything for them.  In the first few weeks they don’t have any feathers so that cold and rain can attack them and they face any season and are completely powerless but the eagle mother will come and protect them against any danger. 

 

Those chicks don’t know who they are in the same way when we were saved we were spiritual babies.  Just like when we were first physically born, we were babies and we didn’t know that we were a human being.  Babies don’t think or act like an adult or even make an effort to discover their identity.

 

The first category of Christians are those that act according to their flesh with one foot in world and another in Kingdom of God. The second category of Christians are those that are spiritual and stick with God and are committed to work with God until the end of life and when they do make mistakes they repent quickly.  The third category of Christians are also known as animal Christians because they know about Word of God but spiritually they behave just like animals.

 

Identity is important and when you don’t know who you are it means you are wrong because we should know our identity in the Kingdom of God.  The eagle chicks will start to grow big and their feathers will grow and some chicks will try to remove the feathers but the body will keep growing regardless of having no feathers.  Like us, when we try to shave our head, the hair keeps growing without explanation. When I was a child I asked my mother, “why does God have such a big store of hair”.  I blamed God because it’s so painful to cut African hair when it’s dry so I wished it wouldn’t keep growing after it was cut.  In the same way that God makes things to grow physically, He also makes things miraculously to grow up inside of us without us knowing. 

 

Eagle chicks at some stage are supposed to leave the nest and live their lives outside of the nest and the mother won’t come back anymore to feed them.  Once this chick leaves the nest, they have to work for themselves.  This is the same for us Christians, a point comes when we have to work for ourselves and we have to know our own identity because we are not spiritual babies anymore – we can read the Bible and understand it and what God wants from me and we can pray and know who we are in God.

 

One time I heard a story about a hen that didn’t want to die so she thought, “let me remove my feathers so they won’t know I am ready to eat and will still think I’m a chick,” but the size will let us know that the chicken is no longer a baby.  You and I don’t want to work spiritually and we try to stay behind.  Are you strong enough to collect the food to bring those who are spiritual babies?  Eagle chicks try to keep their eyesight short in the same way that people don’t want to know what God is doing, or know that Jesus is coming soon.  They only want to hear about the blessings and what good things God will do for us.

 

When Moses was in the palace of Pharaoh, he grew up in that town as a prince but did he know that he wasn’t a prince?  The Bible says that everybody bowed before Moses and respected him because he was a powerful man.  At some point Moses started to see there was a connection between him and the Hebrews and he decided to go and see his brothers working but when he saw them something touched his heart.  Sometimes we feel we have to pray for others and we have to come close to pray for our brother who is maybe a drunkard and we feel it is painful, and we pray, “God he has been living this life of torture for long now and if Jesus comes back where will he be?” and you feel sorry in your heart because the person lives in slavery.

 

Moses saw how his brothers were tortured and he killed an Egyptian.  The next morning two brothers were fighting and he gave simple advice not to fight and they said, ‘who are you to make yourself a judge and ruler of us’.  How often in your life do you try to intervene in a situation believing you will bring a solution but everything falls on you and suddenly you get all the blame. 

 

Moses until that minute knew he was Hebrew but also knew he was Egyptian.  Let me be honest...if New Zealand provides me everything…their passport, food, and beautiful country, nationality and my other country (Congo) is in war and someone will ask me what is your nationality I will say New Zealander because I don’t live the life of Congo anymore.  I took the nationality of New Zealand and lost the nationality of Congo.

 

Moses was confuse, “who am I exactly?”  He was telling himself, “I know I’m a prince” in the same way we tell ourselves, “I know myself and I can’t do that, I can never be tempted in that way, I’m never rude or proud”.  Maybe you are still a chick spiritually but you believe you are an adult.  Maybe you believe you are something that you are not.

 

Moses knew he was in danger of being killed by Pharaoh for killing an Egyptian so he ran from the punishment.  He ran into the desert where there are no roads so he didn’t know where he was heading.  Suddenly God changed Moses’ life from being a prince to being a refugee.  In New Zealand, people are so good, if they are in trouble they surrender themselves to the police but in Congo that would never happen because they would be afraid of dying.  If you ran over someone in Congo you would run away because people would burn you in your car immediately and the police would do nothing.

 

Moses met the seven daughters of Jethro which means ‘exodus’.  Jethro’s other name was Reul which means ‘friend of God’.  Those girls reported to their father that they had met an Egyptian (not a Hebrew man) and he told them to bring the man to him.  Moses was now in the house of ‘exodus, friend of God’.  If you meet someone called friend of God, you will feel everything now will be fine.  In Jethro’s house, regardless of the garment Moses was wearing, he was offered the job to take care of the sheep.  Moses now had to discover his true identity - not what he found in Egypt but what he found in Jethro’s house.

 

Jethro may have said something like, “Moses take off your jacket, what time did you start your day in Egypt…oh, Moses, here in Midian you will wake up at 4am and go to count the sheep without having breakfast”.  When you wake up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?  Do you give glory to God?  We can praise God because, “My hands work, my arms move” and we can count all the blessings to praise God for everything.

 

Jethro may have continued, “Ok Moses you have counted sheep, now clean that area, clean the mess from the sheep”.  Maybe Moses replied, “but I’m a prince. “Yes you used to be but here your identity has changed”.  Moses would have cleaned and felt tired and pain and Jethro was there to tell him, “yes, you have to do it” and maybe Moses said, “but your name means ‘friend of God’, how can you as a believer force me to do this”.  Sometimes your children, friends etc will think you are mean to them when you say no and tell you that a Christian wouldn’t do this.  Sometimes we blame satan for a situation we are crossing saying that God would never allow this.

 

Then Moses had to lead the sheep after cleaning in order feed them and give them water.  Waking up at 4am, cleaning mess and then 8am he has to take the sheep to feed them.  The desert is not like here in New Zealand with green everywhere.  Moses with zero knowledge of being a shepherd now has to play the role of a dog leading the sheep.  At the end of the day Moses came home completely tired.  For 40 years he hadn’t yet discovered yet exactly who he was.  Sometimes God can make Christians live for a very long time without discovering who they are.  When people are going to the nightclub they join them, they join the drugs and then at church they sing and when preacher starts to talk they feel bored and don’t have the joy to do God’s work. 

 

If I was Moses with Jethro treating me in that way, I would feel I should be somewhere else and I would run away to find a better a life.

 

We all fight for a better physical life (not spiritual) to feel comfortable where everything will please their bodies.  People will tell you they know who they are physically but they don’t themselves spiritually.  One time a person said to me, “I can’t share the Word of God because I’m not good looking”.  Do you really know who you are?  You stop yourself to look at your physical appearance while God has created us perfect.  It doesn’t matter what other people think of you so long as God remembers he created you, that is enough.

 

When Moses saw with the fire in the bush he decided to come closer.  That was the first time for God to speak to Moses - not when he first saw the fire, only when Moses came closer.  How often have you experienced the fire of God in worship, reading the Word of God, in someone’s preaching and then afterwards that fire is gone.  Moses wanted to come closer.  The Holy Spirit speaks to you and you feel it but what do you do afterwards? You close your Bible and say, “I’ll see you next week”. 

 

Moses stopped because he wanted to see how a fire could burn without consuming the bush – he wanted to understand how it works.  After reading the Word of God do you read it again back at home and ask yourself, what was the preacher telling me? Do you go back to the previous weeks?  My sister will take notes at church but later you will see those notes in the rubbish and when you ask her how was the preaching last week, she doesn’t remember.  Maybe you are one of those people - do you take notes to impress people?  There is no bigger mistake in life than cheating yourself.  People say, I’ve made a decision and this is what I will be, from now on I’ll be a good Christian and I’ll be committed to do this and that.  How many times did you tell yourself to be a very good committed Christian?  You make that decision today and tomorrow you forget about it.

 

When Moses was told by God, “this place is holy take off your shoes” Moses covered his face and understood that it was God speaking and forgot his duty with the sheep and now it was just him and God.  When you stand in the presence of God, are you there with God alone or are you thinking about your tasks, lunch after the service, family, and other people.  Many people are in church but their brain is somewhere else.  God is talking to them, odon, odon, take off your shoes and Odon thinks to himself, “it sounds like God” but then I’m quickly distracted, “oh, I have work tomorrow”.

 

God is trying to reveal your identity.  When you hear the voice of the father you hear your true identity but people try to shut him down and listen to other voices in their head.  When a program is changed people feel so bad but when an appointment with God is cancelled, they don’t care…it doesn’t matter we’ll have another opportunity.

 

When you start to commit yourself that is when God will reveal your true identity.  Moses was told by God, “go free My people”.  Moses was no longer a prince or shepherd but is now charged by God to work with people - more than 1.5 million human beings.  That’s more than 10 times the population of Hamilton to be freed by one person who was once told, “who made you to be a judge or ruler?”  Who are you, God is sending you to your family, your friends, your work collegues who humiliate you every time, while you are just a women or just a child. 

 

When I was a child, my sisters would isolate me because I was a boy.  Whatever I would say, they wouldn’t care.  Maybe you cross a situation where God puts you in a position in a community, church or work and no one will listen to you and they say, “who appointed you to be a judge or to give advice?”  The true identity God gives to us is to be a deliverer and judge so go back to those people and rule them, deliver them…how?  Once you know you are a deliverer or a ruler it will be very easy to be a servant of God, “my boss, how are you today?” find your way to start a conversation, “good to see nice weather today”.  Don’t stop there, they will fight against you but keep praying for them and go back to them.

 

When I was young, around 10-12 years old, in my country they started to immunize against cholera and to avoid that I would say I was too young and all my friends would say we are in the same class.  Sometimes we try to hide ourselves but the world and the Lord will expose us.  You are capable of fulfilling Gods work, just get yourself ready.

 

Moses tried to excuse himself, “I can’t talk” and we also try to use excuses.  You might not be ready but God is ready to use you, you might not feel strong enough but God is strong, just keep your commitment and God will discover your identity.

 

Anyone can sit an exam and if you fail, just take it again and again.  Make a decision to live as a person with an identity.  Ask God to clarify who you are, “am I a child or a chick, let me discover” and regardless of what happened previously, come close to God and let Him give you a mission for march. 

 

The mission for Moses was to be a leader.  “Lord if I’m a leader, show me how to do it, if I’m a messenger, show me how to preach, give me the tools” and whatever God gives you share and save as many people as possible.  Jesus was rejected, Moses was rejected and to be rejected is normal and the misfits are the ones that God uses.  You don’t fit in because God doesn’t want you to.

 

My son is good at dancing and everyone appreciates his dancing.  In church he doesn’t dance but out at a party he will prove to everyone how capable he is to dance but when it’s time to read the Bible there is zero chance he will do it.  I tell God, “look at this, what kind of child is this”.  He knows God but is too lazy and lacks commitment except for food.  He can move from outside and come home for food but after eating if I tell him to clean his plate he becomes sick.  He moves from happiness to sadness and tries to find another way.  If I ask him to vacuum it’ll take ten minutes to vacuum two meter square because he keeps changing the song on his i-pod instead of just working.  Why is he like that?  No commitment. 

 

It’s very important to identity yourself in Kingdom of God.  Come close to God and He will speak to you.  If you speak from a distance, God will say, “come close, I want to talk to you face to face and I will see those commitments”.  Moses did not know that he was a redeemer and ruler until he came close.

 

Pray for yourself and family and friends.